Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries #5)(22)

Her encouragement seemed to help as he took a big breath and continued. But this time he wasn’t looking at her, he was staring off into space as if he were reliving the events he was describing.

“We were down in the Gulf of Mexico in our twenty-five-foot Defender-class boat. We were on our normal patrol duty when we got a call about a suspicious boat in our area. Riley was in the cabin, as usual, and I was standing at the front manning the M240.”

Everly could picture it in her head and knew without a doubt that Ball probably made a very imposing picture. His feet braced, biceps bulging, as he held on to the machine gun, ready and willing to do whatever it took to defend his country. She made a mental note to ask to see a picture of him in his uniform. “What happened?” she asked.

“I don’t know what you know about boating, but apparently Riley thought she saw something in front of us, and she executed a high-speed maneuver known as a power turn, without warning me first. I wasn’t prepared and was thrown into the water . . . but my arm got caught in one of the lines on the side of the boat when I tried to keep myself from falling.”

Everly gasped.

“Yeah,” Ball chuckled, but it wasn’t a humorous sound. “I was dragged alongside the boat for at least two hundred yards before Riley got the boat slowed down. My shoulder had been jerked out of its socket, and I tore just about every muscle and ligament as well. The irony is that I was actually lucky. There was a case a while back where someone was killed when the same thing happened. The propellers struck him in the head when he was thrown overboard.

“Riley wasn’t showing off or trying to be overly aggressive in her maneuvers to try to intimidate someone. She was simply reacting to something she thought she saw. And the kicker was that she had seen something. A boat without any lights was lurking in the area. I managed to get myself back on the boat, and no matter how badly my arm hurt, we had a job to do.

“Turns out the boat was hauling drugs. Riley was in charge of searching the men, as my shoulder was out of commission. I had them at gunpoint, but when she went to handcuff them, one of the men pulled a pistol from wherever he’d managed to hide it and shot me.”

Everly inhaled sharply again.

Ball nodded. “I shot and killed both of the men in the drug boat, and Riley freaked the fuck out. She’d messed up so many times that night it wasn’t even funny. She was hysterical and couldn’t drive the boat, so I had to hook up the drug boat myself and drive us all in. Riley was reprimanded, and reduced in rank, but was allowed to keep her job. Her lawyer claimed she hadn’t been trained properly and that the stress of the situation made her act out of character. What really got to me was how, during her hearing, her lawyer twisted things so much, claiming me getting shot was somehow my fault.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Ball said. “Here I thought we were partners, but when shit got real, she showed absolutely no loyalty to me whatsoever. She never even apologized. My shoulder took forever to heal, with the gunshot on top of the torn ligaments. Eventually the Coast Guard medically discharged me. I was bitter about that for a long time.”

“I can’t say that I blame you. But, Ball, I would never do that to you, or anyone I worked with.”

“I know,” he said quietly.

“Do you?” Everly asked.

He turned to look at her then. “Yes. That’s what I’m trying to explain, badly. When those guys were beating on me, not once did I imagine you’d come to help. It didn’t even cross my mind. If I had been with one of my teammates, that’s the first thing that I would’ve expected. But then there you were. Kicking ass and taking names. I swear to God, you didn’t even break a sweat. I’m ashamed of myself, Everly. And I’m so sorry.”

Any animosity she might’ve been harboring after overhearing him bitch about how he didn’t want a woman on any mission dissipated. “It’s okay, Ball.”

“Thank you for letting me off the hook so easily. But I’m afraid it’s going to take me longer to forgive myself. Women are just as capable as men. I know that, I’ve seen it firsthand, but somehow it all got mixed up in my head after Riley. I still thought they were capable—as long as I didn’t have to work with them. It was stupid.”

“How old are you?” Everly asked.

“Old enough to know better.”

She raised her eyebrows at him.

“Forty.”

“Right. So you’ve got another twenty years before retirement to make up for your caveman attitude.”

He smiled, and Everly relaxed. She was glad she could tease him out of his bad mood.

“Seriously, you kicked ass today.”

“I did, didn’t I?” Everly said. “Although I have to admit, it’s a lot easier to fight hand to hand without all my gear on. I didn’t have to worry about either of them grabbing my weapon or cuffs. And it didn’t hurt that you’d already damaged them.”

He shook his head. “Nope. Don’t downplay what you did. You’re like my own personal Wonder Woman.”

“Now that comparison I’ll take,” Everly told him with a smile.

They both turned to their lunches and ate for a bit without speaking. Then Ball said, “Meat has to get access to that phone.”

The comment was an abrupt change of topic, but Everly went with it. “How?”