Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries #5)(24)

“Me-Maw!” Everly exclaimed, turning beet red.

“What? Oh, you don’t want me saying panties in front of Kannon? You don’t mind, do you?” she asked, turning toward him.

“No, ma’am.”

“And you probably have some underwear that needs to be washed too. I can just throw your stuff in with Everly’s.”

“Kill me now,” Everly mumbled.

Ball did his best not to laugh. “I’m okay for now,” he told Me-Maw. “But thank you.”

“How long do you think you’re going to be here?” she asked.

That was a harder question to answer. “I’m hoping when my friends get their hands on the data from Elise’s phone, it’ll speed things up,” Ball said, being diplomatic.

“Oh, that would be such a relief,” the older lady said.

Ball could tell how stressful the situation was for them. Despite their teasing, both Allison and Landen were struggling hard with their granddaughter’s disappearance. He wanted to tell them that it wasn’t their fault, that Elise was vulnerable not only because of her mother being the way she was, but because of her disability as well. But he didn’t want to bring down Me-Maw’s current lighthearted mood.

“Oh! Everly, I know. Go and get your scrapbooks so I can show Kannon.”

“Oh, hell no!”

“Everly Adams! Language!” Me-Maw scolded.

Ball couldn’t keep the smile off his face that time.

“This is not funny,” Everly hissed.

“It’s a little funny,” he countered.

“Ball isn’t interested in seeing newspaper articles about me from high school. That was forever ago.”

“Yes, he is,” Ball countered.

“See?” Me-Maw crowed. “Now go on, go get them. If you don’t, I’ll find the old picture albums from when you were in high school.”

At that, Everly stood up and stomped out of the room without another word.

Me-Maw smiled, but the second Everly was out of earshot, she turned to Ball with a severe look on her face. She leaned forward and said, “Be straight with us, Kannon. Do you think our Elise is still alive?”

Taken aback by the question—and the swift change in demeanor—Ball immediately nodded. “I do. I know I’m not supposed to really say that, though, especially not to family. But finding her phone was huge. It won’t help track where she is right now, but it’ll give us insight into what happened. Who she was talking to.”

Allison Adams nodded.

Then Landen spoke up. He’d been letting his wife do most of the talking that evening, content to sit next to her. “Lord knows we’ve made some mistakes, both with our daughter and now with our granddaughter, but we love Elise so much, and we’ll do just about anything to bring her home safe and sound. If money is needed, we have retirement accounts we can take from, and we can refinance the house if necessary. All we want is Elise home.”

Ball couldn’t help but be impressed by the sentiment, but money wasn’t going to help Elise right now, unfortunately. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary, but if we can’t find anything and the case goes cold, it might be worth looking into hiring a private detective.”

Landen nodded. He looked beaten down, but not out.

Then he changed the subject . . . and started talking about his other granddaughter.

“You should know, Everly has a very tender heart under her brash exterior. She hasn’t had an easy life, has had too much responsibility on her shoulders for way too long. Our daughter was a terrible mother. Didn’t care about anyone other than herself. Still doesn’t. Everly was making her own dinner, if there was even food in the house, by the time she was six. Even when she moved in with us, she was trying to take care of Allison and me and downplaying the shit that went on in her mother’s house. We’ve despaired of her ever finding a man who can understand that, while she’s perfectly capable of taking care of herself, sometimes she needs someone to lean on.”

Ball felt uncomfortable talking about Everly behind her back, but he also didn’t want to mislead her grandparents. “I like your granddaughter, sir, but we’re not dating,” he explained gently.

“Why not?” Allison asked with more curiosity than animosity.

“We just met less than a week ago,” Ball told her. “And until today, I really wasn’t all that keen on working with a woman.”

“But Everly’s a police officer,” Pop said indignantly.

“She’s more than that,” Me-Maw said, nudging her husband. “Everly is beautiful. And smart. And kind. And brave. You’d be crazy not to want to date her. What’s wrong with you?”

Ball’s lips quirked at that.

“Besides, a week is plenty of time. Landen kissed me the day after we met. He asked me to marry him a month later, and we’ve been together ever since. When you know, you just know.”

“That’s awesome for you guys, but—”

“Are you not attracted to her? Are you gay? It’s okay if you are, but that would make sense as to why you don’t want to date her,” Me-Maw said.

Ball about choked. “I’m not gay, and I think your granddaughter is beautiful.”

“Then why don’t you want to date her? Get to know her better?” the older woman demanded.