Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries #5)(5)

Everly prayed the kidnapping wasn’t what one of the LA detectives suspected—human trafficking. Most of his coworkers were still operating under the assumption that Elise was a runaway, but he’d been concerned enough about the possibility of trafficking that he’d mentioned it to Everly, and now she couldn’t get it out of her mind.

Human trafficking happened way more than the world thought it did. Apparently kidnappings and disappearances were on the rise in Los Angeles. And because of Elise’s age, and the number of other girls and women like her who had disappeared without a trace recently, the detective in LA suspected this was another trafficking case.

Everly didn’t want to believe it, but she’d had her own share of investigations in which someone had disappeared, and the suspicion had centered on the victims being taken into an underground network of sex workers. But like every single person she’d interviewed over the years, she’d never thought it would happen to someone she knew and loved. No way.

But maybe it had.

In any case, Elise was simply gone.

Everly had heard previously about the Mountain Mercenaries, and she’d been able to get in touch with their elusive leader, Rex. After she’d presented her case, and he’d done some research, he’d agreed to take it on. Rex hated sex trafficking. He’d seemingly made it his life’s work to end it, one victim at a time. When he’d heard from the detective in LA that this was a suspected case of abduction for the purposes of sex trafficking, Rex had been much more willing to assist. Even allowing Everly to be involved . . . but she suspected that had more to do with the fact that Rex worked closely with the Colorado Springs Police Department, and he wanted to keep that relationship flourishing.

Elise wasn’t exactly helpless—Everly had taken the time to teach her basic self-defense, but she was also only fifteen. And deaf. And she’d taken after her father in the size department. At only five-three, she wasn’t really strong enough to take on a grown man.

Like many girls her age, Elise loved social media. She was constantly talking to her friends and sending silly pictures and posting selfies. If Everly had to guess, she’d suspect her sister had caught the attention of someone who liked her looks—her red hair and green eyes. Maybe talked to the wrong person online and had gone to meet up with him.

If that was the case, Everly didn’t think Elise had done so with the intention of being gone that long. She didn’t take any of her overnight things, and she didn’t tell Me-Maw or Pop where she was going. Her sister was responsible . . . but she was still a teenager. Didn’t really think about the consequences of her actions.

Everly had done her best to be a good influence, but it was hard when she’d been gone so much. First it was college, then she’d gotten a job at the Phoenix Police Department. She’d worked her ass off and hadn’t been able to travel home as often as she would have liked. Then she’d gotten the job offer from the Colorado Springs Police Department and settled there.

She went to LA for visits as much as possible, but ultimately the job of raising Elise had fallen on Me-Maw and Pop.

Just then, the sound of the flight attendant saying something came over the speakers. Everly reached up and took out an earbud, but had already missed the announcement. “What’d she say?” she asked with a hint of trepidation in her tone.

“Just that we’ll be starting our descent soon,” Ball said.

Shit. She hated landing as much as she hated taking off.

Without pause, Ball reached over and grabbed her hand. He laced his fingers with hers and rested their clasped hands on the armrest between them.

He didn’t look at her, and he still had the crinkles in his brow that she’d come to understand meant he was feeling stressed or annoyed, but she couldn’t care about that at the moment. The simple act of being connected to someone helped make her fear more manageable.

Telling herself she was only holding his hand because she was so freaked and hadn’t gotten enough sleep in the last few days, Everly closed her eyes and leaned her head back on the seat once more. She was sure once they landed, Ball would go back to being his usual annoying self, but for right now, this moment, she was going to take the comfort he offered.

Hours later, when they finally landed at LAX, Everly was more than grateful.

Ball hadn’t held her hand on the flight to Los Angeles because Everly had volunteered to switch seats with a woman who’d been separated from her husband when the seat assignments were handed out. So Everly sat six rows behind Ball, trying to forget how reassuring the feel of his hand around hers had been, and how he’d kept the worst of her panic at bay with that simple gesture.

Now the only thing she wanted was to see Me-Maw and Pop. It had been too long since her last visit. They were in their midseventies now, but looked more like they were in their fifties. Allison Adams had the same red hair as her daughter and granddaughters. Even though age had dulled the auburn, it was still obvious she was a natural redhead, and she was petite like Elise. Landen Adams was tall, around six feet, and Everly had always loved how he smiled indulgently at his wife when she was acting crazy . . . which happened a lot. He never seemed to get embarrassed by her antics, and he always had a hand on her. Touching her back. Holding her hand. Resting his own on her leg when they were sitting. Running his fingers through her hair.

Their relationship was one of the reasons why Everly was still single. She’d never met a man who looked at her the way Pop looked at Me-Maw.