Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries #5)(52)

While Ball and Elise’s conversations were sweet, the ones between her and Meat were hilarious. The man never seemed to say anything serious, and was always joking with Elise. Everly was glad her sister was seeing how good men should act around women. Between Meat and Ball and the other men, she was getting a real education, and learning to trust again.

Seven Bridges Trail was located at the top of the prestigious Broadmoor neighborhood. The trail itself wasn’t too strenuous and was shaded pretty much throughout. There were supposed to be ten kids coming today, and Everly was looking forward to getting to know a few more of Elise’s new friends.

Ball found a place to park a bit down from the actual trailhead. It looked like a lot of other people had also thought going hiking today was a good idea. Elise bolted from the car the second it was parked and jogged up to where a group of kids from her school had gathered.

“Looks like she’s anxious to get going,” Ball said dryly.

Everly laughed. “It’s good to see her excited about something. For a while I was afraid she wouldn’t bounce back.”

“It’s because of you,” Ball said.

She looked up at him. He’d taken her hand in his while they headed for the trailhead a little more sedately. Everly shook her head. “I honestly haven’t done much.”

“Haven’t done much? Ev, you’ve changed your entire life around for her. You brought your sister here to live with you. You’re paying for the private school, and you’ve made sure Elise has gotten all the counseling she needs to deal with what happened.”

His praise felt good, but it still didn’t feel as if she’d done anything special. “She’s my sister. I’d do anything for her. As Me-Maw told me, she’s the one person I’ll know the longest in my entire life. If I didn’t do everything I could, what kind of person would that make me?”

“I think you know better than most that blood isn’t always thicker than water. You’re supposed to be able to rely on your relatives, but that isn’t always the case.”

She knew what he meant. Her mother was a prime example.

Meat waved as they approached. Ball squeezed her hand before letting go and shaking his friend’s hand. “Hey. You ready for this?” he asked.

“Hell yeah. It’ll be fun. Everly, I’d like to teach them a couple of our signs. Think that’d be okay?”

“Your signs?”

“Ones we’ve used in the military.”

“Oh, sure. I don’t see why not.”

“Will you translate for me?” Meat asked.

“Of course.” Everly stepped over to Elise and tapped her on the shoulder. She quickly signed that Meat wanted to talk to everyone, and Elise helped gather the group. Everly signed as Meat spoke.

“I don’t expect any trouble on today’s hike, but just in case, I thought I would share a couple signs that I might use today.” Meat held up his arm with his fist clenched. “This means freeze. I’ll be walking in front, and if you see me do this, immediately stop right where you are.” He held his hand up to his brow next. “This means watch, or that I see something. And if I pump my fist up and down like this, it means hurry up.”

Everly smiled as the kids excitedly nodded. A few asked to know more.

“Meat, they want to know more.”

“I can see that, but those are probably the only ones we’ll need today,” he said.

Everly shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Now they’re curious.”

For the next ten minutes or so, Meat shared more signs that he’d used while he’d been in the Army, and that he probably still used while with the Mountain Mercenaries on missions: cover this area, enemy, hostage, sniper, vehicle, and crouch. Many of the signs were similar to American Sign Language.

Everly walked around and made sure everyone had water and didn’t need to use the restroom, and finally they were ready to go. Meat led the way, with Everly and Ball bringing up the rear.

They’d been walking for about ten minutes when Ball turned to her and said, “I hadn’t thought about it before we set off, but it’s kinda weird to see kids so quiet.”

Everly laughed. “They’re not talking, but they’re not quiet.” She pointed to the boy and girl who were walking right in front of them. They hadn’t shut up the entire way so far. Their hands were moving a mile a minute, and it was obvious they were more interested in each other than the beautiful area they were walking through.

Ball chuckled. “Good point.”

They walked for another mile or so, then took a break off to the side so others could pass without issue. Everly saw a boy named Carl talking to two other kids.

Did you guys see that dude about a half mile back?

What guy?

No.

I didn’t get a good look at him. He was wearing a black shirt and jeans. He was off to our right in the woods. I saw him out of the corner of my eye.

“Ball,” she said, not looking away from Carl.

“Yeah? What’s wrong?”

“Carl said he saw someone in the woods.”

“Where? When?”

“He estimated about a half mile behind us.” She looked up at him. “Should we be worried?”

Ball didn’t look freaked out, which settled Everly’s nerves a little bit. “Ev, this is public property. There are a ton of people out and about hiking today. Just because someone was in the woods doesn’t mean they’re stalking us. Okay?”