Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries #5)(88)

Everly gasped and put a hand to her mouth. “Holy crap! She’s been missing for that long? And was with him the whole time? She’s twenty-seven now?”

“Yes to all three questions. Rex was able to find an address for a house in a shitty part of Vegas. It was run-down, and no one in the neighborhood ever suspected Tuttle of being anything other than slightly weird. Cops went to the home to search it.”

“And Jean was there? Alive?”

“Yeah. In the basement. And she’s completely and utterly traumatized. Her parents couldn’t believe she’d been found alive, but so far, she’s not receptive to seeing them. Psychologists say it could take years for her to come to terms with what happened to her. Tuttle abused her so badly, she was afraid to do anything to irritate him. She wouldn’t even eat without him telling her it was all right, never left the basement where she’s been living for fifteen years without him with her.

“Rex sent me the interview transcripts . . . it’s a miracle she’s still alive, Ev. Every time she got pregnant, Tuttle beat the shit out of her, making her abort her child. He played countless mental games with her. Letting her shower only if she had sex with him first. He didn’t celebrate her birthday, but instead bought a huge cake and gave her presents on the anniversary of her kidnapping. He’d regularly beat her to within an inch of her life, then lovingly nurse her back to health, telling her no one loved her like he did.”

Everly gagged and put a hand over her mouth again.

Ball immediately felt horrible. He shouldn’t have told her so much. He was an idiot. Of course that was what Tuttle had planned for Elise. She would’ve been just like Jean, living a life of hell until Tuttle either killed her or decided he needed a younger “wife.”

He rubbed her back until she said, “Sorry. I’m okay.”

“No, I’m sorry,” he said immediately. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Yes, you should’ve,” Everly insisted. “I just . . . I feel awful for Jean. Is there anything we can do for her? Start a fund-raising campaign or something?”

“I’ll talk to Rex.”

“I just . . . That could’ve been Elise. And with her not being able to hear, I can’t imagine the hell it would’ve been. I can’t believe no one figured out how crazy Tylor was. No one suspected?”

“Apparently not. He’d received a few reprimands over the years for acting inappropriately, especially to women, but nothing serious enough to warrant being fired or jailed. Of course, his boss recently had him taken off the payroll since he basically disappeared for a month to come here and stalk Elise, but generally, he was just a normal-looking guy living a normal life, by all appearances.”

“Boss?” Everly asked. “I thought he owned his own business, what with the Tuttle Plumbing sign on his van and all.”

“It was fake. He just bought a magnetic sign to give him a legitimate reason to be in some neighborhoods when he was casing them. It also explained why none of the girls who’d been kidnapped ever mentioned a business name on the van. He could put it on and take it off whenever it suited him.”

“God,” Everly breathed. “We got so lucky.”

“You are the most amazing woman I know,” Ball told her.

Everly’s brows came down, and she shook her head in denial.

“You are. He flat-out told you he was going to kill you, and you still climbed into that van. He could’ve pulled out a gun and shot you right there. Or while you were hiking to where he had Elise. Or a hundred other times.” They’d talked about this a few times, but it still freaked the hell out of Ball.

Everly shook her head. “No. He wanted me to know what he’d planned for Elise. Wanted me to marry them, thinking, I guess, that Elise would believe I approved of them being together, probably so he could throw it in her face later that I’d willingly married them. Who knows what was going through his head? I knew you’d find us, and that if he did succeed in killing me, you’d never stop looking for Elise.”

“Can we agree not to talk about you being killed anymore?” Ball asked, feeling the pain and terror he’d felt all those weeks ago surging inside him once more. He’d thought that Everly would be the one waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares, but instead it had been him. Even sleeping with her in his arms hadn’t banished the bad dreams. Of him walking onto the bluff and looking over the edge and seeing Everly, lying broken and dead at the bottom of the cliff. Of seeing her turn blue while Tuttle strangled her.

As if she knew what he was thinking, Everly placed her hand on his arm. “It’s over,” she said softly. “I’m fine.”

Ball pulled her onto his lap and held her gently. He’d been afraid to do more than gingerly hug her for fear of hurting her for a long time after she’d gotten out of the hospital, but she’d been telling him for a while now that she felt fine. That she was fine.

Elise was currently at school. She’d hung out with him and her sister for the first week after the kidnapping, and Ball had been prepared to have her stay at home with them for at least one more, but she’d decided she was bored and wanted to go back. All things considered, she was doing extremely well, and Ball knew that was in part thanks to Allye’s quick thinking in getting her therapist to see her immediately, and partly because of how amazing she was.