Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries, #5)(29)

“What?”

“She swore that she was being careful. That she wasn’t going to accidentally get pregnant again. Stupid me, I believed her. But one night, when I was about nineteen, I went to visit her and found her on the floor of her shithole house, bleeding between the legs. My mom had used drugs in the past to purposely miscarry, and I thought she’d done it again. She’d get pregnant, then take some stupid cocktail of pills that someone had told her would abort the fetus. I decided then and there I was never talking to her again.”

“But you did,” Ball surmised.

“Yeah. When I’d walked in on her bleeding, I’d been so disgusted with her—and myself, for believing her lies. But I still got her to the hospital. That’s where I found out she was bleeding because of complications with the pregnancy, not another self-inflicted abortion. By some miracle, she’d done her best to avoid getting high while she was pregnant, and despite Mom being too stubborn to call for an ambulance when she’d first realized something was wrong, Elise was born relatively healthy . . . except for her being deaf, of course.

“Because she’d managed to clean herself up during pregnancy, the hospital didn’t see any reason to sic child services on her.” Everly snorted, a weird half-desperate, half-derisive sound.

“But within a year, she was up to her old tricks. Me-Maw and Pop did what they could to take care of Elise anytime Mom was on one of her benders, but they didn’t want to involve the courts. So for the first ten or so years, Elise lived half of her life at the stable and loving home of her grandparents, and the other half in hell at our mom’s house. Luckily, Elise was a lot smarter than me.

She decided she was done and was going to live with Me-Maw and Pop full-time before she entered middle school.

“Anyway . . . yeah . . . my mom is a pathological liar. I’m surprised Elise and I are as normal as we are, all things considered. But back to my point. For a second, I thought you were keeping things from me about Elise’s case . . . something bad. I’m sorry. You said you wouldn’t do that, and the first chance I got, I doubted you.”

“Ev, cut yourself some slack. You’ve had a tough week. Your sister’s missing, and you’re a cop who’s used to doing everything possible to solve cases. Face it, sitting around isn’t either of our strong points. I hate that we’re here, comfortable, with our bellies full, and we have no idea where Elise is or what she’s going through. But I swear to you that I will never keep you out of the loop.

When I find out information, you’ll find out information.”

“Okay.” She was quiet for a long moment. “Ball?”

“Yeah, Ev?”

“Even though Elise has been deaf her entire life . . . my mom hasn’t bothered to learn how to talk to her in sign language. Even if you can only say a few things, it’ll mean the world to Elise.”

Ball squeezed her tight in a backward hug, but didn’t speak.

Feeling as if they’d crossed some sort of line, but not knowing how it would change the nature of their relationship—just knowing it had definitely changed—Everly fell asleep with Ball’s thumb brushing back and forth over the ring on her finger.



Elise had no idea what time it was, or even what day it was, but hours had passed since she’d last seen the man who’d kidnapped her and chained her up in the basement of the decrepit old house.

Earlier, she’d gotten up the courage to explore her small prison, to the limits of her shackles, and had discovered a bucket nearby that was obviously for her to use to relieve herself. Elise was glad she hadn’t had much to eat or drink, because using that bucket was extremely humiliating and gross.

She would also gladly go hungry if it meant she didn’t ever have to see the man again. He hadn’t taken off his shirt a second time, but she didn’t like the way he looked at her. She wasn’t an idiot; she knew she’d been extremely lucky so far that he hadn’t sexually assaulted her. She didn’t know why he hadn’t. And not knowing if her luck would run out at each visit freaked her out.

She no longer worried he’d drug her food, but every time he brought any—which wasn’t often —she had to do exactly what he said to get it. Stand up. Look to the right. Smile. Turn around. Lift her shirt to show him her stomach . . . her breasts.

He never made her disrobe completely, but she felt as if she were a puppet, and he the puppet master. It was degrading and demoralizing, but if she didn’t do what he wanted, she wouldn’t get fed.

It was as simple as that. She’d tried defying him once, and he’d left her alone in the dark for what seemed like forever. By the time he came back and began playing his mind games again, she was starved enough to do whatever he wanted.

Elise knew she smelled horrible, and she was weak from lack of sustenance. She’d played his games and done what he’d wanted in order to get food and water. But it was never enough. Just sufficient to keep her alive and desperate for him to show up once more.

Psychologically, she understood he was grooming her to associate his appearance with the basic needs of food and water, but she was determined to fight him in any way she could. She’d act like a trained pony when he demanded it, but he couldn’t control her thoughts or emotions.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t hear if someone else was in the house with her or not. She had no idea what was going on above her. There weren’t many times in her life when she’d regretted not being able to hear, but this was definitely one of them.