Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries, #5)(32)

Within a minute, they were in the back of Ramirez’s SUV. The siren was on, and they were driving hell-bent for leather toward the rundown neighborhood where the man had said the house was located.

Ball reached over, grabbed Everly’s hand, and clasped it tight in his own. Neither said anything, they just held on to each other and prayed the girl yelling for help was Elise.





Chapter Six

The neighborhood was in complete chaos when Ramirez pulled into the area. Cop cars were already lined up and down the narrow street, and there were ambulances staged, waiting for the all clear to get closer.

Ball climbed out, pulling Everly after him. She could hear police dogs barking excitedly, as well as neighborhood dogs joining in the fray. But her eyes were glued to the house currently surrounded by police.

The SWAT officer inside her wanted to join in, but the sister in her couldn’t make her legs work to take a step closer to the house. It was three stories, including an attic. The white paint on the outside was peeling, and the yard was full of waist-high weeds. Wooden slats hung tenuously off the side of the house in random places, and the leaning porch looked like it would blow away in a small breeze.

“Stay here,” Ramirez ordered. “I’ll go see what’s going on.” He didn’t wait for their agreement, but turned and headed for what looked like the officers in charge.

Everly couldn’t move a muscle. She could only hold on to Ball’s hand as if it was the only thing keeping her from falling into a million pieces. When he’d become her lifeline, she wasn’t sure.

But sometime over the last several days, he’d become her support system. It was crazy. She’d never relied on anyone in her entire life, save her grandparents. She’d learned from a young age that she could only count on herself. But, despite their rocky start, Ball had begun to mean something to her.

It should’ve freaked her out. At the moment, she could only feel gratitude that he was there with her.

The possibility of her sister already being dead had definitely been at the forefront of her mind, especially as more and more time passed since she’d been seen, but the reality of one of the cops coming out of the house and telling her that they’d been too late, that Elise truly was gone, wasn’t something Everly was sure she could handle.

There were shouts from inside the house, and Everly squeezed her eyes shut.

“Easy, Ev.”

She nodded, but didn’t open her eyes.

Then there were more shouts and a call for an ambulance.

Everly’s eyes opened just in time to see a teenager being led out of the house with a police officer at her side. Her heart rate jumped, but a second later, her shoulders slumped.

The girl wasn’t Elise.

She was older than Elise. And taller. And had the wrong color hair. She had on a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt. Her brown hair was in disarray, and she wasn’t wearing any shoes. The teenager was holding her bleeding arm as the officer steered her toward an ambulance, which had pulled up in front of the house.

“It’s not her,” Everly whispered desolately.

“Maybe she’ll know something,” Ball told her gently.

But their attention was diverted from the girl being helped into the ambulance by more shouting from the house. Everly hoped they’d caught the person responsible for kidnapping the poor young woman.

Then she watched in confusion as another teen was helped out of the house. This one had blonde hair and was short like Elise. She was probably younger than Everly’s sister, though, maybe twelve or thirteen.

“There were two of them?” Everly asked, shocked.

“Come on,” Ball said, pulling her closer to the door.

Everly went willingly. The police officers around them weren’t paying attention to them. They were more concerned about what was being relayed via their radios.

“This looks like a trafficking situation,” Ball muttered. “More than one victim usually means they were collecting them before sending them off. Don’t lose hope, Everly.”

His words sent adrenaline shooting through her. She reacted without thinking, heading for the nearest officer.

“My name is Sergeant Adams, out of Colorado Springs. I’m here because my teenage sister is missing. She’s about five-three, has red hair, but she’s deaf. If she’s in there, she’s going to be scared because she can’t hear anything.”

The officer looked distracted at first, but as Everly continued to talk, he nodded. “I’ll relay the information.”

“Do you know how many are inside?” Ball asked.

“Unknown at this point. They’re doing a sweep of the house from top to bottom. So far, they’ve found four.”

Four. Everly inhaled sharply. Four kids. Scared out of their minds and taken from their families. Sex traffickers were the lowest of the low. The scum of the earth.

“Sergeant Adams knows sign language,” Ball told the officer. “If her sister is inside, she can talk to her. Keep her calm. Please relay that.”

Surprisingly, the officer did.

“We’ll be right here,” Ball told the man, and he nodded.

Ball led Everly back a few steps and pulled her into his side. They watched as another girl was led from the house, sobbing. Then another. It was obvious the girls were traumatized. They were all dirty, and one of the girls was only half-dressed. The implications were horrifying, but Everly kept her gaze on the front door. Praying harder than ever before that the next person to be led out would be her sister.