Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries, #5)(4)

She also wore a ring on her right pointer finger that he hadn’t noticed before. It was a thin, gold band that could’ve possibly passed for a wedding ring if it had been on her other hand.

Thoughts of her jewelry were quickly replaced yet again by memories of his ex.

Holly hadn’t been a good flier either. She hated the feel of the plane lifting off and always thought they were going to crash. They hadn’t flown together very often, but Ball would always put his arm around her shoulders, telling her to hang on to him, that he’d keep her safe.

Forcing away thoughts of his ex, Ball looked out the opposite window across the aisle so he didn’t have to see Everly struggling with her fears. His fingers twitched with the urge to cover her hands with his own, to reassure her. It was a stupid notion. Being in each other’s company was just as distasteful to her as it was to him.

Thankfully, takeoff was smooth, and soon they were at cruising level and headed for Denver.

Everly pulled out a set of earbuds, plugged them into her phone, put them in her ears, then turned slightly to face the window, effectively blocking him out.

Ball sighed. It was going to be a long trip.





Chapter Two

Everly put the earbuds in her ears, but didn’t bother to turn on any music. She needed to be able to hear in case of an emergency. She hated flying. Hated it. She usually drove to Los Angeles when she wanted to visit her sister or grandparents, but time was of the essence right now. She had to get to LA and find Elise.

Whenever she thought about where her sister might be, terror threatened to overwhelm her, but she forced the feeling back. She would find her. She had to. The alternative was unthinkable.

She and her sister had gotten the short end of the stick early in life. They’d had to scrape and fight from the time they were toddlers. Their mom was in the running for worst mother ever, but at least they’d had Me-Maw and Pop.

Everly hadn’t been surprised when her mom had gotten pregnant with Elise. Honestly, she’d been shocked it hadn’t happened sooner. Ella Adams was a drug addict who’d been in rehab several times since her teens, but the bottom line was that she just didn’t want to quit. She liked the high the drugs gave her, and she liked to party. She was also pretty, even after all the years of self-abuse.

Everly and her sister had inherited her auburn hair, but Ella seemed to have that little something extra that men were always drawn to.

The crux of the problem was that Ella didn’t care about anyone but herself. Neither the fathers of her children nor her kids themselves. She didn’t care that she’d caused her parents untold hours of worry, or that she’d sometimes forgotten to feed her kids. Ella just wanted the next high . . . wanted to be the center of attention. She was selfish and self-absorbed.

Ball had asked how Everly knew her sister hadn’t gone to their mother. Because Elise hated the woman as much as Everly did. She would never in a million years go back to live with her. But that didn’t mean Elise wasn’t going through teenager growing pains. She thought her grandparents were too strict and was yearning for more independence.

And Everly understood why Elise wouldn’t come to Colorado Springs to live with her, though it didn’t mean Everly was completely happy with that decision.

She knew Elise wasn’t willing to give up her school and friends, even if it meant getting out of Los Angeles, and Everly just wanted the best for her little sister. She was one of the smartest people she knew. That was the only thing keeping Everly calm right now. Knowing that if something had happened to her, Elise would be able to keep calm until Everly found her.

Then there was the man next to her . . .

Ball had hated her before he’d even met her—and that stung. She wasn’t exactly Miss Congeniality, but she’d never had someone take an immediate dislike to her simply because she was a woman. Everly was well aware that she worked in a male-dominated field, but most men she met at least hid the fact they didn’t think she could do the job, and talked about her behind her back.

On one hand, she grudgingly respected Ball for speaking his mind, but on the other, it pissed her off. How dare he judge her without even knowing her? How dare he decide that just because she had boobs, she couldn’t get the job done?

Having spent a few days near him, she now understood that his problems stemmed from his own history and didn’t really have anything to do with her specifically. But she still couldn’t shake the hurt his words had caused that first day they’d met.

She was stressed out and worried, and had to deal with two flights before she’d get to hug her me-maw and pop. Flying wasn’t helping her stress level. Takeoffs and landings were the worst parts, in her opinion. Statistics were clear that most plane crashes happened during the few minutes after the plane took off or right before it landed. So every time she flew, she did her best to endure those ten or so minutes at the beginning and end of each flight.

On top of everything else, over the last few days, she’d slept a total of about six hours. Every time she closed her eyes, images of Elise’s dead body being found haunted her. She was a cop. She knew the first forty-eight hours were the most crucial to finding a missing person. And those two days had long since passed. The local cops thought she was a runaway, but Everly knew they were wrong.

Yes, Elise had been feeling down lately, but she’d never just disappear without a word to anyone. Someone had her. Everly felt that down to her very bones. They just needed to find out who, and where she’d been taken.