Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries, #5)(49)

Everly had no idea how long her sister had been teaching Ball dirty words. She stood and walked over to the pair. She didn’t want to end their fun, but felt somewhat obligated to break it up.

“What are you guys doing?” she asked, even though it was pretty obvious.

Without guile, Ball said, “Elise is teaching me how to swear. Look.” He made a circle with the fingers of one hand and slammed the middle finger of the other inside. “Asshole.”

Everly rolled her eyes. “I know what it means. I’m not sure my little sister should be teaching you that stuff. She shouldn’t even know it.” Everly was signing as she spoke so Elise wouldn’t feel left out of the conversation.

Everly, seriously? I’m fifteen. I’m not a nun. Of course I know how to swear.

How about you say good night to Ball and get ready for bed? You’ve got school in the morning, and I have to work.

Elise pouted, but couldn’t hold it for long. She smiled immediately, signed good night, and beamed at Ball when he returned it. She hugged Everly and headed for her room.

“She’s a good kid,” Ball said when her door shut behind her.

“Yeah. I can’t take credit for that, though. It was all Me-Maw and Pop.”

“Now that I don’t believe,” Ball told her, yanking on her hand and pulling her down to sit next to him. “I had a long talk with your grandmother while I was there, and she told me how you called and Skyped all the time, and also how you got your mother to let Elise go when she went to live with them full-time.”

Everly shrugged. After Elise had made her way to Me-Maw and Pop’s on her own, Ella wasn’t too happy when she’d found out. And she did try to take her back. She wanted to keep control over Elise for some reason, and she couldn’t do that if she moved out.

Everly didn’t want to remember the way she’d threatened her own mother. In the end, Ella had been more concerned about not being turned in to the cops than keeping her daughter. That had been the last time Everly had seen her mother, and she didn’t much care.

“She also said you sent money so Elise could attend her deaf school, and you visited as often as you could.”

“It wasn’t enough,” Everly said sadly. “She still fell prey to someone because of her insecurities.”

“That’s not your fault. I think all teenagers feel lost at one point or another.”



Just then, both Everly’s and Ball’s phones vibrated.

Ball got to his first. “It’s Meat. He sent over the conversations he’s been able to recover from her old phone. They’re from an app called Omegle. Essentially, it’s a free online chat app that lets people talk to each other without registering or putting in their identifying details.”

Everly still wasn’t sure she wanted to see them.

“I don’t understand why there are all these apps that make it so easy for pedophiles and complete assholes to prey on teenagers and other vulnerable people,” Everly grumbled.

“Me either. Come here,” Ball said, and held up his arm. Everly snuggled into his side on the couch and pushed a hand behind his back to hug him. Being next to him like this felt so right. As if being close to Ball would protect her from all the bad things in the world.

Having Everly against him like this made him feel ten feet tall. As if he could protect her from all the evils in the world. He knew she wasn’t thrilled about seeing the proof of how Elise had been duped, but they both needed to see what she’d written, to make sure she wasn’t ever that vulnerable again.

“Ready?” Ball asked before clicking on the file Meat had sent.

Everly took a deep breath, then nodded.

“Okay. Remember, Rob is ‘Stranger 1,’ and Elise is ‘You’ in the conversation.”

She nodded once more before they read the conversations in silence.

Stranger 1: Hey, beautiful.

You: Hi, Rob.

Stranger 1: How was school?

You: Boring.

Stranger 1: That’s because ur so smart.

You: Whatever.

Stranger 1: It’s true. Ur the smartest person I know.

Stranger 1: Why someone like u is talking to me, I don’t know.

You: Because I like you.

Stranger 1: I like you too.

Stranger 1: Sometimes I get so lonely.

You: Me 2.

Stranger 1: Do you feel as if no one knows what u r thinking or feeling?

You: Al the time.

Stranger 1: U r the only 1 I feel I can talk to.

You: Real y?

Stranger 1: Yeah. U get me like no one else does.

You: I feel the same.

Stranger 1: When r u gonna send me a picture?

You: I don’t know about that.

Stranger 1: Why not? Here, I’l send 1 of me.

Stranger 1: There. See? I’m harmless.

Stranger 1: Please?

You: Fine. Here.

Stranger 1: Beautiful. Inside and out.

Ball wanted to throw up at the way the guy had reeled in Elise. Making her feel important.

Making her feel as if they shared something special. And the picture he’d sent was definitely that of a teenage boy, probably taken off someone’s social media account. He kept reading.

Stranger 1: I love seeing ur smiling face.

You: Same.

Stranger 1: Im sorry ur mom didn’t message u back.