Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries, #5)(73)

Not wanting to find out what he was reaching for, Elise leaped to her feet and ran for her room. Maybe if she could lock herself inside, she could open her window and yell for help.

But she didn’t make it very far. The man, who definitely outweighed her and was almost a foot taller, tackled her from behind.

Elise went down like a sack of potatoes. The man’s arms were around her, so she couldn’t even put her hands out to stop her fall. She hit her chin on the carpet so hard she bit her lip and tongue. Blood welled up in her mouth, and she immediately spit it out.

A second later, the man’s hand covered her mouth and nose.

Knowing she was probably making horrific noises, Elise fought. She did everything Ball had taught her, to no avail. The man was too heavy. His cologne reminded Elise of the night he’d nearly assaulted her in the dark.

Panicking, Elise realized that she was getting lightheaded. He was going to kill her. Right here in her own apartment. Ball was going to come over and find her dead body, and Everly would never forgive herself.

A moment later, Elise recognized that the man wasn’t suffocating her. His gloved hand was wet . . . whatever chemical he’d put on his glove was making her pass out.

Her second-to-last thought was that she couldn’t believe she was being kidnapped again.

Her very last thought, before she passed out, was thinking the odds of her being rescued this time were slim to none. He wasn’t going to let her escape again. No way.

Everly parked her car and glanced at her watch. Ever since her talk with Ball, and learning that Meat had found something on Elise’s phone, she couldn’t concentrate. And not concentrating in her line of work wasn’t a good thing. She’d requested to leave an hour early. Luckily the day had been slow as far as police work went, and her supervisor had granted the request.

Elise should’ve gotten home an hour before, but she wasn’t answering any of the texts Everly had sent. Looking around, Everly didn’t see Ball’s Mustang, but wasn’t really surprised; it was still early for him to be there. The lobby was empty when she entered, and Everly headed for the stairs.

Feeling oddly nervous, but thankful she’d been able to get off work early, Everly pushed open her apartment door. Knowing it would do no good to yell out for her sister, she put her bag on the floor just inside the door, and her purse and sunglasses on the kitchen counter. She headed for her bedroom to change for the night. Everly stripped off her bulletproof vest and uniform. She locked her weapon in her safe and changed into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Taking the time to brush her hair, she smiled as it fell in waves around her face, and studied herself in the mirror.

She felt different, but didn’t look any different than she had a couple of months ago.

Had it really been just over two months since she’d met Ball? Since she’d been so furious with the way he’d disparaged her entire gender and assumed she would screw up the mission to find her sister?

Throughout her life, she’d never felt especially pretty. Even though Me-Maw had told her over and over that she was. Men liked to compliment her hair, but they’d usually follow that with some annoying comment about how hot she must be in bed because she was a redhead. It became easier to wear it in a bun or ponytail to try to curtail the rude comments. But knowing how much Ball liked to run his hand through her hair, she’d begun to leave it down more.

She still dressed the same, though, preferring comfortable clothes to the more trendy and fashionable duds. But inside, she felt more feminine. That was, of course, a direct result of how often Ball told her she was beautiful and spent hours showing her how much he liked looking at her body . . . both clothed and not.

Shaking off the thoughts, Everly turned to go find Elise. She pushed open her sister’s door— and looked around in surprise.

She wasn’t there. Her bed wasn’t made, which was normal, and there were quite a few outfits lying around on the floor, not on hangers or in the dirty-clothes hamper, which wasn’t out of character for her sister. She wasn’t exactly a neat freak.

Confused, Everly turned and went back down the hallway. She peered into the half bath but still didn’t find Elise. Standing in the doorway to the living area, Everly frowned deeply.

Elise wasn’t there. And she had no idea where she could be. It wasn’t like she’d made any friends in the apartment complex, because as far as Everly knew, there weren’t any other teenagers living there.

Her book bag was lying next to a small table in the foyer of the apartment. Right next to where Everly had dropped her own bag minutes earlier.

Worried now, Everly pulled out her cell and shot off a quick text to Elise, asking where she was.

A flash of light caught her eye, and Everly turned to see Elise’s cell phone on the floor halfway under one of the tables next to the couch, the blinking light indicating that a new text had arrived.

Dread filling her, Everly dove for the device. At the last second, she realized she probably shouldn’t touch it, just in case there were fingerprints. Using the edge of a blanket hanging off the couch, she picked it up. The screen was cracked, but otherwise the phone seemed to be in working order. Everly used the bottom of her T-shirt to protect the device from her stray fingerprints and clicked the “Home” button. The text she’d just sent came up on the main screen. So did a few others from Kim, a girl Elise knew in LA.

It looked like the two of them had been in the middle of a conversation when Elise had suddenly stopped chatting.