Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries, #5)(85)

He had anger, lust, and pure crazy on his side.

Everly began to tire too quickly. If she’d been wearing her steel-toe boots, she could’ve used those as weapons just as much as her fists. She’d lost the stupid flip-flops after her first kick. The soles of her feet were being torn to pieces by the sharp rocks on the bluff, but she barely felt it.

The pain from Tylor’s blows was taking effect, however. He hadn’t cracked any ribs with his earlier kick, but now the pain in her side was almost excruciating. Tylor had three scrape marks down his face from her fingernails, and he was limping from a blow he’d taken to the back of his knee, but he was still coming at her.

He mumbled something under his breath, but Everly didn’t catch what it was. It didn’t matter; she wasn’t going to let him win. No fucking way.

Tylor bent and rushed her. He picked her up around the waist and fell to the ground on top of her. For a second, the air was pushed from her lungs, and Everly gasped.

The momentary loss of concentration cost her dearly. In a flash, Tylor had his hands around her throat. Squeezing tighter and tighter.

Everly looked up into his dark eyes and saw nothing but hate. She tried to pry his fingers off her throat, but nothing she did made a difference—even gouging her fingernails into his skin didn’t faze him. She tried to push her thumbs into his eyes, but his arms were too long, and she couldn’t reach.

As she desperately tried to loosen his hold on her, he hissed, “She’s mine. She’ll learn to serve me exactly how I want. I’m sure she’ll be a handful at first, but eventually she’ll do whatever I say. And the best thing? I can take her out in public and not have to worry about her telling anyone anything. I should’ve taken a retard for a wife a long time ago . . . I just hope that our babies won’t be defective like her.”

His words enraged her. First off, Elise was just as smart as anyone else, and being deaf wasn’t a fucking defect. Second . . . babies?

Fuck no.

But Everly couldn’t protest, because blackness was starting to creep in at the sides of her eyes. She looked frantically to her left, then her right, and finally realized where she was lying.

Tuning out Tylor’s offensive and horrifying words about what her sister’s future might hold, she tightened her grip on his wrists.

Taking a precious second to visualize exactly what she needed to do, Everly remembered lying on a mat on the floor when she’d been at the police academy. Her instructor had been taller than she was. And eighty-five pounds heavier. She’d been wearing her gear—bulletproof vest, equipment belt, the whole thing. She hadn’t thought there was any way she’d be able to get him off her, but the instructor had walked her through exactly where to put her hands and feet and where to exert pressure, and before she knew it, she was free.

Wishing for the thousandth time that she had her boots on, Everly opened her eyes and looked up into the face of evil. Leaning his whole body forward, Tylor was smiling as he choked her, happy

in the knowledge that he’d won.

Realizing there was a good chance he’d take her with him—and not caring—Everly planted her feet with her knees bent.

She suddenly slammed her knees against his ass with all the force she could muster.

He fell forward, immediately off-balance since he’d put all his weight into choking her.

Clutching his waist and using every last ounce of strength, she jerked him even farther forward and arched her back.

Then she prayed. Hard.

Ball held his fist in the air, indicating for the others to freeze. Everyone stopped, and Ball turned his head so he could hear better. Something or someone was coming straight for them, and not caring about how much noise they were making.

He motioned for the others to spread out. Gray and Ro pulled out their weapons and trained them steadily in the direction of the noise. Whatever, or whoever, it was got closer and closer, and Ball tensed.

One second they were all frozen in place, watching the area the noise was coming from, and the next, they saw Elise running full speed right toward them. She burst through a large patch of bushes as if the hounds of hell were after her. Her hair was in complete disarray, and she was covered in scratches and welts. Her hands were cuffed in front of her, and she weaved clumsily as she ran.

She ran into the small clearing and, when she saw the men standing there, stumbled and pitched forward to her knees. The terror on her face had Ball moving before he even thought about it.

The sounds coming from her throat made his blood run cold.

He’d never heard the teenager do more than laugh, but at the moment, she was moaning and crying with enough desperation to make Black call out, “Jesus Christ, is she all right?”

Ball went to his knees in front of her and grabbed Elise’s face in his hands. He forced her to look at him. He murmured, “Easy, girl. I’ve got you, you’re safe,” even though he knew she couldn’t hear him.

It took a minute or so for her to calm down, but eventually she did enough to bring her hands up and try to sign.

Ball took her hands in his and stopped her before turning to the others. “Anyone have a cuff key?” It was a stupid question, because they all carried the damn things. Arrow got to him first. Ball held Elise’s hands up, and the other man deftly and quickly unlocked the cuffs. Then he picked them up with the edge of his shirt and stuffed them into his pocket. They were all more than aware that they’d need to preserve any fingerprints to make sure there was no possibility of blame for any wrongdoing falling on their shoulders.