by Skye Jordan
“Bella?” she asked without taking her eye or her aim off the opening. “Can you try calling your daddy again?”
Noise inside the bathroom made Bella curl closer to Everly with a whine.
“Guess that’s a no.” She released the grip of the weapon and reached back without looking. “Can you give me my phone?”
Bella just whimpered. “Want Daddy.”
The door to the bathroom pounded open again. The sound hammered fear through Everly. She repositioned her grip on the gun and added her other hand to steady it.
Here it comes.
She pulled in a breath and released it in a slow, controlled stream as she waited for someone to come out of that opening.
Everly didn’t want to take Bella from Austin. But look where she was. Where they were. If Everly wasn’t who she was with the experience she had, those guys would have grabbed Bella and been long gone by now. Maybe this really wasn’t the best place for Bella. Maybe there was too much danger here.
She didn’t know what to think anymore.
A voice met Everly’s ears. An angry, terrified bellow that could have bounced off the mountaintops. “Everly! Bella!”
Austin.
He appeared in the opening, surrounded by jagged glass, and looked both ways. When he turned his head toward them, the moonlight illuminated his face, and relief coursed through Everly.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” She lowered her weapon, dropped to her ass, and pulled Bella into her arms. “Took your Daddy long enough.”
11
As soon as Austin climbed into the backseat of the SUV, Bella launched herself at him. He twisted to catch her and hugged her close, trying his best not to hurt her. But twenty minutes ago, he’d discovered his daughter missing. Then she’d gone from missing to in danger and in danger to kidnapped in the blink of an eye.
He squeezed his eyes closed, trying to slow his heart, his breathing. Trying to cut the adrenaline gushing through his blood with some serotonin. But his mind kept conjuring the sight of Everly pointing that Glock at him. But the Glock wasn’t as much of a problem for him as the way she held it. Or the way she’d taken out two armed men. And now that he’d had a few minutes to think, much of the event fell into question.
“You’re okay, baby.” He opened his eyes and found Everly staring out the side window.
“My dress dirty.”
He patted her back. “We’ll wash it. Renalda can get anything out, right?”
“Okay.”
“Take a rest, Bella. You’ve had a big night.”
Once she settled down and felt safe, Bella was asleep in sixty seconds.
“Everly,” he said softly. When she turned her head, he asked for the fiftieth time since he’d found her, “Are you okay?”
“You mean am I going to fall apart?” she asked, her voice soft but controlled. “No, I’m not going to break into a blubbering mess.”
“I have to admit, that’s not exactly normal under these circumstances.”
“I keep telling you I’m not normal. You keep telling me I’m not normal. Yet you keep expecting me to act normally.”
She had a point. Austin took a minute to center himself in his current reality—everyone was safe. His security was intact.
“Did you get the other two?” Everly’s question ripped a hole in his thoughts, reminding him that the two guards who’d disappeared were still active threats.
“No. I’ve got guys looking for them.”
“Did the two from the bathroom tell you anything?”
“The one you hit over the head slipped out of the ER and disappeared. The other one’s in surgery.”
Without a beat, she asked, “Are you sure the house is secure? Can we go back there without risk?”
He studied her a moment. Her total lack of concern for the man she’d sent to surgery added to his mounting suspicions.
“Nothing in life is without risk,” he told her. “But two guys from my training teams touched down at the airport thirty minutes ago. They’re at the house. So, yes, it’s secure. Where’d you get the knife?”
She muttered, “Internet.”
He waited, but she didn’t offer more. “How’d you get the gun away from Eric?”
She finally looked at him. Her face was highlighted by streetlights, and Austin saw hints of the adrenaline crash in the fatigue drawing her features. “I told you, I stabbed his arm, and he dropped it.”
“Weren’t you afraid it would go off?”
“Not particularly. It was pointed at him.”
Austin pulled in a breath to ask, “Why was it pointed at him?” but he already knew. She’d twisted it—along with Eric’s hand. And if it was pointed at Eric before she stabbed him, Everly had some damn good intermediate fighting skills.
He played over all she’d told him between finding her beside the building and getting her in the car. Ramon had followed her into the bathroom. She’d kicked him in the balls and knocked him out. Then Eric had come. She’d stabbed him, grabbed the gun, and broken the glass to get out, fearing the other two guys in the team were on their way.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“That I could have been in on it with Ramon and Eric. That I wasn’t saving Bella, I was taking her.”
“Were you?”
She cut a look at him. “No. And what’s more, if I hadn’t been there, if you’d hired a different nanny, Bella wouldn’t be sitting in your lap right now.”
That rang very true, but Austin was in a familiar battle between hopes and fears. “Then why would you think I’d believe you were involved?”
“Because it’s been written all over your face since you found us.”
Austin turned his attention forward. He met Decker’s gaze in the rearview and his friend gave a nearly imperceptible nod, indicating she was right.
“You didn’t get the phone call, did you?” she asked.
“What call?”
“That’s what I thought.”
“What call?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
“I set Bella up with my phone before the second guy came into the bathroom so we could try to contact you. As soon as I dialed your number, the second guy came in. I told Bella to tell you where she was.”
Austin saw a missed call from Everly’s phone, and his gut burned. Then he saw a red circle indicating he had one message.
When Everly turned to look out the window again, Austin played the message. It started with the sound of something brushing across the phone’s mic, followed by silence. Austin closed his eyes and listened hard for background noise. He heard more movement, someone breathing.
Then a bang sounded, startling him, followed by a scuffle and a sound of surprise.
“Hey, Eric.” It was Everly. But her voice was chilly. Knowing. Confident bordering on arrogant. And distant, which meant Bella was holding the phone.
“Don’t move, bitch.” Equal parts fear and bravado filled Eric’s tone. “Where’s the kid?”
“What kid?”
A second later, Eric grunted, then howled. More movement brushed the microphone, obscuring what sounded like a fight in the background. Bella whimpered, and the sound stabbed his heart.
Metal clicked on tile—the gun hitting the floor and skittering away.
“Don’t do it,” Everly told him. Her voice took on a darker, don’t-be-an-idiot tone. “You still have one good kidney. But if you move, you’re dead.”
The words chilled Austin’s gut.
A second passed, then more of Eric’s screams scraped over the line. The pain and shock in the man’s voice ripped at Austin, even though it was over. Even though he would have done the same thing in Everly’s position.
A lightbulb went on in Austin’s brain. He cut a look at Everly, but she was still gazing outside, her mind lost in the darkness.
The screams were followed by the crack of bone, presumably Eric hitting the floor. Moan
ing filtered over the line, and Austin wiped his damp forehead. Knowing Bella heard all this in the moment made Austin’s stomach roll. He felt the blood drain from his face.
More groaning was punctuated by Bella’s whimpers and sniffles. Then a door squeaked open.
“It’s okay, baby.” The Everly he knew was back, her voice soft, sweet, reassuring, and getting louder as she neared the phone. Bella must have been covering the display, because she asked, “Did you talk to your daddy?”
“N-no.”
“Okay.” Everly sounded breathless now, hurried and worried. “Let’s try again in a minute. Right now, we have to go.”
“You owie?” Bella asked.
“No, honey, I’m fine.” More rustling noises came over the line. Then Everly’s voice was right in Austin’s ear. “Look at me. I want you to squeeze your eyes tight, and put your head on my shoulder. Don’t open them until I tell you, okay?”
A muffled, teary “Okay” came from Bella.
The creak of the door sounded again, followed by a distant male voice calling, “Ramon. Eric.”
Then Everly’s “Shit” and “Plug your ears, baby,” followed by a crash so loud, Austin pulled the phone from his ear and Everly turned to look at him.
Nerves floated in her eyes. “What’s that?”
She’d been telling the truth. She’d risked her life to keep Bella safe. And she’d escaped two trained security guards with ingenuity.
Who in the hell was this woman? Every instinct Austin had screamed military, but the idea was absurd. Then his mind branched out to CIA operative. But that was even more ludicrous. Seaver wanted Bella, no doubt. And she had the contacts, definitely. But sending a spy into his home? No. Seaver would take a more conventional and immediate route—like infiltrating the local security team he’d hired.
“Austin?”
He refocused and found her questioning gaze on him. It was the first time she’d ever called him by his first name, and it pulled at something inside him. Interesting timing—while he was trying to decide whether or not to trust her.
“Do you ever stop?” she asked.
“Stop what?”
“Suspecting people?”
No. He hadn’t stopped since Seaver had tried to take Bella.
“Must get old,” she said, her voice melancholy. “And lonely.”
“I’ve gotten used to it,” he lied, staring straight ahead at the road in the headlights.
Austin let Everly go back to her own thoughts while he tried to get a handle on his.
When they reached the house, Everly didn’t wait for the others. She opened the door and said, “I’m taking a shower.”
“You probably need stitches,” Austin said. “Let Decker take you to the ER.”
She shot a look over her shoulder, glanced at Bella, still sleeping, and said, “Fuck that.”
Then shut the door and limped into the house.
Both he and Decker watched her in silence until she’d disappeared from the door she’d left open.
He and Decker shared a look.
“I’ll ping my contacts,” Decker said. “Send them a photo. See if they can put her through facial recognition.”
Austin hesitated. She’d saved Bella. In some ways, he didn’t give a damn who she was or what she’d done in the past. Then again, he couldn’t stick his head in the sand. He’d always been proactive about Bella’s safety. He couldn’t stop now. Seaver was obviously ready to fight again.
“Yeah, okay,” he said. “And get an evidence trail between Seaver and those hired guns. Put together a bulletproof evidence path. If I have to go to court again, I’m going to bury her.”
“Count on it,” Decker said.
Austin collected a sleepy, whimpering Bella in his arms and entered the house. He climbed the stairs and passed the room Everly was using. The sound of the shower poured through the open door.
He continued to the next room. Before he laid Bella in bed, he reached behind her to unzip her bloodstained dress, then carefully peeled it back and tossed it aside. Then he pulled back the bed covers and laid Bella down. When she didn’t wake, Austin moved into the adjoining bath and wet a warm washcloth with antibacterial soap and wiped every trace of blood from her skin.
Beneath the blood, there was no sign of injury. Austin thought back to the scene in the bathroom—the two unconscious men, the blood smeared and pooled on the tile floor, the shattered window and Everly on one knee in the dirt, a Glock pointed at the opening with a professional’s double-fisted grip, her arms and face splattered with blood.
Yet, Bella? Not one scratch.
Thanks to Everly.
She was going to need stitches in her foot, and it would be better for her if she got them tonight. She probably also needed a few in that cut on her shoulder that had been dripping blood down her back.
Shifting Bella to the center of the bed, Austin pulled the covers over her and sighed heavily. Safe once again. Some days, he felt like ninety percent of his energy went toward keeping her safe and happy. But that was what he’d signed up for when he’d left the army and taken her out of the United States.
He wasn’t sure Everly had signed up for this or not.
He turned off Bella’s light and moved through the adjoining bathroom into his bedroom, where he changed into a T-shirt and gym shorts. When he stepped into the bathroom again, he saw Everly standing by Bella’s bed. She wore an oversized T-shirt and rubbed her hair with a towel. Tossing the towel over one shoulder, Everly eased to a seat beside Bella. She stroked a thumb across her cheek and brushed hair off Bella’s face, then leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
The tenderness twisted Austin’s heart. He wanted to believe in her. Which was enough to tell him he shouldn’t.
“Don’t do it. You still have one good kidney. But if you move, you’re dead.”
Based on the scene, Austin had to believe the threat. He should fire her. Get her away from Bella. But if he used that as criteria for who should stay close to his daughter, not one man on his security team should be around her. Hell, even he shouldn’t be with her.
Austin approached from the bathroom and paused a few feet away.
Everly didn’t look at him, but said, “I’ll be gone by the time she wakes.”
The thought created a jittery sensation in his gut. “Bella may not have spoken to me while she was in the bathroom. But you did.”
She turned her head, eyes narrowed on him. “What does that mean?”
He tapped the face on his phone and played the message.
Everly’s gaze went distant; her lips parted. When the message cut off, her mouth pressed into a firm line, and she lifted her gaze to meet his. “I guess I’ll get my things together tonight.”
He crossed his arms. “Or you could just tell me who you are and why you’re here.”
“You know who I am and why I’m here.” She kept her voice low. Bella never stirred. “If you can’t accept it, I shouldn’t be here.”
He exhaled, frustrated, caught between firing her and pulling her deeper into the fold. “Then tell me where you learned to intimidate security guards, steal weapons from someone’s hand, and fight with a knife in your grip. What you did in there took years of training. Your actions were ingrained. Your quickness stems from muscle memory. Your mental fortitude in the face of danger was…nothing short of remarkable.”
She didn’t answer immediately. Then finally sighed with a shake of her head. “Why should I go to the effort if you’re not going to believe anything I say anyway?”
“Convince me,” he said. “Because I really don’t want to let you go.”
She turned on him. “Why don’t you convince me those guys were after Bella at the direction of a United States senator and not some kind of cartel or warlord? Then maybe I won’t walk away.”
Damn she was feisty. “You won’t like what I have to say.”
“You won’t like what I have to say either.”
What a mess.
A beautiful fucking mess.
He scraped a hand through his hair. “I brought Bella to Costa Rica to get her away from her grandmother. I was awarded custody after a court battle, but her grandmother got an injunction and filed an appeal. It may not look like it now, but at that time, I didn’t have a dime left after the first custody hearing. And I wasn’t going to lose her because Seaver had the power of politics and money on her side.”
He took a breath to loosen the knot in his gut. This was hard to admit to someone outside his teammates. “So I filed my discharge papers from the army, rallied my best buddies, and took her from the Seavers’ house while everyone was sleeping.”
“You?” Everly said, brow furrowed with disbelief. “The king of rules?”
“Technically, Bella should have been returned to me and wasn’t. So in this case, the rule of law had already been broken.” He thought back to that night. “You know the first thing Bella said to me when I woke her from a dead sleep in the middle of the night after not seeing her for two months?”
“What?”
“‘Grandma say you no want me,’” he said, using Bella’s language, looking at his little girl. “‘Her mad, Daddy. Her always mad. Her mean. I want you.’” The memory still broke his heart. “I’ll never forget those words.”
Everly’s breath whooshed from her chest. “Oh my God.”
“I took her to Mexico. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but we were out of reach, and it was cheap to live. I worked day and night to get a business plan together. I had the idea for my business early on in my career but thought it might be a hobby after I retired. I suddenly needed to take that sketch and sculpt it into a business. I had to make it so kick-ass no one could resist jumping in, because I needed that money to live. To make a home for Bella.”
When he stopped, she said, “I’m listening.”
“It took her a while to find us. When she did, she tried to file a Hague Convention application with Mexico. But the Hague Convention has three threshold requirements. One of those is that the child must have been removed from their state of residence in breach of custody. I had legal custody, so I had every right to take her out of the country. But Seaver plays by her own rules. Lives by her own sense of justice. She believed—still believes—Bella belongs to her. She hired a security company to go to Mexico and take Bella back.”