by Skye Jordan
She shook her head. “No se.” She pointed toward the second floor. “Maybe Mirabella’s room?”
Austin took the stairs two at a time. His nerves felt like they were on fire. His intuition was screaming so hard, it rattled his skull. He passed his bedroom, the office, and grabbed hold of the doorframe to Bella’s room, slowing his momentum as he swung in.
And found it empty.
No Bella.
No Everly.
But even more disturbing—no Pauli.
His stomach dropped. Fear swamped his chest. He turned and yelled, “Bella! Everly!”
But he already knew his bellow would go unanswered. His heart could already feel their absence. He went room to room, yelling for them anyway. His office, his bedroom, the bathrooms.
Decker met him on the stairs. One look in his friend’s troubled eyes, and Austin crumbled inside. “They’re gone.”
“The guys are canvassing the property.” He grasped his arm in a show of support. “We’ll find them.”
Austin pushed past Decker, charged out to the deck, and found all the men stone sober and deadly quiet. They knew something.
Austin turned a glare on Coleman and ordered, “Unhook him.”
His blood was boiling when Coleman finally stood alone, hands cuffed behind his back. Austin double-fisted his tactical vest and slammed his back against the side of the pool house. “Where are they?” He pulled him forward, then slammed him backward again. “I’ve never been a fan of torture or beatings, but so help me God, if you don’t tell me where they are, right fucking now, I’m going to slice your fucking eyelids off with scissors.”
The man’s eyes looked silvery in the night, and something passed through his gaze. “Are you sure they’re not here?”
His question was flat, quiet, and serious. He was utterly unaffected by Austin’s anguish.
“You fucking psychopath.” Fury wound Austin so tight, he hauled back and punched Coleman. The man’s head snapped sideways, and blood spattered the white pool house wall. “I’ve got six men with me tonight. And I will let every one of them take their turn with you if you don’t tell me where the fuck my daughter is. Right. Now.”
Coleman spit blood and slowly returned his gaze to Austin. “Uncuff me, and maybe we’ll have a fair fight.”
Austin hit him again. When Coleman finally brought his gaze around a second time, he must have seen the fury in Austin’s gaze, because he said, “We don’t have either one of them. And beating me isn’t going to bring them back.”
“Boss,” Decker called from the stairs inside the house. “You need to see something in here.”
Austin gripped Coleman’s jaw. “Thank him when you get a chance. He just saved you from dentures.”
He shoved the man’s head backward, disgusted. Inside the house, he jogged to the second floor, meeting Decker at the top of the stairs. “What is it?”
Decker led him into the office, and dread coiled in Austin’s chest. But instead of showing him an open door to the tunnel, Decker gestured to Austin’s desk. He moved around the furniture to look at the surface and found pages from Seaver’s file covering the entire desktop edge to edge. At the center of the desk was a clean sheet of paper with a handwritten note:
SHOW
THEM
EVERYTHING
Austin’s knees buckled. His head went light. He dropped his hands to his desk to keep him upright.
“She took her.” The realization came as a ragged whisper, but the effect shook him—heart, body, and soul. “Everly took Bella.”
Austin fought through the haze clouding his mind. He needed to think clearly now. Had to be on his game. Had to not only catch up to Everly, but get one step ahead of her. But the raw betrayal and rabid fear tore at the very fabric of his soul.
“We’ll find them, Austin.” Decker’s assurance was rock solid.
But that didn’t do anything for Austin’s rage. Or his pain. Or his terror. And for a moment, Austin lost it. His mind shattered into a million pieces, and his body reacted. He picked up the desk chair and hurled it across the room with a roar of fury, smashing two windows.
When the red haze cleared, Decker was gone, down what Austin had dubbed the rabbit hole, also known as the tunnel leading to the boat. Austin already knew it would be gone. Already knew Everly had taken it. She’d woven herself expertly into their lives, then ripped it apart.
He stared at the shattered glass with another one of those out-of-body sensations. He wanted to crumble. Wanted to let the weight of fear and grief tear him down. So he forcefully turned his mind toward anger, fury, reason, thought. Those were the only things that would hold him together now.
He was such a fool. Such a fucking fool. Here he’d been falling in love with her. And damn, she’d played him but good. He’d seen what she really was. But she’d been so good, so smooth, so real, she’d made him second guess his every suspicion.
He raked both hands through his hair. “What a fucking idiot.”
When Decker reappeared and closed the door, Austin couldn’t stand to hear the words he knew were coming. Without looking at his friend, he put his hand up. “Don’t. Just…don’t.” He dropped his hand and rested both at his hips, head lowered, eyes closed. “Get that fucker Coleman in here.”
Austin paced, his mind racing a mile a minute. Had Everly been involved with that guy in the market? Had she been sleeping with Austin for the sole purpose of distracting him so she could take Bella? Why hadn’t she taken her sooner? Why hadn’t they simply taken Bella in Turks and Caicos? It had been the perfect opportunity. If Everly was part of this team, did that mean there were two different teams after Bella?
The jingle of cuffs pulled his gaze toward the door. He pinned Coleman with a look. “She’s one of yours. You’re the boss, right? You’re the CO or whatever you call it in your organization. I know a fucking leader when I see one.”
Coleman didn’t answer.
Austin grabbed Coleman by the vest and slammed him against the wall again. He got in the man’s face, nose to nose. “She took my daughter and my boat, and I want to know where in the fuck she’s headed.”
A shadow of anger passed through Coleman’s expression before his gaze cut away and went distant. He released a raspy sigh and a muttered “She is so fucking fired.”
“Fired from what? A lousy security outfit hired by a dirty politician? Somehow, I doubt she’ll have trouble finding another job. There are a shit ton of you hacks out there, willing to do anything for the highest bidder.”
Coleman met Austin’s gaze again, still flat and controlled.
“You fuckin’ disgust me.” Austin stepped back and looked Coleman up and down. “What the hell were you, anyway? Probably a Marine. Goddamned jarheads never get anything right.”
“Hey,” someone yelled from outside, his voice coming through the broken windows. “My dad was a jarhead.”
“That makes a real sick sort of sense,” Ty said. “Shut up, Daisy Mae.”
Austin gripped the back of Coleman’s vest and jerked him across the office. He rammed the man’s legs into the desk and gestured toward the display Everly had left. “Look closely. This is Seaver. This is the woman you’re fighting for. The woman you would be entrusting with the health and welfare of an innocent little girl. Everly—if that’s even her damn name—obviously wanted you all to see this. So look. Look at what you’ve unleashed on my daughter. Someone who bribes” —he stabbed a photo—“cheats”—he stabbed another photo—“and steals”—he stabbed a bank statement—“on a daily basis.”
Austin moved around the desk and picked up more paper, shaking it in Coleman’s face. “A woman who wants my daughter so badly that she paid off a judge to get her”—he threw that paper down, then picked up more—“then enrolled her in an elementary boarding school across the country so she could send her away as soon as she turned five.”
He tossed the papers aside, letting them fall wherever they landed. The corner of an envelope peeke
d out from beneath a sheet from the Seavers’ folder. Austin grabbed the envelope and found his name printed across the front in Everly’s handwriting. The sight punched Austin in the gut. He couldn’t face what she might have written right now.
“If you wanted Bella so badly,” he yelled at Coleman, “why didn’t you just take her in Turks and Caicos? You had plenty of guys there.”
“Those guys weren’t ours.”
“Perfect.” He threw his arms out to the side. “That means there’s another team after Bella, and she’s now protected by only one person. One person who lied to both of us.”
“She doesn’t need anyone else.” This came from the peanut gallery outside. “Everly’s the best there is.”
Coleman and Austin shot dual “Shut ups” out the broken windows.
“You could have still grabbed Bella,” Austin told him. “Everly could have just run with her from the bathroom. You were there with at least three other people.”
“We had conflicting information.”
“About what?”
“About who sent that other team.”
“What difference does that make?” Austin demanded.
“Regardless of what you think of us,” Coleman said, “we wouldn’t have gotten involved in this if we could have tracked that team back to Seaver.” Coleman lifted his chin toward the desk. “Where’d you get all that?”
“We have…sources,” Decker answered.
Coleman’s silvery gaze darted to Decker, then to Austin. “Reliable, credible sources that could be used in court?”
“All reliable and credible,” Austin told him. “The rest, I don’t know. But now that you’ve gone and sent my daughter back to the devil, I’ll have to find out, won’t I? You’d better hope I never find out who’s important to you, to any of you, because without my daughter, I have no fucking reason to give a damn what happens to me. And all the time in the world to rain havoc on your sorry asses.”
“Why don’t you ditch the threats and these cuffs?” Coleman said. “Then we can go through the information together.”
“Why in the hell would we do that?” Decker answered.
Coleman heaved a sigh, and frustration entered his tone. “Because I’ve known Everly since she was just a kid, and she’s never once disobeyed an order. This team is her family. Every man a brother, uncle, or father to her. She doesn’t like kids and didn’t want this assignment. Once she was here, she maintained a steadfast belief that your daughter belonged with you from day one. So the fact that she risked all she knows and all she has to take your daughter somewhere on her own means she believes in you.” He paused. “And I hope you can offer her a job when this is over, because she’s still so fucking fired.”
“How do you know she’s not on her way back to the States right now?” Austin asked.
“If she was taking her back to the States,” came from another peanut outside, “she would have met us at the rendezvous point, genius.”
Austin’s anger dissipated a little, but he kept his guard up. “If she told you everything and you trust her, why did you come after Bella now?”
“Because a team of unknown origin almost took out one of my own along with an innocent child,” Coleman said. “And because American law says she belongs with Paige Seaver. We also have a file on you showing you’re not such a good guy, and that by living with you, your daughter is in danger.”
“Any danger to Bella comes straight from Seaver.”
“Were you dishonorably discharged from the army?” Coleman asked.
Decker let out a guffaw.
Austin pulled his head back in disbelief. “What? Hell no. I was honorably discharged with a handful of medals.”
“I can verify that,” Decker said. “He got one of those medals saving my life.”
“And there wasn’t a weapons-running investigation involving you when you quit?” Coleman asked.
“Jesus Christ,” Decker said with a disgusted shake of his head.
“Where the fuck are you getting your intel?” Austin asked.
“Directly from the head of the DOD,” he said flatly.
Austin started boiling again. “That’s Seaver. She’s on the Senate Armed Services Committee with Doherty. She planted that shit in my file.”
“That’s a big accusation.”
“It’s not an accusation. It’s the truth.”
“Great,” Coleman said. “Then let’s sit down and get everything straight so we’re on the same page. Take off these cuffs and pull out your military records.”
“I’ll sit down, I’ll straighten this shit out, I’ll even pull out my military records, but those cuffs aren’t coming off anytime soon.”
While Decker shoved Coleman into a chair by the shoulder, Austin collected all the papers on his desk, then turned his back to the other men, opened the flap of the envelope Everly had left, and pulled the paper halfway out.
I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you.
This was my last resort.
Austin’s gut clenched, but the apology was way too little, way too late.
Something triggered in his mind, and Austin read it again.
This was my last resort.
All the air left Austin’s lungs. His shoulders dropped. But he was still too terrified to hope.
“Let me see it,” Coleman said.
He swung around. “Coleman, you’re not in any position to be ordering me around.”
“My name’s Steele. Roman Steele. She was my soldier. Let me see her note.”
Soldier. Everly was a soldier. It fit. It fit perfectly. And Austin experienced another wave of humiliation.
He held the paper toward him and watched Coleman’s—no, Steele’s—expression as he read the words. But Steele’s gaze jumped to Austin’s.
“Do you know what that means?” Steele asked. “Do you know where she is?”
Maybe. But if Steele didn’t, Austin sure as shit wasn’t going to give it away. And he’d have to wait to investigate his theory.
Austin threw his arms out to his sides. “If I knew where my daughter was, do you think I’d be sitting around here? Everly’s your soldier. You’re the one who’s known her since she was a kid. If there was some hidden message in there, you’d know better than I would.”
Steele considered a long second before rasping, “Dammit. She’s so fucking fired.” His angry gaze met Austin’s. “We’ve got a lot of shit to straighten out, and none of us is going anywhere until it’s hashed out. Stop worrying about your daughter. She couldn’t be any safer than she is with Everly.”
“Easy for you to say,” Austin said, acknowledging the kernel of terror still burning like a coal in his gut. “She’s not your daughter.”
“Once we start getting into the facts, you won’t be worried about her. But if you don’t uncuff me now, you’re going to have to worry about me in a very different way when they finally come off.”
Austin nodded to Decker, who uncuffed him.
Steele rubbed his wrists and gestured toward the broken windows. “And my men too.”
Austin was about ready to deny that request when one of Steele’s men called through the broken window, “No need, boss. We’re out.”
A shocked “What the fuck?” came from Ty, followed by the chink of metal against metal and one of Steele’s team members asking, “Who’s a fuckin’ Daisy now?”
Hearty laughter made Austin damn glad he hadn’t gone toe to toe with these men.
Now, he just had to figure out how to slip away from them.
16
Everly pulled the last two MREs from the box. She was going to have to wade out to the boat where she’d anchored it off the beach and grab another box soon.
“What do you think, Bella?” she asked the girl, who sat in the sand beneath the shade of tropical trees, drawing with a stick. “Southwest beef and black beans? Or chicken pesto pasta?”
Bella shot Everly a glare.
“That’s what I thought.” Everly
closed her eyes on a sigh. She felt another temper tantrum coming on, though whether that would come from Bella or herself, she wasn’t sure. “Should we go search for bananas and coconuts again?”
“No.” Her denial was quick and sharp.
“No, thank you,” Everly corrected. Her patience had thinned in direct correlation with Bella’s dipping mood.
The girl stabbed the sand with her stick. “I want Daddy.”
Everly heaved a sigh and scanned the horizon. “I know, honey.” Then, under her breath, she muttered, “And he’s taking his damn sweet time.”
She and Bella had been at his property named Last Resort for two full days. The sun would set in about an hour, and without any sign of Austin, Everly was beginning to wonder if she’d misjudged him. She’d expected him on the beach of Last Resort gunning for her within hours of leaving with Bella.
The fun had worn off for Bella about an hour after they’d come ashore. Even after Everly had made a hut worthy of a Better Homes and Gardens jungle edition, Bella was having none of it. Even snuggling with Pauli on the seat cushions and blankets from the boat, beneath the stars, the ocean lapping at the shore, she’d sniffled herself to sleep without her daddy for two nights straight.
Everly couldn’t even imagine the trauma taking her from him permanently would cause the girl.
“I’ll start dinner,” she told Bella, “then I’ll read you more stories.”
“I don’t want dinner or stories.” The girl knew how to pout and whine, that was for sure. And Everly had run out of ideas to soothe her. She was about at the hair-pulling stage. On the upside, their immersion of sorts had accelerated Bella’s learning curve. The girl was speaking in consistent full sentences—unless she was sobbing for her father.
If Austin didn’t show up before they turned in for the night, Everly would have to break out her last burner phone. As soon as she activated the phone, it would be game over. She was sure Sam was tracking all the phones for activity. She wasn’t afraid of her own men. Wasn’t even afraid of getting fired—again. But she was afraid that Roman would stick to the original plan and turn Bella over to Seaver.
