Shit. Her hand never shook. But the little bundle of heat curled up behind her, holding the back of Everly’s dress in her fist, whimpering, jacked this situation’s intensity.
“Come on out, boys,” she murmured under her breath. “Mama needs some target practice.”
One shot and everyone would flood this direction. Maybe she ought to burn a round.
Only, the flood would bring more than just Austin and his men. It would bring Roman. And Gianna. And, hell, Everly didn’t want them to see this situation. If they got here first, they might just take this opportunity to run with Bella. Manhunters were skilled at working on the fly. Sometimes Everly thought they did their best work that way.
“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.”