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.