Even though she didn’t want to.
They signed off, and the call disconnected, but Everly kept the phone at her ear. “Ian?”
“Still here,” he said. “Are you okay?”
She was still trying to formulate an answer when he asked, “What can I do?”
Everly released a breath. “Please keep searching.”
“Roger that.”
“And if things somehow turn to shit tomorrow”—she squeezed her eyes closed—“don’t shoot these guys. They’re all really good men.”
“You know us better than that,” he said. “We aren’t going in guns blazing. Our only objective is getting the girl out safely.”
“And Hix’s only objective is keeping her.” She exhaled. “I don’t feel right sending this little girl back into a house where she could be exposed to a possible pedophile. Just because we can’t prove the allegations doesn’t mean they’re not true. I get that we’ve got a job to do, I get there are risks for Bella here. But he’s not acknowledging the risk to her with the Seavers.”
“I’ll talk to him again. Don’t worry, the team will be on the same page when we touch down. And none of us want to hurt Hix or his guys.”
“Thank you.” She disconnected and exhaled heavily, but it didn’t
lighten her heart. She shook the emotions from her head and left the office, careful to leave the door exactly as she’d found it. One more look in on Bella, and Everly walked downstairs with an odd out-of-body sensation. She’d never felt like she’d belonged anywhere but with her team. Her team had always been her bedrock, her home. Her family.
But she felt a similar sensation here, as if this fit, as if this was her place. And now she was forced into a position of choosing. But there was no real choice. She knew that. She’d never truly belong here. Not as the true Everly.
No matter what her heart said, her mind was clear. Her loyalties were ingrained—to her team, to her guys. No matter where in the world they traveled, they were her home in body and spirit.
But as she approached her bedroom where Austin lay in her bed, her heart ached for something different for the first time since she’d entered the military.
The bedroom door opened before she reached it, and her heart kicked. Austin filled the doorway, in nothing but boxer briefs and bruises.
She startled and put a hand to her heart. “You scared me.”
His gaze was intent, his body language rigid. “Where’d you go?”
It wasn’t a question, it was a demand. All Everly’s dreamy ideas evaporated. She fell into script, smiling as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “I was checking on Bella.”
Some of the tension slid from his body, and he cupped her jaw. His gaze softened. “Is she okay?”
“She’s perfect.”
He kissed her, a lingering, emotion-infused kiss. “Come back to bed, baby.”
She smiled and let her heart fill, trying to memorize the feeling. After stepping around him, she pulled him back into the bedroom by the hand. “Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
15
Austin was deep in the throes of analyzing research data when Decker came out of the house and paused beside the table on the deck. Now, thirty hours after he’d returned from Turks and Caicos, data had begun coming in from the training equipment still in the Caribbean, and Austin had a lot of numbers to run.
“Everly and Bella are headed back,” he told Austin as his gaze roamed the jungle toward the south.
Austin followed Decker’s gaze and smiled. “She texted me a few minutes ago. Gave me a ‘told you so’ about this place being one of the best locations on the planet to star gaze and listed all the constellations they’d seen. I’m glad the neighbor finally nabbed Kujo.” He turned his attention back to the documents. “Bella will probably be tangling up the names of the stars as she falls asleep.”
And he wanted to get through these numbers so he could spend the evening with Everly. A bottle of wine under the stars letting her teach him a thing or two sounded like nirvana to him. He wanted to get to know her better. Learn more about her childhood, her experiences. He was sure they had more in common than either of them realized. He couldn’t release classified information about his missions, but there was plenty he could talk about. Things he’d bet she could relate to and understand.
The thought made him smile. He’d never been so sure about a relationship before. Never so sure a woman matched him on so many levels—intellectually, physically. Sexually.
“Did she seem quiet today?” Decker was still standing there, frowning toward the south.