The producer Eva had brought with her smiled at us. “I think that’s a wrap. Thanks, guys. This is going to be really good.”
“Thank you.” Luke extended a hand, and the guy shook it. “What’s next in the process?”
“We cut it together and make something like a mini-episode. We don’t have the tattooing parts of it, obviously, but the banter will be enough. We’ll write a pitch too, and Eva’s helping with the placement.”
“You bet I am.” The woman of the hour breezed in and kissed the man on both cheeks. “Thank you, Lamar. Brian’s going to call you.”
“Sounds good.”
The small crew started to break down the equipment, and Eva turned to us. “Sorry I was MIA for most of it. Brian, my agent, called to talk about this. I hadn’t told him and he was a bit blindsided by the idea that I want to get tattooed on television.”
“So how’d it go?” Kade asked.
“Not great at first. But the amazing thing about Brian is he’s always willing to listen. Trust me, not all agents are like that. So I explained my reasoning to him, and he agreed it makes sense. He’s not totally sold on the idea of the tattoo yet, but he’s willing to hear it out, and regardless of my what’s on my skin, he’s going to see what he can do for you guys.”
Ben shook his head. “That’s incredible, Eva. Thank you.”
She grinned. “I might have told him you’re my sister’s pack. It helped.”
“I hope we’re her pack.” I said it automatically. The rest of the guys looked at me like they wanted me to shut the hell up, but it was the thing in the back of my mind every second of every day.
“I wouldn’t worry about that too much,” Eva said.
“Really?”
She put a finger to her lips and shook her head. “Anything else, take up with May-may.”
The crew was fast, and since there wasn’t much equipment, everything was nearly back to normal in twenty minutes, and Eva’s manager left with them. We’d canceled all our appointments and gave Daisy the day off. Probably for the best, given the way we’d razzed her in the interview.
Daisy kept the place running, and none of us harbored any illusion she wouldn’t grab us by the balls and set us straight if we crossed her. We kept her around for way more than keeping the place running. An honorary member of pack Nautilus even if she already had her own.
“Do you guys need anything else from me?” Eva asked.
“I don’t think so,” Avery smiled. “You’ve done more than enough. We’ll walk you out back. We’re ready to go too.”
“Perfect.” Her smile was just like Esme’s, and yet it was entirely different. Esme’s smile made my heart flip in my chest and gave me the desire to drop to my knees. Eva’s was pretty, and I appreciated it. But nothing more.
Luke was the first one out the back door, and he froze. “Wes, what are you doing here?”
The bodyguard looked up from his phone where he was relaxing under an umbrella in the sputtering rain. He was next to Eva’s car, where her security was waiting. “I’m waiting for Esme.” Then he scanned our group. “She’s not with you?”
“No,” I said. “We never saw her. She was here?”
“I dropped her off more than an hour ago. Things didn’t seem to go well at her mom’s, and she said to come straight here.”
Eva was already retreating into the studio, and we followed. Wes, too.
“Jasmine, was Esme at the studio?” She looked up at us, relief clear in her eyes. “She was?” Pulling the phone from her ear, she flipped it to speaker. “Sorry, Jasmine, say that again. You’re on speaker.”
“Esme came in, and she was with me for a few minutes. I let her listen through the monitor, and then she suddenly said she had to be somewhere and left.”
“Did she seem okay?”
Jasmine made a non-committal sound. “It happened so quickly I didn’t get a good read on her, but no, I wouldn’t say she was happy when she left.”
“Thanks. If you think of anything else, call me.” She ended the call and looked at Wes. “What happened at Mom’s?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I wasn’t inside. Esme was barely inside ten minutes, and when she came out, she was crying.”
I noticed he’d switched to calling her by her first name. He never had before, but the switch told me everything I needed to know. Wes cared about Esme as more than a bodyguard. Their whole team did. They were long-standing employees, and they were treated well. It was more than just security.
Panic clawed at my throat, and I tried to push it down. “Maybe she went home,” I said. “If something upset her, and she didn’t wait, maybe she went back to the house. Or her studio.” The words came out of my mouth, but they rang false. Something was wrong, and I didn’t know what.
Ben had his phone out. “She hasn’t unlocked the door at home,” he said quietly. “I obviously don’t know about her house.”
“No,” Eva said. “If she wants to avoid people, she wouldn’t go to the first two places people would look. But Wes, call Neil and send someone to Esme’s studio to check. Now.”
“On it.” He stepped away with his phone to his ear.
I wanted to sprint out the door and start looking. Calling her name to make sure she was okay, and I couldn’t do that. She wasn’t anywhere close by now, and all it would do was alert the fucking photographers something was wrong.
Anger sizzled through my veins until I was rigid with it. I wanted to hurl something across the room or punch the wall. Everything about those people outside made me seethe. Hadn’t they done enough? Now they were keeping me from—
“What happened?” Eva snapped. She was on the phone again, and this time I had a feeling I knew who it was.
“No, you don’t get to do that. You’re going to be quiet and answer my questions one at a time and then maybe I’ll let you talk, Mom. Now what happened?”
She listened for a second and her eyes went wide. “Are you out of your fucking mind? Why on earth would you do that?” I wasn’t the only one shaking with rage now. “Yeah, spare me the excuses. Esme is missing, and it’s at least partially your fault. Is it so hard to accept we’re not like you? And yes, I said we.”
Another impossibly long silence as she listened.
“Well, Mom, I guess you’re going to have to live with your actions just like the rest of us. Now I’m going to try to find my sister and undo the damage you did. I’ll call you when I know something.”
She closed her eyes when she ended the call, taking a slow, even breath. “My mother set up a pack interview today. Esme had no idea and walked straight into it.”
All of us stared at her before it clicked. “No wonder she was upset,” I said.
“Yes,” Luke said. “But that doesn’t explain why she’s not here.”
“Esme isn’t at her house,” Wes said. “But I tracked her phone. It’s moving. Not far from here.”
“Let’s go,” Kade said.
Ben held out a hand. “Hold on. You said it’s moving?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, let’s give it a second and see if it stops because I want to think about this. Wes, Eva, excuse us for a second.” Ben led the way into the main studio, and I was right on his heels. “Sorry,” he said. “I know Eva is her sister, but I didn’t feel like talking about Esme’s emotions so casually in front of both of them.”
“No, it’s a good call,” I said. It was the same reason we’d passed over the question about Esme when we were asked by the producer.
“Esme already knew her mom wasn’t a fan of ours. Walking in on that would have been shocking, but I don’t think it would make her run,” Luke pointed out. “And she came here. Whatever made her leave happened here.”
“Maybe she just needed air,” Kade said. “We know where she is now. We can ask.”
“Yeah.” Avery nodded. “That’s for the best. Let’s not try to guess.”
I led the way back into the office. “We’re going to find where she is using the phone. Eva, thank you for your help.”
“Oh, I’m coming with you.”
Wincing, I held out a hand. “I don’t think that’s a great idea. Esme loves you, but if this is about her history with packs…”
Eva cursed under her breath. “You’re right. Okay, I’ll go home. Please call me as soon as you find her. I need to know she’s okay.”
“We will,” Avery promised.
She went out to her waiting car, and I watched the car pull out through the alley.
“The car is getting closer,” Wes said. “It’s just around the corner.”
Kade was already moving. “Let’s go. Which corner?”
“North.”
There were still photographers outside, but fuck them. I didn’t care anymore. It was raining harder now, the drops cold in spite of the warm weather.
“It stopped,” Wes called. “Right there on the corner.”
Looking ahead, there was a cab. Parked on the corner. A man was getting out, umbrella and briefcase in hand. No sign of Esme. “It’s the cab?”
“It should be.”
Shit. Shit, she wasn’t in it. Which meant her phone could be. But there was no way we were going to make it down the entire city block before it pulled away, and with the increasing rain, I couldn’t see the cab’s number.
“Did she ditch the phone?” Ben asked. “Do we think she’d do that?”
Kade growled. “Why would she?”
“I don’t know,” Ben exploded. “All I know is something is wrong and I’m panicking. Nothing about this feels right. You don’t sense it?”
“You’re fucking right it doesn’t.” Kade’s voice was just as angry, and he stepped into Ben’s space. “You want to tell me how to feel right now?”
“Stop it, both of you,” Luke said. “Yes, something is wrong. Last night I told Esme I loved her. She told me she had a hard time saying things, but it didn’t mean she didn’t feel them. So yes, something is fucking wrong.”
“Hello?” Wes answered his phone. I was the closest, and he handed it straight to me.
“Esme?”
“No, it’s Eva. Jasmine remembered something else.”
My heart stuttered in my chest. “Tell me.”
“When she came in, and Jasmine let her listen, it was right after you guys were asked about her. Jasmine said she told Esme you’d just been asked about her, and that’s when she gave her the earpiece.”
“But we didn’t—oh my god.”
“What?” Eva asked, voice desperate. “What did you say?”
“I’ll call you back.” I hung up and handed Wes his phone. Right after we’d declined to answer the question about Esme, the producer asked us about Daisy. The whole discussion of Esme took maybe ten seconds. And she would have heard us… fuck.
“Wes, where would she go?” I begged. “If she needed to not be with anyone at all, where would she hide?”
“Let me think about it for a second.”
The guys were staring at me, and I was glad it was pouring now so they couldn’t see the frustrated tears I couldn’t hold back.
“That was Eva,” I told them. “I know why she ran.”
