Crap. Jenna just knew her friend must sense thatsomething was off about this whole situation. But all she could do was sit there, waiting for either Esme or Maya to say the wrong thing and make a mess of everything.
Maya shrugged. “The way everyone in LA seems to get a job, I suppose. We both came out to be movie stars and ended up falling into something completely different.”
Since that story sounded amazingly similar to Madeleine’s own career path, her friend seemed to buy it without complaint. But that didn’t keep her from opening her mouth to ask another question.
“What was it you wanted to talk to me about, Esme?” Jenna interrupted, cutting off her friend and hopefully getting this conversation going in another direction. “You seemed concerned about something when you walked up to the table.”
Esme threw another glance in Madeleine’s direction, likely trying to figure out how to say what she wanted to say. But after a second, she turned back to Jenna.
“We ran into your boyfriend while we were doing a recon around the alleys in Skid Row near the place where that woman was attacked the other night,” Esme said, obviously choosing her words very carefully. “He had three other big guys with him, and it was clear that they were planning to try and track down that guy you saw.”
“Yeah, I know,” Jenna said, relieved that it wasn’tanything alarming. “Trevor’s plan for this morning was to snoop around a little and get a bead on where the guy might have gone. He wants to see if there was more than one…person…involved in the attack on that woman in the alley.”
Esme and Maya both nodded at that, though neither one of them appeared to be any happier.
“That was what Trevor said,” Maya murmured. “But were you aware that the plan included going down in the sewers and taking Owen and Isaac with them?”
Even though she knew Trevor would be going underground, it still caused an immediate twinge of panic to settle in Jenna’s stomach. She fought it down, trying to stay calm…outwardly at least. “Like I said, Trevor told me he planned to follow the trail left by the attacker. It was kind of a given that he’d have to follow it into the sewers again. Though I have to admit, I’m surprised they took Owen and Isaac with them.”
“It’s not like Owen gave them a choice,” Esme admitted. “He basically threatened to follow them on his own. I think Trevor let the guys go with them simply to keep them from getting into trouble. Owen is really good at that—getting himself and others into trouble.”
“Why didn’t you and Maya go down into the sewers with them?” Madeleine asked, looking back and forth between the two women.
“Because in addition to being good at getting us into trouble, Owen’s also a bit of a jackass when itcomes to keeping uswomenfolksafe.” Maya snorted. “He wanted Esme and me to wait topside while he and Isaac did themanlything and went down into the tunnels. We immediately did the smart thing and came to get you, thinking you might want to be there with us in case anything goes wrong.”
Jenna sat there, her mind reeling at the mere suggestion of going down into the sewers. She was so lost in her thoughts that it took Madeleine reaching across the table to squeeze her hand again before she could snap out of it even a little.
“You’re not seriously thinking about going after them, are you?” her friend asked, clearly alarmed at the thought, knowing what she did about Jenna’s particular version of claustrophobia. “That’s not a good idea.”
Jenna didn’t say anything. After all these years, she’d finally found the creature that had kidnapped her sister, and she was apparently too damaged to do anything with that information. The mere thought of going down in those tunnels—even to help Trevor—had her completely tied up in knots and unable to move.
She resisted the comparison, but it was impossible not to think about those moments right after her sister had been taken, when the monster had dragged Hannah away. Jenna had huddled on the ground near that damn dumpster, frozen, too terrified to even try and save her.
Jenna couldn’t let that happen to someone else she cared about. Not again.
“I’m going to head over to the Skid Row district with Esme and Maya to have a look around,” she said to Madeleine, hurrying on before her friend could say anything. “I know you have to get ready for that pop-up dining experience you’re hosting tonight, so don’t even try and offer to come with us. Trevor and the others are probably already back above ground as we speak, so it’s no big deal.”
Madeleine didn’t look convinced at all, not even a little. “Jenna…”
“I’m not going down in the sewers,” Jenna promised, feeling bad about lying, even if it was for a good cause. “You don’t need to worry. Really. I’ll call you later and let you know that everything is fine.”
Her friend still wasn’t thrilled about the idea but finally nodded, if a bit reluctantly. “Okay, I’m going to trust you not to do anything stupid, but only because you promised you wouldn’t go down in those tunnels. So don’t make me regret this, okay?”
“Okay.”
Madeleine grabbed her coffee, and after extracting one more promise not to do anything stupid—and to text her later—her best friend left.
Jenna barely waited for her friend to walk out the door of the coffee shop before turning back to Esme and Maya. “All right, let’s get out of here.”Man, she hoped she didn’t regret this decision. “But before we go, I need to know how the two of you knew I would be here.”
CHAPTER 10
“You put a tracking chip on us?” Trevor demanded. “That’s how you knew we were down in Skid Row again?”
He bit back a growl as he led their small group through the sewer tunnels, once again regretting that he’d ever agreed to let Owen and Isaac come with them. None of his pack mates had thought it was a good idea either—especially Connor—but the notion of the two paranormal investigators wandering around the pitch-black tunnels on their own until they got eaten by a ghoul had been enough to let them come along with him and his teammates.
Even though Mike was the senior member of the Pack among the four of them, he’d willingly let Trevor take lead on this operation since he was the reason they were all out here. So after Owen and Isaac had promised to keep their mouths shut and do exactly what they were told, Trevor convinced himself the two paranormal investigators couldn’t be that much trouble.
Turns out he’d been wrong.
