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.”