The scribbling stopped and Hunter looked up at her. “Please tell me you didn’t…”
“It sounded like a good idea at the time.” Alex winced, knowing how stupid it sounded in hindsight. “We hung out on some street corners in East L.A., made some connections, got inside one of the rings and were really learning so much about what was going on. We’d planned on taking what we learned to law enforcement as soon as we were done and have the whole thing shut down.”
“But?”
Alexandra squirmed in her seat. “I told Bea to be careful. I wanted to leave. My instincts told me something was wrong, that the people who had accepted us and confided in us were starting to treat us differently. Bea insisted on going back in one more time. She said she’d be fine. The last text I got from her was two months ago.” She pulled out her phone and slid it across the table with shaky fingers, Bea’s text shining brightly on the screen. “‘Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.’ That’s it. That’s the last time I talked to her. I tried texting her back and none of my messages were returned.”
“Did you go to the police?” Hunter asked, his attention focused on the screen.
“Yeah, but they had nothing. No leads, no trace of Bea after weeks of work.” She squeezed her eyes shut against the sting of tears. “She’s just another statistic to them, but to me she’s my best friend. I have to find her, Hunter. I have to. Please say you’ll help me.”
“I’ll do my best.” He passed her phone back to her, their fingers brushing, and the sweet tingles started anew. “I’m sorry about ruining your movie shoot.”
“No big thing,” Alex said, reverting to her ditzy persona out of habit.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Dumb yourself down for me.” Hunter pulled away and sat back, watching her with a thoughtful expression. “It’s not necessa
ry.”
“Oh.” Stunned didn’t begin to cover what Alex was feeling at the moment. Most people saw her boobs and her blond hair and didn’t dig any deeper. But Hunter seemed to be far more perceptive than he looked. She’d have to be careful around him. “Sorry. And you should sit up straighter. Don’t play small because others can’t measure up.”
He raised a brow at her then pushed higher in his seat, a slow grin spreading across his full lips. “You’re not what I expected at all, Miss Valentine.”
“Nor are you, Mr. Odenson.”
A loud knock on the trailer door sounded, jarring them out of their newfound intimacy. “Five minutes to set, Alex,” a production assistant yelled.
“Thanks,” Alex yelled back, then pushed to her feet. “Well, I guess it’s back to work for me.”
“And me.” Hunter stood beside her and opened the door for them. “I’ll do some research on what you told me while you finish filming.”
3
Hunter tugged at the stiff collar of his white tuxedo shirt for the umpteenth time, wincing whenever he glanced downward and caught sight of the hideous pink bow tie around his neck. Lord help him, he’d thought the day could only have gotten better from earlier.
He’d been wrong.
Bright lights flashed in his eyes and he squinted at the crowd jostling before them on the red carpet. Apparently his pretend role as bodyguard for Alexandra Valentine extended to being her pretend date at social functions when the original guy she’d lined up called off.
“Over here, Miss Valentine!” several photographers called above the steady din of the onlookers. The movie premier was for some new thriller that Alexandra wasn’t even in, but it was being financed by her studio so they requested all their starpower to shine for the evening. The tie he’d worn was to match his pretend date’s dress—a floor length magenta satin showstopper that hugged Alex’s curves for days and showed off her exceptionally nice rack to perfection.
Not that he was looking. He was here to investigate the disappearance of her friend. That was it.
They moved about a foot farther down the red carpet and began the whole pose-smile-pose cycle all over again. Hunter would’ve much preferred to be back at the hotel in his room, wearing his comfy sweats and continuing his research into the sex trafficking trade here in L.A.
It was still hard to believe that Alex and her friend had been allowed to get involved in such a dangerous pursuit, acting classes or not. When Loki had first assigned him to the case, he’d mentioned Beatrix Camden’s disappearance and that there might be some shady dealings involved. That had been the understatement of the century. Not that Hunter wasn’t up to the challenge. He was, after all, trying to prove his abilities here. But these rings were nothing to toy with. Stories of rape, beatings, mutilations, and worse abounded on the Internet. And those were just the tip of the iceberg. Some of these groups had ties to the highest echelons of power within the mob and Columbian drug cartels. If Alex’s friend had gotten too close and been sucked in, there was no telling if he’d ever be able to get her out again.
Then there was the not so small concern of them coming after Alex too. After all, if they’d discovered her friend was lying to infiltrate their network, what was to stop them from hunting Alex down and taking her as well?
Not that Hunter would let that happen. Not on his watch anyway.
But before his watch went any further tonight, he needed a drink. Preferably strong.
They’d made their way to the entrance of the auditorium at last and had just stepped inside the gilded lobby when a hand clamped down hard on Hunter’s shoulder and a voice he’d not expected to hear rang in his ear.