Page 114 of Under the Table

“What?” Hope stilled, very confused. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on yet?”

“Right now, I need you to do this without asking a million questions.” Rex held his hand out. “Jacket.”

Hope hesitated. Angelica had never missed a scene that needed to be shot except for when she’d been completely incapacitated with altitude sickness in Estes Park, Colorado. She reached up and undid the snaps on her jacket, handing it over. The white tank top she had underneath was thin, and while it’d be a million times better to wear that outside, she wasn’t used to feeling so exposed on camera either.

“I’m going to need a better explanation.”

Rex shook his head. “I can’t give you one. All I know is that she’s not at the hotel today.”

“She’s not…” Hope stuttered to a stop. “Like she left?”

He shrugged. “She had a meeting with the hotel manager this morning about the policies drama from last night, but then she left and said she wouldn’t be back until late tonight.”

“What policies drama from last night?”

“Ange didn’t talk to you?” Rex seemed surprised by that.

“No. Was she supposed to?” Hope ran her fingers through her hair after pulling the clasp from it. Ansel would have a fitover what it looked like, but she was going outside into the breeze anyway, so it wouldn’t matter in the end.

“I figured she would have. But Rachel didn’t talk to you either?”

“About what?” Hope was ready to throw a damn fit if he didn’t start filling her in on whatever the hell he was talking about.

“There was an accident last night with Annalise. Ange ran into the middle of it, but she dealt with it.” Rex started walking out of the restaurant and toward the reception area.

Hope had to jog a few steps to catch back up with him. “Accident?”

“She stole a golf cart and overturned it, apparently. She’s fine. You’ll see her in a minute.”

“She did what?” Hope’s voice screeched. “What the hell was she thinking?”

Rex’s lips thinned into a line, but he didn’t say anything about that. “Eva is with the cousins and waiting for you to show up to film this scene. I just need you and Rachel to point out where there are questionable safety measures and think like a kid. What are they going to get into? What might they steal and take for a joy ride?”

Hope’s heart ran rampant. What the hell was going on with her family? She’d never known Annalise to act out like that. She was about to make Rex stop so they could talk when they walked directly into where theirtourwas supposed to start.

“She’s ready,” Rex told Sy and nodded at him.

“All right.”

Hope stopped next to Rachel, staring at her with wide eyes as if expecting the answers to all her questions to suddenly pop up. But Rachel barely even glanced at her. Her cheeks were hollow and her eyes dark from lack of sleep. She didn’t even greet her.Hope paused, her mouth open but the words she wanted to say refused to leave her lips.

Was this what Rachel had meant yesterday?

Hope shut her mouth and straightened her shoulders. The owner stood right in front of her, the white shirt already pitted with sweat, and the black tie he wore too tight against his neck. But Hope wasn’t going to say anything about it. He was either dressing up for their benefit or this was what he was used to. And if it was the latter, then he’d be fine.

“Action!”

Everything was quiet. They all looked at each other like the other person knew what was supposed to happen, and it wasn’t until Rachel gave her a hard stare that Hope realized she was the one in charge here. Normally it’d be Angelica, but since she was gone, of course it’d fall naturally to her. Wiping her sweaty palms onto her thighs, Hope scrambled for words.

“After uh… After certain situations that happened last night, Ms. Shields wanted Rachel and me to walk the property with you to see if there were any other potential problems we could find.”

The owner, Daniel, nodded his head at her. “We’re very sorry about last night, again.” He directed that comment to Rachel. “I do hope that Annalise is fine.”

“She is. I don’t think she’ll be taking any joyrides soon, though.”

He laughed, but it sounded hollow. Hope couldn’t hold back and she gaped at Rachel. Were they seriously joking about something like that? She couldn’t believe that her sister was doing that. Then again, it’d clearly happened last night, and Hope had been the one left absolutely in the dark.

“Shall we?” Hope said, pointing toward the swimming pool.