"I'm glad she has you, then," her mother responded.
Then her mother's sharp glance honed in on Jenna and her expression became one of concern. "Is something wrong, darling?"
Isaac immediately turned, and Jenna wished her mother hadn't called attention to her. But the truth was, her stomach was about to revolt despite her huge effort to get through lunch without causing a fuss.
"What's wrong, baby? You're pale and you've hardly eaten anything."
"I feel sick," she admitted. "I'm not sure the shrimp agreed with me at all."
"I'll take you to the bathroom," her mother offered, rising swiftly from her chair.
"She goes nowhere without me," Isaac said in a steely voice.
Her mother smiled. "Of course not. But you can't go into the ladies' room with her, so I'll go in and make sure she's okay and you can stand at the door and make sure no one else comes in."
Jenna could tell Isaac was about to argue that he'd damn well go into the bathroom with her and no one would stop him, so she laid her hand on his arm and looked pleadingly at him.
"Please just wait for us at the door. I'll just be on the other side of it. I really do think I'm going to be sick."
As she spoke, perspiration broke out on her forehead and her stomach lurched. Even her hands felt clammy and the room was starring to blur around her.
She heard Isaac curse, and then his arm slipped around her and he guided her toward the bathroom. Once there, he opened the door and quickly did a scan, ensuring no one else was in it. It was a single-occupant bathroom, a fact that obviously eased some of Isaac's worry, and he quickly motioned Jenna and her mother in.
"You come get me if she needs me," Isaac told her mother tersely.
"Of course I will," she said in a soothing voice.
Jenna was just grateful to be inside the bathroom and out of view of customers inside the restaurant. She felt faint, but most of all the contents of her stomach felt as though they were trying to claw their way up her throat.
She rushed to the toilet and violently heaved. She put one hand down on the toilet seat to brace herself and wrapped her other arm around her waist in an effort to calm her rioting stomach.
She continued to heave until there was nothing left to come up. She felt so weak that she knew she'd never be able to walk back without Isaac's help. And right now she wanted Isaac. Wanted his strong arms around her because he'd never let her fall.
She tried to right herself but lacked the strength. Her mother's surprisingly strong grip helped her get to her feet and then Jenna murmured, shocked at how weak she felt and the slurring of her words, "Please get Isaac for me."
To her ultimate shock, she saw a gun appear in her mother's hand and then felt the cold metal of the barrel press bruisingly hard into her side.
"It's not Isaac you'll be going to see, Jenna, dear," her mother said coldly. "There's someone right outside that window who wants very much to see you."
Jenna stared in shock at her mother, unable to comprehend what was going on.
"You can't fight me," she said dispassionately. "The button I scratched you with? I drugged you. You're as weak as a kitten and if you don't move fast, not only will I shoot you, but I'll shoot your precious Isaac too, so if you don't want him to die, then you're coming with me through that window and you're going to do it fast before he gets worried and barges in. Because if that happens? I kill him, Jenna. So get moving."
She shoved Jenna toward the blind-covered window even as she shouted loud enough for Isaac to hear, "She's okay, Isaac! Just getting cleaned up now. We'll be out in a minute. She just needs to wash her face and get her bearings back."
"Are you all right, Jenna?" Isaac called back, concern evident in his tone.
"Answer him," her mother hissed. "And you'd better be convincing or he's dead."
Fear nearly made speech impossible. Her mind was cluttered with a million things, memories, brief snippets and fragments of long-ago events all coalescing into place.
"I'm okay, Isaac. We'll be out in a minute."
Her mother made quick work of the blinds and getting the window open and then she shoved Jenna out, following behind her. Jenna stumbled when her feet made contact with the ground, the drug making her unsteady and dizzy.
"You killed him," she whispered. She lifted her stare and looked right into the eyes of evil. "You killed my father and you were the one who sold me to the cult," she said hysterically.
TWENTY-SEVEN