Page 78 of Blue Moon

“So, all you have to do is flirt with Elene while I try to trace her electronically.”

“What if you can’t?”

“Then we resort to plan B.”

“Which is?”

“We try to geolocate her using clues from her calls.”

“Calls, plural?”

“If it comes to that. C’mon, when you joined the Special Projects team, you knew you had to be ready for anything.”

That was true, but hitting on another woman now that he was with Luna felt wrong, even when it was all a pretence.

“Why didn’t you use Slater for this? Hooking up with random women of dubious character is right up his street.”

“Because Emmy needed Slater for a job in Venezuela, and I figured you’d want to be involved seeing as Luna’s your girlfriend and you’re a bit of a control freak. The two of you are dating, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And have you?—”

“Don’t mention the fuckin’ pool,” he growled. Apparently, folks in the office were betting on an engagement date now.

“I have the Fourth of July, so if you could just hold out for a couple more weeks…”

It would be a lot longer than that. No way was Ryder gonna push Luna into anything she wasn’t comfortable with. Enough people had done that already.

“Can we stick with the case? Try to get Elene to agree to a call in the morning. Afternoons and evenings, I’m on bodyguard duty.”

“That should be doable. She claims she’s working in an office, so she’ll be free in the evenings, Tbilisi time. We just need to find an appropriate backdrop for a trust-fund jackass, ideally a mansion with a waterfall in the swimming pool. Does Luna have a waterfall in her pool?”

“I have no idea, and there’s no chance of using it anyway. Her mom’s a psycho. Why a waterfall?”

“I might have gotten a little carried away with describing Tripp’s home, and now we need something similar to build credibility.”

“Where the hell am I meant to find a mansion?”

“Ask Shani? She knows plenty of people. And try to get a place with a great kitchen because you love to cook.”

For fuck’s sake. “Anything else?”

“You have a dog.”

Finally, a request that wasn’t impossible. “Luna just adopted a dog. I can probably borrow him.”

“Is he small, white, and fluffy?”

“Are you kidding? How many men own small white fluffy dogs?”

“Tripp’s taking care of it for his sister, Cammie, who travels the world in her job as an art buyer. It’s called Snuffles, by the way.”

“You really went to town on this, didn’t you?”

“All part of the service. You’re also unlucky in love, and you weren’t looking to date again until your good buddy Hunter gifted you a subscription to Illumina, where you saw Elene’s picture and realised she was something special. I’ll send you transcripts of the chats so you can study before you speak with her. The goal is to get her to agree to an in-person meeting, and once she appears, we can get her to return Luna’s money.”

And that meant Ryder would have to return to Georgia. He didn’t much like the idea of leaving Luna, but hopefully, they’d unmask Mark Antony before the date of departure arrived. And Luna deserved to be reunited with her money. She’d worked damn hard for it.

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