Page 11 of Blue Moon

“You didn’t have to. The way she looks at you, lines were crossed, and she ended up in serious danger.” Emmy held up a hand. “Yes, I know Knox was fucking around with a woman too, and believe me, I’ll be kicking his arse if he got distracted. But she wasn’t the principal. She wasn’t an attention-seeking pop star whose mother-slash-manager has turned complaining into an art form.”

“Luna’s not the person you think she is.”

“Oh, really? Have you forgotten why you ended up at the turtle sanctuary in the first place?”

Emmy made a fair point, but she also didn’t know the real Luna Maara. Ryder knew he’d fucked up, though. Luna’s near-death experience was only a small part of what had gone wrong that day.

“Do you want my resignation?”

Emmy’s hesitation was long enough to make him squirm, but finally, she sighed. “No. But next time you decide to catch feelings for a drama queen, do it in your own time. Got it?”

“Got it.”

Ryder was still on thin ice with the boss, but she’d been good to Luna. Spent time talking with her after Ryder messed up, found her a good lawyer, and helped her to get settled in Vegas. Plus Emmy had grudgingly okayed the trip to Georgia, so he had to be grateful for that. But now Hill had thrown a wrench into the works. They had the suspect, but they didn’t have the money. The scammer had been scammed by a true con artist.

Ana stepped back and beckoned Ryder into the filthy bathroom. If this motel had one star, it had been stolen.

“The man is a fool,” she said.

“I realise that.”

“Good. So now you have a decision to make—what’s more important to you? Do you want this mudak in prison, or do you want to go after the money?”

“Can’t we do both?”

Ana shook her head. “If we’re going to find Irina, we need his cooperation. And we’ll only get that by promising his freedom. Otherwise, he has no reason to help.”

“So we find the money, and then we drop him off in Vegas.”

“Nice idea, but it won’t work. A snatch and grab is one thing, but if we spend time with him here in Georgia, he’ll wind up knowing things about us that I don’t want coming out in court.” A shrug, and she lowered her voice. “How about I just shoot him when we’re done?”

Ryder would be okay with that, but Luna wouldn’t. And he’d promised that he’d never tell her another lie.

Which meant he really did have a decision to make—money or justice? Either way, Hill would be out of Luna’s life, so which option would give her the better outcome? The satisfaction of knowing that Hill was bending over in the showers, getting fucked in the ass? Or having the money she’d spent her whole life earning? Right now, Irina had the cash, and Amethyst Puckett was squatting in the home her daughter had bought. Luna had been left with next to nothing.

The decision sucked, but it wasn’t a hard one to make.

“We find the money. And don’t shoot him,” Ryder added. “Will Emmy be okay with this?”

Ryder was well aware that he’d been trying her patience lately. His performance in San Gallicano had been less than stellar, Knox’s too. They’d almost lost a client—twice—and then Ryder had committed the ultimate professional sin. Only the fact that Emmy was a closet romantic as well as a bitch had saved them.

Ana shrugged.

“I can take unpaid leave.”

“Emmy doesn’t care about money, only justice.”

And her team. She cared about her team. Give and take, she’d once told him. Give and take. She couldn’t take a hundred and ten percent when it mattered if she didn’t give at other times, and with some of the jobs she agreed to take on, she needed that hundred and ten percent.

“Thank you for being here. For helping me.”

Another shrug. “We’re doing this for Luna as well.” Then, more quietly, “Emmy knows what it’s like to have a difficult mother.”

That was the first mention Ryder had ever heard of Emmy’s mom. He knew from the Blackwood grapevine that she and Ana shared the same father, but her mother was a mystery.

“I always assumed her mother was dead.”

“She might as well be.” Ana’s expression hardened again. “Let’s get this done. We should introduce ourselves at the office here because we might need extra manpower.”

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