Page 162 of Blue Moon

“Uh, do you want a cookie?” Elene asked, no doubt trying to defuse the tension that was thick in the air.

“I’d love a cookie, mia cara.”

Was he flirting with her? In front of me? That dirty— Wait, no. This was good. Let her break his heart and steal his money. Romeo and his stupid pheromones deserved to suffer.

Elene came back with a plate piled high, and Marcel began clattering cookware the way he did when he was upset. I was also upset. If I’d thought about this in advance, I could have slipped prescription-strength laxatives into the passionfruit cream.

“These are yours?” she asked, picking up one of the earrings.

“They’re evidence. You can’t have them.”

“I make my own earrings, but these are good ones. Gacia creates nice things.”

Hold on a second… “You know who made these?”

“Gacia Zakaryan. She always works a G into the back of the design. See?”

A G? It didn’t look that clear to me, but Elene seemed confident.

“Do you know how to get in touch with her?”

“If you give my phone back, her number is in there.”

“Then I’ll give her a call.”

“She doesn’t speak English.”

“What language does she speak?”

“Armenian.”

Great. “Do you speak Armenian?”

“My papa lives in Yerevan.”

I made an executive decision. “Call her and find out where she sent that order.” Perhaps we’d get lucky. Perhaps Hebert had the earrings mailed to his bolt-hole. “And if you breathe one word about this place, you’re going home in a casket, understood?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“That’s a bit harsh,” Romeo said.

“Butt out of things that don’t concern you.”

Elene jabbered away on the phone, and fifteen minutes later, we had our answer. The earrings had been sent to the Vegas apartment. Another fucking dead end, and worse, Romeo was taking his time with the cookies.

“Okay, give the phone back.”

I held out a hand, and Elene handed it over reluctantly.

“How much longer do I have to stay here?” she asked.

“Until we resolve the Luna situation, we’re not even thinking about your mess.”

She pondered a moment. “Gacia did say there was a strange thing about this order.”

“Which was?”

“She didn’t choose the charms. The customer sent them. And he said they were very special and made her use an expensive delivery service to send the finished pieces back.”

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