Page 26 of Blue Moon

What did I want from Ryder?

And what did he want from me?

Soon, I was going to find out…

9

RYDER

“Okay, I’m dying to hear this.”

It was the call Ryder had been both expecting and dreading. Ana had promised that she’d handle Emmy, and if anyone could, it was her, but Ryder still figured the chances of keeping his job were fifty-fifty at best.

“Luna got another fucked-up note. She freaked out, but she’s calmer now.”

“I see. So you also lost your mind, then flew halfway around the world to check she was okay. Tell me she didn’t throw you out on your arse?”

Ryder leaned against the headboard and swallowed the last of his whisky. Midnight, and Emmy Black thought this was a good time for a check-in? What if Luna hadn’t kicked him out? She’d have called and interrupted…

No.

No, of course she wouldn’t have.

“Did you track my phone?”

“Nah, I just had the manager of the hotel call me when you came back. It’s late, so I’m taking that as a good sign?”

“She didn’t throw me out. We ate dinner at her place, but we agreed beforehand that I’d come back to the Black Diamond.”

He’d considered sticking around near her apartment building, but the streets were quiet late at night, and some nosy neighbour would probably have called the cops. He couldn’t afford another breach of trust where Luna was concerned, so he’d reluctantly headed back to his room.

“Thank fuck for that,” Emmy said. “The dinner, not that you came back to the hotel, I mean. How is Luna? Ana said she left an incoherent message about pasta and smoke. Did she set fire to her apartment?”

“The damage was confined to the microwave, but there might be a bigger problem.” Ryder summarised the communications from Mark A—the notes that had come with a pair of earrings and two different takeout deliveries. “Luna’s trying to convince herself that it’s just a well-meaning fan overstepping, but my gut says otherwise. The guy’s gone to a lot of effort, and he seems to believe she’s the reincarnation of Cleopatra and he’s Marcus Antonius.”

“It’s not her sister playing a prank?”

“She already accused Cordelia and Jubilee, and they both denied it. I realise that doesn’t mean much, but Luna says that on balance, Mark A is too nice to be Cordelia. The earrings and a creepy note? Okay. But not the food. Cordelia’s more likely to send a severed cow’s head than a dish of linguine.”

“Maybe he tampered with the food? Did she keep it?”

“She ate it.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“The first delivery, anyway. She would have eaten the second if I hadn’t thrown it in the trash.”

“I don’t understand that woman. She’s a survivor, and yet somehow she has no sense of self-preservation.”

Yeah, that about summed up Luna.

“She burned dinner, and she said she was hungry.”

Ryder couldn’t see Emmy, but he just knew she was shaking her head.

“Did you educate her in the ways of psychos?”

“She said she wouldn’t eat the food again.”

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