Chapter Ten
La Dolce Vita was a popular Italian restaurant in South Lyndvale. Gabriel and Kelly sat at a table at the back, but the eatery was packed, and a steady stream of people stopped by their table, offering their congratulations and asking when the wedding would be held. Apparently Gabriel and his family were well liked in the valley, even though they were criminals. Kelly wasn’t really surprised; they were the most charming bunch of thieves she’d ever met.
“Did you deliver all your drugs?” Kelly asked Gabriel, digging into her fettucine Alfredo.
“Yes, thanks, heroin sales are up but crack seems to be on the decline.” Gabriel ate an entire steak in half a dozen bites. Dragons were known for their huge appetites; they needed a lot of fuel for their flames.
“Are you going to tell me what was really in the bag?”
He ignored her and kept eating.
“So,” he said when he finally slowed down, “What did you mean about Marvin?”
“Well. He was in my class at the Gemological Institute for Empaths.”
“And?”
Kelly hesitated. She didn’t like bad-mouthing people, but the problem was, an incompetent gem empath could cause a lot of harm.
“It’s just…his powers are very, very weak. Barely enough to register. He was okay with the really powerful gems, but he couldn’t even detect the less powerful gems. And some of those gems could do a lot of harm in the wrong hands. He shouldn’t have gotten his certificate as a gem empath, but he was having an affair with one of his male, married professors, and that was the professor who tested our abilities.”
“So how didyourabilities rank?”
Off the charts. Too high to measure.“Pretty good,” she said modestly.
“You’re a lousy liar.”
She smiled sweetly. “Actually, I’m a pretty good liar. That’s why I manage to finagle my way into so many places that I shouldn’t be, and close so many cases.”
He smiled at her. “Then maybe it’s our deep psychic connection that allows me to tell when you’re trying to pull the wool over my eyes.”
She made a scoffing noise. “Or the voices in your head.”
“Anyway, back to Marvin,” Gabriel said. “He came with a glowing recommendation from his professor…I imagine that would be the guy he had the affair with.” He frowned. “So you’re saying that his skills are weak.”
“Yes. I wanted to see if he’d missed anything, so I looked closely at some of your pieces, and I already found a couple that need a closer look.” She named the gems that she’d handled, including the ones that healed and the ones that increased aggression.
“I’ll have those pulled from the floor immediately,” Gabriel said. “And I’ll see about finding a way to double-check our inventory.”
Like bringing in another empath? That would be the only way. “Just don’t tell me about it,” Kelly said. “I’m here to find one particular big red rock. Other than that, I don’t want to know about any other highly questionable activities you’re taking part in.”
Later that afternoon, back at the castle, Kelly went to her room to check her emails and update the agency on her progress – or lack thereof. Gabriel was off somewhere else, doing God knew what – he claimed he was in his office doing paperwork, but for all Kelly knew, he could be off boosting the Hope Diamond. That seemed more likely than the paperwork scenario.
The door to Kelly’s room swung open, and Evangeline strode in. She still had that sullen “woe is me” look stamped on her face. Kelly barely resisted the urge to say, “Careful, your face will freeze that way.” Instead, she shut her laptop, swiveled away from her desk, and said, “Hey, Evangeline, what’s up?”
“Why do you want to arrest my uncle? Is it because you think he stole the Dragonsblood?” Evangeline demanded.
“He told you that?” Kelly said, startled.
“Of course not,” Evangeline said, her tone bitter. “Nobody tells me anything around here. All they do is lie to me.”
“About what?”
Evangeline shrugged. “How would I even know, since they’re lying?”
“Yeah, I know how you feel.”
“‘I know you feel’”, Evangeline mimicked. “Everybody always says that.”
