Don't Poke the Luna (Xena and Ryder) novel Chapter 241

Chapter 241

Xena’s POV

Xena Logan caught my attention, giving me a meaningful look. Logan had obviously noticed it too. But I was still caught up in various emotions at that moment, my mouth felt dry, and I had forgotten to respond to Logan entirely.

“I think it smells amazing!” Ryder placed his hand on my lower back saving me from having to answer. I instinctively looked toward Ryder, who gave me an innocent smife. I reached out and touched hand resting on my back.

“Let’s eat!” Dad said quickly, starting to put small burgers on his own plate. Martha took one with an expressionless face, leaned down to smell it, then pushed it aside with a disgusted expression.

I put some bread, salad, and pasta on my plate until the small burgers were passed to me. Not sure how hungry I actually was, I put one on my plate and continued passing them. Logan took three, as if he knew he loved eating them.

“So, Ryder. Were you able to eliminate the tunnels?” Dad asked.

I grabbed the small burger and took a bite. The moment the flavors hit my tongue, recognition flooded through me like a dam breaking. This was it. This was that taste. My body remembered, even though my brain had blurred the details. The special flavor of the BBQ sauce, the pepper seasoning on the bread… these were all Mom’s. Tears gathered in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Not here. Once or twice, I saw Ryder glance at me.

“We did it. It went much smoother than I expected. Obviously, we lost a few trees, but no damage to the walls. I might get some soil

to fill the holes,” Ryder answered.

“I have some soil I can give you. Penelope started building a new pool, and we need to extend the old one,” Dad said.

“Ama wants to build a new pool too,” I said, smiling at Penelope. I took a deep breath silently, adjusting my mood to continue the normal conversation. My heart was particularly fragile today, and if broke down now, I didn’t dare think about how I would manage

later.

“I know! She told me last night. She’s glowing!” Penelope laughed in response.

“She looks sickly, not glowing,” Martha snorted. Dad gave her a look that made her roll her eyes and look away. Not sure what he said to her, but it seemed to work.

“What should we do next?” Dad asked, as if wanting to ignore Martha’s presence.

“Xena has a brilliant idea,” Ryder said, taking another bite of pasta and turning his gaze to me.

I was about to bring a forkful of salad to my mouth when I suddenly stopped. Looking around, everyone was watching me, waiting for an answer, Putting down my fork, I suddenly felt uncomfortable being put on the spot like this.

“Oh, um… didn’t Penelope tell you?” I asked.

“She did, but I want to hear it from you,” Dad gave me a smile, one that I used to hate. It was the look of someone testing me, but

at this moment I found it somewhat touching.

I tried to keep my voice normal as I began to explain: “If we hack into the phone company, we can find his files based on his service location and download his call records. Then we can match locations with assigned numbers to find out where he’s been calling.

From there, we can dig deeper. The rest goes without saying.”

“How did you come up with this idea?” Penelope asked.

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Chapter 241

Actually, it was just a sarcast comment 1 made, and Ryder turned

into an actual Idea. Then it just snowballed from there.”

“It’s really quite good,” Logan said with his mouth full of burger.

Thank you. I hope it works. Has Galen found anything?” I asked,

“He’s still working on it, but making progress. Because of the firewalls, he’s moving slowly, not wanting to leave traces, so it takes some time,” Penelope nodded.

“Where is he operating from?” Ryder asked.

“Remember that abandoned coffee shop a few miles front downtown Logan asked.

“Oh.” I nodded, the image of that shop flashing through my mind. Broken windows, peeling paint, little mice that had made it their home. Perfect place – no one would think to look for someone in that kind of hellhole.