“Oh.” She settled back in her seat as he took a bite, and then commented, “Marguerite didn’t mention that you brought your dog to the club. I’d have come in to check out the place sooner if I’d realized that.”

G.G. shook his head as he chewed and swallowed, and then said, “I don’t usually. But his sitter didn’t come in today and I didn’t want to leave him at home alone.”

Ildaria’s eyebrows rose. “You have a sitter for your dog?”

“Have to. The little monster eats things he shouldn’t if he’s left alone. And I don’t mean human food.”

“Like what?” she asked with interest.

“Shoes, rugs, clothing . . . my razor.”

“Razor?” she squawked with alarm. “Was he all right?”

“It was a cordless electric razor,” G.G. said on a sigh. “He chewed off those little round blade things. Didn’t swallow any of the pieces, though, before I caught him.”

“Oh.” She relaxed a bit.

“He destroyed the razor though,” G.G. added with irritation. “I was pretty pissed.”

“I can imagine,” Ildaria murmured.

“Not as pissed as I was when he ate my passport, though,” he grumbled and bit viciously into his burger.

“Your passport?” she asked on a disbelieving laugh.

G.G. grimaced and nodded as he chewed, but once he’d swallowed, he added, “I was packing and it was lying on the bed next to my suitcase. I left the room, came back and he was chewing on it. He’d already managed to eat a corner of it, the one with the bar code.” Shaking his head with disgust, he added, “This was ten o’clock at night, the evening before I was supposed to fly back to London. I had to cancel the flight and arrange for a new passport. I was not a happy camper.”

“Oh, dear,” Ildaria murmured and then bit her lip to keep from laughing at the gloomy irritation on his face.

G.G. took another bite of his burger, chewed, swallowed and then said, “The worst, though, was the cashier’s check he demolished.”

“Cashier’s check?” she asked, her eyebrows rising.

G.G. nodded glumly. “A hundred thousand dollar cashier’s check. The down payment on this place when I bought it from Lucern. It was on the dresser in my hotel room. I had an hour before my meeting with Lucern and the lawyers, went to take a shower, came back out and he’d jumped on the chair next to the dresser, got a hold of the check and was curled up in the chair eating it like it was a dog bone.”

“Madre de Dios,” Ildaria breathed with horror.