Page 24

Undeterred, she opens every other door on the first floor, pausing for a moment in the huge open plan living area that’s filled with every single luxury a person could ask for.

And then she heads for the stairs as I change camera views. Her modus operandi is the same, each door is opened, each room looked at. It doesn’t take her that long, it’s not a huge house. Just big enough.

When she stops at the last room along the hallway I lean forward, a strange itch forming on the back of my neck. It’s my bedroom. She pushes the handle and of course this one is open, and she disappears inside like she’s won the lottery.

I swipe to the next camera angle, catching her pulling open my walk in closet. I can see the open gape of her mouth as she takes it in. I asked my assistant to get me a second wardrobe for the island – I hate packing – and from the looks of it she’s done a good job.

Not that Eden pauses to take in the beauty that is a perfectly color-coded, pressed set of clothes worth more than fifty thousand dollars. No, she’s too busy rifling through the shelves.

She lifts one of my button-downs and sniffs it. I bark out a laugh because what was she expecting it to smell like? The thing is new.

But she still makes a face as she breathes it in, her pretty nose wrinkling.

“Jesus Christ,” I mutter. Of course she’d snoop. I have a feeling she’ll invade every boundary I’ve built in my life if I let her.

Before I can keep watching my phone buzzes. Hudson’s name flashes on the screen.

I hit answer and lean back in the seat, dragging a hand across the back of my neck like I hadn’t been watching my brand new wife performing a personal audit of my clothes.

“Hey.”

“Hi,” he says. “You in the air?”

I glance at my watch. “Starting to descend now. I should be on the island within a couple of hours.”

There’s a beat of silence. “Thanks for getting Eden home. It means a lot.” The way he says it, so genuinely, makes my chest tight.

“It’s what friends do,” I say casually, ignoring the guilt that I’ve been feeling way too often in the last few days. I don’t like it. “She needed a new start and Liberty is where you want her to be.”

“Autumn told me you gave Eden a job.”

I love Autumn, but she has a big mouth. And sometimes I use it to do my dirty work. “Yeah, I mean it’s not critical to the project, but I thought she…”

“It’s genius. It’ll give her a reason to stay and I’m all for that. I like her being close. Where I can keep an eye on her.”

Yeah, ditto.

I glance down at my tablet. Eden has flopped back on my bed like she owns it. She’s got one arm over her eyes and a frown carved into her mouth like the weight of the world lives there.

“You always come through for me, man,” Hudson says, his voice warm. Grateful. And it hits me harder than I expect. “Don’t think I don’t see that.”

My gut tightens. I’d do anything for Hudson. Apart from tell him the truth, obviously. He doesn’t need to know. He’ll just worry. And I’ve got it covered.

“I do what needs to be done.”

“Yeah, well I appreciate it. Even if sometimes I don’t want to know the details.”

Touché. So, fucking touché.

He ends the call before the guilt hits me again. I glance back at the security feed right as Eden pulls open the top drawer of my nightstand.

I hit a button and lean into the microphone.

“Eden, there are security cameras in every room. I can see exactly what you’re doing.”

She jumps off the bed like she’s been electrocuted.

And I’m still laughing when the wheels touch down on the tarmac.