“So—” She cleared her throat, following me into the small kitchen area. “Are you going to stay here from now on?”
I shrugged again. “I collected all my stuff from the hotel. The guys who live here probably won’t be back for months, so I might stay.”
The truth was that I just hadn’t been able to stay at the hotel where Eden should have been living a few doors down. As soon as I’d walked into the lobby, it felt like my skin had shrunk and my heart had expanded. I hadn’t been able to breathe, and I’d needed to get out of there.
I’d grabbed my few belongings from my room with no place in mind to go to. After driving around for a while, I’d ended up back here.
Sofia took in the slightly flickering light in the kitchen, the yellowing countertops, and the lack of any personal appliances covering them, and sighed. “Do they keep any food here? I’m in the mood to cook and I can do it without any fancy equipment, but I will need actual ingredients.”
I took two glasses out of a cabinet and filled them with water from the faucet, then handed one over to her before motioning toward the pantry. “They might not have left much. We never used to leave much around. It was one of the reasons we decided to move out eventually.”
“Because you left no food in your pantry?” she asked as she squeezed between me and the counter. There was no judgment in her tone, which was something I had come to appreciate about her.
While she’d obviously never lived this life herself, she did have more of an understanding of it than most other women I’d been with. I moved out of her way, shrugging as I lifted my glass to my lips.
“Well, not the food necessarily. It just seemed like a waste to have a place when we weren’t there for months at a time. The guys who took this place over crashed here so often it was practically theirs even before we moved our clothes out of our closets to make space for theirs.”
The pantry door creaked when she opened it, sticking her head in to investigate the scraps left in it. “That makes sense. I’m assuming all of you rented this place with all the furniture already in it?”
I nodded. “It comes fully furnished. We’ve all added bits and pieces but not much.”
“I saw some pictures up on the wall near the TV as we passed the living room. Are those actual people you know in them or the models that came with the frame?”
Despite the absolutely shit day I’d had, I chuckled at her question. “They’re people we know. I think I might even be in one or two of them. Eden had a girlfriend once who decided the place needed some character.”
“Ah.” Sofia came out of the pantry with half a bag of pasta clutched in her hand. “Let me guess. She said photos were essential to character?”
“Yep.” I tipped my glass in her direction before taking a sip and swallowing. “She also chose the decorative pillows on the couches, if that means anything.”
The corners of her lips edged upward. “I wondered about those.”
“You noticed a lot of details for someone who hasn’t even been in that room yet,” I said. “Do you have any surveillance training I should know about?”
“Nah, not formally.” Placing the pasta down on the counter, she moved her lips from side to side before opening the freezer. “My father did raise me, though. You can’t be around a man like that and not pick up a thing or two.”
I nodded. “Makes sense. Especially not if you’re as smart as you are.”
Peering out at me from behind the white door, she shot me a look, but her cheeks were pink. “It has nothing to do with intelligence. Well, not of that kind anyway.”
I chuckled again, and she smiled a smug smile before her head disappeared behind the door again. “I get it. You meant it had to do with intelligence gathering and not the intelligence of the actual gatherer.”
When she emerged again, she reached into the freezer to extract a package with a few chicken breasts left in it. “Thank you for pointing it out, Captain Obvious.”
“You’re welcome.” Both of us were surprised when my lips spread into a grin. “What are you planning on cooking?”
She pushed her dainty nose into the air and sniffed, the corners of her lips pressing in. “I don’t know yet. I’m still gathering intelligence.”
“Ha ha,” I said dryly but then laughed quietly as I watched her pushing up on her toes to inspect the contents of the cabinet nearest to her. “Okay then. What else did you notice about the place so far?”
Pulling her head out of the cabinet to roll her eyes at me, she also handed a bottle of cinnamon over. “Check the expiration date on that for me, please? Cinnamon should be fine either way, but it would help to know.”
Before diving back in, she glanced down at the counter, tested it with her palms, and shrugged. Out of nowhere, she hopped onto it and flashed me a triumphant grin. “That should make it easier to see what’s all in there.”
“You could have just asked.” I pointed at my chest. “I do have a slight height benefit.”
“Slight?” She scoffed but smiled at the same time. “What are you, like, six foot twenty-seven?”
“Nope, not twenty-seven. Just four.”
“Still almost a whole foot taller than me,” she said in a sing-song voice before going back on her search. “Thanks for the offer, but I won’t know what I need until I see something I can use. I’m a visual person.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. Personally, I’m pretty sure I have the better visual right now.” The jeans she had on were tighter than any outfit I’d
