fingers into the pockets of my jeans and lifted my shoulders. “Eden and I used to live here. Friends of ours took it over during one of our deployments, but they’re away at the moment. I still had keys and we have a standing invitation to stay here whenever we want.”
She looked around, frowning when she realized we were alone. “Where is Eden?”
“Not here,” I said curtly. “You want something to drink? There are a few beers in the fridge, or water.”
“Water’s fine. Thank you.” Concern flickered in her gaze again when she watched me move past her and into the kitchen. I heard her exhaling a deep breath, knowing that she was trying to keep from asking about where Eden was.
I couldn’t tell her, though. Not only because I didn’t want to and couldn’t legally talk about it, but also because I didn’t think I’d be able to say the words out loud. The guy had been right there by my side for so many years that he really had become a brother to me. Knowing that he was hurt and acknowledging it out loud? Yeah, no.
“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