Page 33 of Ice Cold Liar

She grimaced.“Pretty sure someone tried to kill me.You were probably collateral damage.If that’s any consolation.”

“It’s zero consolation.”

Naomi retreated a step.“I need to get changed.Actually, I need to shower and then get in bed.”Her hand stretched for her bag.

He caught her hand.The better to stop her from retreating any more.

Henry whined.

It was the first sound the dog had made since they’d entered the guesthouse.Eb spared him a glance.“You know I’m not going to hurt her.”

“Does he know that?”Naomi’s low question.“DoIknow that?”

Eb’s gaze jumped back to her.“You put me on your freaking hate list for the detective.”Right after he’d gone to all the trouble of trying to set up a cover of them being a couple.

“Didn’t realize I was supposed to lie about how you felt.”She rolled one shoulder.“Out of curiosity, just how much do you hate me?”A soft question.

He wasn’t answering that careful query.“You said you didn’t kill Hudson.”

“That’s not a response to my question.”She bit her lower lip.Tugged it between her teeth for just a moment.

“Why didn’t you fuck him on your wedding night?”

“Because I realized that I’d married a monster.”Naomi spoke as if that answer should have been obvious.“Some people are particularly adept at hiding a dark side.Hudson hid his until I was legally tied to him.Then, surprise, surprise…”

He frowned at her.

“Did you know that Hudson was born and raised in New Orleans?That he spent the first eighteen years of his life there?”

What in the hell did that have to do with anything?But, yes, he knew all of that.

“His grandparents lived in Baton Rouge.And after their death—since his parents were gone by that time—he inherited their property and fortune.I think that pissed off his cousin Jaxon, by the way.The fact that Hudson got everything and Jaxon wound up with nothing.Some might even say that was a motive for murder.But, hey, what do I know?I’m just the Wicked Widow.”

“Naomi.”

“Hudson moved here a few years ago.Well, I don’t know ifmoved hereis the right description.He sort of used the location as a home base as he went back and forth on all his super-secret missions.”

Eb wasn’t sure where she was leading him with this story.

“You ever heard of the Ice Breakers?”

Now he blinked.“Yeah.”He’d actually heard plenty about the Ice Breakers, and not just because they’d been in the news a lot lately.They were an online team.Came from all kinds of different backgrounds.They were former law enforcement, one was a reporter, another a bounty hunter.They were bankrolled by billionaire Archer Radcliffe, a man who had once been suspected of murder himself.Only the Ice Breakers had cleared him of that pesky suspicion.

Fun fact?Eb’s sister worked with the Ice Breakers.Marley was one of their new recruits.She loved working with the team.Their goal was to solve the coldest of crimes.To bring justice to the forgotten.Or so Marley had proudly told him at least three times.

“On my wedding day, a man named Memphis Camden came to see me.Said he was an Ice Breaker.”

His thumb stroked along her inner wrist.He felt her pulse jump.

“Don’t do that,” she chided immediately.

His thumb stilled.“Don’t like it?”

“I like it too much.I like it far too much when you touch me.”

Her honesty left him speechless.

“I don’t respond normally to you.It’s more like I’m in overdrive when we touch.It’s been a wild night, and I am hanging on by a thread.Push me too much—touch me too much—and I’m not real sure my control will last with you.”

---