“Your new place doesn't count as a vacation home if you’re always there and always working,” Trudy informs me. Things change sometimes or don’t go as you thought they would. Normally I hate that, but this time I am enjoying the change.

I bought a cabin out in Winter Falls as a getaway. My own home back in the city has become overrun with my own damn company. There are people always coming and going. What had started as a small security firm has now turned into a hugely successful, ever-growing company.

“You’re the one that said I should get out of the office more,” I remind her.

Trudy has been my right hand since I opened Secure Assists years ago after I’d retired from the FBI. By retire, I mean I finally got out from under their thumb. I was seventeen when they’d gotten their hands on me after I’d hacked into a few of their so-called untouchable databases.

To a seventeen-year-old punk kid, it sounded like a challenge. I really didn’t have a choice in the matter, to be honest. It was either go to work for them or spend a big chunk of my young life in jail. I’d stayed working with them for five years. I’d learned a lot and made some good contacts along the way. I still do some freelance work for them. The only difference now is it costs them a fuck ton of money for my services.

“Do you ever plan to come back here? It’s almost Christmas,” Mick asks.

“No, he had me send a bunch of Christmas decorations out there.” Trudy answers for me.

“Christmas decorations? As in you're decorating?” I should be offended at the look of pure shock on his face, but I’m not. I was never one to decorate or even celebrate the holidays. To me, they were just another day. That was until I laid eyes on my little deputy.

“How about you two mind your own business?”

“You are my business.” Trudy pushes her glasses up her nose.

“If we’re done here,” I say as I close out their screens, ending the call.

I stand from my desk, heading into the entryway to inspect all the crap I’d requested and Trudy sent for me. In true Trudy fashion, she went above and beyond what I’d asked for. All the boxes fill up the whole entryway. I’m not sure what the hell I was thinking with this.

I’d gotten my cabin out in the middle of nowhere for solitude. Now here I am having my assistant send me a bunch of shit to try and attract someone's attention. Not just someone; I’m trying to lure Deputy Hudson with all of her holiday cheer.