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“Right. I forgot.” Bryce straightened. “Did Jacob know you were going to be out of town?”

“Yes. I even mentioned the exact dates I’d be gone.” Livia clenched her hands into tight fists, feeling like an idiot. “I asked him to come down and join me for lunch if he had the chance. I might as well have invited him to break into my home and steal me blind while I was gone.”

Bryce frowned. “But when he was in your house before, he didn’t try to steal anything, did he?”

“I don’t think so,” Livia conceded. “And he’d been here often enough to know that I didn’t have anything of value except for my computer and a television that’s at least five years old.”

“You said you saw him searching through the dresser in your bedroom.”

“I’ll show you.”

Livia shut down the computer and headed out of the office and into the bedroom across the hallway. She ignored the unmade bed and stacks of laundry that needed to be put away as she headed for the low dresser shoved against the far wall. Bryce wasn’t here to inspect her housekeeping skills.

Opening the top drawers, she stepped back so Bryce could see inside. “Look for yourself. It wouldn’t take long to realize there’s nothing in there.”

Bryce pushed aside the nightgowns and lingerie, before shaking her head in confusion. “Do you ever have cash laying around from your agency?”

“Never. It’s all electronic transfers. And I never personally have any money here. It’s easier to use my credit card.” Livia glanced around the bedroom. She loved the sense of coziness in the small space, but anyone hoping for a quick score would be disappointed. There were no hidden safes, no locked drawers, no jewelry boxes. Nothing but clothes, shoes, and files from the office. “Besides, he’s supposed to be a private investigator, not a thief.”

“He could be both,” Bryce said, holding up her hand as Livia’s lips parted to protest. “I know, I’m reaching.” Her hand abruptly dropped and her eyes widened. “Wait.”

“What is it?”

“I just thought of something.” Bryce planted her hands on her hips, her brow furrowed. “If I’d been hired to spy on you, I wouldn’t depend on the limited amount of time I could spend in your company. The best way to find out whatever information I was hired to get would be to plant a camera or a listening device in the house. Maybe both.”

“You’re right.” Livia thought back to Jacob’s ready agreement to stay in during the evenings rather than go to a fancy restaurant. And his insistence that he wanted to make her dinner and have it ready for her when she came home. God, she’d been such a sap. He could have told her any lie and she would have swallowed it without question. “That could be the reason he wanted the key. So he could come in and set up his spy stuff.”

Bryce’s lips twitched at Livia’s less than technical terms. “And maybe whoever hired him wasn’t happy with his intrusive methods,” she added. “That’s why he was annoyed when he came into your house and discovered Jacob in your bedroom hiding his camera.”

It made sense. It would explain why Jacob had manufactured their relationship and why he’d been in such a hurry to get the key to her house. And even why he’d disappeared. Maybe whoever had hired him had decided he didn’t like Larry Sutton’s method of investigation and run him out of town.

“But why come back last night?”

“He could have left something behind,” Bryce suggested. “Spy stuff is expensive.”

“Okay. Let’s look around.”

Livia headed for her closet, trying not to dwell on the possibility that she’d been on camera during her most private moments. Was anything more intrusive than spying on her walking around naked or dancing to her favorite music? Or even while she was sleeping. God, it gave her the creeps. Shoving aside her clothes, Livia ran her hands inside the closet before doing the same around the trim. Then she moved to the windows before tossing aside the stacks of laundry she needed to put away, and even shoving aside her neglected treadmill to do a full inspection of the wall. Behind her, Bryce was doing the same.

At last she conceded defeat. “If there’s a camera here, he hid it too good for me to find,” she told her friend.

“Agreed.” Bryce closed the dresser drawers and straightened. “Do you need anything while we’re here?”

“Everything.” The word burst from Livia’s mouth, a sense of dread crawling down her spine. “I don’t want to go back to the Willows.” She shook her head, pressing her hand against her stomach. The knot was back in full force. “I should be grateful to be away from this house where two men have been sneaking around spying on me, but I’d rather be here than at the family mansion. How sad is that?”

Bryce moved to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’s just for a few more days, and then you’ll be done with your obligatory visit. By then we’ll have tracked down Larry Sutton and warned him what will happen to him if he steps foot on your property again.”

Livia struggled to cling to her friend’s assurances. “Okay.”

Together they left the house, pausing to lock the door before climbing into Bryce’s SUV and backing out of the driveway.

“One good thing is that if it really was Sutton trying to sneak into your house last night, we know he’s still in New Orleans,” Bryce pointed out. “That will make it a lot easier to track him down.”

Bryce shivered.” It can’t be soon enough for me.”

“I know.”

They had reached the corner of the block when Livia remembered she had another reason for wanting to return to New Orleans.