“Early,” she said. “Four.”
He turned back to look at her. “Coffee?” he asked around a yawn.
She nodded, knowing she would not go back to sleep. “Yeah. Coffee.” She took a moment to glance at the closed bedroom door where Andrea and Lola were still asleep. She sighed, wishing she could go back in there and join them. But no. Coffee. Time to get to work.
Cameron went into the small office with two steaming cups of coffee. Rowan didn’t seem to notice her approach.
“You take it black, right?”
He looked up then and nodded. “I think I found him.”
Cameron’s eyebrows shot up as he took the coffee cup from her. “You think?”
“Five months ago, utilities were turned on in a rental house. Maria Joseph.”
“That means what?”
“Maria was his wife’s name. Joseph was his son.”
Cameron stared at him. “That’s it? That’s what you got?”
“I put in everything we know about Angel Figueroa. All the data that I have on him. This rental property is at the top of the list. I’m running a cross-check now, but Maria Joseph doesn’t appear to exist in the Taos area at all until five months ago.”
Cameron ran her hand through her hair. “I don’t know, Rowan. Seems a little improbable, doesn’t it?”
“I thought you didn’t believe in coincidence?”
She nodded. “You’re right. We need to check it out. Who owns the rental property?”
“It appears to be an individual. Margaret Torres. I’ve got her info.”
Cameron nodded. “Okay. I’ll call her. See who this Maria Joseph is.” She sighed. “At a reasonable hour, of course.” She took a sip of her coffee. “What else you got?”
He shook his head. “Nothing else that ranks as high.”
“Shooting in the dark,” she murmured.
“Needle in a haystack,” he countered.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Sam moaned quietly as Tori’s mouth moved lower. Tori nudged Sam’s legs apart with her knee as she captured a nipple between her lips. She had no idea what time it was, but Sam’s hands had been caressing, urging her to wake. When Sam had whispered “make love to me,” Tori had rolled them over, her own hands moving across Sam’s naked body.
“Yes…with your mouth,” Sam murmured.
Tori smiled against her breast, then moved lower still, her lips wetting a path along Sam’s stomach, pausing to nibble at the hollow of her hip, relishing the familiar taste of Sam’s skin. But Sam’s hands pushed her lower and Tori let Sam guide her. It was dark in the room, but Tori knew her way well.
She spread Sam’s legs even more, then buried her face between them, her moan mixing with Sam’s as her tongue snaked through her wetness. The past week had put a strain on their relationship but this…this, at least, felt normal. There was no manhunt for a killer, no FBI team, no strange hotel room. Not now. Now, there was only the two of them…making love.
Tori closed her mind to everything else as she drew Sam’s clit into her mouth. Sam jerked her hips against Tori’s head as her tongue flicked back and forth, just like she knew Sam loved.
“God…yes,” Sam breathed. “Don’t you dare stop.”
Tori had no intention of stopping, not even when her phone rang. Sam’s hands clutched her shoulders tightly and Tori ignored the offending sound of her phone, listening instead to Sam’s rapid breathing and quiet moans. But the phone didn’t stop. The ringing started again after only a moment of silence.
“Don’t even think about answering it,” Sam murmured.
But the ringing continued, and Tori nearly growled in frustration. She pulled away from Sam, reaching for her phone.
“It’s Cameron,” Tori said to Sam as she checked the phone. She rolled onto her back, her breathing as labored as Sam’s. “This better be important, Cameron, because your timing sucks,” she said bluntly.
Cameron laughed. “Sorry. I don’t even want to know what I interrupted. But Rowan has something. I’ve already called Reynolds.”
“Okay.” Tori sighed and glanced at Sam, who still had her eyes closed.
“You’ve got at least a half hour before Reynolds and Eric will come looking for you. That should give you enough time to finish whatever it was I interrupted,” Cameron teased. “And by the way, pick up breakfast on your way.”
“I hate you,” Tori muttered before she hung up.
Sam rolled her head toward her, a smile on her face. “You two are so much alike.”
“Like hell we are,” Tori said. Tori rolled toward Sam and pulled her close. “Now…shall we continue?”
Sam kissed her and nodded. “Please do.”
* * *
“McDonalds? You got McDonalds?”
“I didn’t pick the place,” Tori said as she bit into her breakfast sandwich. “Reynolds was driving.”
“Figures,” she said as she too took a bite.
“Can we get on with it?” Reynolds asked impatiently. “Rowan? What did you find?”
“Rental property,” he said, glancing at Cameron. “Cameron called the owner first thing this morning.”
Cameron nodded. “Yeah. Rowan found a rental house that had utilities turned on five months ago.”
“What does that prove?” Reynolds asked.
“Nothing, really,” she said. “The name was Maria Joseph.” She shrugged. “Could be anything.”
“His wife’s name was Maria,” Sam commented.
“Yeah. And Joseph was his son’s name.”
“I’m assuming this is more than a coincidence then?” Reynolds asked.
“I called the owner of the house,” Cameron said. “Nice lady. Very forthcoming with information. She said a man rented the place for his niece. She never met him. Did everything over the phone. He paid her six months’ rent in advance. Paid cash.”
“Still inconclusive,” Reynolds said.
Cameron glanced at Rowan. “Not really.”
“The man’s name was Charles McDaniel,” Rowan said.
“The name on the credit card,” Eric said, nodding. “Not a coincidence.”
“Wait a minute,” Tori said. “If he had this house all along, why the hell did he hide out at an abandoned property?”
“I don’t know,” Cameron said. “Maybe he was just trying to lay low for a while. This rental property is in a residential area. Since his face has been all over the news, maybe he didn’t want to take a chance on being seen.”
“Have you contacted Murdock? We should get the other agencies involved,” Reynolds said.
“No way,” Cameron said. “Do we want another incident like we had at the house?” She shook her head. “We do surveillance, we do a stakeout.”
“I think we should—”
“Reynolds, it’s a residential area. You get a hundred cops out there, what do you think is going to happen?”
“What does Murdock say?”
“He says it’s my call,” Cameron said. “It’ll be a goddamn bloodbath if we storm the place.”
“If we surround the house, give him no escape route, then—”
“Angel won’t go down without a fight,” she said.
“Then what do you suggest?”
Cameron glanced at Sam, then at Reynolds. “We need to take him out. Quietly. Not give him a chance to kill anyone else.”
“Make him the target?”
“Yes.”
Reynolds eyed her. “And you’ll do this?”
Cameron let out a deep breath. She’d long ago given up her role as a sniper. But when she’d spoken to Murdock earlier, they agreed that trying to take him by force would only result in more deaths. There had been enough killing. There was only one more person who would die. And that was Angel Figueroa. So she nodded, taking the time to look at each of them. Andrea acknowledged her decision with a subtle nod, and she was surprised that Sam did as well.
“Okay. Then what’s our plan?” he asked.
“We’ll do like we did at that old waterpark in Barstow. Go in after dark. Wireless earpieces and wrist mics again,” she said. “Rowan’s been working on it already.”