Angel Fire

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.”

“What about surveillance?” Eric asked.

“I’ve put together a series of satellite images of the area,” Rowan said. “You can get familiar with it and decide how you want to stake it out. It’s an older neighborhood. One thing that probably made it appealing to him is that there are very few streetlights. None near the house.”

“We’ll need another car,” Cameron said. “I want three posts. I think we can cover several blocks and still be safe.” Cameron looked at Sam. “And I think you should stay here with Rowan.”

“No,” Sam said with a quick shake her head. “I understand this is an FBI mission, but I’m going with you. I’ll stay in the car like before, but I’m going.”

Cameron had figured that would be the case, but she thought she would suggest it anyway. So she nodded, then pointed at Eric. “I’ll leave it to you to get us another car.”

“You got it.” Eric paused. “Will we use the thermal imaging like we did in Barstow?”

“We’ll need to, yes. It’ll probably be the only way I get a clean shot,” she said. She glanced over at Tori, who had been exceptionally quiet, then to Sam. “I know this seems nothing like police work,” she said. “But we’ve been given the go-ahead to take Angel out. I’m not really crazy about it…but it is what it is.”

Sam met her gaze head on. “If you’re giving a disclaimer on my account, don’t bother. I know what the situation is.”

Cameron nodded. “Just so you know, we did toss around the idea of you negotiating with Angel.”

Sam gave her a half smile. “I don’t think that would make any difference.”

“No. Probably not.”