Chapter Three

Angel cursed when he glanced at the security feed. “Have you had a break-in at your house before?” he couldn’t ask fast enough.

“No,” Mia said, equally fast while she kept her attention pinned to the footage coming in from her camera.

Then, this wasn’t a coincidence. Then again, he hadn’t thought it was. The big questions now were who the hell was breaking in and what did he want? Angel intended to find out the answer to both.

He studied the figure in the hoodie who was keeping his head down while he tried to jimmy the lock. He appeared to be firing glances all around as if making sure no one was watching. Either the camera was out of view so he couldn’t see it, or he was an idiot. A third possibility was that he was desperate.

But for what?

And just how was this connected to Kenton’s remains being found?

He glanced over at Mia as she used her tablet to contact the security company. They in turn would alert the cops to send someone out.

“Four twenty-two Mesquite Grove in Blanco Pass,” Angel said, repeating the address that he’d just heard her rattle off to Sentron Security.

She nodded. “I’ve lived there about four years now.”

Angel wasn’t familiar with that exact address, but he certainly knew the location of Blanco Pass. It was a small ranching town only about five miles from where he lived in Bandera Bluffs. Since he’d driven the route many times now, he knew it would take them about twenty minutes to get there. Fifteen if he drove like a bat out of hell.

Which he would do.

Thankfully once they were away from the outskirts of San Antonio, they’d be on rural roads with very little traffic.

“So, you opted for not living in the city,” Angel commented, starting the van and driving toward the interstate.

He also continued to glance at the tablet screen. And around them. But that was his default mode. He was always looking out for a shitstorm.

“You opted not to live in the city as well,” she muttered. “I looked up your address when I was trying to figure out where to find you. Then, I read the news report about the woman being arrested for kidnapping that teenage boy and your name was mentioned.”

Hell. He didn’t want that kind of publicity, but Angel also knew it was next to impossible to avoid it.

“So, I decided to go by Maverick Ops headquarters first to see if you were there,” she went on. “And I spotted your van.”

He frowned at her. “How did you know it was my van?”

Her gaze met his for a second. Plenty of time for him to see the answer in her eyes. She’d hacked the info. Angel might have snarled at that, but she was no longer looking at him. Her attention was back on the tablet screen.

“He’s leaving,” Mia blurted. “And I still can’t see his face.” The frustration was in her voice now.

“Danno, deploy the drone to 422 Mesquite Grove in Blanco Pass,” Angel instructed. “I want to know who’s at the house and if he leaves, monitor where he’s going. I need a license plate number of whatever vehicle he’s in and a picture of his face.”

“A drone,” Mia repeated. “Will it have to come from Maverick Ops headquarters?”

“No. From my house. It won’t take it but a couple of minutes to get there.” He tipped his head to the tablet. “Can you adjust the security cameras to get a view of your driveway?”

She shook her head. “And I don’t have any nearby neighbors I can call to have them look.”

Angel didn’t have neighbors within sight of his house either, but his two foster brothers and now co-workers were fairly close. He nixed the idea of calling Jace since Angel knew he was away on an assignment that was out of the country. But if Presley was back home from his lunch with the CSI, he could get to Mia’s faster than they could. So, Angel texted him the address.

Her tablet dinged again. “According to the security company, the ETA for a deputy arrival at my house is twenty minutes,” Mia relayed from the message she’d gotten. “The intruder will be gone by then,” she added in a whisper.

Probably, but with some luck, the drone might be able to get an image they could use.

An image that might link them to a killer.

It might not have occurred to Mia yet, but it likely soon would that if neither one of them had killed Kenton, then this could be a person who might want to try to cover his or her tracks. And those tracks could mean eliminating anyone who could possibly tie him or her to the murder.

So, had this SOB intruder gone to Mia’s to kill her?

That got his blood running hot. Along with causing him to mentally curse. He couldn’t let these intense protective feelings that he had for Mia cloud his head. As far as he was concerned, this was a mission. A personal one, yes. But he had to try to keep the personal out of it.

A text reply from Presley popped up on the dash monitor. “ Not home. In San Antonio. Will head to Mia’s now .”

Both Angel and she groaned. Neither Presley’s nor the deputy’s arrivals would likely be in time to catch this person. Mia and he, however, were on pace to get there in about six or seven minutes.

And that left Angel with a huge problem.

He could essentially be taking Mia directly into an attack. Because if this person had indeed come to her place to kill her, then the intruder could start shooting at them.

“The van is bullet resistant,” he told her. “But if something goes wrong, I want you to get down and stay put.”

Her eyes widened, and a soft burst of breath left her mouth. Yeah, she was quickly following the dots on how this could all end up playing out.

“Incoming drone feed,” Danno announced, breaking the thick silence that’d settled between Mia and him, and both of them glanced at the dash screen.

It was indeed the drone feed, but all Angel was seeing were trees and a narrow country road. Since Danno had programmed in the parameters for the search, the drone would no doubt soon get to the house.

And it did.

Angel volleyed his attention between the dash and the road, and the house soon came into view. It was positioned smack dab in front of that cluster of woods, and he was guessing from the pastures and fences, it’d once been a small ranch or farm.

Then, Angel spotted the vehicle.

A black truck was parked in the driveway.

He’d want the license plate numbers on that soon, but the drone would likely have to fly lower to get at the correct angle to do that. And, for now Angel had a different priority. He wanted a better look at the man in a hoodie who was peering through a window on the side of the house. That way, they’d know who they were up against.

“Danno, have the drone zoom in on the man’s face,” Angel instructed.

The would-be intruder helped with that by looking up in the sky. Probably because he’d heard the buzzing sound of the drone and had wanted to know what it was. He stared up, directly into the camera.

Both Mia and Angel cursed.

Because this was no stranger. Even after all these years, they could easily recognize the man in the hoodie.

RJ, their former foster father.

What the hell was he doing there? And Angel didn’t care much for the answer that came to mind. RJ and Melanie had been damn good foster parents, and he hated to think RJ was now out to cover his ass.

Mia seemed to relax a little. “RJ won’t try to hurt us,” she concluded.

Angel hoped she was right, but he wasn’t taking any chances. When he made the final turn toward Mia’s house, he went ahead and drew his gun. He wanted to be ready just in case.

Mia made a soft gasp, but she didn’t question him. In fact, she took out some pepper spray and a small pocket knife from her laptop bag. It was similar to the one she’d carried all those years ago. And that was a reminder for Angel that he still had her original pocketknife at his place and that he needed someone to pick it up for testing.

Not the cops.

Not yet.

But soon, it would have to be admitted into evidence in what would almost certainly turn out to be a murder investigation. Angel figured if Mia and he found the killer first, that would save them both a whole lot of headaches with the police.

Had they now found that killer?

Angel was about to find out.

He spotted the house just ahead, and he braked to a stop behind the black truck. RJ had obviously heard the approaching vehicle because he was now peering around the edge of the house. Angel took a moment to study the drone feed, and while he couldn’t see a gun or a knife, he saw something that could be used as a weapon.

A crowbar.

RJ had it gripped in his right hand.

“Stay put,” Angel told Mia, figuring he had a fifty-fifty chance of her actually doing that.

“Angel,” RJ said on a rise of breath.

He sounded relieved. Sounded . But Angel wasn’t taking that at face value.

“What are you doing here?” Angel demanded, and while he didn’t take aim at RJ, he did hold his gun so the man could see it.

RJ opened his mouth, closed it, and his forehead bunched up as he stepped away from the house. He glanced down at the crowbar and frantically shook his head.

“It’s not what you think,” RJ finally said.

“Good. Because I’m thinking you’re trying to break into Mia’s house, and if that’s the case, you should know the cops are on the way.”

That put some instant alarm in the man’s eyes, and he started toward them. “They can’t come. I don’t want them finding anything.”

Well, that was damn confusing, and Angel thought his own forehead might be bunched up in confusion. The expression didn’t last because something else happened to make Angel curse.

“Find what?” Mia asked, and, yeah, she was getting out of the van.

“I’m not sure. I got a note,” RJ said, reaching into his pocket.

That had Angel going on full alert, and this time, he did take aim at the man.

RJ sighed as if hurt by the move, but Angel would rather him have hurt feelings than to risk Mia being killed.

“I’m taking out the note so you can read it,” RJ went on, pulling it from his pocket while he continued to come closer.

Angel went closer, too, positioning himself so that he was between Mia and RJ. He took the note with his left hand so he could keep his gun ready, and Mia moved up behind him to read from over his shoulder.

“The cops will find the murder weapon in Mia’s house,” Angel read aloud. “If you don’t want her rotting in jail for Kenton’s murder, get it and destroy it.”

Angel turned the paper over to see if anything was written on the back. There wasn’t. “How did you get this?” Angel asked him.

“Someone left it on my doorstep about an hour ago,” RJ promptly explained. “I didn’t see who left it, but then I heard on the news that a body had been found, and I thought maybe, well, maybe Presley or you had put it there.”

“No, we didn’t,” Angel assured him and was still debating if he believed RJ or not when there was a sound that he damn sure didn’t want to hear.

A gunshot.

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