Sam skipped through her morning routine with far more energy than she should have had. Multiple orgasms had multiple benefits. Who knew? With one last glance at Nick sleeping on his belly, she went downstairs in desperate need of a soda. As the first blessed mouthful cruised through her system, she realized she had no way to get to HQ.

Laughing softly, she called Freddie and asked him to pick her up. Since her dad wasn’t up yet, she decided to wait for Freddie on the front porch. She surveyed the quiet street, wondering if Peter was out there somewhere watching her and waiting for his next opportunity. They would’ve called her if they’d found him, so she knew it was possible he was watching her.

“Come and get me, you bastard. You won’t catch me off guard a second time.”

As she took another long drink of soda, Freddie’s battered Mustang came around the corner with a loud backfire.

“Gonna wake up the whole freaking neighborhood,” she grumbled.

He pulled up to the house and leaned over to unlock the passenger door.

“Do I need a tetanus shot before I ride in this thing?”

“What’s that they say about beggars and choosers?”

She battled with the seatbelt. “I’ve got to requisition a new ride.”

“I’ll take care of that for you, boss.” He offered her one of the powdered donuts from the package on his lap.

With a scowl, she took one and turned so she could see him. “You’ve done some good work on this case, Cruz. Damn good.”

His face lit up with pleasure. “Thanks. So after I got home last night, I was kinda wired and couldn’t sleep, ya know?”

“Uh huh.” Her face flushed when she thought of how she’d worked off her own tension.

“I got to thinking that maybe there’s some sort of connection besides the sexual kind between O’Connor and one of our people of interest.”

“What kind of connection?”

“A domestic—cook, caterer, cleaning lady, gardener.”

“Possible. Where you going with it?”

“I know this is way out there, but what if one of the domestics found out about the kid, Thomas, and told someone who’d be infuriated by it?”

“Worth looking into.”

“You think?”

“When are you going to start having some faith in yourself and your instincts?”

“I don’t know. Soon. I hope.”

“So do I, because you’re starting to piss me off.”

“You know what pisses me off?” He took his eyes off the road long enough to glance at her. “Your scumbag ex-husband. He pisses me off.”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Me, too.”

“It’s all over the papers.”

“I knew it would be.”

“I have it there. In the backseat if you wanted to…”

Her stomach twisted in protest. “That’s all right. Thanks.”