“You’re preaching to the choir, hon. We’re looking into everything, but he didn’t have any property. He was renting a small house in Algodones, but we searched it and the surrounding properties. The neighbors said they hadn’t seen him in a few days.”

“Where did he know her from?”

“He worked for my brother,” Agent Waters said. “Did a few side jobs around the house for them and watched the dogs when they were out of town.”

“He had access to everything.”

“Exactly.”

“Okay, then, what about your brother? Did he have any property that Ellix would have known about?”

“He had some land in Rio Rancho. They were going to build a new house, but there’s nothing out there.” When I didn’t say anything, he added, “I’ll get a patrol car out there immediately.”

“In the meantime,” I said, speaking mostly to Kit on this one, “I’ll do what I do and see what I can come up with.”

“And what is it you do?” Agent Waters asked.

“What I’m hired to do,” I said, being as vague as humanly possible. “We need everything you have on him.”

“Already en route,” she said.

“Oh, and Beep’s here.”

A long silence ensued and I let it all sink in. Women had been having babies for years, though. It was all the rage. Not sure why it was such a difficult thing for her to digest.

“Well, say hi for us,” Kit said.

“Okay.”

“Oh!” she shouted. “Beep. The Beep. Oh my gosh, Charley, congratulations. Are you here in Albuquerque?”

“Nope, still out here at the convent.”

“You had her there?” she asked, appalled.

“Yeah. In a well. It’s a long story.”

“Okay. Well, congratulations to you both.”

“Thanks. Get us those files.”

“They’ll be there in an hour.”

* * *

As soon as Cookie got up and got her hair under control, I set her to find out everything she could on our potential kidnapper. They found no evidence that he really took Faris, but I knew one way to find out for sure.

I had Denise take Beep to change her and lay her down for a nap. I was going fishing and she didn’t need to be around when I caught anything.

I walked into the office while Cook was making coffee. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and summoned Colton Ellix.

Nothing. Either I was losing my touch, or he’d already crossed. And if he was kidnapping girls, then I was pretty certain I knew which direction he went. But that was the problem. He’d crossed and I needed to know where Faris was. According to Rocket, she was still alive. I checked. But again, the good news was given with a dire warning. She wouldn’t be for long. That told me she was imprisoned where she was either going to suffocate or die of dehydration. Those were the most logical reasons for why she wouldn’t have long to live. He could have hurt her, however, and she could be lying somewhere with an infected wound.

There was simply no telling, but I wasn’t about to give up yet.

I took off in search of Osh. Only two beings on this earth knew my celestial name, and he was one of them.

I found him in the kitchen raiding the fridge. We still had a lot of food left over from the caterers and the cookout.

“No,” he said before I could even get a word out.

“But you haven’t heard—”

“No,” he said again, standing up with his arms full of leftovers. “And that’s final.”

“How do you even know I want something?”

“It’s how you walk. You have a determined walk, your footsteps harder, when you want something you know you can’t have. So, no.” He dumped his haul onto the countertop, since we no longer had a table, and went in search of a plate and utensils.

“It’s a really simple request.”

His shoulder-length black hair had been slicked back, still wet from a shower. It glistened almost as much as his dark bronze eyes. I’d never seen eyes quite that color before.

“Nothing is simple with you, love.”

Glancing around, afraid Reyes might be near, I stepped closer and pleaded. “It’s important.”

He took a plate out of the simple cabinets and turned to me. “It always is.”

“I need to know my name.”

He stilled, looked me up and down, then asked, “Why?”

“The man who most likely kidnapped my client’s niece,” I said, trying to get him to connect with Faris, let him know she had family who was worried about her, “died two days ago, and she is being held somewhere. We need to find her. She’s going to die soon if we don’t.”

Without breaking his mesmerizing gaze, he pulled a knife out of a drawer behind him. “No.” He took out two pieces of bread, preparing to make a BBQ sandwich while I struggled to come up with some leverage or a trade or something, anything, to get him to comply.

“You said when I learn my name I will understand so much more. I will have all my powers. Everything I am capable of in a few, tiny syllables.”

“And what would you do with that power?”

“I need to summon the guy from hell. I can’t do that right now. I need more … mojo.”

He shook his head as he took out some lettuce and tomatoes. On BBQ? Oh well, to each his own. At least he was eating a tad healthier than I did seven days out of the week.