Sensual Confessions - Brenda Jackson [99]
“Handling my parents won’t be easy, Blade. Maybe I should go,” Sam said, easing off the bed.
“No, you should lie down awhile longer. I wish you’d let me call the doctor. Are you sure you’re okay?”
Sam took a deep breath. She had no recollection of ever fainting before, even when she’d been told about Vivian. “I’m fine, really. But maybe you’re right. I should rest up to deal with my parents later. And Blade, I know everything that Alex said about FDR makes it look bad, and I know this might sound crazy, but I still refuse to believe he did it.”
Blade pulled her into his arms. “There’s nothing wrong with not wanting to believe the worst about someone you care deeply about, sweetheart.”
“But that’s just it, Blade. I don’t believe the worst in FDR. No matter what evidence there is stacked against him. He would not want me dead. I just won’t believe it.”
As he drove to the law offices of Madaris, Di Meglio and Mahoney, Luke glanced toward the backseat of his truck. “You’re quiet, Alex.”
Alex looked up from his mini laptop. “I’m just checking out a few things. I’ve learned from prior cases that it’s not over till the fat lady sings, and for some reason she hasn’t taken center stage with this one yet.”
Blade, who was sitting up front in the passenger seat, turned around. “Are you beginning to think that it’s not Rowe?” he asked.
Alex shrugged. “I’m beginning to think we need to get him in and question him as soon as possible. I called Detective Adams and asked that he bring him to the law firm instead of picking him up and taking him down to headquarters. That way we’ll have him and Priscilla Gaines there together. I met Ms. Gaines last year while handling that case for Mac, and she genuinely seemed to care for Mac, Sam and Peyton. She was almost overprotective of them. I can’t see her wanting to hurt one of them.”
“Not even for love?” Blade asked. “If she thinks she’s fallen in love with Rowe and he’s convinced her that he has a legitimate gripe with Sam, then she would possibly go along with anything he has planned—including murder.”
“Yes, but…” Alex shook his head. “Even with a motive of revenge on Rowe’s part, why lash out at Sam when he was there working at the firm every day with the very man who had put his father behind bars? Why not lash out at Antonio Di Meglio, Sam’s mother or her brother?”
Alex didn’t say anything for a moment. “There is something I need to check out. I can feel it,” he said, looking back at his laptop.
Luke and Blade didn’t say anything. They’d known Alex long enough to know that he wouldn’t leave any stone unturned in this investigation, and that if someone other than Rowe was involved, Alex would uncover it.
Blade didn’t know what to expect upon meeting Sam’s parents, but it hadn’t been a slightly older version of Clayton and Syneda. In their early fifties, the two were dynamic together.
Sam’s mother, who looked like an older version of Sam, was simply beautiful, gorgeous in her own right. And her father was tall, dark and dashingly handsome. Blade would bet any money that the man had been a rogue in his day. And with his striking looks, Blade would also bet he had been a heartbreaker. Like his daughter, he had sharp eyes, and also like his daughter, an even sharper tongue.
Antonio and Kayla Di Meglio lit into him the moment he walked into Mac’s office, and began questioning him as if he was on the witness stand. Who was he to their daughter? Where was she? Who would want to hurt her? And what steps were being taken to assure her safety?
He was grateful that, like Sam, Mac had a large office, big enough to accommodate the eight people crowded into it. He decided not to beat around the bush, and to let Sam’s parents know his role in their daughter’s life.
“I’m Blade Madaris, the man who’s going to marry Samari,” he said, shocking everyone in the room.
“Marry her?” Sam’s father said, with an expression indicating he was stunned, as well. “I just saw my