Sam glanced around at all the people gathered in Jake Madaris"s office. She had a.s.sumed that only she, Blade and Alex would be there, and was surprised when she walked in and found others waiting.
When Alex Maxwell saw the obviously confused expression on her face, he explained, "I"m going to do everything I can to find out who sent you those flowers, Sam. But these other folks are sort of my backup just in case things get crazy, like they did with Mac last year. Besides, I"d like them to hear everything in case they latch onto something that I might miss."
Sam smiled. She"d heard all about Alex Maxwell and his ability to solve cases, so she doubted he would miss anything. And then, glancing around the room, she realized she knew about four of the others, as well. They were former members of the U. S. Marines recon forces. And two of them were former CIA agents.
"I"m sure you know everyone, but I"d like to reintroduce everybody anyway," Alex said.
"All right."
"First is Ashton Sinclair."
She smiled and then walked straight over into Ashton"s outstretched arms. She knew Ashton very well, since he was Mac"s cousin.
Ashton glanced down at her with a grin on his face. "Have you been behaving yourself?"
She smiled. "Trying to."
A serious expression then appeared on Ashton"s face. "Alex will find the person responsible. In the meantime take every precaution."
She nodded. "I will." She smiled widely. "I understand congratulations are in order for you and Nettie."
He laughed. "Yes, we"re having a girl. Nettie and I are ecstatic and the boys are excited," he said of his sons, six-year-old triplets-Hunter, Wolf and Brody.
She was introduced to Drake Warren and his wife, Tori. They were former CIA agents. She gave them hugs, as well. "And how is the newest member of the Warren family?" she couldn"t help asking.
The couple beamed proudly. "Dior is doing marvelous and is giving her big brothers a lot of grief already," Tori said of their two other children, sons Deke and Devin, ages five and three respectively. "She"ll be celebrating her first birthday soon."
Sam then met Trevor Grant, another former marine and close friend of the Madaris family. She knew from talking to Blade that Reese would be replacing Trevor as foreman of Madaris Explorations, a company owned by Blade"s cousin Dex. Trevor wanted to pursue his dream of opening a tactical operations facility, and Drake and Ashton would be partners in the business venture.
"And how is your family, Trevor?" she asked. She remembered meeting Trevor"s wife, Corinthians, and their two children, a seven-year-old son named Rio and a five-year-old daughter named Phoenix.
"Everyone is doing fine," Trevor said, smiling. "Thanks for asking."
Sam thought that all of them-Alex, Ashton, Drake and Trevor-were definitely handsome men, and Tori was certainly a beauty. And it was obvious that she was adored and loved by Drake.
"Now that we all know each other," Alex said, grinning, "we can get down to business. I want you to sit next to Blade, Sam, while I ask you some questions."
"Sure," she said, easing down beside Blade on the love seat. She smiled when he took her hand in his, tucking it into his lap.
"Now then," Alex started. "I understand you were questioned by Detective Adams, who I worked with to solve the Coroni case, so I got to know him pretty well. He"s an intelligent man who"s good at what he does, so I"m sure he"s probably asked some of the same questions I"m about to ask. However, I might want you to elaborate some more in your answers. That will help me in my investigation."
"All right."
He paused for a second. "Now, I need the names of all the men you"ve been a.s.sociated with. Since your secret admirer claims to be an old friend, you need to go back as far as you can, even during your college days. So let"s start there."
Sam shifted to a more comfortable position in the love seat, but Blade held tight to her hand. "I didn"t date a lot in college, especially after what happened my first year at Yale."
"What happened?" Tori asked.
Sam glanced across the room and met Tori"s gaze. "My roommate, Vivian Randall, committed suicide in our dorm room. I was away in cla.s.s at the time."
"And why did she kill herself?" Ashton asked.
She noticed that, like Detective Adams, Alex was jotting down information on a notepad. "She had met this guy at school, Tyrell Graham, and he convinced her that he was madly in love with her. She found out differently when a video of them making love showed up on the Internet. She questioned him about it and he brushed her off, admitted to putting it out there and laughed in her face about it. She came back to our dorm room and overdosed on some of my pills."
"Your pills?" Trevor asked, lifting a brow.
"Yes. The doctor had prescribed them for my migraine headaches and she took them." Sam lowered her head as if the memory was almost too much for her.
Blade tightened his grip on her hand. He"d known about her roommate committing suicide, but hadn"t known the woman had used Sam"s prescription to do so. No wonder she still felt guilty after all these years.
The room was silent for a moment. "Evidently you were upset about the entire incident. Did you ever confront Tyrell Graham about his part in your roommate"s death?" Sir Drake said.
Sam"s eyes blazed with fire. "Yes, of course. He didn"t have any remorse."
"And what did you do?" Ashton asked, figuring she would have retaliated.
"Nothing at the time. I was too upset about it. Before the semester was over I had changed universities and returned home to New York and attended NYU. But I did run into Tyrell a few years later."
"How long ago was that?" Tori asked.
"Three years ago. I was invited to be one of the judges in a bodybuilding contest he was entered in. There were five judges, but of course he thought it was my fault that he didn"t win."
"And was was it your fault that he didn"t win, Sam?" Blade asked, looking at her as if he knew she"d had something to do with the outcome. it your fault that he didn"t win, Sam?" Blade asked, looking at her as if he knew she"d had something to do with the outcome.
She smiled at him. "Well, I did mention what he"d done to my G.o.dfather, who happened to be one of the major sponsors of the event."
Alex chuckled, reading between the lines. "Did Graham threaten you?"
"No, but I could tell he was mad. Not only did he lose the compet.i.tion, but he was banned from every contest my G.o.dfather sponsored."
"You do know that if he was a career bodybuilder, one who spent hours and hours working out to compete, what you did could have ruined him for life," Trevor pointed out.
She pressed her lips together a second before saying, "Then I guess that was unfortunate for him. I had no pity for him, like he had no pity for Vivian."
Alex cleared his throat. "Okay, moving on. You said you didn"t date seriously during college. What about later, in law school?"
She shook her head. "No, I didn"t date seriously then, either. I met the man I thought I would marry a few years ago, not long after I finished law school and went to work at my family law firm. Guy Carrington was an a.s.sociate attorney there. We became engaged and planned to marry."
"What happened?" Drake asked.
Sam didn"t say anything for a moment. "On the day of the wedding, in the middle of the ceremony, two women showed up claiming Guy was the father of their children and that he was still seeing them both. One of the women was pregnant again."
"Have you heard from Carrington?" Alex asked.
"Not since he contacted my family"s firm for a reference and I found out about it."
"And what did you do?" Ashton asked.
She smiled. "My parents were out of the office and the paperwork came across one of my uncle"s desks. He pa.s.sed it on to me. Of course I gave Guy a glowing recommendation."
The look in her eyes said it all. They could just imagine just how glowing the recommendation was. h.e.l.l knows no fury like a woman scorned.
"So there"s a chance you"re not one of Carrington"s favorite people," Trevor said, trying to hide his smile.
"No, but then he"s not one of mine."
"When was the last time you saw him?" Tori asked.
"The day of the wedding."
The room got quiet again. "How about telling what happened after your broken engagement, about the men you dated and why you dated them," said Blade.
Sam shifted her gaze from him to the other five pairs of eyes focused on her. "After Guy, I was on a mission to make men pay. So I decided to get even and became a bona fide player hater."
Alex lifted a brow. "A player hater?"
"Yes."
Five pairs of eyes shifted from Sam to Blade. He returned their stares with a shrug.
Alex cleared his throat and returned his gaze to Sam. "So as a player hater, what exactly did you do?"
"The usual."
Sir Drake, who had been leaning against the edge of Jake"s desk, asked, "What"s the usual?"
Sam smiled. "I would lead them on, convince them I was interested in them and that I was easy. I would build up their s.e.xual expectations and when the time came for me to deliver, I didn"t."
"You deliberately set them up? Strung them along? Teased them?" Trevor asked incredulously.
"Yes," she responded proudly. "I played them."
Trevor shook his head. "I"m sure a number of them must have been angry, even have threatened your life," he said.
"Yes, they did."
"Didn"t you take any of them seriously?" Alex asked.
"No. I figured they would eventually get over it. I just wanted to show them that two could play their games."
"What about that guy a few years ago, Sam?" Ashton asked. "Mac mentioned that some guy was arrested and served time for trying to exact revenge on you."
"Someone tried to get even?" Blade asked.
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, Belton LaSalle. I met him the first year I moved to Oklahoma. He believed that he was G.o.d"s gift to women."
Five pairs of eyes sought Blade out again. This time he smiled.
"Anyway," Sam said, "I thought he needed to be taught a lesson. I must have seriously p.i.s.sed him off. About a week or two later, he called and invited me out, claiming he just wanted to apologize and show me that there were no hard feelings."
She shifted in her seat and noticed the she had everyone"s attention. "Mac and Peyton didn"t trust him and suggested that I meet him in a public place. I picked a well-known restaurant downtown, but I didn"t know that Mac still had misgivings about him. She and Peyton had made reservations at the same restaurant and got a table not far from ours."
She drew in a deep breath. "To make a long story short, when my back was turned, Belton slipped a date-rape drug into my drink."
"The b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" said Alex, to everyone"s surprise.
Blade and the others understood Alex"s outburst had to do with a situation involving Christy a few years ago.
"Lucky for me, Mac and Peyton saw the whole thing before I drank anything. They called the police, and Belton was arrested and sent to prison. He was given four years, but only served two."
"So you know for a fact that he"s out of prison now?" Ashton said.
"He"s supposed to be. I got a letter from the parole board a few years ago saying he was being released two years early for good behavior."
"Have you seen him or has he tried contacting you in any way?" Drake asked.
"No, the last time I saw him was in court-the day he was sentenced."
"Okay, what about male friends?" said Alex.
"There"s only Frederick."
"Frederick?" Ashton asked.
"Yes, Frederick Damon Rowe. We call him FDR. We started working at my family"s law firm on the same day and became best friends."
"When was the last time you saw him?" Alex asked.
"I saw him when I was home visiting my family about three weeks ago. He calls periodically to check up on me, and even comes to visit me. However, he"s been busy lately and hasn"t had a chance to get away," Sam said.
"Are there any other names that come to mind-male or female-that you feel I should check out?" Alex asked.
Sam shook her head. "No, I can"t think of anyone."
"What about cases you"ve handled? Anyone that you"ve really p.i.s.sed off?"
She shrugged. "There"s always one or two, but none that I think would want to retaliate."
Alex smiled. "Share the names with me and let me be the judge of that. And I would like a list of the names of all your employees." He closed his notepad. "How soon can I get it?"
"I can fax that information to you when I return to the office Monday," Sam said.
"Good. I have some free time between a.s.signments. I should have some information for you in a couple of weeks."
"That soon?" she asked.
Alex smiled. "Yes. I have contacts, and usually they"re not only efficient, they"re fast."