Luke glanced up at Blade when he reentered the room. "How is she?"
"I think she"s in shock. I know for a fact she"s still in denial." He glanced over at Alex. "Even after all you"ve told her, she still wants to believe FDR isn"t a suspect."
Alex nodded in understanding. "It"s hard to comprehend that someone you trust has betrayed you."
"Betrayed, h.e.l.l!" Blade stormed, his anger escalating. "The man tried to kill her. Blow her up. What kind of d.a.m.n friend is that?"
"Calm down, Blade," Luke said.
"I won"t calm down until Rowe is put in jail and the keys are thrown away. But not before I kick his-"
The sound of Luke"s cell phone ringing drowned out Blade"s words, and Luke was glad. He"d never seen Blade this angry before about anything, and definitely not over a woman. He saw the caller was Mac. "h.e.l.lo, sweetheart."
"We have trouble," Mac said, almost whispering into the phone.
Luke stood. "Why? What"s up?"
"Sam"s parents are here. They arrived this morning and want to know where she is, and have threatened to turn this city upside down until they find her. When they first got to town they went straight to her town house, and someone at the security gate told them about the bomb."
Luke ran his hands down his face. He had met Sam"s parents before. They could be a force to deal with when it came to their children. "Hold on a minute, Mac." He then relayed to Blade and Alex what Mac had told him.
Blade released a curse. "Great! That"s all we need."
"Yes, but at least we got our prime suspect under surveillance, and I"m going to contact Detective Adams to pick him up from the hotel and bring him in for questioning."
"And I want to be there when you do," Blade almost growled.
Alex rolled his eyes. "I don"t think that"s a good idea."
Blade met his friend"s gaze. "My woman was almost killed, Alex. There"s no way I"m not going to be there when Rowe is brought in."
Alex pulled in a deep breath of air, then pushed it out. "Fine, but I wouldn"t suggest that Sam be there. Are you going to leave her here alone?"
"d.a.m.n," Blade uttered. He"d forgotten about that.
"Two of Jake"s men are parked outside," Luke said. "I had them follow us to make sure we weren"t followed by anyone. I can leave them here to keep an eye on things until we get back."
Blade nodded. He knew all of Jake"s men, since most of them had worked for his uncle for years. Since Jake and Mac were partners in a land-grazing deal, Jake"s men rotated periodically to stay with the herd. They were men who could be trusted.
"That"s a good idea," Blade said. "I"d feel better about leaving her, knowing they"re here. Let me go check on Sam again. I want to tell her our plans and also tell her that her parents are in town."
"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 pa.s.senger 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 a.s.sure 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 daughter a few weeks ago and she never said anything about being serious about anyone."
"We became involved after she returned," Blade said. "Just believe me when I say that I love Sam, she loves me, and when all this is over, I am marrying her."
"And what about babies?" Kayla Di Meglio quickly asked. "You do want children one day, right?"
"Yes," Blade said with a serious expression on his face. "We will have lots of children." He thought about the text message he"d received from Slade that morning, saying their great-grandmother had dreamed about fish yet again. What was this for her, a bonus year? That made him wonder.
"And as far as where Sam is," he continued, "she"s in a safe location for now, until we discover who sent that bomb yesterday. I hired a family friend, Alex Maxwell, to investigate and-"
"Alex Maxwell?" Sam"s father interrupted, glancing across the room at Alex, who was sitting alone in a corner, working on his laptop.
Alex glanced up. "Yes?"
"I"ve heard of you," Sam"s father said. "Your name and reputation precede you-admirably, I might add."
Alex nodded. "Thank you." He then turned his attention to whatever was on his computer screen.
Antonio turned his attention back to Blade. "Do you have any idea who would want to hurt my daughter?"
"Yes. Our prime suspect right now is a man who works for you, and we believe his accomplice is someone who works here for this firm."
Shock showed on Sam"s parents" faces. "Who?"
"Frederick Rowe."
"Frederick?" Sam"s father said in disbelief. "That"s absurd. My wife and I wouldn"t believe Frederick any more capable of hurting Sam than her own brother would."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mr. Di Meglio," a deep voice said from the doorway. "Especially since it seems I might be in need of an attorney, if I don"t decide to represent myself."
Everyone turned toward the door, where a man Blade figured to be Frederick Rowe stood flanked by Detective Adams on one side and a police officer on the other.
Sam was sitting at a table drinking a cup of coffee and awaiting word from Blade. She hoped that he believed her when she said that there was no way that FDR was involved.
She nearly jumped when there was a knock at the door and wondered if it was the cleaning lady, come to straighten up the villa. As Sam walked to the door to look out the peephole, she tried to stop her heart from racing upon remembering that two of Jake"s men were stationed outside in the parking lot.
She was surprised to see the person standing on the other side. She took the chain off the door and opened it. "Frank? What are you doing here?"
The man who"d worked as a security guard at their law firm for the past year flashed a friendly smile. "Mr. Madaris asked me to come and get you. Something has come up and they need you at the office."
Sam nodded. Evidently her parents were out of control and giving everybody grief. "Okay, let me grab my purse. I thought you were still out of town, skiing in Colorado," she said, rushing over to the table to get her purse and slip into her shoes.
"I returned to town early and they called me to come in when Rita phoned in sick this morning."
"Oh."
Sam picked up her purse, turned around and smiled at him. "Okay, I"m ready to go."
Antonio Di Meglio glanced over at Blade. "Why did you think Frederick had anything to do with this threat against Sam?"
"Motive."
"And what motive is that?" Kayla Di Meglio asked, pushing her hair away from her face, a habit her daughter had evidently inherited.
"Revenge. Do you know who his father is?" Blade asked.
Antonio Di Meglio nodded. "Yes. A man I sent to prison when Frederick was no more than ten years old. My wife and I kept up with Frederick, who was sent to live with his grandmother when his father was put away. His mother was killed driving the getaway car. It was a bank robbery, planned by Alvin Quincy and his girlfriend, in which three innocent people were killed."
Frederick continued the story. "The Di Meglios were there for me when I was growing up. Not that they had to be, but because they are good people. And when I got older and expressed an interest in law, they provided me with money for law school and made sure I had a job afterward."
Blade nodded. "Sam didn"t know." It was a statement more than a question.
"We never told Sam," Kayla Di Meglio said. "We felt that if and when Frederick wanted her to know, he would tell her."
"Eventually, I would have told her," Frederick said. "In the beginning it was important that she accepted me and got to know the man I am. Then, after a while, when she did accept me for who I was, it didn"t matter. So, no, she didn"t know."
"Even when she found out about your relationship to Quincy and about all your trips to Oklahoma that she didn"t know about, she still believed you were innocent," Blade said.
"And the reason he didn"t tell anyone about those visits was mainly because of me," Priscilla said, as she nervously entered the office.
She moved over to Frederick"s side. "We fell in love, but I wasn"t ready for anyone to know I was involved with a younger man. And I made him promise not to tell anyone."
Mac leaned back in her chair. "So, we still don"t know who sent that bomb."
"Yes, we do." Alex, who"d been quietly working at his laptop, suddenly jumped up. "d.a.m.n. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d covered his tracks well."
He looked up, saw everyone staring at him and decided to explain. "According to the statement received from the FedEx driver, he"d made deliveries in Sam"s complex that day, but he didn"t leave one for Sam, which meant it had to be personally delivered. I asked the security company for Sam"s complex to provide me with the names of all their employees, regardless of whether they were working that day or not. I just compared that list to the list of employees Sam sent me, of who works here, including your security staff. I saw a number of them work at both places."
Mac nodded. "That can be explained. When Sam, Peyton and I decided to hire security service here, Sam recommended that we use the same company that was being used in her gated community. They had a good reputation."
"Yes, but one of their employees is someone we need to question immediately," Alex said.
"Who?" Blade asked, moving toward Alex.
"Frank Denson."
"Frank?" Peyton asked, surprised. "Why would Frank want to hurt Sam?"
Alex sighed deeply. "I just finished doing an extensive background check on Denson, who changed his last name, by the way. The man has a degree in chemical engineering from MIT."
"Why would someone with that kind of degree and from such a prestigious school work as a security guard?" Detective Adams asked.
"According to the report I received just now," Alex said, "he had a mental breakdown after his last year of college. It seems he never got over his sister"s suicide almost ten years ago. The two were extremely close growing up. Their parents had been abusive, so the two had always been there for each other."
"And who was his sister?" Mac asked.
Alex pulled in a deep breath, then said, "Vivian Randall."
"Vivian Randall!" Sam"s father exclaimed. "She was Sam"s roommate her first year at college. Randall committed suicide over some guy on campus. Why would Denson want to get back at Sam for that?"