A low sound, definitely in the neighborhood of a growl, churned deep in Khouri’s throat. The familiar pressure tightened his palms as he thought of the night. “A man chases a woman down an alley and she prefers hiding in my car to going inside a club full of people. She didn’t even wait around for me to call for help.” He pushed both hands into his pockets. “I’m thinkin’ she knew the jackass.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. I mean, what man in his right mind would chase Setha Melendez down an alley if he knew it was Setha Melendez and who her family was? And that she’s got three brothers built like tanks?”
Khouri shrugged. “So what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinkin’ you should ask her what the hell is up. You had her take refuge in your car, for crap’s sake—she at least owes you an explanation.”
“Right.” Khouri stroked the light shadow of a beard covering otherwise flawless caramel-toned skin and he let his frustration show. “So tell me how you’d feel if you’d just met Sam Melendez and he came questioning you about something like that?”
“Why—” Avra closed her mouth, and then opened it again. “Why do you always have to make everything about me and Samson Melendez?”
“Just tryin’ to put it in a perspective you can relate to.”
“Fine.” Avra raised a hand in weariness. “I can see my input isn’t needed or desired.”
Khouri gave her a mock salute. “You’re a quick study, Av.”
Avra gave her brother the finger and then waltzed out of his office without further discussion.
Alone then, Khouri admitted the valid point his sister had raised. It didn’t make sense that a man would run down Setha Melendez in an alley especially if he knew who she was. He’d have to know he was a dead man if her family found him.
Khouri sat on the desk corner Avra had vacated. He was sure few men could handle losing a woman like the beautiful Ms. Melendez…. If the incident he’d witnessed was in fact a lover’s spat gone bad in the worst way, had it jaded her enough to swear off all men?
Whoa, man. He went to slosh a little bourbon into a glass at the wall bar in his office.
His sister, whether she knew it or not, was already gaga over one Melendez. There was no sense in him jumping into the same pot. Of course that, in no way, meant that he couldn’t do everything in his power to find out what ran her into his car that night and why.
* * *
Setha was searching her phone for a number, when she spotted Samson reclining behind her desk while he chatted with her assistant, Valerie Lennin. She cleared her throat noisily to cut through the sound of Valerie’s high-pitched giggles. “Something you forgot to ask me during lunch, Val?” she asked once the room had gone silent.
Recognizing her boss’s sarcasm, Valerie offered a tight smile. “I’ll just be at my desk.” Twirling a dark blond lock around her finger, she put her most flirtatious smile in place. “Bye, Samson.”
“What?” Setha greeted her brother when they were left alone.
“Just stopped by to find out how the meeting went.” Sam stroked his jaw and regarded her with cool intent lacing his dark stare. “Did Avra keep buttin’ in to your meeting? Bet she didn’t let you get a word in.”
Tossing her things to a chair before the desk, Setha grinned. “Actually, she didn’t butt in once—never saw her while I was there.”
“Is that right?”
Setha took great pleasure in the sound of his voice. She left off grinning though. “I’ll be back over there soon if there’s…some message you want me to deliver—”
“You can tell her to go screw herself.” Sam left the desk chair tugging on the gray-and-black suspenders that complemented his shirt.
“Go screw—herself?” Setha pretended to be confused and rested her palm to her cheek. “Isn’t that something you’d want to take part in?” She let loose her laughter at the look he gave.
“This is serious business, Set.”
“We know that, Sam. Khouri and I will give this our best efforts.”
“How’s it lookin’ so far?”
Setha gave an exaggerated sigh and brought her hands to her hips. “We’re gonna have to make some changes, Sam.”
“What kind of changes?”
“Big ones.”
“Well, what—all right, all right.” He raised his hands at her look and reconsidered his next question. “So are you comin’ over to Pop’s for dinner this weekend?”
“I’ll try, but I’ve got so much work.” Setha latched onto the excuse she’d used for the past several weeks. “With this Melendez/Ross account campaign everything’s been busier. Like you said, ‘This is serious,’” she noted when his stare progressively hardened. “It’s gonna take a lot for me to stay on top of it.”
“You haven’t been over for dinner in weeks. Everybody’s noticed.”
“When?” Setha’s husky voice cracked as laughter intervened. “Between all of your dates and Daddy’s golfing weekends?” She rolled her eyes and went behind her desk. “Don’t act like all of you sit around the dinner table every Sunday missing me.”
“All right. We don’t, but we damn well know somethin’ ain’t right with you.”
“Sam—”
“Hush,” he said, index finger slicing the air. “I won’t stand for it, Set. None of us will. Now you can either come clean with us or we can have fun makin’ a big ole mess while we find out on our own.” He reached across the desk and grabbed her hand to tug her into the kiss he placed on her forehead. “See you soon,” he called on his way out of the door.
Setha turned and propped her rump on the edge of the desk. The very last thing she needed was Samson, Paolo and Lugo Melendez making a “big ole mess.” On the other hand, she couldn’t argue the point that having them make a mess might keep her dangerous pursuer off her back long enough to find out if the guy was just some weird stalker she’d attracted or if her entire family had something to fear.
She’d hoped to have more time to scope out the Ross Review but hadn’t once thought of doing that after meeting Khouri Ross. If first impressions were anything to go on, the Rosses were quite deserving of all the respect they wielded in and around Houston.
What she’d uncovered so far, though, told her there was definitely some connection between her “stalker” and Wade Cornelius. Now the man was dead…. She had to find out more regarding that connection. So far it was her only lead and it’d been sheer dumb luck that had brought her to it. Digging deeper would probably bring her more of nothing, but she had to check it out at least.
It would help to have someone to bounce her suspicions off of, she couldn’t deny that. A confidant, however, would either help solve this thing, or think she was crazy and involve her family. If they weren’t involved already.
* * *
“Sorry I missed you earlier, Gwen.”
Gwen Bennett was on her way out of the conference room following the Houston Journal’s weekly interdepartmental meeting.
“’Salright, Brew, wasn’t anything that couldn’t wait,” she told her colleague.
Brewster Keegan’s expression personified confidence. “Finally takin’ me up on my dinner invitation, huh?”
Gwen shook her head, chuckling softly while she did so. “Brew, you know I don’t date men with girlfriends—even if girlfriend knows she’s not the only one.”
“You