It went without saying that Setha Melendez was a beauty. It was no surprise that she was tall coming from a family of giants—same as him, Khouri thought. What was a surprise was the sweet, husky voice that cracked every now and then in the most adorable way. Unlike her brothers who’d inherited their complexion from their father, Setha’s skin was a flawless dark chocolate, courtesy of her mother.
Then, there was everything else. Her curves. The blue-black waves of hair bound in the tight glossy ball atop her head. Then there were the midnight-colored eyes that could drown a man and the mouth that promised heaven.
While the physical surprises abounded and delighted, they didn’t take his mind off the fact that she’d sought refuge in his car just two nights prior. Of all the mysteries he intended to solve about her, that was the one he most wanted answers to.
“Lunch?” he proposed when she looked up to find him watching her.
“Oh…thank you, but no.” She scooted to the edge of the sofa. “I’m supposed to have a late lunch with my staff.”
“Well, then.” Khouri left his place behind the desk and went to meet her in the center of the room. “Guess we’ll have lots to talk about.” He smiled toward the pad she’d been scribbling on.
She eased it into her tote and nodded. “I’ll clear time with my staff so we can schedule meetings and put this thing to bed.” She coughed, the phrase having left her mouth before her brain could process it.
Khouri held his laughter, knowing he’d only embarrass her more than she already was. “May I take you to your car?” he asked, bringing his hand to the small of her back but not touching her there.
Setha raised a hand, shaking her head as she did so. “I’ve already taken up enough of your time.”
“Hold on.” He went back to his desk, leaning across it and grabbing the phone. “Hey,” he greeted softly when Marta answered. “Call down to security and tell them to have somebody down there to show Ms. Melendez to her car.”
“I appreciate that,” Setha said when he rejoined her in the middle of the room. “But I can get myself to the car just fine.”
“I know that, but this is for Sam’s benefit.” Khouri’s sleek brows rose in acknowledgment of her curiosity. “I’m sure he didn’t much like sending his baby sister into the lion’s den. Having sisters myself, I know I wouldn’t care for it much, either.” Bright eyes scanned her body quickly yet intensely. “Least I can do is have security give you an escort.”
“Well, thank you.” She almost whispered the words.
“You’re welcome. I’ll call you.” His voice was just as soft.
Setha walked out less than half a minute later and Khouri ordered himself to stop at his office door—not to follow her down the hall. He watched even after she had disappeared into one of the elevators.
“Put your tongue back in your mouth, baby,” Marta said when she walked past.
Khouri rolled his eyes and returned to his office. Marta’s laughter followed.
Chapter 4
Marta was handling a call when Avra dropped by her brother’s office. She pointed to the door to silently inquire if he was in.
Covering the phone’s mouthpiece, Marta’s eyes shifted quickly toward the door. “Yeah, but in a weird mood.”
“And this is news?”
“He’s been acting funny since Ms. Melendez left around lunch.”
“Ah…” Avra’s expression turned smug. “I told him he’d be floored.”
“Floored ain’t the half of it.”
“Thanks, Mart,” Avra said, letting the woman get back to her phone call.
She applied a fast knock to the door and stepped into the office calling Khouri’s name. He was behind his desk, somberly swiveling his chair to and fro. Avra had to call his name three times before catching his attention.
She whistled when he pulled his fist from his chin and looked over at her. “Damn! Floored ain’t the half of it. You looked downright steamrolled, baby brother.”
Khouri smiled but made no effort to provide a verbal confirmation…or denial.
“Come on, out with it.” Avra moved aside folders from a corner of the desk and planted her butt in the space. “So? How’d it go?”
“Not now, Av.”
“Uh-uh, I’ve been waiting all day for you to tell me about it.”
“Later.”
“Well what? Do I need to be concerned?” She wasn’t put off by the black look he sent her.
“I mean, if I need to be concerned—tell me.” She folded her arms across the front of the ruffled blouse and feigned exasperation. “It is my name on the account. I should know if it’s about to take a swan dive down the toilet.”
“Bullshit.” Khouri worked the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “But all right.”
“What?”
“It’s got nothin’ to do with the ads. You just want to know what happened with her.”
“Khouri…” That time, Avra feigned innocence. “That’s not even true. I need this idea of Dad’s to work. I’m absolutely not trying to have to deal with Samson Melendez again. Ever.”
Khouri didn’t have to look Avra’s way to detect the disappointment on her part. Was she aware of it? he wondered.
“So. About the meeting?”
“Jesus, Avra.” Khouri left his desk then said, “She’s incredible, all right?”
Avra leaned over his desk, bracing her weight on one elbow. “Trophy material, huh?”
“Ha!” He laughed over the phrasing, but nodded. “And then some, but more than that—a lot more.”
“Wow.” Avra couldn’t pull her eyes away from her brother’s face. He looked positively thunderstruck. “I still can’t believe you’ve never met her—seen her. I would’ve expected you to have scoped that piece of eye candy a long time ago.”
“Yeah…” Khouri’s thunderstruck look showed traces of unease. “Well I thought I’d never met her,” he said and rubbed the back of his neck while walking the perimeter of his office.
Avra’s long stare widened in anticipation of Khouri sharing a bit of sexy dirt.
“Forget it,” he flatly refused, easily reading her expression. “Maybe met is too strong of a word.”
Avra hung her head and shook it. “Now I’m completely confused.” She was, however, sitting up moments later once Khouri explained how and where he’d originally met Setha Melendez in the alley behind Raquel’s club.
Overwhelmed, Avra could only sit with her mouth open in amazement. “All right…is it possible for you to go over this once more and slowly—I mean like funeral-procession slowly?”
He grinned. “Story ain’t gonna change, darlin’.”
“But what’s it all about? What’d she say when you asked her?”
“I didn’t ask her.”
“Well, dammit, Khouri. Why not?”
“Hell, Avra!” Khouri lost the tether he kept on what had the potential to be a considerable temper. “I wasn’t about to ask her somethin’ like that.”
“Why not?”
“I just met her, for Christ’s sakes!”
“Well, what do you think it’s about?” Avra asked after waiting a beat.
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 drive a hard bargain, G.” Brewster didn’t appear offended or discouraged. “So I guess that means you came by my office to talk business, huh?”
“Got it.” Gwen gave a toss of her chin-length bob and held her portfolio in front of her chest. “I wanted to talk to you about something you said a few weeks back—about Wade Cornelius.”
“Yeah, my story on the murders.”
“Murders?”
“The immigrant murders, you know?” He nudged her arm as if to jog her memory. “Cops have squat, but they know all the vics worked for some part of Machine Melendez.”
“So what’s that got to do with Wade Cornelius?”
Brewster moved in closer. “The connection between the victims and Melendez is big news and Ross hasn’t released it yet.”
“So? Neither has the Journal.”
A sobering light filtered Brewster’s dark blue gaze then. “You and Avra Ross are pretty good pals, right?”
Gwen rolled her eyes toward the sienna-colored pumps she wore. “That hurts, Bre
w.”
“I’m sorry, G. I didn’t mean for it to.” He nudged her elbow again before glancing back across his shoulder. “It’s just we’re not tryin’ to rock the boat releasin’ this stuff. ’Specially when we suspect a cover-up.”
“And you suspect Ross?”
“We don’t, but all the vics are MM employees. Ever since Cornelius wrote that first story back in the day on the company, Melendez has been made to look like some kind of white knight when everyone knows they’re not.”
Gwen tapped her fingers to her chin, absorbing the information.
Brewster brought his hand to her elbow again but held on that time. “I wouldn’t mind sharing the spotlight with you if you can use your connections with the lovely Ms. Ross to find out if holding back the info was intentional on the Review’s end.”
“I wouldn’t expect her to tell me all that, Brew. We’re pals but still competitors, remember?”
Brewster slipped a hand into a pocket on his green trousers. “We’re bankin’ on the fact that Ross isn’t tryin’ to run a story there. They’ve always seemed to be intent on protecting the Machine’s image. On this side of town, we’re workin’ to pull back that image and show the true face of Melendez. I swear we’re not out to take down a colleague in the process.”
“Basil Ross and Dan Melendez have been friends a long time. There has to be a reason why he’d cover them that way. Maybe they’re trying to get to the bottom of all this, too.”
“I hope so.” Brewster shrugged. “Because otherwise it means they’re in it with ’em.”
Gwen tilted her head. “In what?”
Brewster looked grim. “In whatever all this is about.”
* * *
“He’s out of control, dammit! Wade Cornelius wasn’t to be touched.”
“He thinks they’re all to blame in this. In a way, he’s right.”
Static crackled on the phone line for several moments.
“He’s right, but killing Cornelius has pushed this thing forward too fast. His death might get too many smart folks digging and making links we don’t need made just yet. Put a leash on him.”
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