Unfinished Business (7 page)

Alex rubbed a hand down his face. Was that all she had to say? He forced a smile. The woman was taking erecting a brick wall to a whole new level. She had no intentions of forgiving or forgetting. “I’m thinking of coming back next week.”

“Why?”

He forced himself to smile harder. “I’m beginning to like this town.”

“That’s fine, Alex, and you do know you don’t have to look me up every time you come through, don’t you?”

“Yes, but I think I will anyway.”

“For my brothers?”

Not bloody likely
, he thought, taking a deep breath. Evidently she still wasn’t absolutely convinced her brothers hadn’t played a part in his visit. “Your brothers were the last people I was thinking about when I was kissing you, Christy.”

All he had to do was close his eyes to remember each time he had ever kissed her. The way he would cover her mouth with his; the sounds that came from her throat when she succumbed to his kiss, responded, and joined in. The way her tongue would mate with his, making every nerve cell acknowledge her as the woman he wanted. “And when I come back, it will be more of the same, Christy.”

He heard her quick breath. “I don’t think so.”

Unfazed he said, “I don’t have any other choice. Take care until I see you again.”

Instead of responding, she hung up the phone. Alex shook his head. It appeared they were back at square one. He’d dealt with stubborn people before, but Christy was giving the word new meaning. But then, he fully understood the Madaris pride and knew it was something he would have to break down piece by piece.

And he would.

 
“What the hell happened to your lip?” Clayton Madaris asked Alex as they sat across from each other in Sisters restaurant.

Clayton smirked. “Looks like some woman got ahold of it and gnawed you pretty damn good.”

Alex gave him a dry look. “I guess you would know.” Everyone had heard at least once the story of the woman Clayton used to date who got turned on from biting her dates.

“Look, you two,” Dex Madaris said, crossing his arms over his chest and pinning both men with a penetrating glare. “I’m not here to discuss Alex’s love life. I’m here to talk about Christy.”

Alex shook his head. Little did big brother know . . . “I told you when you called me at the hotel that she was doing fine.”

“You asked Alex to check up on Christy when we promised her we wouldn’t interfere?” Clayton Madaris asked Dex, surprised.

“Yeah, what of it?” he responded in a defensive tone.

Clayton chuckled. “So did I.”

Both men grinned. “What about Justin? Do you think he did, too?”

Clayton nodded. “Probably.”

Satisfied, Dex turned his attention back to Alex. “I know you said you talked to Christy, but did you actually see her?”

Alex took a sip of his drink. If Dex knew just how much of Christy he’d seen, the man would probably kill him. “Yes, I saw her, and she’s fine.” Alex could tell from Dex’s expression that he still wasn’t convinced. Of the three Madaris brothers he was the most intense.

“Maybe we ought to pay her a visit.”

Alex cocked his brow. “I wouldn’t if I were you. She thought the only reason I was in Cincinnati was because of you guys. She got pretty pissed although I tried to convince her otherwise,” he said truthfully.

“But you
did
convince her?” Clayton asked. “We promised her that we wouldn’t interfere, and nobody can hold a grudge like Christy when she’s mad about something.”

Do tell
, Alex thought, taking another sip of his drink. He then released a deep, drawn-out sigh. “I tried, but whether she believed me or not, who knows?”

Neither brother said anything for the longest time, and Alex decided to add, “She’ll be coming home in a few weeks for Blade and Slade’s birthday party. The two of you will see her then.” He then quickly seized the opportunity to change the subject. “Anything happen while I was gone?”

Clayton chuckled. “If you’re asking if anybody else got pregnant, the answer is yes, the epidemic continues. Sterling and Colby are expecting again, and so are Jake and Diamond.”

Alex shook his head. “Don’t married people have anything else to do with their free time?”

Clayton smiled. “I can only speak for myself. I guess Syneda and I can spend our free time playing poker. But we tried that once and it turned out to be a game of strip poker with the same end result, so the answer is no. So far I haven’t found anything else I’d rather do with my free time.”

Clayton then leaned forward with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Try it, Alex; you might like it,” he said.

A teasing smile touched Alex’s lips. “What? Playing strip poker with Syneda?”

Clayton glared at Alex. “Don’t act crazy, OK? I was talking about a serious relationship with a woman.”

When thoughts of Christy suddenly entered Alex’s mind, he cleared his throat, deciding it was definitely time to switch to another topic. “Hey, I heard that Harding got cut from the Texans.”

By Monday Christy hated to admit it, but she missed Alex. After seeing him for three solid days, now she felt like she was going through Alex Maxwell withdrawal.

She had awakened that morning thinking about the kisses they had shared. As far as she was concerned, nobody kissed like Alex. The man’s tongue was simply dangerous and one touch could make a desperate sexual yearning grip her insides like nobody’s business. And she was powerless to prevent it from happening. All she was capable of doing was standing there and putting her heart and soul into it.

The tips of her breasts swelled against the hard wall of his chest, her thighs rested so intimately between his, and her mound pressed tightly to the huge bulge straining his zipper. And just when she thought he was done with her, hoping that he wasn’t, but needing air to breathe, he would draw back for a mere second, then start the process all over again.

She was so caught up in her memories that she jumped when the phone on her desk rang. She picked it up immediately. “Christy Madaris.”

“Ms. Madaris, please come to my office.”

Christy swallowed upon hearing the curt summons followed by the loud click in her ear. Evidently Malcolm had seen her expense requisition. Sighing deeply, she grabbed her notepad and headed for the man’s office. Everyone knew that Mondays weren’t his good day, and if he played lousy golf over the weekend, his bad mood could very well stretch into Tuesday. But she could handle moody men. She had three older brothers and five uncles who all had different temperaments.

She rounded the corner and took a deep breath before she entered Malcolm’s office. She had spent the majority of the weekend going over the Patterson Report, following up what the other reporters had failed to do. After doing extensive research on the Internet, she had reached a startling conclusion. Just as Mrs. Patterson had predicted, there had been kidnappings. Although Christy would be the first to admit it would be hard in some situations to tie the kidnappings to Mrs. Patterson’s dreams, she felt confident what she had found was compelling enough to further pursue the investigation.

To convince Malcolm of that might be a hard sell. She would have to play hard on his veteran reporter’s hunger instincts to make or break a story. She plastered a huge smile on her face and opened the door. “Good morning, Malcolm. You wanted to see me?”

He lifted his head from some document and the look he gave her told her that he wanted her—roasted over an open fire if that’s the way he could have her.

“What’s the meaning of this, Ms. Madaris?” he asked, holding up the piece of paper she had slipped onto his desk before he had arrived that morning.

“Oh, I see you got my request,” she said, unable to keep the smile out of her voice. Although he strongly encouraged everyone to call him by his first name, he had a problem with calling anyone by theirs.

“Yes, and I need you to explain what this is about. There is no ongoing investigation on the Patterson case. You were supposed to talk with Morganna, take down what she had to say, and file it away like the other reporters do.”

Christy sat down in the chair in front of his desk although he hadn’t invited her to do so. “We may have made a mistake in doing that, Malcolm.”

Thick gray bushy eyebrows lifted as he peered at her. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that had we followed up Mrs. Patterson’s predictions, we might have found a link between what she was trying to tell us and reported cases of teenage girls being kidnapped in certain areas of the country.”

Malcolm leaned over his desk. “Are you trying to tell me there’s a possibility that what Morganna is saying is true?”

Christy shrugged. “All I’m saying is that it’s worth checking out. Although I can’t definitely link those kidnappings to Mrs. Patterson’s predictions, there are enough similarities to substantiate an in-depth investigation. And I want to do that.”

Malcolm leaned back in his chair and gazed at her thoughtfully. Christy inwardly smiled. She had him considering the idea. She decided to push a little further. “All I’m asking is that you give me the okay to find out the truth about Bonita Patterson’s disappearance once and for all. Don’t you think you owe that to the Patterson family?”

Christy sighed deeply. He was staring at her, but she knew his mind was at work. He was thinking, playing with figures in his head, trying to see how he could work what she had requested amongst all those budget cuts.

“There’s no way I can approve the amount you’ve requested,” he finally said. “Cut that figure in half, and the investigation is yours.”

Christy smiled. She had deliberately padded the figures knowing the bottom line would probably get sliced. “That won’t be a problem.”

“Good. You only have four weeks, and I want the final report on my desk.”

“Four weeks?” Christy was hoping she would get more time than that.

“Yes. That’s all the time I’m giving you so you’d better get busy.”

Alex stood looking out his office window in the Madaris Building. It was a beautiful summer day, and people were out and about doing whatever made them happy.

His day in court had gone rather well and now he was back at work, ready to tackle another case that might take him heaven knows where. He turned and glanced around his office. It didn’t seem like it had already been a year since he had moved into the building, one of the first to sign on as a tenant when the Madaris brothers, along with their uncle Jake, had decided to build this office park.

The original plan was for a four-story office building in downtown Houston. But thanks to Mitch Farrell, millionaire land developer, an exclusive fifteen-story building surrounded by a cluster of upscale shops, restaurants, and a beautiful park had been erected on a huge tract of land located on the outskirts of town instead.

The Madaris twins, Blade and Slade, had been commissioned as the builders. It had been a huge undertaking for the two young men, but they had done a fantastic job. Since then more building contracts had poured in. The Madaris Construction Company had been recognized last month in
Black Enterprise
as one of the fastest-growing and most profitable construction companies in the nation.

Alex sighed. All morning, thoughts of Christy had consumed his mind. Leaving Cincinnati had been the hardest thing he had to do. He was anxious to stake his claim on the woman and these delays were making him more anxious.

He had wanted to return to Cincinnati this weekend, but he had just taken on a new client so he had no choice but to wait to see Christy again when she came to Houston next weekend.

His phone rang and he quickly walked over to his desk. It was his private line. “Yes?”

“Alexander, we need to talk.”

A slow smile spread across Alex’s lips. Only one person called him Alexander. “Ms. Laverne, how are you?” he asked the woman who was grandmother to the Madaris brothers.

“I’ll be better once you get your act together.”

Alex lifted a brow. “Pardon me?”

“I’ll decide whether I will after we talk. Meet me downstairs in the park at two o’clock. I’ll be sitting on a bench near the pond.”

Wondering what on earth Laverne Madaris wanted to talk with him about, he meekly said, “Yes, ma’am.” She then hung up the phone.

Alex replaced the phone, shaking his head. The last time he’d been summoned by the matriarch of the Madaris family had been a few years ago to tell him he wasn’t attending church enough. He couldn’t wait to hear what she needed to read him the riot act about this time. He checked his watch. In a couple of hours he would find out.

Christy picked up her phone on the second ring. “Christy Madaris.”

“Just like Bonita said would happen, another girl has been kidnapped.”

Christy immediately recognized the voice. “Mrs. Patterson?”

“Yes. Did you read this morning’s paper?”

Christy was too embarrassed to say that although she worked for the paper, she hadn’t yet read this morning’s edition, as it was already a little past noon. “No, I haven’t.”

“Then you don’t know about that girl, the one whose family is saying she was kidnapped, although the authorities are claiming she’s a runaway. Her name is Holly.”

Christy placed her coffee cup on her desk.
Holly
? “Give me a chance to read the article and I’ll get back to you, Mrs. Patterson.”

The woman didn’t say anything for a moment; then she said, “All right. Just remember that I’m depending on you to save the others. Good-bye.” The phone then disconnected.

After hanging up the phone, Christy immediately went to the news service on the Internet to check out the article Mrs. Patterson was talking about. A few moments later, after reading the article about the alleged kidnapping of the teenager in Birmingham, Alabama, she leaned back in her chair.

Although the paper hadn’t come right out and said the runaway had been kidnapped, it said she had left home over a year ago and that her parents had received a call from her saying she was ready to come home. They had waited for their prodigal daughter’s return, and when she never did, they called the authorities.

The girl’s family would not accept the possibility that she’d had changed her mind about coming home, and they suspected foul play. In one conversation to her parents, the teenager had mentioned she was being stalked. Because of the family’s allegations, the FBI was called to initiate an investigation. End of story.

Christy sighed. That would have been the end of the story if the girl’s name hadn’t been Holly. In the dream, Bonita had warned her mother that the next kidnapped girl’s name would be associated with Christmas. It might all be just a coincidence and thinking of Christmas holly might be stretching it a bit, but Christy got an eerie feeling in the pit of her stomach that she was on to something.