Her Secret, His Duty

Chapter 11


It had been two days since Debra had almost lost her mind in Trey’s arms, two days ago that they’d nearly made a terrible mistake.

She was back at her desk, although her thoughts weren’t on her work and she forcefully kept them off Trey. Instead she wondered how much longer she could keep up the pretense that everything was just peachy in her personal life.

This morning when she’d driven through the side entrance to come to work, Jerry Cahill had been on duty. He’d motioned her on through and it was only when she parked and glanced in her rearview mirror that she’d seen him glaring at her.

Obviously he’d been questioned about her car accident and wasn’t too happy about being called on the carpet. Still, he wasn’t uppermost in her mind as she contemplated the past two days.

Things had begun disappearing again. Her favorite pink mug had been missing this morning when she’d gone to the cabinet to retrieve it for a morning cup of tea. Yesterday she’d been half-crazed when a throw pillow she normally placed in the center of her bed was found in the bottom of the clothes hamper.

She was obviously suffering some sort of a mental breakdown and it not only frightened her for herself, but also for her baby. Her hand fell to her lap and she rubbed her belly in a circular motion. Her slacks had felt tighter this morning. The baby was growing and she was losing her mind.

What if she cracked up altogether? What if she wound up in some mental institute? Then what would happen to her baby? If she gave birth would somebody hand the baby to Barry to raise because everyone thought the baby was his?

She shuddered at the very thought.

Despite her desire to keep Trey out of her thoughts, he kept intruding. She wasn’t sure what caused her more stress: the thoughts of losing her mind or her overwhelming feelings for Trey.

He’d held an unexpected press conference the day before and had officially announced his decision to run for the office of state senator. Cecily had been at his side, as she should have been, as it was supposed to be. They had looked perfect together, poised and at ease in front of the cameras.

But, for the first time in her life, Debra understood why some women chose to be mistresses. It wasn’t always about money or the thrill of forbidden fruit, sometimes it was just about love.

She loved Trey enough to want any piece of himself that he could give to her. Fortunately she loved herself enough not to compromise her true wants and needs, her very soul, by becoming his mistress. And in any case, she knew the core of him, she knew who he was as a man and knew he would never take a mistress. It wasn’t in his moral fiber to do such a thing.

Debra was an all-or-nothing kind of woman when it came to love and commitment. Besides, Trey hadn’t spoken to her about love, he’d told her he wanted her, that he desired her, and that would never be enough for her.

The Friday morning flew by as she focused on the usual work that kept Kate’s schedule running smoothly. At noon she stopped and went into the kitchen where Myra fixed her a sandwich and some coleslaw. She ate quickly, grateful that she didn’t encounter any other members of the family, and then returned to her office.

She wasn’t in the right frame of mind to put up with Sam’s moodiness and although she’d spoken to Thad a couple of times over the past few days, he’d had no new information to give her as to who might have been responsible for her car accident, an accident she still refused to believe was a specific attack on her personally.


She’d just settled back at her desk when a knock fell on her door. Kate poked her head in. “How about we have a chat in my office?” she asked.

“Sure,” Debra agreed. She picked up a memo pad.

“You don’t need to bother with that. We won’t be talking about anything that requires note-taking.”

“Okay.” Debra got up from her desk and followed Kate into her office. As Kate sat behind her desk Debra sank down into one of the chairs in front of her.

“I just wanted to check in with you and see how you’re doing. How you’re feeling.” Kate leaned back in her chair, obviously relaxed.

“To be honest, I think my pregnancy hormones are making me a little crazy,” Debra replied. “I’ve been misplacing things and finding them in strange places. I’m having a little trouble concentrating, although it isn’t affecting any of my work for you,” she hurriedly added.

Kate smiled. “I wasn’t concerned about that. I remember when I was pregnant with Sam I had the same kind of issues.”

“Really?” Debra asked.

“Really. Of course, Trey was two at the time and he didn’t help my sanity any. I remember one day I took him to the park to play and then an hour or so later I got into my car and realized I was about to drive off without him.” She laughed and shook her head. “Thank goodness I had Maddie here to keep me at least partially sane.”

Debra’s relief was enormous. Maybe all of the strange things that had been happening to her really were due to hormones gone wild.

“One of the things I wanted to talk to you about was next Sunday I’d like to have a family continental breakfast on the patio. The weather has been so unusually lovely I thought it would be nice to get everyone together and discuss the ramifications of my running for president.”

“Is there something you need me to do? Pastries to be ordered or anything like that?”

“No, Myra will take care of everything. I’m just telling you because Sunday is your day off and I’d really like for you to be there.”

“I’d love to come,” Debra replied, pleased to be included.

“My decision will affect you as well as the family,” Kate continued, “so I want you to have a voice in the process. Are you planning on taking off time when the baby is born?”

“Maybe just a couple of weeks,” Debra replied, although the idea of leaving the baby at all with anyone for anything was painful.

“You know, there’s no reason for you to leave the baby while you work here. We can set up one of the bedrooms as a nursery and Maddie would love to take care of a little one again.”

“Really? So I could bring the baby to work with me?” Debra’s heart expanded with happiness.

“I don’t see a problem at all.” Kate grinned. “My goodness, we’ve been together so long, Debra, I feel like you’re giving birth to my grandbaby. It will be nice to have a little one in the house once again.”

Debra prayed the expression on her face didn’t change, although the weight of her lies about the father of her baby slammed into the bottom of her heart. “Your family has always been like my own. You know I think of you as a surrogate mother.”

A wash of pain flickered across Kate’s face, gone so quickly Debra wondered if she’d imagined it. She stared at a family photo on her desk. “I always did want a little girl.” She looked back at Debra. “But fate gave me three strapping boys who have been the joys of my life.”

“And this baby will be the joy of my life,” Debra replied, feeling terrible that Kate would never know that the child she carried was her first grandbaby. “But, you can count on me to juggle motherhood and work with no problem.”

Kate gave her an affectionate smile. “It never occurred to me otherwise.”

Minutes later back at her desk, Debra thought of the Sunday morning breakfast. She would have to see Trey again. It would be the first time she’d seen him since they’d practically attacked each other in her foyer.

He’d started it, but she’d desperately wanted him to finish it. She’d wanted him to drag her up the stairs to her bedroom and make love to her. It had only been a surprising flash of sanity that had saved them both from making another mistake. Whatever it was between them was strong and just a little bit frightening in that Debra had almost no control in her desire for him.

At least Kate had managed to put her at ease a bit as far as her forgetfulness was concerned. She smiled as she envisioned Kate getting into her car to leave a park and suddenly realizing the car seat where Trey should be was empty. Now that was the height of absentmindedness.

By the time six o’clock came she was ready to call it a day. She knew the unusual fatigue she suffered was from her pregnancy, a fatigue that hopefully would pass when she went into her second trimester in the next few weeks.

On her way home she thought about stopping in at some department store to pick up a few pairs of maternity pants and skirts. It wasn’t going to be long before the clothes she owned would no longer fit her belly bump.

It was a fleeting thought. She was too tired to shop. She’d make plans tomorrow to take off an hour early and shop then. It would be nice to have something comfortable to wear to the breakfast on Sunday.

At the moment she just wanted to get home, eat some dinner and curl up on the sofa in front of the television where hopefully a good sitcom or crime drama would chase away thoughts of the man she loved, the man she was certain would be the next North Carolina senator...as long as she stayed out of his life.

* * *

Trey felt as if he were living some sort of weird double life. During the days he worked at Adair Enterprises and then in the past three evenings he’d had two business dinners to attend and had dined with Cecily the other night.

He hadn’t slept with Cecily since the night he’d slept with Debra. He’d made a million excuses to Cecily about their lack of intimacy. Too busy, too tired, not good for his public image to be seen coming and going from her house before they were married, the excuses had fallen from his lips with a surprising ease.

He knew that Cecily was frustrated with him, but she took each of his excuses in stride, telling him coyly that they’d catch up on lost time once they were married.

The truth of the matter was that Trey couldn’t imagine making love to Cecily when his passion and his emotions were still tied to Debra.

And it was emotion and fear for her that had him doing something crazy each night. When darkness fell he found himself parked across the street from Debra’s townhouse where he’d remain until the wee hours of the morning.

He knew it was crazy, but he couldn’t help himself. Even though there was no concrete evidence that somebody specific had targeted Debra by cutting her brake line, Trey believed danger had touched her and wasn’t finished with her yet.

He was afraid for her, and so he had taken it upon himself to be her secret nighttime bodyguard. Anyone who got too close to her house while she slept peacefully inside would have him to deal with.

He had a conceal-and-carry permit and a 9 mm with him on these nightly surveillance details. He was dead serious about seeing that no harm came to Debra or the baby she carried.

The only downfall of these nightly visits was that each morning when he got to his office he directed Rhonda to hold all his calls for a couple of hours so he could catch up on his sleep.

Tonight was like the past two nights. It was just after midnight and although it was Saturday the neighborhood was quiet. Debra had turned off the light in the house around nine or so, letting him know she was having an early night.

He yawned and slumped down a bit in the seat, trying to find a more comfortable position to sustain for the next couple of hours.

Was he being foolish? Maybe, he conceded. But he’d rather be foolish than take a chance and have any harm come to Debra. Did he intend to do this nightly vigil every night for the rest of his life?

Definitely not, but he would be here until something or someone managed to make him believe that the cut brake lines had been as Debra had believed, an accident of the wrong car being targeted and not something personal against her. Only then would he stop this madness and get on with his life.

His life.

He stared unseeingly at the center of his steering wheel. He should be thrilled with the direction his life was traveling. Since the dinner party and the press conference the donation dollars had begun to pour in, Chad had put together a machine made of devoted people to work campaign headquarters, which was being set up in a downtown storefront.

Banners and signs had been made to hang on the outside of the building and it always jarred him just a bit to pull up and see his own face smiling from one of those signs.

Cecily was more than ready to step in as a supportive wife and partner and there was no question that she would be an asset to his career. She had money, connections and the personality that would serve him well.

Yes, everything was falling nicely into place. So, where was his happiness? He’d assumed he’d be euphoric at this point in the process, but his happiness seemed to be sadly absent.

He glanced back at Debra’s house and frowned as he saw a faint red glow coming from someplace inside, a glow that hadn’t been there minutes before.


Was Debra awake? Had she turned on some kind of light? If so, it was a strange red light. A lick of flame danced before the front window.

Fire! It was fire.

His mind screamed the word as he fumbled with his cell phone and called 911. As he gave Debra’s address to the dispatcher he got out of the car and raced for the front door.

With the call made, he tossed his cell phone in the grass and pounded on the door with his fists, calling her name at the top of his lungs.

The odor of smoke drifted through the door, making his blood freeze. Was she unconscious? Already overcome by smoke that had risen to her upstairs bedroom?

Panic seared through him as he rang the doorbell and then pounded once again, screaming her name as the flames at the window grew bigger and more intense.

Vaguely aware of lights going on in the houses around hers, conscious of the distant sound of sirens, he picked up a flowerpot that was on her stoop and raced around to the back of the townhouse.

His heart thumped painfully fast with every step. He finally made it to the kitchen windows where just inside he’d sat at the table and had coffee with her. He raised the heavy pot and threw it through one of the windows, shattering the glass and allowing him entry.

The air in the kitchen wasn’t bad, but when he entered the living room the smoke tickled the back of his throat and obscured his vision.

The curtains at the windows blazed and dropped malicious imps of flames onto the carpet below. Although his first impulse was to race up the stairs to Debra’s room, instead he ran to the front door, unlocked it and pulled it open so that the arriving firemen could easily access the house.

Swirling cherry-red lights announced the arrival of the emergency vehicles as Trey raced up the stairs, the smoke thicker now, causing him to pause as he was overcome with a spasm of coughing.

He clung to the banister until the spasm had passed and then continued upward. There were three doors upstairs and thankfully all of them were closed, hopefully keeping most of the smoke in the narrow hallway.

A night-light shone in a wall socket, guiding him forward despite the thickening smoke. The first door proved to be the guest room.

Across the hall was a bathroom where he quickly wet a hand towel with cold water. He entered the door at the end of the hallway and saw Debra unmoving in the bed.

His heart stopped beating for a second. Was she dead? Overcome by smoke? But the smoke was only now just drifting faintly into the room.

“Debra?” He ran to the side of her bed, but she didn’t move at the sound of her name. “Debra!” He shook her and gasped in relief as she roused.

“Trey?” She sat up in obvious confusion and shoved a tangle of hair off her face. “Trey, what’s happening? Why are you in my bedroom?”

“Fire. There’s a fire downstairs. We’ve got to get you out of here.” He didn’t wait for her to get out of the bed. He handed her the wet cloth. “Put this over your nose and mouth,” he said and then he scooped her up in his arms and rushed down the hallway toward the stairs.

On the lower level he could hear the sound of firemen at work and when he reached the living room the fire was out and only the smoke and soot remained.

Trey carried Debra directly out the front door, where emergency vehicles had been joined by news vans. It wasn’t until he tried to lay her down in the grass that he realized she was crying.

“It’s okay,” he said, shouting to be heard above the din. He was aware of a familiar reporter standing nearby, but his focus was solely on Debra. “You’re safe now,” he said in an effort to comfort her.

She shook her head and clung to him, her sobs of fear breaking his heart. “You saved my life,” she said, the words coming out in deep gasps. “You saved our baby’s life.”

In the glow of the headlights around them he saw the horror on her face as the words left her lips. Everything else faded away...the lights, the people and the sound. The entire world shrunk to just him and her and the words that had just fallen from her lips.

She released her hold on him and instead wrapped her arms around herself as she shivered, refusing to meet his gaze.

“Our baby?”

She looked up at him. Her tear-filled gaze held his as she slowly nodded her head and then began to weep once again. He stood, his head reeling with the information that the baby she carried was his. Not Barry’s, but his baby.

He helped her to her bare feet as the fire chief approached them. “There’s not a lot of damage,” he said. “It looks worse than it is, mostly smoke. We didn’t even have to use our hoses. We got it out with fire extinguishers. It was intentionally set, an accelerant used. I’m guessing gasoline by the smell of things,” he said to Trey and then turned his attention to Debra. “We’ll do a full investigation but I’m afraid you’ll need to find someplace else to sleep tonight.”

“I’ll take you to Mom’s,” Trey said. He took Debra’s arm and looked at the fire chief. “You’ll see to it that a guard is posted for the duration? I broke a window in the back to get inside.”

“A police officer is already standing by. We’ll make sure everything is secure before we leave here.”

“And you’ll let us know what your investigation discovers?”

“Absolutely, Mr. Winston.” He smiled sympathetically at Debra. “We should be finished with our documenting the crime scene by midday tomorrow. If you get a good cleaning crew in here you should be able to return home either tomorrow night or by Monday.”

“Thank you,” she replied, her voice barely audible among the other noise.

“Let’s get out of here,” Trey said. He found his cell phone where he’d tossed it in the grass and then they started for his car.

Before they could get there a bright beam of a camera light flashed in Trey’s face and a microphone was thrust in his direction.

The reporter he’d seen earlier smiled like the cat that had swallowed the canary. “Mr. Winston, would you like to make a statement about Ms. Prentice’s pregnancy?”

“No comment,” Trey growled and grabbing Debra closer to his side, he hurried her to his car.

Once she was in the passenger seat, he slid behind the wheel and started the engine with a roar. He pulled away from the curb, a myriad of emotions racing through him and he was afraid to say anything to her until he’d sorted them all out.

She shivered and he didn’t know if it was because she was clad only in a copper-colored short nightgown or if it was because she didn’t know what to expect next.

Hell, he didn’t know what to expect next. There was a part of him that was filled with great joy at the idea of her carrying his child and there was also a part of him that battled anger that she’d intended to keep the baby a secret from him, to pretend that the baby belonged to her old boyfriend.

He couldn’t begin to think about the fact that somebody had gotten into her house without him seeing them. That person or persons had set her living room on fire. He hoped the initial assessment was wrong and that it had been faulty wiring or something other than a man-made flame.

For several long minutes they rode in silence and it was finally he who broke it. “You were never going to tell me the truth about the baby?”

“The last thing I wanted to do was screw things up for you,” she replied. “I figured it would just be easier to pretend the baby was Barry’s and then you get to have your shining future with Cecily and everyone would be happy.”

The fact that she’d lied for him to keep his dream alive stole away any anger he might harbor against her. She was willing to sacrifice the Winston power and influence for his happiness, to assure that he reached his dreams.

She’d been willing to go through all the struggles and sacrifices as a single mother to allow him to reach his own goals.

Once again silence fell between them. His brain felt half-contused from bouncing around in his skull. Too many things had occurred in too short a time.

“I’ll arrange a cleaning crew to come to your place as soon as the fire department releases it,” he said. “I’ll also see to it that a security system is installed.” He didn’t even want to acknowledge at this point that somebody had apparently entered her house and set fire to the curtains.

He pulled up to the side entrance of the estate but didn’t turn off the car, nor did she make a move to leave. “That reporter, he heard what I said.” Her voice was a whisper. “It will be all over the news tomorrow.” She stared straight ahead, her face pale in the illumination from the dashboard. She finally turned to him, her eyes wide and holding a soft vulnerability. “What do you want me to do?”

“What do you mean?” He eyed her curiously.

“I could lie. I could say that the reporter misunderstood what I said, that I was confused by the fire and everything that was going on.”

“That’s definitely not going to happen,” he replied. And it was at that moment he knew he wasn’t going to marry Cecily. Even if he got to be where he wanted to be in the political arena, he didn’t want the cool, absolutely perfect Cecily next to him.

“Marry me,” he said.

Her eyes widened. “Don’t talk crazy.”

“It’s not crazy,” he responded. “You’re the mother of my child. We’d make a family and you’d never have to worry about anything.”


“That’s a ridiculous idea and I won’t marry you.” She opened the car door and in the dome light she looked ghostly pale and exhausted. “Right now I’m going inside to sleep and in the morning I have to figure out who got into my house and tried to burn it down with me still inside. You deal with the press however you want to. I’ll follow your lead. I just can’t deal with anything else tonight.”

She got out of the car and slammed the door. He remained sitting in the car long after she’d disappeared inside the house.

A baby...a fire... His head ached with the night’s events. Cecily was going to be angry when he broke it off with her, but that was the least of his problems at the moment.

What concerned him more than anything was the fact that he believed twice now somebody had tried to kill not just Debra, but the child she carried, as well... His child.

Tomorrow he’d deal with Cecily. Tomorrow he’d also discuss his intention to be a huge part of the baby’s life. He’d have to deal with whatever the news reports contained and he needed to speak to Thad about this newest threat against Debra.

The one thing he didn’t care about at the moment was any ramifications this might have on his career. And the odd thing was that he wasn’t sure he cared.