Her Secret, His Duty

Chapter 12


“Marry me.”

Debra awoke with the ring of Trey’s words echoing in her head. She was in the same bedroom where she’d stayed following her car accident and as she thought of everything that had happened the night before she wanted to pull the blankets up over her head and never get up again.

A glance at the clock on the nightstand let her know it was after ten. Obscenely late for her to still be in bed. She should be at her desk, she thought and then realized it was Sunday. She should at least be at her house finding out what the fire marshal had learned. She should be anywhere but under the covers thinking about how often she’d fantasized Trey saying those two words to her.

“Marry me.”

In her fantasies he’d spoken the words because he loved her, because he couldn’t imagine a life without her. In her dreams he’d held her in his arms and kissed her with love and commitment as they planned a future together.

In reality she knew he’d said the words in an effort to begin damage control and perhaps because he wanted to be a part of his baby’s life. He’d proposed to the baby inside of her, but not to her.

There had been no love offered from him. If she’d agreed it would have been like a business deal to him, a merger to get accomplished for the best results possible.

She was worth more than that. The off-the-cuff proposal had stabbed through her loving heart like an arrow. She wouldn’t be his lover and she refused to be an inconvenient wife to him.

Hopefully, despite her pregnancy, he could make things right with Cecily and continue on his way. Surely he could figure out a way to make Cecily forgive him for a single night’s indiscretion. Of course eventually there would be custody issues to deal with, weekends and holidays when the child would be with him... With them, instead of with her.

She turned over on her back and stared up at the ceiling, reluctant to face any part of the day. Somebody had tried to kill her last night. Somebody had come into her home and started a fire in the wee hours of the morning. If Trey hadn’t been there she probably would have died of smoke inhalation long before the flames reached her bedroom.

She frowned thoughtfully. What had Trey been doing at her house at that time of night? How had he managed to be at exactly the right place at exactly the right time when it should have been the last place he’d be? It didn’t make sense, but then nothing about her life lately had made any sense at all.

Somebody had gotten into her house. Who? Who had crept in and started a fire that would have certainly been the death of her if Trey hadn’t rescued her?

A knock fell on her door and Kate came in carrying a cup of hot tea. Debra wanted to hide her face in shame. Instead she pulled herself up to a sitting position and took the cup of tea that Kate offered her.

Kate sat on a tufted chair next to the bed. “Well, my dear, you’ve created quite a stir.”

“Kate, I’m so sorry,” she said miserably.

“Sorry about what?” Kate smiled at her kindly. “I should be angry with you for not telling me that you’re carrying my first grandbaby, but I’m not. I understand why you lied about the father of the baby.”

“I didn’t want to mess things up for Trey and now I’ve ruined everything,” she said, fighting back a wave of tears that threatened with every word. She set the tea on the nightstand, afraid of spilling it and making even more of a mess of everything.

“Nonsense,” Kate said briskly. “Oh, there’s no denying that some adjustments will need to be made, but Trey is intelligent and flexible. This won’t stop him from getting where he wants to go.”

She pursed her lips and held Debra’s gaze. “You know, somehow I’m not surprised by the news. There is an energy between you and my son that I’ve noticed every time the two of you are in the same room.”

“It was just one night. One crazy, stupid night,” Debra replied. “Only I would be stupid enough not to think about birth control.”

“Debra, darling, you aren’t the first woman in the world to make a mistake where that’s concerned.”

“But...the press,” Debra protested.

Kate gave her a look of distaste. “The news is out everywhere with such salacious headlines that one would think the two of you committed some heinous murder rather than slept together. Trey has a press conference this afternoon at four to address the issue.”

Kate motioned to the cup on the nightstand. “Drink that before it gets cold.” Debra grabbed the cup and raised it to her lips as Kate continued. “Trey spoke to Cecily this morning. He told her that under the circumstances he was breaking off their relationship for the time being. He told her he needed some time to figure out all the ways this will impact him.”

Debra swallowed hard. “How did she take it?”

Kate leaned back in the chair. “According to Trey she was a bit upset, but in the end quite gracious about the whole thing. She said she still intended on being involved in his campaign and wished him well in his personal life if they didn’t manage to reconnect. Cecily is a survivor, Kate. She’s a barracuda who will find a mate based on criteria that will make her the most successful in the endgame.”

“But surely she’s terribly hurt and Trey has to make her understand that I don’t mean anything to him, that it was all just a terrible mistake. Surely they can work through it. She is in love with him,” Debra replied.

Kate smiled. “I seriously doubt that Cecily is in love with Trey. She is in love with who he will become and where that would take her. If they don’t get back together she’ll move on and will be quite fine, I’m sure.”

She stood. “I’m not sure how you and Trey intend to work things out between you, but I’ll have you know that I intend to embrace that baby with all the love I have to give. And now, speaking of Trey, he and Thad are in the sitting room and want to talk to you.”

She moved toward the doorway. “Haley happened to have a pair of sweats and a T-shirt that you can put on. Anything I own would be too short on you. The clothes are laid out in the bathroom. Once you’re showered and dressed, we’ll see you downstairs.”

The minute she left the room Debra set her cup down and flopped her head back on the pillow. She didn’t want to face Trey. She didn’t want to talk to Thad. She just wanted to hide for the rest of her life.

But she couldn’t hide. Reluctantly she got out of bed and carried her teacup with her into the bathroom and set it on the counter while she got into the shower.

She hadn’t noticed the odor of smoke that had clung to her until it was washing away down the drain. She’d spent her morning thinking about Trey and all the ramifications of her secret unexpectedly being spilled. Now it was time to think about who had been in her house and who wanted her dead.

Haley’s gray sweatpants fit comfortably and the navy T-shirt hid the fact that Debra didn’t have on a bra. Trey had carried her out the night before in her nightgown and so she hadn’t been wearing one. Kate had even provided a pair of flip-flops for her to wear.

She slid on the shoes and then walked down the stairs with dread weighing down each footstep. She dreaded seeing Trey again and she knew that Thad was here to talk about the fact that somebody had tried to kill her. The fire made the cut brake lines very personal and this thought chilled her to the bone. Two attempts on her life... Who could be behind them? And why would anyone go to such trouble to kill her?

Trey was seated on the sofa and Thad in a chair opposite him. Both of them stood as she entered the room. She motioned them back down and then sat on the opposite end of the sofa from Trey, carefully keeping her gaze away from him.

He probably hated her for spilling her secret at a place and a time where a reporter would overhear. He probably hated her for making him scramble to deflect any negativity that might come in his direction at this important time in his life. She was also the reason he’d had to break it off with Cecily. Such a mess she’d made of everything.


“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“I’m okay,” she replied and finally forced herself to look at him. There was no anger shining from his eyes, there was nothing but a gentle caring. For the baby, she thought. He would put aside any anger he might feel toward her for the sake of the baby she carried.

“We need to talk about what happened last night,” Thad said.

She nodded and then looked at Trey again. “Why were you there last night? How did you happen to be there at just the right time?”

She was surprised to see a faint color creep up his neck. “I’d been parked outside your house every night since you quit staying here. I just had a bad feeling after the car accident and so I was spending my nights parked outside your place, watching to make sure nobody bothered you.”

She stared at him in stunned surprise. He’d been doing that for her and he hadn’t even known yet that the baby was his. He’d been there each night, keeping vigil over her. Maybe he did care about her just a little bit.

“Thank goodness he was there,” Thad said. “I touched base with the fire marshal this morning and the fire was definitely set at the foot of the curtains in the living room, probably with a pile of papers and gasoline.”

“I just don’t understand this,” she replied. “I mean, if somebody wanted to kill me, then why set the fire? Why not just creep up the stairs and stab me while I slept? Why not shoot me with a gun and be done with it?”

“I’m guessing that whoever is behind all of this wants your death to look like an accident. The point of ignition in the living room was just beneath an outlet. If the fire department hadn’t gotten there as quickly as they did because of Trey’s phone call, then the fire chief might not have smelled the gasoline and it might have been written up as a tragic electrical fire.”

Debra rubbed her hand across her forehead, where a small headache was forming. “I don’t understand any of this.”

“My team checked the house. Other than the window Trey broke to get inside and him unlocking the front door to enable the firemen to enter, there appeared to be no point of entry that wasn’t a normal one, which leads me to believe somebody got in using a key. So, my question to you now is who has keys to your house?”

She stared at Thad. A key? Somebody had used a key to get into her home? The misplaced items, the guest list in the freezer... Was it possible somebody had been accessing her house all along? Was it possible she wasn’t losing her mind after all, but rather was being made to believe she was going mad?

“Strange things have been happening for the last several weeks,” she said. “Cups disappear and reappear in the cabinets, a paperweight on my desk vanished and then two days later was back where it belonged. I thought I was losing my mind. I believed I was going insane.”

“Why didn’t you say anything before now?” Trey asked in surprise.

“Because I thought it was me. I thought I was doing those things to myself.” She slumped back on the sofa, horrified and yet relieved. “Keys, your mom has a key and Haley has one. I imagine several people on staff have a key to my house because occasionally they’re sent to pick something up from there.”

“What about Barry?” Trey asked.

She looked at him and slowly nodded. “Yes, Barry has a key. He never gave it back to me after we broke up.” Her head reeled. Was it possible Barry had known she intended to break up with him and had pulled an end run by breaking up with her before she got a chance? Was it possible he was so angry with her that he could be behind these deadly assaults on her?

At this point she didn’t know what to think. “Can I get into the house?”

“You won’t want to stay there until some cleanup work is done,” Trey replied. “I’ve got a crew in there now. They should be finished by sometime late this afternoon. I suggest you stay here for tonight and tomorrow you should be able to go back home.”

“You’ll have a new security system that Trey is having installed. It will alert you if anyone tries to get into a door or window in the house. He’s also made sure that all the locks on the doors are being changed. Whoever has a key now will find that it doesn’t work if they try to get in again.” Thad looked down at the notes he’d taken and then back at her.

“Right now I’m going to see how many house keys I can retrieve from the people you’ve said have one and each person better hope they have good alibis for the night of the dinner and last night.” He rose from the chair. “And on that note I’m out of here and will check in with both of you later.”

Debra turned to look at Trey, unsure what to say to make anything better. “I’m sorry about you and Cecily. Hopefully you two can work things out despite everything that’s happened. I never meant for any of this to get between the two of you. I hope you told her that I don’t expect anything from you.”

Trey held up a hand to halt her ramble. “Cecily is fine,” he replied. “I told her I needed a break to figure things out, but right now I’m more worried about you than any other relationship. I think you need to take the day and rest. Later tonight if everything is ready and I know that the security is up and working, then, if you want, I can take you home.”

“How bad is the damage?”

“Actually less than what I initially thought. The only area that was damaged was around the front windows. Your living room will need a new paint job, but the firemen got enough windows open quickly after putting out the flames that the smoke damage was minimal.”

She nodded and stared at the coffee table. “I’m sure we’ll have lots of things to discuss and work out in the future, but right now everything just seems too overwhelming.”

“Which is why I would encourage you to eat a good breakfast and then maybe go back to bed for some extra sleep.” His voice was tender and filled with a caring that both soothed and somehow hurt at the same time.

He cared about her because of the baby, she reminded herself. As she thought about the car accident and the fire, she only hoped she managed to stay alive long enough to give birth to a healthy full-term baby.

* * *

Trey stood in Debra’s living room, checking to make sure everything had been done that could be done to clean up the mess and secure her safety. The doorknobs had already been changed out and the security company was finishing up its work.

He’d even had a painting crew come in to Sheetrock and paint the wall that had been damaged. At least the house now smelled of new paint instead of smoke.

His press conference had gone as smoothly as he’d expected it to go. He’d made an announcement that Debra Prentice was carrying his child and while the two had no plans to marry he intended to be a loving, supportive father to his baby and a friend and support to Debra.

Surprisingly, in the world of political news it had made only a small splash. Both he and Debra were single, consenting adults and that fact took any salacious elements out of the situation.

Cecily had even made a statement of support for him, showing her to be a classy lady as she lauded the many good qualities he possessed and the fact that she and Trey had agreed to take their personal relationship one day at a time.

Trey knew she was giving a signal that she would stand by her man. But as much as Trey appreciated her loyalty, after speaking with her and telling her they needed to take a break from each other, he’d felt more relief than he’d expected.

He hadn’t realized how much pressure everyone had been subtly putting on him to pop the question, make a formal announcement of an engagement. Now with that pressure off him, he realized whether good or bad for his campaign he wasn’t ready to marry Cecily.

All in all, politically he’d weathered the storm, but that didn’t mean all was well. There was no question he was frightened for Debra and he’d spent much of the day working names of people around in his mind, as if the guilty person would suddenly appear in his head like a magical vision.

At the moment his suspicions were on Haley, who had jokingly told Debra time and time again that she was after Debra’s job.

As he thought of the sequence of events as he knew them it made a strange kind of sick sense. How better to undermine Debra’s confidence in her ability to do her job than by gas-lighting her into thinking she was losing her mind?

Maybe the results of that hadn’t worked as quickly as she’d hoped. Haley had known that Debra would be at the dinner party and Haley also knew Debra’s car.

He didn’t believe that Haley had actually crawled under the car herself, but she was young and pretty and probably had a male friend who could do it.

What he’d like to do was grab Haley by the scruff of her neck and force her to tell the truth one way or the other. But Thad had made it clear to Trey that he was to stay away from the investigation because it was now in the hands of the Raleigh Police Department.

Just when Trey had convinced himself that Haley was responsible, he’d change his mind and think about Jerry Cahill. The Secret Service agent had made it clear that he wanted to date Debra, and Debra had made it equally clear to him that she wasn’t interested. Cahill would know how to cut brake lines. He probably even had the ability to break into a house and leave no trace behind.


And then there was the possibility of it being somebody not even on Trey’s radar. The only thing he knew for certain was that Debra was in danger and he was doing everything he could to assure that her home was secure.

Although as a crime-scene investigator Thad wouldn’t specifically be driving any investigation, Trey also knew his brother would make sure that things were being done right and that the people who needed to be interviewed and checked out would be.

Thad might not spend a lot of time with the family, but when anyone was threatened, he was definitely a Winston at heart, ready to jump in and protect them at any moment.

“Hey, thought you might be here.”

Trey looked at Sam in surprise as he walked through Debra’s front door where a technician from the security company was at work. “What are you doing here?”

Sam shrugged. “I got bored at home, so I figured I’d take a ride and I wound up here. I brought you a present.”

He tossed a plastic bag to Trey, who looked inside and laughed as he saw a package of tiny diapers. “Thanks, I think we’re going to need a lot of these.”

Sam and Trey walked outside into the front yard and away from the men working in the house. “Do you have any ideas about who was responsible for this?” Sam asked.

“Lots of ideas, but not a real clue,” Trey replied.

“What about that guy Debra was dating before?”

“Barry Chambers. Debra insists he wouldn’t be involved in anything like this.”

“What about Cecily?”

Trey laughed. “Definitely not her style, besides what would be her motive?”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Uh...you’re having a baby with another woman?”

“The things happening to Debra started long before anyone knew that Debra was pregnant. In any case, Thad and the police are involved, so hopefully they’ll figure things out.”

Sam pointed to the cameras located on each corner of the house and above the front door. “It’s going to be easier to break into Fort Knox than this house when you get finished with it.”

“That’s the idea,” Trey told him.

“Why don’t you just marry her and put her in that secured mansion you bought?” Sam asked.

“I asked her and she said no.”

Sam’s eyebrows rose. “That’s a surprise. I didn’t think anyone had ever told you no,” Sam said with a touch of dry humor.

Trey smiled with affection at his brother. Sam’s calm moods came so rarely and when they did he remembered how much he loved Sam, how much he wished for better things for the brother who had served his country with honor and come home damaged. “I can’t believe I’m going to be a father.”

“You’ll be good at it,” Sam assured him. “I’ll tell you one thing, I like Debra a hell of a lot better than I ever liked Cecily.”

Trey looked at Sam in surprise. “Why don’t you like Cecily?” He’d thought the entire family was happy when he’d started dating the beautiful, wealthy socialite.

Sam scowled. “Cecily has eyes like a shark... Cold and dead. She smiles prettily, but the smiles never quite reach her eyes. She reminds me of...” His voice trailed off and he shook his head. “Never mind,” he said, tension in his voice.

“What, Sam? She reminds you of what?”

“Nothing. I’ve got to get out of here. I just wanted to deliver the baby’s first gift to you.”

“Sam?” Trey called after his brother as he turned on his heels and headed for his car. Sam didn’t look back or acknowledge Trey again. He got into his car and drove off.

Trey couldn’t begin to imagine what demons chased his brother since his imprisonment and torture at enemy hands. Apparently he saw something in Cecily’s dark eyes that brought back those terrible demons to his head.

He wondered if Sam would feel the same way about Cecily if she had blue or green eyes. He just wished that somehow, someway, his little brother could find some help and ultimately peace in his heart.

He checked his watch. He had a seven-o’clock meeting with Chad to discuss any further ramifications of Debra’s pregnancy and Trey’s impending fatherhood and how it might affect the campaign going forward.

As far as Trey was concerned, his press conference had addressed the issue and now it would be a nonissue. He still wanted his dreams of becoming a state senator, but he also wanted to be the best father in the world.

When he’d asked Debra to marry him and she’d turned him down, there was no question that he’d been hurt and that had made him realize he cared about her more than he wanted to admit to himself.

But it was obvious she didn’t feel the same way about him. There had been no hesitation when she’d told him no. Her firm reply had left no room to even discuss the matter.

She didn’t love him. It was as simple as that. They’d had a night of passion and it was a passion that still simmered inside him, still boiled between them, but ultimately she didn’t love him.

And he wasn’t sure why that fact ached in his heart. While he cared about Debra deeply, surely he wasn’t in love with her?

He thought of how she’d looked the night of the dinner dance, with that spill of emerald-green silk clinging to her curves. Despite her lack of dancing skills, she’d felt so right in his arms.

He remembered how much he enjoyed sitting in her cozy kitchen, talking about anything and everything except politics. He’d felt relaxed and at home. Was it the surroundings or was it the woman herself?

Cecily had seen him as a candidate, as a means to an end—her end. And he’d accepted that as being enough because he knew that ultimately they would make a good team.

But was being a good team enough for him? Why had he so easily accepted a relationship without love? He was fairly certain the answer was in his own childhood, where it was clear his mother and father didn’t love one another but had stayed together because of an understanding between them.

He stared back at Debra’s house and remembered that hot, sexy moment when they’d almost made love in her foyer. She’d said they couldn’t do that anymore, that they couldn’t allow themselves to lose control, but that was before he and Cecily had called it quits.

Debra might not love him, but she definitely felt passion for him. Why couldn’t they follow through on that again? Every muscle in his body tensed and his blood flowed hot through his veins as he thought of making love to her once more.

He’d like that. He’d like the pleasure of stroking her smooth skin once again, hearing her soft moans of pleasure as he took possession of her.

Now all he had to do was somehow convince her that she wanted him again, too.