Her Secret, His Duty

Chapter 15


A thousand things occurred almost simultaneously, creating wild chaos. A shot sounded. The glass table shattered, cups and glasses crashing to the ground. Trey dove across the broken table to reach Debra who sat in her chair stunned.

He scrambled to her, yanked her from the chair and pulled her to the ground. Sam grabbed his mother’s hand and pulled her down also as Thad and half a dozen Secret Service men raced in all directions. Thad and a couple of men ran to the side entrance gate and out of the backyard.

Two other agents rushed to stand next to the shattered table, their backs to each other and their weapons drawn as they protected everyone on the ground. Several more agents raced to the back of the yard, their guns pointed up at the tree where the shooter was no longer visible.

“Are you okay?” Trey asked as he covered Debra’s body with his on the hard concrete near the pool.

Around them chaos continued to reign as men yelled to each other and another gunshot split the air. Trey could feel the frantic beat of Debra’s heart against his own.

Her breath came in gasps of terror against his collarbone and his brain worked to try to make sense of what had just happened, what was still happening. “Yes,” she replied, her voice small and scared.

There was no question that somebody had been in those trees, that Thad had spied what apparently had been a man with a gun. The gun had been fired, shattering the table, but had the bullet been meant for his mother or for Debra?

His body shuddered at the thought of either woman being shot. He looked over at Sam, who had their mother down against the concrete, a look of anguish on his face.

Trey knew his brother was probably wishing he had his weapon on him, but Sam had been deemed unfit for duty and all of his weapons had been taken from him by the army brass who had released him.

Trey’s body jerked as another gunshot exploded and then Thad’s voice rose in the distance. It had a triumphant tone and Trey felt the muscles in his body begin to relax a bit.

One of the Secret Service men standing near them talked into his radio, listened a moment and then turned to face everyone on the ground. “They’ve got the shooter in custody.”

The two agents remained on guard as both Trey and Sam rose and helped Debra and Kate to their feet. It was only as he saw Debra’s terror-filled eyes that he recognized the bottomless depth of his love for her.

He pulled her to him and she willingly huddled in the secure embrace of his arms. Love. It flowed through him, unmistakable and undeniable. But he didn’t know what to do about it, knew there was nothing to be done about it.

“Well, that’s the way to end a toast with a bang,” Kate said in a slightly shaky voice as Sam helped her to her feet.

“We’d like all of you to move as quickly as possible into the house,” Secret Service Agent Daniel Henderson said as he took Kate by the arm. “It’s for your own safety. We don’t know who else might be out here somewhere.”

As Daniel ushered Kate back into the house, Trey did the same with Debra, still unsure who the ultimate target had been. They all took seats in the sitting room and waited, the silence in the room growing more and more tense with each minute that passed.


Had there been more than one shooter? Had this been some sort of an organized attack? Trey’s mind raced to make sense of what had just occurred.

Thad, Jerry Cahill and Robert D’Angelis appeared at the back door. Between Thad and Robert was a thin man in scruffy jeans and a black jacket. His hands were cuffed behind him and Robert held a high-powered rifle with a scope in his hand.

“Ms. Winston, do you know this person?”

Trey stared at the man. He was small and slender and wore a black sweatshirt and jeans. His eyes were dark and a smirk formed on his thin lips as if everyone else was in handcuffs and he was free.

Sam lunged toward him. “Who are you and why were you shooting at my mother?” he yelled. Kate stopped him from advancing by grabbing his arm.

“I don’t have to talk to you,” the man said with a scowl. “I don’t have to talk to any of you. I know my rights. Besides, if I don’t talk then I get some time in prison. If I do talk then I get a bullet to the back of my head. It’s a no-brainer. I don’t have nothing to say to nobody.”

“I’ve never seen him before in my life,” Kate finally said.

“Get him out of here,” Sam growled. “Get him the hell out of here.”

Thad and Cahill took the man back out the door where Trey assumed he’d be handed over to Secret Service agents and other authorities to deal with.

Sam turned his wrath on Daniel Henderson and Robert D’Angelis. “How in the hell did this happen? How did that little creep manage to get up in a tree with a rifle without any of the agents noticing? I want to know who didn’t do their job.”

“I don’t know how this happened, but I promise you by the end of the day we’ll have some answers,” Robert replied, his gray eyes cold and narrowed. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go find out as much information as I can right now.”

He headed through the house, toward the kitchen and the side door that would bring him out by the guesthouse where the security operations and agents worked from.

Trey turned to look at Debra, who stood beside him, frozen like a deer in headlights. It was only then that he saw a trickle of blood seeping from her hairline down the side of her face.

His heartbeat spiked as he grabbed her by the arm. Had one of the bullets grazed her? “Debra, you’re hurt,” he said. Had a piece of shattered glass from the table ricocheted to her?

“What?” She looked at him with blank eyes.

“Your head... You’re bleeding.” He dropped his hand from her arm.

She raised a hand up and touched the area and then stared at the blood on her hand and then back at him. “It must be glass from the table.”

“We need to get you cleaned up,” Kate said briskly, back in control despite the horror of what had just happened.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Trey knew it was this very trait, the ability to function with a cool head in a crisis, that would benefit the country if Kate was elected.

“Maddie,” Kate turned to the housekeeper who hovered in the doorway. “Take Debra into one of the bathrooms and clean up her face and check to make sure she doesn’t have any glass in her hair or on her clothes. I’m going upstairs where Birdie can help me do the same thing. Sam and Trey, you both need to make sure there isn’t any glass in your clothing or hair.”

“Come on, honey,” Maddie said to Debra as she walked across the room and gently took Debra’s hand in hers. “Let’s go get you all cleaned up.”

The two women left the sitting room and Kate turned to Daniel Henderson, the last agent left in the room. “You can go, Daniel. We’re good now. Just please keep me informed of anything you hear about the investigation into what just happened.”

Daniel gave Kate a stiff half bow. “You know I’ll do whatever I can to get to the bottom of this, but I imagine by now all kinds of agencies will be moving in to take over the investigation. Of course the Secret Service will be doing most of the work.”

“Just keep me informed.” Kate headed out of the sitting room while Daniel left by the back doors.

Sam remained in place, his hands in fists at his sides and angry frustration evident in every muscle in his body. “I should have seen that guy in the tree. I should have been paying more attention. I was trained to watch out for snipers.”

“Cut yourself a break, Sam,” Trey replied. “You weren’t trained to look for snipers in our backyard at a breakfast. But I’d like to know who hired that guy. From what he said he was definitely a hired gun.”

Sam’s hands relaxed. “Either that or he was just a thug trying to make a name for himself and he just added in that bit about a bullet to the head business to make us believe he was nothing more than a hired gun.”

Sam threw himself into one of the nearby chairs. “Hell, she hasn’t even formally declared yet and already somebody is trying to kill her.”

“At this point we can’t be sure exactly who the target was,” Trey replied, also sitting down in a chair near Sam.

“Who else would the target be?” Sam asked, looking at Trey as if he’d lost his mind.

“Maybe rumor had gotten out that you’ve been a real cranky ass to live with and Mom actually hired that man to put you out of your own misery,” Trey said with a teasing tone.

“Ha ha, very funny,” Sam replied.

“Okay, then Thad could have been the target because of his police work, or me because I’ve declared my intentions to run for senator.” He paused a moment, his chest burning with anxiety. “Or the target could have been Debra. She’s already been targeted by somebody twice. Maybe this was a final attempt to get rid of her.”

Sam drew a deep breath and fell back into the chair. “What a mess.”

“I suggest we both do what Mom said and head into bathrooms to check ourselves for glass,” Trey replied.

Definitely a mess, Trey thought as he went in one direction and Sam disappeared in another. Somebody had just missed being shot and even though they had the shooter in custody Trey wasn’t feeling optimistic that any agency would be able to get any real information out of the creep.

Was it possible that this would make his mother change her mind about running for president? Somehow Trey believed that if anything this would make her more resolute to follow through on her plans.

Trey knew that beneath Kate’s pleasant exterior beat the heart of a warrior and a will of steel. She knew the dangers the office held and he had a feeling she would still be just as determined to make a run for the White House.

What he needed to do was talk to Thad and bring up the fact that it was possible the target wasn’t Kate at all, but rather Debra.

Debra.

His heart filled with the newly realized love he felt for her. Yes, everything was a mess. A man had just shot to kill somebody seated at the table and he was in love with a woman who apparently didn’t love him back, a woman who might have been the intended victim of the shooting.

* * *

Debra sat on the toilet lid as Maddie used tweezers to pick pieces of glass from her hair and off her sweater. Maddie had already cleaned the blood off her face and Debra had sat like a child being ministered to by a loving mother.

She knew that she was in a little bit of shock because everything felt surreal. Her heart had finally found a normal rhythm after having beat nearly right out of her chest.

Everything that had happened to her—the mad drive in the middle of the night with no brakes, the fire that had occurred in her house—both seemed like mere nuisances when compared to what had just happened.

Somebody had shot a gun with the intent to kill. It was only by chance that Thad had seen the man in the tree and his warning shout had apparently made the gunman lose his aim.

Who had he been aiming at?

Who had been his target?

The logical answer would be Kate, but Debra couldn’t stop the idea that kept coming back into her head, the idea that the target had been her. A shiver worked through her.

“Are you cold?” Maddie asked with concern. “Would you like a blanket or something around your shoulders while I finish up?”

“No, I’m fine. I’m just suffering from a little bit of post-traumatic stress. I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so frightened.”

“You just need to relax now. You’re safe and at least they caught the man. Besides, it’s not good for your baby for you to be so stressed out.”

Debra nearly laughed. Her baby wouldn’t know how to exist without stress. Debra had been mentally frazzled since the moment she’d taken those three pregnancy tests. God, that felt like years ago. So much had happened in the past four weeks.

The thought that she was losing her mind, the crash of her car, the fire in her house... The only good thing that had happened was that since the new security system had been installed nothing in her home had disappeared only to reappear later.

Still, the idea that somebody had enjoyed free access to her home to try to drive her crazy and then had moved to more deadly means of getting rid of her would haunt her until somebody had been caught and jailed for the offenses.

“There, I think we got them all,” Maddie said as she stepped back from Debra. On the vanity counter on a paper towel were about a dozen slivers of glass in various sizes.


Maddie took Debra’s chin and raised her face so that she could look into Debra’s eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay, honey? Maybe a nice hot cup of tea would help calm you down a bit.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Debra agreed as she got up from her sitting position. “And thank you, Maddie, for taking such good care of me.”

Maddie smiled. “That’s what I do. I take care of Winstons.” She swept up the paper with the glass in her hands and then left the bathroom.

But I’m not a Winston, Debra thought as she stared at her reflection in the mirror over the sink. She looked shell-shocked, her hair a mess, her eyes too big and still filled with the terror that had momentarily made it impossible to move away from the shattered table.

Trey had virtually thrown himself across what was left of the table to get to her and pulled her to the ground where he’d covered her body with his, protecting her from harm.

No, not her, but their baby. He’d been protecting his baby from harm. She just happened to be carrying that baby. She left the bathroom, unsure if she wanted the cup of tea or not.

What she really wanted was to be at the townhouse, safe within the walls of her highly secured home. What she wanted was to know who was behind the attacks on her, who was responsible for wanting her to believe that she was going crazy.

Trey met her in the hall, his eyes dark and his expression radiating concern. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.

She nodded. “It was just a small cut. Maddie got it to stop bleeding and I’m perfectly fine.” She raised a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear and knew the tremble of her hand belied her words.

“Okay, so I’m not so fine,” she admitted. “I’m definitely shaken up and Maddie is making me a cup of tea to calm my nerves.”

“Then let’s go to the kitchen and have a cup of tea.” He took her by the elbow, his touch gentle and warm.

They entered the huge kitchen and went directly to the small table where Sam often sat to have his morning coffee.

“Just in time. Maddie told me you would be in for a nice cup of tea,” Myra said, and set a cup in front of Debra. “Do you want sugar? Lemon? And do you want a cup, too, Trey?”

“No, thanks, I’m good.”

“And this is fine for me. Thanks, Myra.” Debra wrapped her hands around the heat of the cup in an attempt to warm the cold places that had found a home inside her during the past thirty minutes.

For a few moments she and Trey sat in silence. Debra sipped her tea and looked out the window where a number of security agents were gathered in front of the guesthouse.

Somebody’s head would roll for the breach in security, she thought. “I wouldn’t want to be the agent in charge of security for that quadrant of the yard.”

Trey followed her gaze and then looked back at her. “Somebody will figure it out. I just thank God that Thad saw the guy before he managed to hurt somebody.”

Debra took a sip of her tea and then returned the cup to the saucer. “You know it’s possible it wasn’t about your mother.”

He held her gaze and in the depths of his troubled eyes she realized the thought had already crossed his mind. “We can’t jump the gun. We don’t know who the target was supposed to be right now.”

“But you understand that given everything that has happened to this point in time, it’s very possible I was the target.” Just saying the words out loud leeched any warmth she might have gained back out of her body.

She shoved the cup of tea aside. “What I’d really like to do right now is go home.” Tears burned at her eyes and blurred her vision as she stared down at the table. “I just want to go home,” she repeated softly.

“Then I’ll take you home.” Trey stood and touched her shoulder.

“But my car is here.”

“Debra, I’d feel better under the circumstances if I drive you home. You’re still upset and I can always bring you back here for work in the morning and you’ll have your car here to drive home tomorrow night.”

She nodded and stood. She was grateful that he was taking charge, that she didn’t have to drive herself. Sometimes it was better to allow somebody else to take care of things and this was definitely one of those times. She’d been taking care of herself for her entire life and just for a little while she wanted to abdicate control.

They were escorted to Trey’s car by two agents with guns drawn and gazes narrowed and focused on their surroundings. Debra felt as if she had entered an action film set. Surreal. How had her life gotten so dramatic, so intense?

She breathed a sigh of relief as Trey pulled out of the driveway and away from the estate. “I have to say, Kate sure knows how to put on an exciting breakfast.”

“Let’s hope we never have one as exciting as this one again,” Trey replied. “The shooter, you didn’t recognize him, did you?”

“No, I’m fairly sure I’ve never seen him before in my life, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t hired by somebody to kill me.” The words created an almost physical pain inside her. The idea that somebody hated her so much was unbelievable.

“Keep in mind that we don’t know that this attack was about you,” Trey said.

“I understand that. I get that your mother might have political enemies, but we both know I have an enemy, too, and maybe that person has given up trying to kill me and make it look like an accident.”

“Thad will be checking it out along with the Secret Service,” he replied. “I intend to talk to Thad about the fact that this might have been an attempt on you and not on Mom.”

Debra stared out the side window. “It just all feels so horrible, to know that there’s somebody out there who wants me dead. I’ve never done anything to anyone. I’ve never harmed anyone. Who could have such hatred for me?”

“I wish I knew, Debra.”

They were silent for the remainder of the ride and she was grateful for the quiet. She still was trying to process what had happened, how quickly a lovely family toast could have turned into a complete and utter tragedy.

When Trey pulled up to the curb in front of her townhouse, he shut off the engine and then turned to look at her. “Stay put,” he said.

She watched as he got out of the driver side and then came around to her side of the car and opened her door. He instantly pulled her out of the seat and surrounded her with his own body.

Awkwardly they made their way to the front door, him like a shield wrapped around her back. She was tense, expecting a gunshot at any moment or a knife-wielding maniac to jump out of the bushes nearby.

She didn’t relax until they were safely inside the house with the security on. She collapsed onto the sofa and Trey sank down next to her. It only took a simple touch from him and she was in his arms, crying out the stress and fear as he held her tight and murmured words of comfort.

Her crying jag lasted only a couple of minutes and then she sat up and wiped the tears from her face. “I’m okay now. I just needed to get that out.”

He smiled at her. “My mother always said that a good cry never hurt anyone.” He leaned back against the sofa cushion. “So I guess there’s no Sunday specialty cooking planned for today.”

“I’m thinking dinner is going to be something nice and easy,” she replied.

“Maybe you should put something in your stomach now,” he suggested. “I noticed you didn’t eat much earlier.”

It was obvious he was in no hurry to leave and she wasn’t sure she wanted him to go just yet. Nerves still jangled through her and the horror of the morning lingered.

“A bowl of soup might be good,” she replied. She pulled herself up from the sofa and he followed suit.

“Why don’t you just go into the kitchen and sit at the table and I can handle the soup,” he said.

She thought about protesting, but instead merely nodded. “Thank you, I appreciate it. I’m still feeling just a little bit shaky.”

Together they went into the kitchen where Debra took a seat at the table and Trey moved to the pantry where she stored her canned goods.

“I see chicken noodle, tomato and split pea.” He looked back at her and made a face. “You don’t really eat that split-pea stuff, do you?”

She laughed, unable to help herself at his look of utter disgust. “Actually I do and I love it. But I think a bowl of chicken noodle will be just fine, and open two cans if you’d like some, too.”

“Maybe I’ll just do that,” he replied as he grabbed a saucepan from the baker’s rack.

“Wouldn’t you rather be back at the estate checking on the investigation instead of here babysitting me?” she asked, suddenly feeling guilty for taking up his time.

“The Secret Service will take over any investigation so there’s really nothing I can do there. Thad will have his nose in things and will let me know of any breaking news.”

He paused to use the can opener and poured the contents of the two soup cans into the saucepan. “Besides, I can’t think of anyplace else I’d rather be right now than here with you eating canned soup.”

He placed the saucepan on a stove burner and turned it on and then dug into her silverware drawer for a big spoon. She stared out the window and wished he wouldn’t say things like that to her. He shouldn’t be so nice to her. He made her want more than what he’d ever be able to offer to her.


She shouldn’t have even let him come inside. This whole scene was a little too domestic for her taste. It brought up the yearning for it to be real, for them to be together as a true couple.

As he stirred the soup, Debra found her gaze wandering around the room, looking everywhere but at him. It was bad enough that she could smell his familiar cologne, a scent she thought she’d never get out of her mind.

She frowned as she spied something under the edge of one of her lower cabinets. Had she dropped something that had rolled there? She couldn’t imagine what it was, but it appeared to hold a touch of sparkle.

“What are you doing?” he asked as she got up from her chair.

“There’s something here on the floor under the cabinet.” She bent down and grabbed it, then stood and opened her hand. It was an earring. A diamond and ruby earring that she’d never seen before in her life.

“What is it?”

“It’s an earring, but it isn’t mine.” She looked at him in confusion.

Trey stepped away from the stove to see what she held. His face paled and he stumbled backward a step.

“Trey? What’s wrong?” Debra’s heart began to pound as she saw the odd look on his face as he stared at the piece of jewelry.

“I know that earring. I bought a pair of them for Cecily.”

Debra frowned. “How would one of Cecily’s earrings get into my kitchen?” She gasped in stunned surprise as the realization of who was behind the attacks on her became apparent by the piece of expensive jewelry she held in her hand.