Be My Baby (23 page)

He set her on our bed with one of her books
and turned back to me. He had a very sheepish look going on. He
talked in a whisper so that she couldn't hear what he was telling
me.

"I was trying to get her to pee so I ran
water in the sink. Then I had to pee so I went over to the commode.
She must've gotten off her potty chair to see what I was doing.
Right after I flushed the toilet I turned around getting my
'you-know-what' tucked back inside of my jeans and she was right
there."

I could tell that this was totally flipping
him out.

"Okay honey - it's not a big deal. In the
future though, I think that you need to make sure the door is shut
when you use the commode in our bathroom, okay?"

"That's fine Tylar but it
still doesn't answer my question as to where she learned
that
word."

"I'll ask Gina about it next time I talk to
her, okay?"

"Please do," he replied still out of
sorts.

We got Preston tucked into bed for the night
and returned to our suite. Trey went into take his shower, I
changed into my nightgown climbing into bed. I hunkered down under
the covers completely exhausted from our big day. It had been quite
a day.

I realized how much Trey loved me and how
much I loved him. I was starting to come to terms with the loss of
my baby girl, Marley. Trey and I were finding out so much about
each other.

I had dozed off when Trey came to bed. He
was still damp from his shower. He pulled me to him and immediately
started kissing me and holding me closely.

"I love you so much, baby," he whispered to
me.

"I love you too, Trey," I replied, burying
myself against him.

We had just started to make love when my
Blackberry went off on the nightstand. I looked over and could see
it was my father calling.

"It's my dad," I said reaching for it.

"Hello?"

"Tylar darling, I am so sorry to be calling
you this late but I needed you to hear this from me."

"What is it Dad?" I asked, sitting up and
bracing myself for the news.

"Matthew Renaud committed suicide tonight in
his jail cell. He hung himself with a rope he fashioned from the
cording on the mattress of his cot."

CHAPTER 17

I had Trey's breakfast on the table the
following morning when he came down dressed for the office. He came
over so that I could tie his tie. He looked gorgeous in his dark
Armani suite.

Preston was in her high chair chewing on a
now soggy piece of toast. Trey leaned down giving her a kiss on her
forehead.

"Daddeee," she squealed happily. "Daddee
dinky."

Trey frowned and then started to say
something to her. I cut him off.

"Trey if you make a big deal about it she
will find the word all that more fascinating to repeat. Trust me,
please?"

He nodded taking a seat at the table.

"I do want you talking to Gina about it
though," he said taking a sip of his coffee.

"I will call her today," I promised.

I sat down and started eating my breakfast.
I was thinking about the news my father had delivered to us last
night. Apparently one of the guard's found Matthew hanging when he
conducted his bed checks for that area. Matthew had been put into
solitary confinement for his own protection. He had apparently
removed the roped cording that was used to cover the seams on the
mattress of his cot. My father said that a heavier man could not
have accomplished what Matthew had because the cording wouldn't
have been strong enough to hold anyone weighing over 130 lbs.
Matthew had weighed only 126 lbs.

"How are you feeling about the news?" Trey
asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"I'm not sure," I replied, "I mean I don’t
feel sorry that he's dead, but I guess I also resent the fact that
justice was not served either. I know that my father wanted him to
get the death penalty but I would have preferred that he rot in
prison the rest of his life. I guess Matthew made his own decision
as to what he wanted."

Jean came into the kitchen and took Preston
from her high chair telling her it was time for her bath.

"I'm simply thankful that you don't have to
go into court and face the sick bastard," Trey said once they were
gone.

"Yeah - I was not looking forward to that
although there will always be lingering questions about the role he
played in Preston's abduction; his motive for murdering my mother
and Maggie."

"Sweetie, even if the trial had fully played
out there was no guarantee that you were going to get those
questions answered. Sometimes you have to consider that sociopaths
such as Matthew do things without a reason."

"Did I tell you that my father plans on
going to his burial service?"

"Why?"

"I think he wants some answers from Ms.
Deeny. He's not convinced that her only role was simply assisting
Matthew in extortion."

"I'm sure she isn't going to implicate
herself in anything that would serve to bring criminal charges
against her."

"Probably not. My dad does have the uncanny
ability to read people and their motivations though. Perhaps he
wants the answers simply for his own peace of mind. He still needs
closure, I think."

"Speaking of which," Trey said, "I need some
closure on Amber's damn jacket. Where is it?"

"I'll get it," I said getting up and going
outside to the back deck.

I brought it back to the kitchen and put it
in a plastic grocery bag, setting the bag next to Trey's
briefcase.

"Why the hell was it outside?" he asked
finishing up his coffee.

"I was airing it out Trey. It smelled like
sex - our sex."

He gave me a wicked smile from across the
table.

"I'm sure she wouldn't have minded," he
replied, "I figured she had her hand down her panties the whole
time she was listening to us over the phone anyway."

"Trey!" I said, blushing, "That is exactly
what Gina said."

"Oh God, Tylar - you shared
that with
Gina?
"

(Oops! I was busted.)

"Well yeah - I mean it's not like I
described it in detail or anything."

"Well then I guess I don't feel so bad about
sharing it with Tristan," he said laughing.

He got up putting his suit jacket on. I went
over to him, putting my arms around him.

"I don't want you to leave," I said
frowning.

He tilted my chin up and lowered his warm,
sensuous lips to mine.

"I don't want to leave you," he said kissing
me. "I promise I'll be home early, okay?"

I nodded, kissing him back.

"Trey, can we talk about taking a vacation
together soon when you get home tonight?"

"Sure baby," he said picking up his
briefcase and the bag with Amber's jacket in it, "I was thinking
the same thing."

I busied myself around the house helping
Jean after Trey left for work. I cleaned out Preston's closet
gathering some items to take to Goodwill. I started working on my
closet as well.

After lunch, I bundled Preston up and we
went out to visit the horses. Marcus was on the phone in the office
ordering supplies. He looked up and smiled when he saw us out in
the gangway. As soon as he got off the phone he came out to greet
us.

"Well, there are two beautiful faces that I
haven't seen in a while," he said.

"I've missed you, Tylar. I'm glad you're
back. I hope things are working out with you and Trey."

"Thanks, Marcus. We're working on it."

"That's good. He was pretty nuts while you
were gone. I can tell you that," he said shaking his head and
chuckling.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. One night I heard some commotion
down here so I left my quarters and came down. Trey's drunk as a
skunk over there whining to Derringer about how he screwed up and
has probably lost you for good."

"You're kidding?" I asked as if I couldn't
fathom Trey behaving like that.

"I am totally not kidding.
He was really kind of humorous in a pathetic sort of way. I mean
what? Did he think the horse was going to give him some sage
advice? I wish he had come to me whining about it. Now I
would
have given him
some advice; advice that would probably have gotten me
fired
."

I laughed at Marcus's seriousness. I always
knew that he would be on 'Team Tylar,' I just didn't realize how
passionate he was about it.

"We both have some work to do on our
marriage," I said, "I've made my share of mistakes, too."

"Hey Tylar - I want to tell you something
but I don't want you going back to Trey with it okay? I really do
need my job."

(Oh God! What had he witnessed? I wasn't
sure if I could handle finding out something about Trey and another
woman.)

"Here's the thing Marcus, if this is
something that Trey did and involves breaking any of our marriage
vows then I certainly will address it with Trey. I am your employer
for all intents and purposes anyway - so I will make no promise not
to address it with Trey."

"No - no," he said quickly, "It's actually
something he did that convinced me he didn't give a rat's
you-know-what about that skank with the BMW."

He had nodded towards Preston who was still
in my arms when he said that. I appreciated that Marcus was
watching his language around her. I was now dying to know what he
had seen or heard.

"Well tell me for heaven's sake!"

"Well, it was like a couple of weeks after
you hightailed it out of here that Trey was out here in the barn
saddling up Derringer to take him out. It was like a Saturday
afternoon. Ms. BMW drives out here and your housekeeper must have
told her that Trey was out here. So she trudges on out through the
field in her tight little skirt and 4" heels carrying some legal
file or something.

He stopped and started laughing at the
memory.

"Come on Marcus, please?"

"Okay - I'm sorry. So anyway by the time she
gets into the barn here those heels of hers are caked with mud. I
mean they are caked with it. She's looking around for something to
use to scrape the mud off of her little Prada heels so she goes
over to those bales of straw there in the corner."

He nodded to where the bales of straw were
stacked on top on one another. He was where Trey and I had sat the
day before and talked. It was right across from Derringer's
stall.

"So she raises one of her legs up to wipe
the bottom of her shoe against the corner of the straw to get some
of the caked mud off. She doesn't see that Trey is over there bent
down cleaning Derringer's hoofs in his stall. She doesn't see that
I am just inside the tack room. Both of us are within hearing
distance of her."

(God I so wish he would get to the point of
this story!)

"So she's wiping that shoe against the
corner of the bale and she's bitching out loud to herself. Every
other word is the "F" word; saying how she will never live out here
in the boonies with all this 'f-ing' mud and 'f-ing horse-shite
around. She's going on about how Trey better give you the house in
the divorce cause she's a city mouse used to the finer things in
life, yadda, yadda, yadda."

(Oh My God!)

"Oh My God," I said, "What happened
then?"

"Well, Trey made his presence known pretty
darn quick. He asked her if she had said something to you at
Marley's service about that very same thing. She claimed she
didn't. He called her a liar and told her that he had no interest
in her outside of the office. Then she really got pizzed; she
claimed she was better for him than you were. He laughed in her
face then asked her why she had come out here to the ranch. She
claimed it was to discuss a case. He told her from there on out she
was to discuss her cases with one of the other partners; he was no
longer a mentor. She then got even more uppity with him and he told
her she was a conniving 'beotch' and to leave his home. She told
him he would be sorry. He said he was already sorry that he had
approved her partnership. Then she flounced out of here."

"Wow," I said. "I wonder why Trey didn't
tell me this?"

"I don't know Tylar. Maybe he didn't want
you to worry about her telling him he would be sorry. Do you think
she will try to pull something at work?"

"I really don't know what she's capable of
Marcus. I hope she was simply angry and making an empty threat.
Hopefully she's moved on."

"Yeah - to someone else's husband. Chicks
like that are pretty transparent."

Preston was starting to squirm in my
arms.

"Well hey Marcus, thanks for sharing. I'm
gonna take Preston over to pet the horses. Talk to you later."

"Take care," he called after me heading back
into the office.

I decided that I wasn't going to say
anything to Trey about what Marcus had told me. I did want to keep
a watch on what Amber was up to. Perhaps I needed to give Leah a
call and see if she wanted to meet for lunch soon.

True to his word Trey got home exceptionally
early from the office. Jean had fed Preston and taken her upstairs
to play in the nursery. Trey and I ate our dinner in front of the
fireplace. It was cozy and romantic.

"Well Mrs. Sinclair," he said when we
finished, "Are you going to fill me in on our vacation plans?"

I told Trey that Tristan had offered us the
all inclusive cruise package since he and Gina couldn't use it
before the end of the year. I asked him if he thought it would be a
problem for him to get the time off between now and the end of the
year.