by Morris, T M
“I don’t care what you think Devon, they are in here. Do you hear me? They are here!”
“Lucy.” He gave her a little shake.
Dazed, Lucy stopped and stared at Devon, “Devon? Oh Devon. I was so scared.” She clung to him her face pressed against his bare chest.
“You were having a nightmare.” He stroked her back as he held her to him. He struggled to remain unaffected, which was difficult with her clinging to him with nothing but a thin cotton gown between them. Damn. His body was betraying him.
“I wish it were all over.” She sniffed.
“I know, sweetheart. I know.” He kissed the top of her head. “It will all be over soon. You wait and see. The police will catch the burglar and then you can feel safe again.”
Lucy nuzzled closer to him. “I feel safe now. I have never felt this safe in all my life as I do with you.”
Devon stiffened. “I’m not so sure I would say that. I’m not your brother.” How could she not notice the affect she had on him?
Lucy looked into his eyes. “I don’t want you to be my brother.”
“What a relief.”
Lucy licked her dry lips, “I know in some ways you can be dangerous.”
“But you don’t feel as if you’re in any danger now?”
“I have never felt in any danger with you, even when we first met.”
“Lucy, you make me sound like an insipid monk.”
“Oh, no—you are far from insipid.” She snuggled even closer to him. She ran her finger across his bare chest and kissed his jaw. Maybe she did know how she affected him?
He lowered his lips to a breath above hers and croaked, “You are such a vixen.”
She kissed him with such passion it surprised her. When she broke the kiss to breathe she pleaded, “Devon make love with me.” She kissed him again. She didn’t want to let go of him. She was afraid she was in the middle of another dream. Afraid Devon was not there kissing her.
Devon pulled away with a groan, “My dear, sweet Lucy, as wonderful as it would be to make love with you, I can’t. I don’t want to have to go through a repeat of the last time when you remember you work for me. I want to make love with you, believe me—I do—but as long as you work for me I’m not willing to take the chance.”
His groin ached. It disagreed. It wanted to take the chance. Mind over matter. Simple, right?
Lucy’s mouth dropped, “Devon, I—”
“No Lucy.” Devon fumbled his way off the bed. “I will make love with you when you come to terms with our relationship in all aspects being public—work and personal. I can wait. Now, I’m going to go back to your place and find your cat for you, okay? While I’m gone, do not leave. Do not answer the telephone. Do not open the door. Do you understand?”
She was still sitting there in shock when she heard the front door close a couple of minutes later. She jumped out of the bed and ran over to the window to watch him back his behemoth of a truck out of the driveway and drive off down the street with the wheels screaming.
She shook her head trying to clear the mental fog she found herself wandering through. Devon was planning on making love to her again, he said as much. It all depended upon her. ‘I will make love with you when you are comfortable with our relationship in all aspects being public—work and personal.’
She wandered into the kitchen to make herself a bit of breakfast as she continued to mull over Devon’s escape speech. He said he could wait. She wondered if he would even consider making love with her again at all if he knew about his baby growing within her womb. She knew he would accuse her of trying to trap him. Then he would fire her and send her out of his life. Wouldn’t he?
The smell of the toast and the coffee overwhelmed her and she ran for the bathroom. She knelt on the floor before the toilet. How was she going to explain her constant bouts of morning sickness? Devon would sooner or later develop some suspicion about her frequent regurgitative spells. After all, he was never accused in his life of being stupid.
She regained her strength and stood up. She would take a shower and clean up the mess she made in the kitchen while she waited for Devon to return. She stripped out of her thin nightgown and stepped into the shower. She allowed the hot water to stream over her. Along with the soapsuds she would wash away the tension.
What was that noise? Has Devon come back home already? “Devon?” she called. “Devon? I’ll be out in a few minutes.” No response. Wasn’t his usual response silence when she told him he would have to wait?
She sighed and continued to rinse the shampoo from her hair. She intended to use all the hot water. She could tell Devon had already showered when he came into her room earlier to wake her from her nightmare. He smelled his familiar clean woodsy smell and his hair was wet.
What in the world was Devon doing out there? He was creating quite a racket. She turned the water off and began to towel herself dry. Whatever Devon had been doing he stopped. She took her time. She didn’t care at the moment how long he had to wait. Nor did she care how foul his mood when she did emerge from the bathroom. He was just going to have to wait. She switched on the hair dryer she had found under the sink.
“Lucy!” Devon yelled. “Lucy?” He ran to the bathroom where he had heard the blow dryer running and began to bang in earnest on the door. “Lucy, open the door!”
Lucy groaned. She opened the door as she said, “I swear Devon. You couldn’t wait a few more minutes? What were you doing out here anyway?”
“Are you okay? I’ve called the police. They are on their way.” Devon said as he checked her over. He touched her face, her neck, and her shoulders. He didn't seem to notice that all she had on was a towel. He enveloped her into a bear hug. He kissed the top of her head as he stroked her still damp hair. “Thank God you are okay. I was sick to death when I walked in the door a minute ago.”
She looked up and blanched as she asked, “A minute ago? If you came in a minute ago...who was making all the racket while I was in the shower?” She felt the stirrings of nausea in the pit of her stomach.
“It wasn’t me. You might want to look around.” Devon said. “I just got back. I managed to find Slinky by the way.”
She looked at him with dread as she edged past him and into the hall. She could see the kitchen was trashed. Lucy reached for Devon’s hand. He clasped her hand in his as he followed her into the living room. It too was a ransacked mess. “Oh my.” She shook her head. “What about the bedrooms?”
Devon ran his free hand through his short almost black hair. “They are a total wreck as well.”
“I was in the shower. The bathroom door was unlocked. Goodness—they could have done who knows what to me.” She managed to work herself into a state of frenzy.
Devon pulled her to him and held her close, allowing her to sob into his shoulder. Her towel slipped a little, revealing more of the creamy skin of her back. Devon tried not to notice. “I thank God they didn’t hurt you. I don’t know what I would have done if you had been harmed.” He croaked through his constricted throat.
“Why is this happening? It’s beginning to border on the ridiculous.”
“I don’t know, honey. I don’t know. All I know is that from now on I am not leaving you anywhere.”
“Is anything missing?” In the back of her mind she thought, great, how am I going to get away with morning sickness now?
“I don’t know. I haven’t even looked around much yet. Why don't you get dressed?”
At that moment a pair police officers knocked on the door. They discovered nothing at all was missing. The officers were kind and understanding but of little help when it came to trying to figure out why the house was broken into and ransacked. All Lucy and Devon were left to do was clean up the mess left by the unseen intruder.
Chapter Seventeen
Lucy climbed out of her old car wishing it was any day but Monday. Lucy and Devon had spent the rest of Friday and all of Saturday cleaning up the mess at his house. The police were anyt
hing but helpful in trying to solve the mystery of who had done the break-ins. They could not say if they were related or if they had nothing to do with each other.
Devon had developed his own theory Sunday afternoon on the way to her house to retrieve her car. He thought they were related. He thought Lancaster was behind everything, the windows, the flowers, the break-ins, everything. She wasn’t so sure. She wasn’t sure about anything anymore. She punched the elevator button.
She stepped off the elevator, took two steps into the hall, and stopped dead in her tracks. All the glass was broken out of the office’s front wall. She steeled herself to walk through the gap and over the field of broken glass. Carmella’s desk was in shambles. The telephone was ripped from the wall. She made her way down the hall to her office. Nothing in her office was where it was when she left on Wednesday. Where had the security officer been when this happened?
Lucy left her office and went into Devon’s. His office was in worse condition than hers. The furniture was scratched or broken into pieces. The leather chairs were slashed and as for his family photos—she burst into tears when she saw them. Every single picture had been broken out of the frame and torn to bits. She forced herself to leave his office and look throughout the rest of the office.
She raced through to find the entire office space demolished with the exception of Jack’s office. His office looked as if it had just been cleaned. There wasn’t even a speck of dust anywhere.
"Where is everyone?" She asked the empty room. Both Carmella and Jack should have arrived before she had. She pulled out her cell phone from her bag. She dialed Carmella’s home phone number. It rang several times with no answer. Lucy figured she must be on her way to the office. She returned to the reception area.
Carmella stepped off the elevator as Lucy entered the reception area. Lucy met her in the hallway. “Good Lord!” Carmella exclaimed. “What on earth has happened here?”
“It’s obvious someone is trying to frighten us.” Lucy said rubbing small circles on her temples.
"Have you called the police?” Carmella asked.
“I just got here myself.” She shook her head. She felt sick. “Isn’t Jack supposed to be here already?”
Carmella plugged the front desk telephone back into the wall and checked for a dial tone as she answered, “He’s supposed to be heading for Chattanooga this morning.”
“Really? It seems rather odd to me that his office is untouched.” Lucy began to straighten the room.
“Don’t mess with it, hon.” Carmella stayed her with a wave of her hand. “Don’t touch a thing until after the police have come.”
“It's not as if they are going to be of any help.” She muttered.
Carmella shushed her and began to speak with the police dispatch officer over the phone. After a few minutes she hung up the receiver. “They will be here in no time at all.”
“Carmella? You did know this is the third break-in this weekend?” Lucy asked.
“Yes, dear, I do.” Carmella answered with a sigh. “Who do you think is behind it all?”
“I’m not sure. I thought for a moment it might be Jack since his office wasn’t even touched. But I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“Devon should be in soon, right?” Carmella asked.
“Hmm? Um, I believe he was supposed to go out to Carthage first.” She said as she rubbed her temples.
Carmella picked up the telephone receiver again and began to dial. “Devon, honey, where are you?” She paused. “Well you might want to postpone it, sweetie. We have had a break-in here at the office. Yes. Yes. She seems to be okay. I will. I did. All right. Bye-bye.”
“He’s coming in, isn’t he?” Lucy asked.
“You knew he would. I wonder,” Carmella paused. “Where are the police?”
“What I want to know is why there seems to have been no security when this happened. And why didn’t they notify someone when they found this mess?” Lucy began to pace around the rubble strewn room.
Before Carmella could speculate the police emerged from the elevator and consumed an hour of their time going through the office making their report. Devon walked in as the police finished with his office.
“What’s going on?” Devon stormed, “Do you officers have any idea who may be behind all these break-ins?”
One of the officers asked, “Isn’t this the first break-in here?”
Devon struggled to control his anger. “This is the first break-in here but, on Thursday Lucy’s home was broken into and trashed. Then Friday, my home was broken into and ransacked while Lucy was in the shower. Thank God they didn’t touch her.”
“It could be coincidence.” The corpulent officer offered.
“You can’t be serious.” Devon growled his anger and frustration evident.
“Devon. Go down to the coffee shop at the end of the street, and bring us back some coffee. Take your time so you can calm down.” Carmella ordered. He stormed out muttering under his breath.
The officers left not long after Devon went for coffee. Carmella and Lucy turned their attention to cleaning up. They were sweeping up the glass in the reception area when Devon returned. He looked around for a second then slumped into the closest chair. “You all need to take a break. Come and sit down. Have some coffee.”
“No sense in sounding so defeated, hon.” Carmella pulled up a chair and accepted one of the tall thermal cups Devon carried. “You don’t want anyone getting the idea you’re beaten, do you?”
“Beaten?” Devon was incredulous. “Beaten, my a—butt! We haven’t begun to fight. Of course, it’s hard to fight when you don’t even know who your opponent is.”
“So you have no idea who is doing this to you?” Carmella asked.
“Not a clue.” Devon pinched the bridge of his nose. “Lucy, please sit down and drink this coffee. I made sure they fixed it the way you like it—a little coffee with your cream and sugar.”
“I’m surprised you even know how I take my coffee.” She muttered as she pulled up a chair and took the cup from Devon’s hand as he held it out to her.
“Come on Luce. You are always drinking coffee, how could I not know how you take it.” Devon took a sip of his own before he continued, “I think you might want to consider cutting back.”
“Why should I cut back?” Lucy asked afraid of what he might say.
“Well, you seem to be having a lot of stomach trouble. I thought maybe you might cut back on the coffee and see if it helps.” He smiled at her.
She chanced a glance at Carmella. She was watching them both with interest. When Lucy caught her eye, Carmella raised an eyebrow and asked, “Are you having stomach trouble, sweetie?”
“A little, yes.” She nodded.
Devon stood. “After our little break, I am going over to the manager’s office to raise seven kinds of Cain. I suppose you ladies could start next on Lucy’s office. I think we should leave the file room until last, don’t you?”
Carmella groaned. “I’m not looking forward to getting those straightened out.”
“I suppose we could hire a temporary to help out.” Devon suggested.
Carmella nodded. “We either get a temporary in here or I take Lucy from the Phase One’s until we get it all sorted out.”
“Well then it’s settled. Call the temporary service, I can’t spare her.” Devon stated.
Carmella laughed, “Fine. But I think you could spare Lucy if you wanted. You just don’t want to have to do a Phase One again.”
Lucy groaned, “Do stop talking about me as if I’m not here.”
“Sorry.” He let the sarcasm drip from his words. “What do you think we should do, Lucy?”
“It doesn’t matter to me what I do—files or Phase One's.” She simmered. “Just don’t talk about me as if I’m not here, when it's as plain as vanilla ice cream is bland that I’m sitting right next to you.”
“Are you being difficult?” He teased.
“No I am not.” She groused.<
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“You two squabble like an old married couple.” Carmella laughed as she stood and walked behind her desk. “I’ll call the temporary service. Now, Devon, off to the manager’s office with you and give them what for. Lucy, I will join you in your office when I’m done with the temporary service.” She found the Rolodex on the floor, picked it up and began to search for the telephone number she needed.
Devon rose from his seat. “You heard the boss, sweetheart. It’s time to get back to work. I will be back later. Oh—Aunt Carmella, when you finish with the temporary service, see if you can’t rearrange my schedule for the rest of the week so I can stay close to town, okay?”
Carmella nodded.
Lucy turned and went to her office. She stopped just inside the door. She felt nauseous and weepy. She managed to hide her feelings from Devon while he was there, but she was alone now and she couldn’t decide which feeling to give into. She began to cry as she righted a couple of chairs. Lucy slumped into one if the chairs and began to sob. Why was this happening to them? Who was responsible? Why did she feel it was all her fault? Why did it seem every time her life started to look as if it were headed in the right direction disasters would break out en masse? She was sick to her stomach. She jumped to her feet and ran down the hall to the bathroom.
Carmella was waiting for her when she returned to her office. “Stomach trouble?”
“Yes, I guess Devon is right. I need to cut back on the coffee.” Lucy said keeping her eyes downcast.
“Could you have a bug or something that’ll take another eight or so months to cure?” Carmella continued the inquiry as she bent to pick up some papers from the floor.
“I’m not sure yet.” She lied.
“Why not? Honey, all you have to do is go down to the store, and buy a test.”
“So, maybe I’m afraid to know for certain.” Lucy stammered.
“How late are you now?” Carmella asked.
“Two weeks.” Lucy’s reply sounded flat.
“And, have you ever been late before?” Carmella continued to pick up papers.