Page 35 of Inevitable Secrets

Taylor felt for him. She completely appreciated wanting to bring normalcy back into their life. “Okay, I get it,” she agreed, “you have my blessing.” Taylor leaned in lightly, putting her lips to his. “I love you, Derrick Fletcher. No one can replace you in my heart, ever,” she said closing in and kissing him deeper.

Derrick returned the kiss, but abruptly pulled back with a gleam in his eyes. “Know what I’ve always wanted to do?” he asked Taylor mischievously.

“I’m not sure I want to know,” Taylor remarked, confused about the sudden change in their conversation.

“I want to play strip tag in the hedge garden,” he said wickedly, nodding his head to the sculpted shrubbery behind her and wiggling his eyebrows.

Taylor’s face scrunched up revealing her thoughts before she could say a word. “You are out of your damn mind,” she said.

“Tay, I took a bullet for you,” he reminded her with his brow raised.

“I don’t care! I am not running around naked in your family’s hedge garden,” Taylor whisper yelled at him. “It’s cold and Henry has freaking cameras everywhere. And besides, this place reminds me of when we were kids and that does not equal sexy to me.”

“Well then, can we go back to the bedroom and have sexy time there?” he asked.

Taylor evaluated her husband for a moment. “I feel like you made up the strip tag thing so that I would say yes to sex right now.”

Derrick shrugged, “Possibly.”

“What purpose did it serve exactly?”

A small smile spread across Derrick’s face, his dimple popping out in full force. “You’re thinking about sex now,” he said pointing a finger at her.

And indeed she was.

“First one naked is on top,” she whispered then kissed his lips and took off running, leaving a still-sore Derrick calling behind her as he hobbled forward.

Ten

The next morningTaylor sipped her coffee and smiled as she looked over at her husband peering intently at his laptop, then returned her attention to her own screen. They had moved out of the dining room and were now in the first-floor office in the mansion. It was a much smaller space than the dining room command post she had been working in, but it was infinitely better.

Preston Corp was now open, but Taylor had opted to continue working at home for a few more days. This made for an easier security transition while Todd and Charlie got things up and running at the office, and allowed her to keep an eye on her husband, easing her mind about him overdoing it. She also wanted Derrick to rest up before going back to his office and the only way that was going to happen was if she stayed in the mansion with him and made sure he continued his physical therapy. In order to get Derrick to agree she promised him lots of sex since they were home, but that just seemed like a win-win to Taylor.

Taylor combed through a contract for flooring, ensuring the changes she had requested had been made. She was lost in business jargon when Henry came in and tossed some papers in front of her.

Taylor kept her head bent and flicked her gaze up to Henry as she picked up the papers. “What is this?”

“That is the autopsy of Cedric Preston that was released a couple of months ago.”

Taylor stayed frozen, her eyes trained on Henry, and picked up the pages and shook them at him. “Henry, I’ve read this.”

“Aye,” he answered, his brogue coming through strong and his eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning, “but you haven’t read this one.” He threw down another stack of papers. The large, normally serious man seemed a little giddy, and, to be honest, a little ridiculous.

Taylor grabbed the new set with her other hand, “And these are?”

“That.” Henry said pointing to the newest papers, “is the original report written about the actual autopsy.”

Taylor sat back, frowning at Henry, and shot Derrick a confused look before she started shuffling through the new set he had given her. “What do you mean the original autopsy?”

“I mean that this is the report of what actually happened,” he explained pointing to the documents in Taylor’s hands, “and this was the report that was released to the world.” Henry pointed to the opposite stack of papers.

“How is that possible?” Derrick asked, gingerly moving from his chair to come and look at the papers. Taylor knew he was pushing himself in physical therapy so they would discharge him. And watching how slowly he moved did not make her happy with his progress.

“I had someone close to the investigation provide me with these,” Henry informed them. “After I read them, I did some investigating. I found out that Dr. Parker, who wrote both of these reports, was hooked up with an offshore account the same day these were written. Soon after, he paid off his two daughters’ college education.”

Taylor raised her brows, “Uh, Henry, how—”

“Remember when I said there were things you weren’t going to want to know how I got? This is one of those things, Taylor.”

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