Prologue

Ruby Bonheur gaped at the test strip in her hand. The shock rolling over her stole her breath as she beheld the double-pink stripes. That second line was not supposed to be there. She had taken precautions—well, as consistently as she was capable of being.

The test had to be wrong. Only it said right there on the box: 98 percent accurate. And she had been feeling a teeny bit sick every morning for the past two weeks.

I'm pregnant.

Her heart beat a tattoo of denial. What was God thinking? This couldn't happen now with her journalism career in full swing!

A lead investigative reporter, Ruby had exposed corruption and fraudsters all along the East Coast, including, most recently, the powerful Centurion Cohort down in Savannah, Georgia. At that point, WTKR had stolen her away from WAVY television by offering her an obscene salary just to track down every corrupt cop, corporation, or politician she could find.

For a girl who'd once wasted her degree in journalism by waitressing at Showstoppers, she'd sure come a long way. And she owed a lot of her success—most of it, in fact—to her new husband, Tony, and her newfound faith in God. Tony had taught her that all things were possible when she relied on God for strength. This was the first time God had let her down.

I can't have a baby.

It would ruin everything. The fabulous run on her career would come to a screeching halt the moment she shared her news with anyone. Tony would view her pregnancy as a reason for her to cut back on her hours at work. They might have to move since their beachfront rental wouldn't accommodate a growing family. And then there was her boss who would pull her off the set the minute she started showing—pregnant news reporters were bad for the ratings.

Maternity leave would be the final nail in her coffin. Ruby would be relegated to small-time reporting—no more scandals that took her beyond Virginia Beach. Then who would she be? Just a mother, and that was a job she was totally unfit for.

The light knock at the door startled the tester out of Ruby's hand. It clattered onto the tiled floor where it skidded toward the tub.

"You okay in there, Bella?" Tony's baritone voice conveyed worry.

A locked door had never been a deterrent to her husband. Recovering the test strip, Ruby offered the first excuse to pop into her head. "Just doing my makeup, love. I'll be out in a sec."

She and Tony had eloped while on vacation in Bermuda earlier that fall. The spur-of-the-moment ceremony performed under a moon gate seemed to have turned his mother, Anna, against her. It had taken Ruby three years to marry her son, and then she'd gone and done it without Anna in attendance.

Regret did occasionally prick Ruby for not having shared that special moment more traditionally, with Tony's family and his Navy SEAL teammates present, not to mention her older sister, Opal, and Opal's husband, Commander James Monteague. But it had felt so right, so romantic, pledging her future to Tony under a moongate overlooking the tourmaline sea. Besides, who had time to plan an elaborate wedding?

She and Tony were finally together in every sense of the word. He knew her better than anyone. He also knew she'd just lied to him because she always put on her makeup in the car. She could sense him hovering on the other side of the door, wondering what she was keeping from him.

"Listen." His voice coming through the crack made her hold her breath. "What do you think of us goin' to Mama's for Thanksgiving this year, instead of her coming down here?" His thick Philadelphia accent had faded only slightly since they'd first met. "She says her washing machine doesn't work, and she needs me to fix it. Plus, I'm worried about her health."

He wanted to go to Philly for Thanksgiving? A sudden benefit banished Ruby's dismay. Her plan to interview the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania one month from now was clearly meant to be—not that Tony needed to know anything about that. In fact, if he found out, they wouldn't be going anywhere near Philly.

Ruby met her thoughtful reflection in the mirror. "Sure, that sounds okay."

A beat of silence answered her response. "Did you hear me right? I said, maybe we should go to Mama's for Thanksgiving." He enunciated each word.

"Yeah, why not?" She took one last look at the tester before hiding it under the sink in a tampon box, where Tony wouldn't come across it.

A subtle click of the lock had her slamming the cabinet shut and straightening guiltily as the door cracked open. Tony peered through the scant opening, his chocolate-brown eyes locking on her guilty expression.

Heat flooded her face. "I've told you not to do that! A woman needs her privacy."

His gaze searched the bathroom before returning to her self-righteous glare.

Ruby's toes curled inside of her high-heeled shoes.

He pushed the door farther open. "You're honestly okay with having Thanksgiving at my mother's?"

She forced herself to hold his gaze. Tony's eyelashes were so thick and dark it looked like he wore eyeliner. The first time they'd met, she thought he looked just like Joey Tribbiani from the sitcom Friends, but Joey didn't have Tony's lush eyelashes.

"Yeah, I'm okay with it." Unable to lie to his face, she leaned toward the sink to inspect her complexion.

Tony's eyebrows pulled together. "Then you've forgiven Mama's remark about your skinny hips?"

Ruby forced a negligent shrug even as the reminder stung her pride. "What's to forgive? She was upset that she'd missed our wedding. It's only natural that she would lash out about it."

"But she said some pretty hurtful things."

Anna's exact words had been that it was time Ruby quit her job, put some meat on her skinny hips, and start being the wife that Tony deserved.

"She wants grandbabies." Ruby managed to face Tony, adding magnanimously, "Who can blame her?" Guilt wrung her within, as she realized she could now make Anna's dreams come true. But she had no intention of sharing that happy news—not yet, anyway.

Her answer banished the suspicion in Tony's eyes. He put his arms around her, pulling her closer. "Yeah, maybe we can work on that before you go to work this morning."

His seductive voice had an immediate tingling effect on her body, but the musky sweat still dampening his T-shirt from his morning run prompted Ruby to squirm free.

"You're going to soil my work clothes."

"Just a kiss then." He caught her jaw before she got away, crushing his lips to hers.

As the kiss deepened, goose bumps played tag along Ruby's skin. By the time he lifted his head, her bones seemed to be melting, and she was contemplating staying longer. She grabbed his wrist to read his watch. "Oh, shoot, I'm late."

"You're always late. What's another half hour?"

"No, seriously, I have to go. My new boss is making us sign in."

On the verge of slipping under his arm and out of the room, Ruby pressed a heartfelt kiss to her husband's cheek. "I love you so much." Tears stung her eyes.

His eyebrows quirked. "I love you, too."

She fled before he could pursue the question she'd heard in his voice. Tony knew her like nobody else did, even better than her sister. If he guessed her circumstances, if he knew she was carrying their baby, he would talk her into quitting her job and staying at home.

Over my dead body.

Exiting the bathroom swiftly, Ruby went to collect her purse and jacket from the hall closet. Being lead investigative reporter gave her the self-respect she desperately craved. Just three short years ago, she'd been indulging in pastimes that were self-destructive and living with her sister because she couldn't support herself waitressing.

And then Tony Caruso had come along. He might have been barely out of his teens and three years younger than she was, but he'd had his act together—a sound work ethic, a career in the Navy, and a long-term goal of becoming a doctor. He'd taught her to believe in God. He'd inspired her to improve herself. Finally, she felt like she was worthy of him, but only because of her job.

When he found out she was pregnant, that would change—not just because Tony would insist she alter her priorities but also because being pregnant would ruin her career.

Maybe I won't tell Tony.

The thought sneaked into her brain as she backed her cherry-red Range Rover out of their carport, careful not to sideswipe Tony's Honda in the process. She could visit a clinic somewhere and quietly— Oh, God, no.

She squashed the notion almost as soon as it occurred to her.

Shame made her swallow hard as she tugged the gearshift and pulled forward onto Shore Drive in Virginia Beach, headed for the highway that would take her toward the adjacent city of Norfolk. There was no excuse for her even thinking like this. She and Tony had the means to care for a baby. And Tony, despite his young age and his plans to enter medical school, would make a terrific father. The problem was Ruby.

Maybe she could negotiate.

"Okay, Lord. I'm not ready for a baby. I mean, You have to know this. I'll make a terrible mother. I'm too self-centered. And the fact is, there are even worse people than me out there, manipulating the system and crushing other people just because they can. If I don't catch those criminals and hold them accountable, who will? You need me for that. And I can't have a baby and still do what I do. Right?"

She flipped down her visor and peered into the lit mirror there half expecting God to speak through her reflection. What she saw was a professional young woman in a smart sage-green jacket and cream silk top. Her vivid red-gold hair was pinned up in a loose but elegant knot. Her turquoise eyes would pop as soon as she put on her makeup.

But all Ruby saw were faint lines at the corners of her eyes, marring her porcelain complexion. She would turn twenty-nine in December.

The clock—her biological clock—was ticking.

"No." Women were having babies well into their forties. She could cling to her career for another ten years before starting a family. This pregnancy would ruin everything.

Steering with one hand, she felt inside her purse for her makeup. Tony's chiding voice sounded in her head. "Bella, you don't need to do that. You're perfect the way you are."

His nickname for her meant "beautiful" in Italian, which he spoke, in his own words, "badly."

If only she saw herself the way Tony did.

She pulled the lid off her concealer, intending to cover up the circles under her eyes. What kind of chemicals and toxins was she putting on herself? Once at work, a makeup artist would put a ton of product on her, anyway.

Ruby stuck the lid back on the concealer and dropped it back into her purse. She might be an inherently selfish person, but she didn't need to expose the secret life inside her to more harmful chemicals than necessary—assuming the little tyke would be born in eight months, wreaking havoc on the satisfying career Ruby was enjoying.