Breathe (16 page)

“I didn’t tell Cora or Joey because I didn’t want to drag them into my problem. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t trust you to tell me the truth.” Her words sliced straight through me and I flinched. I dropped my hands and turned back to the whiskey. Pouring myself another two fingers and throwing it back, relishing the burn as it traveled down to my stomach.

“I will call my friends and let you know what time they can come by tomorrow.”

“That’s fine. Taylor and I were planning on staying in tomorrow and having a movie marathon so we will be home. The day after I will be gone all day getting ready for the Golden Heart Foundation dinner.” I turned at that and looked over at her; as if she sensed my eyes on her face she turned around. “I know Lily and John invited you to the benefit so I can’t tell you not to come Daniel, I hope you can find a date for it, and I hope she is just what you deserve.”

With that she walked out the door, her friend following close behind. I looked over at Cora and Joey who sat still and silent. They looked over at me, and then Joey stood up and walked over to me.

“Pour me a drink mate. We need to get sloshed and we need to figure out what the hell is going on.” I nodded as I poured us both a good bit of whiskey. We clinked our glasses more out of habit then the need to toast then we both took a deep drink of the burning liquid.

“Let’s start by making a list of who benefits the most by doing this.” Cora stood up at that and walked over to her husband.

“At that I am going to go check on the kids. You boys be good, do not leave this room.”

Joey gave her a mischievous smile and winked. “No promises my wee lady.” Cora glared up at him but when he grabbed her into a deep kiss and dipped her low she giggled and melted. I rubbed my chest where it ached from the words Kathryn threw at me and longing to have what these two had. A deep abiding love that could survive anything.

(Kathryn)

The next morning Taylor, Tyler, Lily, Sasha, Michael and I were cozy on the deep red sectional in the living room watching a marathon of Harry Potter when the doorbell rang.

“Crap, I forgot about Joey!” I jumped up and looked down at my pink camouflage footed PJ pants and white tank top. Taylor glanced over and cracked up. I just shook my head and pointed my finger at her own fluorescent orange footed pjs and green tank top. She jumped up and ran up the stairs. I heard Josh answering the door. “Tyler tell Joey I will be right back!”

I ran up the back stairs to my room. Grabbing my well-worn jeans that had the hole in the knee, a bra, and a red V-neck t-shirt I ran into the bathroom to brush my teeth and pull my messy hair up in a pony. I met Taylor in the hallway who had changed just as quickly into a pair of jeans and black t-shirt, pulling her freshly highlighted hair up into a messy bun.

“Can’t have strangers seeing us braless now can we?” Taylor smirked at me then we ran back down the stairs to meet Joey at the door. When I found him standing in the sitting room with Josh, and a tall, built, dark man but no Daniel I couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment. Apparently even though I was extremely angry at the man, I still wanted to see him. I shook my head in disgust then walked to Joey and gave him a big hug.

“Sorry you have to deal with this Joey. I really didn’t want to worry you, I didn’t mean for it to be an insult that I didn’t ask for your help.” He returned my hug, and then stepped back to look into my eyes.

“I realize that Kathryn, but we are family now. You don’t have to do everything alone.” I saw the sincerity in his eyes and nodded. “Good. Now this is my friend, Dante. He is an FBI agent who owes me a few favors.”

Dante stepped forward to shake Taylor’s hand, and mine, shooting Joey a glare. “Little leprechaun you better watch it.” The twinkle in his dark brown, almost black eyes kept that sentence from being too menacing. His skin was a deep mocha color, and the man was massive. His hand completely engulfed mine but his touch was gentle. His voice was gravely like he had smoked too many cigarettes. His eyes were continuously surveying, the man was clearly always on guard.

“Nice to meet you Dante. Let’s go back to my office and I can show you the files.” Lily walked in just then, her pink bunny footed pajamas still on. She gave Joey a big hug and stood smiling up at Dante who couldn’t help but grin back.

“Momma. Can we make cookies while we wait for you and Aunt Taylor?” Pictures of a flour and sugar covered kitchen flashed in my mind. I grimaced but Taylor answered for me.

“Yeah go ahead Lily. Just clean up whatever mess you make.” Lily wrinkled her nose but nodded. With another quick hug for Joey and a quick smile up at Dante she waltzed back out of the room.

“That little one carries sunshine with her.” I glanced up at Dante, surprised. He shrugged and if he had lighter skin I swear I would have seen a blush. I grinned and nodded.

“Yes she does. Follow me gentlemen. I am sure you have better things to do with your Saturday then dealing with this.”

“Nothing is more important to us than this ma’am. Joey was right, I owe him, until I finish this, then I don’t owe him anymore.”

“That’s what you think.” Joey punched the bigger man in the arm then turned to follow me down the hallway to my office. I turned the formal dining room into an office, preferring to eat in the kitchen instead. The walls were painted a light blue color with framed photographs of Ireland, Colorado, New York, and now Paris, along with several framed photos of the kids. Joey walked up to one on the wall, it was taken by a photographer friend of mine about six months before Sean left for the last time. We were all standing at the foot of a cherry blossom tree. At the exact moment the shot was taken, Lily had looked up, cherry blossoms falling around her face making her giggle. Sean was looking at her, pure joy and love radiating from his face, and I had my arms around Tyler who even at that age was taller than me and we were watching Lily, laughing. That was my favorite picture of all of the ones that had ever been taken.

“So this is Sean?”

I nodded. He studied it and the several others on the wall, including the one Lily had shown John Hendricks that fateful day five years ago, for a few more silent moments then turned to me.

“He was a handsome man, and he clearly loved you all very much.” My throat closed up slightly with tears at that so I just nodded. Taylor grabbed my hand and gave me a quick squeeze. I turned to open the safe by my bookcase, taking a few deep breaths to work through the pain that still came when I thought of Sean. I grabbed the gloves on top of the safe and put a set on before I took the files out of the safe, turning when I felt more composed. I placed them on the top of my desk, handing Joey and Dante the box of gloves, but Dante was already pulling a set out of his pocket.

“Sorry, I have to have a special size. But the little leprechaun could use a set.” I grinned at his continuous use of that term. Joey sighed as if a grievous tragedy was taking place.

“Excuse my giant friend. He has no manners. The size of my hands may not be mammoth sized but they are pleasantly big.” Taylor giggled and I grinned over at him, handing him the gloves. He winked over at me as he put them on. Dante opened each file that was categorized with the date and location of each set of pictures.

“You found this one in your car?” I looked over and nodded.

“I had just grabbed some dinner on my way home the other day. Josh and I were gone maybe five minutes, it was a carry out order, when we got back it was sitting on my seat.” Dante looked over at Josh who stepped forward from where he was standing in the corner until he was needed.

“It was still locked because I hit the unlock button. The alarm was still engaged because before Ms. James touched it I had to type in the code. I called one of my men before either of us touched the car further once the package was found. We dusted the entire car. The only fingerprints were those who were authorized.” Dante nodded then turned back to the rest of the files.

“So all of these are being hand delivered since there are no postmarks. Clearly whoever this is knows how to get around alarms, and locks pretty well. Are you watching this family 24/7?”

“Yes. We have someone on this house at all times and someone on each member of the family at all times. Since we stepped up security around the house, packages have been found other places.” Dante nodded again. He took out a big plastic evidence bag and placed all the files inside.

“I am taking these to the FBI lab and we will go over them with a fine tooth comb.” He handed me a business card on white cardstock with his name and the FBI symbol along with his cellphone and office phone. “If you get any more of these call me immediately. At best you have a stalker Ms. James but I never rule out worst case scenario and these things can turn nasty very quickly.”

A shiver of fear raced down my spine as I took the card from him. I knew the situation was serious, that’s why I authorized Josh to beef up security but I hadn’t wanted to think about worst-case scenarios. Now I couldn’t keep the images from flooding my mind. Sean had loved horror flicks, the gorier the better in his mind, so my mind could conjure all kinds of very bad scenarios.

I walked both Dante and Joey to the door, promising to call both of them immediately if I found any more packages. Once I closed the door on them I leaned my back against it, closed my eyes, and took several deep breaths. I felt a soft hand on my arm and opened my eyes, seeing the face of my dearest friend watching me. The concern in her eyes didn’t help calm me down.

“Do you want me to have Jack come get the kids? I can stay a few more days if you need me to.” I shook my head.

“No. They have school Tuesday, and I don’t want you in any danger. You will leave Monday as planned.” I smiled weakly at her, grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the kitchen. “Now let’s go see what kind of mess those kids got into.”

She smiled back and followed but I knew she was worried. I couldn’t say I wasn’t as well. Those scenarios were still flashing through my mind, strapped to a table while some psycho cut my intestines out and ate them. Yeah I could have lived a lifetime without those images. I pushed them away and followed the smell of chocolate chip cookies.

(Daniel)

“What did Dante say?” I had been pacing the hotel room waiting for Joey’s call. He called me as soon as he left Kathryn just as he promised.

“He hasn’t said much. We are just hoping it’s a stalker, but Daniel if I was being completely honest these feel like more.” I heard a deep rumbling noise in the background. “Dante tends to agree with me. He didn’t want to scare Kathryn any more then she is, you should have seen her face when he said he doesn’t rule out worst-case scenarios. Her face lost all color and her eyes got a scary glaze to them.”

“And you just left her like that?” I yelled into my phone, running my hands through my already rumpled hair. Frustration was rolling off me in waves. I hated that this was happening, and that it clearly had something to do with me. We had spent a few hours last night making a list of all the women who think running Kathryn off might benefit them. It was a depressingly long list.

“Hey mate, don’t get all twitchy. Her friend was there. You forget that Kathryn has been through hell and back, alone. She is strong, and prefers her space. She doesn’t need nor want someone hovering around her.” I growled with frustration again.

“Tell Dante to find this bloody bastard and stake them to a wall!”

“We will mate.” Then Joey hung up and I walked to the liquor cabinet for another healthy swig of whisky before I walked to the balcony off my hotel room. Joey had joined the Army at one point, did his duty for his country then got out. Apparently he had made some made some powerful friends. I watched the people walking around in the street below; brooding over the mess I was in. Kathryn was an obsession, and her anger was keeping us apart during a time when I wanted to be by her side every second of the day, protecting her from whatever came along. I didn’t care if she had already been through hell alone; I wanted to be walking beside her during this trip.

I don’t know how long I was standing out on the balcony before I heard a knock on the hotel room door. I emptied the tumbler of whiskey as I walked to it and flung it open. Joey and Cora stood in the hallway and they both winced.

“Mate, you look awful.” Joey leaned forward and wrinkled his nose. “And smell like a brewery.”

Cora rolled her eyes and pushed past me, carrying a dry cleaning bag. She walked to the closet and hung the bag inside then grabbed a grey sweater and a pair of jeans. She walked back over and thrust them into my hands.

“That’s your tux for tomorrow. Take these into that bathroom and take a shower. We are hungry and you are going with us for pizza. You have twenty minutes before I turn into a carb seeking bitch.”

I leaned down and kissed her cheek. “What would I do without you in my life?”

“Be miserable and smell probably.”

“You know you could ditch that one and come run away with me.”

“Phsst…yeah not bloody likely. This woman is mine. Go find your own.” Joey dipped Cora back into another deep kiss, and I gagged all the way to the bathroom.

“Well Cora the offer still stands. Joey, I already found one damn it, now it’s your job to make her safe.” I slammed the door and started the shower before either of them could reply. I stood underneath the hot shower my head bent and hands resting on the cool tile. I let the hot water pound on my shoulder working out the knots I had started to accumulate. I closed my eyes, images of Kathryn standing toe to toe with me the day before flashed in my mind. Her auburn hair had smelled like coconut, something a little different than the usual smell but just as alluring. She never once backed down yesterday, standing up and taking me on, head to head. I groaned with that memory and my cock jumped to attention.

Just remembering everything that happened yesterday, the mischievous look on her face as they jumped on the piano and played, her face lighting up with joy and laughter, the way she stood up to me and faced my anger down had my cock hard as steel, throbbing painfully. I turned the temperature down on the water, washing my hair quickly and scrubbing my body. When I got to my cock, I couldn’t resist wrapping my own hand around it, imagining Kathryn’s soft lips. I moaned as I moved my hand rapidly over my throbbing and needy cock. I leaned my other hand against the tile again, keeping my eyes closed and imagining Kathryn’s hair fanned over her white sheets, the look she got just as she was about to come hard around me, the sounds she made. Suddenly I was in the throes of a powerful orgasm, I arched my back with the pleasure and gasped out loud. Once I came back down I finished washing and stepped out of the shower.

I had done that a few times in my lifetime but this was more powerful than any other. It was still an empty pleasure but hit harder than any other time. The woman was slowly killing me, and I had to have her wrapped in my arms again, her gorgeous legs wrapped around my hips again. I was a starving man who needed the simple touch of one woman.

I dressed quickly in the clothes that Cora threw at me. Catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My face needed a trim, my scruff was even scruffy than usual and there were bags under my eyes. I sighed. Yes that woman was killing me. I remembered the tux in the closet and my resolve strengthened. Tomorrow night was the benefit dinner for Kathryn and John Hendricks’ Gold Heart Foundation; I was not leaving that dinner without her. I nodded emphatically at my image then turned to join Cora and Joey for pizza.