She Left Me Breathless (30 page)

She thought about Sydney and hoped that it wasn’t too late for them and if it was, she knew she had no one to blame but herself. Regardless of what the future held, the one thing she knew for sure was that there was no turning back now.

Chapter 15

Sydney had given Jed and everyone else in the house, the night off. She sat at the small table in the kitchen sipping a cup of coffee, tinged with Bailey’s Irish Cream. She had been in this same spot for almost two hours, seemingly unable to move.

 The sound of the doorbell chiming caused her to jerk her head up. She glanced at the clock on the wall. She reluctantly got up from the table and made her way through the family room. It was nearly nine and she couldn’t imagine who it might be.

She crossed the entry way foyer, unlocked the door, and pulled it open. What she saw caused her breath to catch in her throat.

A distraught Rachel, with blood on the side of her face looked at Sydney. “I’m sorry and I know it’s late but I didn’t know where else to go.”

“No, no, come in,” Sydney said, taking Rachel by the hand. “What happened, Rache? Are you okay?” she asked, kicking the door shut with her foot.

“I told Edward that I was filing for a divorce and he went nuts and ... and ...” she broke down in sobs, unable to finish her sentence.

“It’s okay, baby. You’re safe now. Let’s go get you cleaned up,” Sydney said soothingly as she led Rachel toward the bathroom.

She flipped on the light and gently pushed Rachel down onto the toilet seat. She felt anger course through her body as she glanced at the cut near Rachel’s eyebrow. She opened the medicine cabinet and took out some ointment, alcohol pads, and a Band-Aid. “Did he hit you?” she asked.

“Yes.”

Rachel’s one word answer caused Sydney to feel something akin to rage.
I’m going to kill the son of a bitch. That’s all there is to it
, she thought as she jerked open a drawer and took out a clean wash cloth.

She knelt down in front of Rachel. She gently laid her hand against Rachel’s cheek. “Are you hurt anywhere else, sweetheart?” she asked the question although she was afraid of the answer.

Rachel shook her head. “No but it wasn’t for lack of trying. I got out of the house before he could do anything else.”  

Sydney got to her feet and turned on the hot water. “What about the girls?” she asked.

“Caitlyn’s still at work and Alyssa had a sleepover at Christy’s.”

“I’m just going to wipe the blood off, okay,” Sydney said as she pressed the warm, wet washcloth against Rachel’s face. She wiped away the blood, trying to be as gentle as she possibly could.

“Mmm, that feels good,” Rachel said, leaning into Sydney’s touch.

“You might not like me too much after I clean it though,” Sydney said as she ripped the package open and removed the alcohol swab. “This may sting a bit.”

Rachel groaned when the swab made contact.

“I’m sorry, baby,” Sydney said, tossing the swab in the trashcan. She spread a small dab of ointment on the cut, ripped off the Band-Aid strips, and gently covered the small gash.

Without realizing what she was doing, she leaned over and softly kissed Rachel on the mouth. She intended to pull away, but Rachel’s arms wrapping around her neck prevented her from doing so. For several seconds they just stared into each other’s eyes.

Sydney knew that the desire and hunger she was seeing and feeling from Rachel was also mirrored in her own eyes and body. Her mouth went dry, her heart began to race and she knew that this woman would always own her heart.

“Kiss me, Sydney,” Rachel said, her words coming out as a plea.

When their lips met, everything in Sydney’s world stopped. She devoured Rachel’s mouth as if it were the last thing she would ever feel. She groaned when she felt the tip of Rachel’s tongue slide over her lips.

Sydney pulled back to look at Rachel. “I want you so much, Rache, so much that I think I will die if I don’t taste you.”

“Then taste me,” Rachel said huskily and then proceeded to trail kisses up the side of Sydney’s neck.

“As much as I want that, it’s not the right time or place at the moment,” Sydney said.

Rachel laughed. “And here I thought chivalry was dead.”

Caitlyn glanced at her watch as she dropped down into her chair. Another late night at the office.
I really need to get a life,
she thought to herself. She heaved her laptop bag up on the desk and unzipped the outside pocket. She pulled a compact disk out and removed it from its protective pink case.

She pushed the button to open the disk drive on her desktop and waited for the tray to slide open. “That’s odd,” she said, frowning. She looked at the silver colored disk laying in the tray.

“This is definitely not mine,” she said and removed the disk. “Where did you come from and what are you doing here? Someone has been in my office when I wasn’t here and lucky for me they forgot you,” she said, continuing to talk aloud to the disk as if it were a person and not an object.

“Let’s see what you have to say little guy.” She placed the disk back in the tray and pushed it in. She clicked on the cd drive letter and waited for the contents of the disk to pop up and then clicked on the only folder listed.   

“OMG ... I can’t believe this.” She grabbed her cell out of her purse and hit the speed dial for Sydney. “Come on, come on, answer,” she urged as the phone rang in her ear.

“Oh, Sydney, thank God,” she said when she heard Sydney’s voice on the other end.

Sydney lay on the couch with her cell up to her ear. She smiled at Rachel as she  sat two cups of tea down on the coffee table. “Hey there, what’s up?” she asked.

“You’re not going to believe this. I know who the embezzler is ... It’s ... No, don’t,” Caitlyn’s voice screamed through the phone.

Sydney sat bolt upright on the couch, the color draining from her face. “Caitlyn, Caitlyn,” she yelled into the phone .

Hearing Caitlyn’s name, Rachel stopped in mid-motion. “What’s wrong?” she asked with a panic stricken look as she watched Sydney jump to her feet.  

Caitlyn’s unconscious, crumpled body lay on the floor. A steady stream of blood ran down the side of her face, dripping onto the carpet.

Maureen, knelt down beside Caitlyn and removed the syringe sticking out of the side of her neck. She slipped a plastic cover over the needle and stuck it in her coat pocket.

She glanced at the phone laying several feet away from Caitlyn’s head. The sound of Sydney’s voice filled the room as she yelled through the receiver. Maureen slowly got to her feet, stepping over Caitlyn’s body, she bent down and picked up the phone.

She placed the phone against her ear. A sadistic smile formed on her mouth as she listened to Sydney’s frantic pleas.

“Hello? Hello,” Sydney yelled into the phone. She looked at Rachel as she came out from behind the coffee table. “I know you’re there because I can hear you breathing. Answer me damn it,” she yelled into the phone and then the line went dead.

“Sydney. Where’s Caitlyn? What happened?” Rachel’s asked calmly when every nerve in her body was telling her to scream.

“I don’t know but we need to get to Welsh now,” Sydney yelled over her shoulder as she ran toward her bedroom.

Tears streamed down Rachel’s face as she took off running after Sydney. “Oh my God, Sydney, if something has happened to Caitlyn, I don’t know what I will do,” she sobbed. 

Sydney stopped and turned to face Rachel and pulled her into her arms. “She’s going to be okay,” she said in an attempt to reassure Rachel as well as herself. She knew something was terribly wrong and she fought like mad to keep her mind from creating the worst case scenario of what was happening at this very moment in Caitlyn’s office.

“We can’t waste anymore time,” she said, reluctantly letting go of Rachel. She ran around the side of her bed and jerked open the top drawer of her nightstand.

“Oh no, no. What are you doing?” Rachel cried out when she saw the object in Sydney’s hand.

Sydney ignored Rachel’s question and slipped the magazine clip into the butt of the gun. She chambered the bullet by pulling back and releasing the slide. She grabbed an extra magazine from the drawer and slipped it into her pocket.

“Sydney, this is not the answer. We need to call the police,” Rachel pleaded when Sydney didn’t answer her.

“We don’t have time for that,” Sydney said as she came from around the bed. “They may kill Caitlyn before the police can get there.”

“Oh dear God,” Rachel cried between sobs.

The sound of Sydney’s cell phone ringing in the family room forced both women to run out of the bedroom. Sydney snatched the phone up without bothering to look at the caller ID. “Hello,” she said into the receiver as she sat down on the edge of the couch.

“As you know by now, I have your employee,” the distorted voice said into Sydney’s ear.

Sydney hit the button to put the phone on speaker mode and then laid it down on the coffee table.

“I want two-million dollars in unmarked bills and you have twenty-fours to make it happen,” the distorted voice said.

“I can’t get that amount of money that quickly. I need more time.,” Sydney tried to argue.