Page 16 of Yuletide Hero

Inside it was cold, but not unbearably so. If he was lucky there might even be hot running water. Heading straight upstairs he found the bathroom and tried the taps. Water. Hot water.

Shedding his clothes, he left them where they lay and stepped into the shower. The hot water felt amazing, and he started to relax. Hot water. That was an idea. He wondered what it would be like to burn someone inch by inch with boiling water. Jay sneered, maybe he’d try that out on Hayley Hood.

He wasn't really a killer, but he was willing to make an exception where that woman was concerned. He was willing to rip her to shreds. He had never been this angry with another human being before in his life.

He’d thought that Leah possessed the ability to get under his skin and drive him insane until all he could think about was slapping that smirk off her face and silencing that mouth of hers, but this social worker was something else. Hadn't she ever been taught to keep her nose out of someone else’s business?

When he was done with her, she was going to realize just what a mistake she had made.

Only by then it would be too late.

If he didn't kill her, what kind of example was he setting for Kinsley?

She would grow up thinking that she could do as she wanted. That she could be defiant and didn't have to listen to him and give him the complete obedience that he demanded.

That was unacceptable.

He would not have his daughter thinking such things.

He would kill Hayley Hood for what she had done, then he would get his kid back and teach her and her mother a lesson that would wipe away the bad example the social worker had set.

So many possibilities.

So many ways to hurt that witch.

He would make her wish she had burned to death in her house.

When he was finished with her, she would pray for Hell, and still he wouldn’t send her there.

The water that streamed down him began to run cold, he had lost track of time daydreaming about all the ways he could torture Hayley Hood before he killed her.

Shutting off the water, since there was no towel to dry himself with, he left his clothes on the floor and walked to the window, staring out at the night sky. It might be two in the morning, but Christmas displays still tinkled and shone in front yards. Jay had never really liked Christmas. He’d never understood the getting something for nothing mentality or this goodwill toward men nonsense that people were always spewing.

But this year he liked the idea of a gift under his tree.

That gift being Hayley Hood’s dead body.

“I’m coming for you, Hayley,” he said into the night. “I hope you know that. I hope the idea terrifies you. I hope you don’t get a second’s peace. I hope you can't sleep because you know I'm going to find you in your dreams, and then I'm going to track you down, kill anyone who tries to stop me, and make you suffer. I’m going to relish every second of it, your screams, your tears, your blood, they’re mine, just like your life is mine. There’s nowhere to hide. Wherever you’re holed up I will find you. I can't wait to see you soon.”

* * * * *

5:11 A.M.

Nothing relaxed Hayley more than sewing.

The machine’s whirring as she pushed the material through was soothing. She could let her mind wander and let go of all of her fears and insecurities and just be.

She remembered the first time she had ever done any sewing. She was six years old, and she’d been with her parents for almost a year. It was Halloween, and her mom had been hand-making all of their costumes. It was the first holiday she’d celebrated as a Hood that she had been really excited about, the others had all incited various degrees of anxiety.

But not Halloween. She’d liked the idea of dressing up and pretending to be someone else. She’d liked the idea of being able to see monsters and know that she didn't have to be afraid because maybe then she would stop being afraid of the monster that had kidnapped her and pretended to be her father for the first five years of her life.

It had worked.

After that, she hadn't been as afraid anymore.

Part of that was because of the bonding she and her mom had done in the days before Halloween. She’d wanted to help make her little sister’s costume, and she and her mom had sat together in the same chair, her mom at the back, her perched in front, and sewn Arianna’s costume.

Ever since that day sewing had been her happy place.

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