Page 77 of Yuletide Hero

Adam didn't ask any more questions, just yanked out his phone, and Brian brought Hayley with him as he shuffled backward on his bottom to rest against the wall. Cradling Hayley in his lap, they clung to each other, her still breathing heavily and erratically, but breathing.

They were both alive.

And that was all that mattered.

* * * * *

4:30 P.M.

“I don’t think we should be here.”

“We have to be,” Hayley said. “If anyone ever deserved a merry Christmas it’s Samara. She’s our friend, and Michael asked us to come over and help surprise her, we have to be here.”

“I think the fact that you spent the majority of the day in the hospital after nearly being suffocated to death exempts you,” Brian said.

Hayley smiled at him. She knew he was worried about her. The last twenty-four hours had been as bad for him as they’d been for her. She couldn’t imagine the fear he’d felt knowing she was with someone who wanted to kill her. She knew how she would have felt if their positions had been reversed. She would have felt like someone had wrapped a rope around her heart and was squeezing it until the life was crushed out of it.

But they were alive.

Both of them.

Back in the house when Brian had come rushing in to save her, she’d been sure that Jay was going to shoot him and then kill her too. She had been more afraid about Jay hurting Brian than herself, he’d already beaten and tried to kill her, but she couldn’t let him do that to Brian, she couldn’t let him take the man she loved away from her.

Finding reserves of strength she hadn't known she had left, she’d managed to unbalance Jay, sending him falling straight onto Brian’s knife.

Not before Brian had been hurt though.

“Hey, you had to be treated at the hospital too,” she reminded Brian.

“For a few bumps and bruises,” he countered.

“And a concussion.”

“You have a concussion too,” he shot back. “And some cracked ribs, which mean you should be at home, in bed, resting.”

“Well, you have a broken nose. Broken bones trump cracked bones.” Brian opened his mouth to come back with another retort, then they both looked at each other and laughed. “Are we really arguing over who is hurt worse?”

“I think we are.” Brian wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “I’m just worried about you. I nearly lost you.”

Hayley felt the shudder that rippled through his body.

She could feel the fear that hadn't quite dissipated yet. She wished she could wipe away the last day and make it so it never happened, but she couldn’t, and neither of them would ever forget this day.

Every time she closed her eyes or her mind wandered, she found herself back in that bedroom, tied to the bed, the bricks on her chest slowly crushing her to death. Her breath would start to hitch, just as it had back in the bedroom. She could hear it wheezing in and out of her lungs as she struggled to get in enough oxygen, fighting for every breath she took.

She could feel her pulse pounding.

Feel that same terror that had filled her.

Hayley didn't think that horror would ever leave her.

“Hey.” Brian trailed his fingers up and down her arm. “You’re hyperventilating. Try to calm down. Breathe slowly with me.”

Letting Brian’s calm voice guide her, she latched onto it and slowly her breathing began to ease.

“You okay?” he asked when she could breathe normally again.

“I was just thinking about today, in Jay’s house,” she said softly.

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