Page 64 of Yuletide Hero

5:33 P.M.

“Daddy, almost Christmas,” Star said excitedly.

Brady smiled. He loved that his little girl was old enough this year to be excited about Christmas. She had been talking about it ever since they put up their Christmas tree on December 1st. And Star talked a lot. A lot. She had started talking a full month before her first birthday and hadn't stopped since. She wasn't even two years old yet, and she spoke in full sentences and could carry on a whole conversation. She started speaking the moment her eyes opened in the morning and didn't stop until they tucked her in.

Already he was dreading Star’s teenage years.

His daughter wasn't anything like him—which was definitely a good thing—nor was she like her mother—although in looks she was definitely Aurora’s mini-me. He was a mostly reformed bad boy with a death wish, and Aurora was the sweetest woman on the planet. Star was a little firecracker, she was loud, and outgoing, and was probably going to make him go gray before his time.

“I know, honey. I have to go to work now. Can you put Mommy back on? Goodnight, I love you, I’ll come in and kiss you when I get home, but you’ll probably be asleep already.”

“Night, Daddy.” Star blew him a kiss, then he heard shuffling as she obviously handed the phone off to her mother.

“Brady, what time do you think you’ll be home?” Aurora asked.

“Hopefully not late, but probably not until after Star has gone down for the night. I’m almost to the Turner house, hopefully Hayley can convince Maria that she’s doing the right thing, then Brian and I are going to take Hayley to the station while Jessica and Adam go and arrest Jay. Once they have him in custody, Hayley and Brian can go home, and I can come home to my two favorite girls.” He couldn’t wait to get home and celebrate Christmas with his family. Christmas Eve was the day he and Aurora had first met, and while it had been a shaky start, he was so glad he’d found her. She had brought light to his dark life, and he now felt like he was actually living instead of just waiting to die.

“I’ll keep dinner warm for you, then you can help me wrap the last of the Christmas presents.”

“Wrapping gifts is definitely your department.” He chuckled. He wrapped his gifts for Aurora but wasn't very good at it. “Unwrapping is more my thing.”

She laughed, getting his meaning without him having to say it. Over the last few years, he had definitely started to rub off on her. When they’d met she’d been borderline afraid of sex, now she was even confident enough to come onto him. “I can't wait. I may have a little surprise for you when you …”

He stopped listening when he saw a truck come out of nowhere and slam into a car a couple of blocks ahead of him.

It wasn't an accident.

The truck had no headlights on.

It had been lying in wait.

“I have to go,” he told Aurora. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” she said. She was used to him having to abruptly end phone calls while he was at work, and she didn't take offense to his brisk tone. She knew firsthand what he was like when he got into the work zone.

Pulling his car to the side of the road as he jumped out, he saw someone pulling a woman out of the passenger side of the car. Brady didn't even have to be able to see properly to know that this was Brian’s car, that the apparently unconscious woman was Hayley, and the man from the truck was Jay Turner.

Gun in hand, he approached carefully.

“Let her go, Jay,” he called out. All he could see were shadows, but when you spent most of your adult life living in the dark you learned to see shadows pretty well.

“I’m not walking away without her this time,” came the snarled reply. “Maria, do it.”

Maria was here too?

How had Jay gotten to Maria?

Had he hurt Jessica and Adam?

“Maria, you wanted to do the right thing,” he called out to the shadowy figure that stepped out into the middle of the street, standing close to the mangled car. “Come over here by me, don’t let him take Hayley. Once he has her, he’s going to kill her, and then he’s going to try to get Kinsley back. Don’t let him hurt Kinsley like he did Leah.”

Jay laughed, that kind of laugh you gave when you knew you had the upper hand. “Do it,” he ordered.

A tiny speck of orangey red appeared where Maria was standing, a second later it dropped toward the ground, and then a larger flame burst up, moving slowly toward the wreck that had been Brian’s car.

“The bodyguard is still in there.” Jay laughed again, then climbed into the truck.

Brady had a choice, try to stop Jay from running with Hayley or get Brian out of the car before the line of fire hit it and blew it up.

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