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“Don’t be sorry. None of this is your fault. You were just doing your job. The cops suspected that Jay Turner had killed his older daughter and was abusing his younger one. That little girl wasn't safe there, especially after what we now know about him. I'm happy to be here for you when you need it.” He reached out and took her hand.
The second he touched her she felt that same jolt flash through her she always felt whenever he touched her.
This was a mistake.
Being here.
She was only letting her feelings grow and giving herself false hope. She should have agreed to let Sawyer Watson be her bodyguard. Christmas was still a week away, surely that would have been enough time for Adam and Jessica to find and bring Jay Turner into custody. Then Sawyer could have been back home for Christmas with his wife and kids, and she wouldn’t be here, in Brian’s house, drooling over his half-naked body and wanting the two of them to make out.
“So, what do you want to do today?” Brian asked.
Make out.
The words were on the tip of her tongue and very nearly slipped out before she could stop herself.
“I can't do what I want to do. I want to do some sewing, and finish the last of the Christmas gifts, but my sewing machine and the pattern and all the material is back at my house. If it even survived the fire.”
“You’re in luck,” Brian said. He still held her hand and began to drag her toward the door to the garage, his blue eyes twinkling merrily.
“Why?”
“Because Brady and Sawyer dropped off something last night after you went to bed. They got your sewing machine, the boxes you had in your sewing room, and another little surprise.”
“A surprise?” Surely that was enough. Her dad was a firefighter, and she wasn't surprised he had wanted to make sure that she had her sewing machine, he knew that it was what she did to relax and that she would certainly need it right now. But that and the material would have been enough. What else had they brought?
“One you’re going to love.” Brian grinned at her as he opened the garage door and gently pushed her inside.
Hayley couldn’t do anything but smile too when she saw what Brady and Sawyer had brought over for her.
* * * * *
8:51 A.M.
“We need to find where Jay Turner is hiding out,” Adam Abram said, frustrated as he sat down at his desk.
As the father of a four-year-old little girl, he hated the idea of a man who beat his kids being out there somewhere. His wife had died when Claire was just a baby, so he had been a single parent most of his daughter’s life. He knew what it was like to be tired, stressed, and trying to fit the role of two parents into the few hours a day he got with Claire. His job often had him working unpredictable hours, if he didn't have a supportive family, he didn't know how he would cope. At the end of a long day, he was often exhausted, and his bundle of energy little girl didn't have an off button. There had been many times when he’d almost lost his temper or been tempted to just send her to bed instead of playing with her and enjoying the time they had together.
But he didn't.
Because his daughter was the very center of his world and all that he had left of his wife. He loved her more than she could ever know, and there wasn't anything she could do that would make him strike her.
“Thinking of Claire?” his partner asked.
“Yeah.” He knew that Jessica understood exactly how he was feeling about this wife beating, daughter killing man they were hunting because she was a single mother as well. Her husband had bailed on her and their son Freddie a couple of months before the little boy’s second birthday. Freddie was five now, and Claire's best friend, he and Jessica took turns looking after the kids one weekend a month to give each other and their respective families a break.
“We have to find evidence that he killed Leah,” Jessica said.
Adam shook his head. “Before we do that, we have to find him. Leah is dead, and Kinsley is safe in a foster home, but as long as Jay is out there Hayley is in danger.”
“There is an APB out on his car, and a BOLO out on him. We can't just drive around and around the city hoping that we happen to see him. We’ve done everything we can to make sure that he’ll be found. Right now our focus has to be the case, proving that he killed his daughter.”
As much as he hated to admit it, Jessica was right.
For the moment, Hayley was safe with Brian, every cop in the city was searching for him—not just because of what the man had done but because Hayley’s mother had been a cop, and the lieutenant was a family friend of the Hoods and no one messed with part of the cop family and got away with it—there was nowhere Jay could hide. Their job was to find the evidence they needed to keep Jay Turner in prison when he was found. Hayley’s statement that he had tried to kill her should be enough, but he wanted the man to pay for killing his daughter as well.
“All right, let’s go over what we have so far,” he said to his partner.
“It was the coroner’s report that first led us to believe that Leah Turner’s death wasn't the accident her parents claimed it was,” Jessica said, rifling through the stack of papers on her desk and pulling out the report. “Jay and Maria claimed that Leah was trying to sneak out of her room in the middle of the night because they wouldn’t allow her to see her boyfriend, and she slipped and fell off the roof.”
