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“Hayley.” He brushed her hair back off her face, then took her face between his hands, his thumbs brushing lightly backward and forward across her cheekbones.
“Brian,” she murmured, so softly he could hardly hear her. Then her eyelashes fluttered, and her eyes cracked open. “You came.”
“You knew I would,” he rebuked. “Nothing on this earth could keep me away from you. Nothing.”
She gave a small smile, then her eyelids slid down, and she rested heavily against him.
“Just keep your breathing slow and steady,” he told her. Hayley needed an ambulance, but they were stuck in here until Jay Turner was in custody. “Slow and steady,” he repeated.
Hayley nodded, then just lay in his arms and rested.
He just held her, rocked her, stroked her hair, and tried to believe that she was okay, that she had survived, that they could still have the future they had talked about when they'd laid in each other’s arms the other night.
Brian didn't know how long they sat there, but all of a sudden, the quiet night was pierced by the sound of a gun being fired.
It could have been Jessica, Adam, or Brady firing at Jay Turner, or it could have been Jay firing at them. Not willing to risk Hayley’s safety, Brian stood with Hayley in his arms, knelt down, and pushed her under the bed.
“Don’t come out. No matter what,” he ordered.
Scared blue eyes looked back at him, but she nodded.
He went and hid behind the door. He’d barely gotten there when it swung open, and a man came storming in.
It wasn't one of his friends, it was Jay Turner, and he gasped when he saw the bed was empty. Obviously noticing the open window, he ran to it. Brian weighed up his options. He saw a gun in Jay’s hands, and he was unarmed and injured. Jay had been shot twice over the last few days, but from the looks of things the wounds were superficial, he didn't move like he was in any pain.
The odds might be stacked against him, but if he did nothing, Jay was going to find Hayley.
There was some sort of commotion going on downstairs, so he wasn't sure how long it would be before someone came up to help.
His hand curled around the knife he’d used to cut Hayley free. If he could strike before Jay noticed him, he could kill the man. It was a quicker death than he deserved—a quicker death than the man had tried to give Hayley—but at least he’d be dead, and there would be some sort of justice in the world.
He crept from his hiding place, knife poised, but just as he stepped up behind the other man, Jay spun around.
“You,” Jay spat out. “You took her from me.”
Jay lifted his weapon but instead of firing it, he slammed it into Brian’s temple. The force of the blow sent him sprawling onto the floor.
“You’ll pay for messing with what’s mine,” Jay snarled, lifting the weapon once again, but this time aiming it directly at his head.
Brian wasn't afraid to die, the only thing he was afraid of was that Jay would find Hayley and kill her before the others could get up here.
He couldn’t let that happen, but he didn't know how to stop it.
Then all of a sudden, a hand flew out from underneath the bed, wrapped around Jay’s ankle, and yanked, sending the man falling.
Brian still held the knife, poised between them, and Jay landed on it as he fell, the blade slicing clean through his heart.
It took only a minute for the man to bleed out.
By then footsteps were pounding on the stairs.
Brian didn't care about them, and he didn't care that Jay was dying. He just shoved the man’s body off him and scrambled to the bed, reaching under to pull Hayley out.
She’d just saved his life.
“Brian?” Adam sounded surprised as he came bursting through the door. “What are you doing here?”
He didn't have time to explain that right now, so Brian just said, “He’s dead. Hayley needs an ambulance. Now.”
