I think Izzy and I are officially done with spending time in police stations. Seriously, we'd spent way too long in one after the Jeremy incident and again after Thanksgiving. And now on Christmas day, we were back. We went through things a bit at a time, thanking our lucky stars that we had Detective Whelan's card so she could talk to them about the warrant for Max and the video of the other guy. His name turned out to be William Ward, and he had been working with that asshole Max since the summer.

               Max, because he might be the stupidest man on the planet, never kept his phone locked. All the text messages between he and William, and more importantly between he and my parents, were easy for the police to see.

               My parents were selling me.

I was worth just $100,000 and they would get me to their house for Christmas, and let Max know when I got there so they could grab me because he'd wait around the corner. With the text messages to William, and the plastic tarps and shovels in the back of the truck, I knew that had Izzy not saved me that I'd already be on my way to a grave somewhere in the desert. All so he could save a little money from the lawsuit and maybe have revenge for the death of his mother which wasn't even my fault.

               I couldn't even look at my parents when they were marched in cuffs through the precinct, but I heard them. Fucking dyke. Ungrateful bitch. Useless daughter. Those were the words that they yelled when they saw me. They were going to fucking sell their own child, but they had the audacity to be the ones calling names. I wish I could get them to share a cell with Izzy's dad.

               Izzy straddled me in the chair, pulling me into her shoulder and letting me cry into her lovely Christmas shirt. "It's okay. I have you. You're doing fine honey, just fine. I love you so much! Nothing they say will ever change a thing between you and all the people that think you're amazing."

               I could only nod into her, wishing I could stop my nose from running. But between the crying and the aftereffects of the pepper spray that gorgeous shirt of hers was probably ruined. "Why would they do that? Why is me loving you so horrible to people like them?"

               "Hey! You loving me is the best thing that could have happened to either of us," she assured me while kissing my temple. "Your parents suck. My father sucks. The man that raised me sucked. But we have absolutely incredible friends. We have people that would do almost anything for us that have become our own little de facto family. Let them love you. Let me love you."

               That just made me sob harder, clutching her body to me while we sat in a little island of uniformed officers who didn't seem to know what to do with us. We'd already answered all their questions, and they were just running down leads right now. All I wanted was to go back to my hotel room and hold Izzy. The adrenaline from the chase was gone, and I was just empty now. I needed to be filled with Izzy's love in the worst way.

               No! Not like that, you perverts!

               I just needed her to hold me, to let me hold her and feel her skin against mine while remembering why she was the one I'd been lucky enough to capture the heart of just as she had captured mine. What a lonely existence I'd have right now had I not found Izzy. But I had. Right now, she was all I had keeping me from dissolving in a mess of tears.

               "How long do we have to stay here?" Izzy asked one of the passing officers.

               He grabbed the case file and looked through it. "Damn, I'm sorry. We already have your statements, so you can go. We have your contact information, so we'll let you know you if anything comes up and we need you for more. I thought someone had already told you."

               "Do we have to worry about Max and his friend?" I really didn't need another Christmas surprise, and at this point I was trying to not get angry that we'd been sitting here for who knows how long when we could have left.

"We were waiting on the doctors at the hospital to tell us if we could interview the two boys, but it looks like they're still in surgery. At this point I would think you're good." The man did sound apologetic, and he was stuck working on Christmas too, so we gave him a pass.

"Thanks officer, merry Christmas!" Izzy chimed out.

We got down to the visitor parking where my poor little beat up car was parked. The rear bumper was crushed, and we'd needed a rope to tie the trunk shut. The front bumper was just gone after Max's truck ripped it off, and the rear passenger side door was crushed while the window had been shattered. It had seen better days.

"I guess we don't need an excuse to find a new car now," I muttered.

"Just make sure it has a big back seat," Izzy said while getting on her tiptoes to kiss me. I knew she was trying to distract me to keep me from getting down emotionally, and I lifted her up to kiss her back. I needed it, because if I took too much time to think, I might just break down.

"I thought you liked my big back seat!" I joked, moving her hands down to my ass. "Are you looking for another?"

"If you get me back to the hotel, I'll show you just how much I love that back seat of yours!"

As much as I loved to hear that, I took one look at my car, and I wasn't sure it would get us there. But we'd try. I unlocked the car and opened the door for Izzy. "Let's see if we can make it to the hotel in this wreck!"

The engine seemed okay, and it didn't fall apart, although there were a lot of odd rattles that hadn't been there before. We would have to buy a new car in the morning, because there was no way I was trusting this one to get us home tomorrow.

The valet looked at the car in horror as we pulled up. "Take it to the desert and shoot it," I only partially joked while tossing him the keys. At this point, that might be the kindest thing we could do for it.

A quick walk hand in hand into the hotel and through the lobby, then up the elevator to our room and we were finally someplace I could feel more human. I dropped my purse on the floor, and then didn't know what to do. Do I just nap? I heard the shower start, and then Izzy came out of the bathroom, her shirt already unbuttoned and stripped it off. She stepped behind me, then unzipped my dress, slipping it off my shoulders and letting gravity take it down to pool down at my feet. She took my hand, helped me step over it then sat me on the edge of the bed, kneeling in front of me and taking off my boots and socks, then lifting my hips to take off my satin red underwear. I was even wearing the matching bra because I'd thought it was perfect for the holidays.

This morning seemed like a long time ago now.

She reached around me, unhooking my bra and tossing it into the floor with the rest of my clothes, then took her own boots off before pulling off her cargo pants and her satin green underwear and bra. Damn were we optimistically festive. I mechanically took her hand when she held it out to me, letting her pull me to my feet as she led me into the bathroom, now filled with steam from the hot water. She guided me into the walk in shower, and then just pulled me close as the water washed away the remnants of the day.

I don't even recall slipping onto the floor. I had no idea that Izzy was big enough to hold me in her lap for the first time. I felt the tears, almost as hot as the water and much saltier, coursing down my face as she held me. She just rocked me back and forth, giving me all her strength while I was at the lowest that I'd ever been.

If they had their way, I'd be dead right now. Dead. And Izzy? I didn't even want to think about what would have happened to her, but I had to imagine that there would have been a shallow grave for her too. For the second time, I had dodged being killed by Max by the slimmest of margins, this time with the help of my parents. I only hoped that this time he'd get jail time, since I don't see how he could get away from it. But stranger things have happened.

I felt Izzy's lips on my shoulder, her hands around my waist, and realized that for all the negativity of the day, she had been my rock star savior. She saved me, and helped to capture Max. I gently moved myself off her lap, so I wasn't squishing her, and then pulled her onto my own. "I don't think I'll ever be able to get over how amazing you were today."

She snorted. "Like I was going to let anyone take you away from me? Nobody fucks with my girlfriend. I love you way too much to let assholes like them get between us."

"Yeah, joke if you like, but you saved my life. And you got to hit my folks with the stun gun! I'm so jealous!"

She sat up, her eyes sparking while the water coursed over her. "You would have loved it! Your dad busted open the door to the bathroom and I zapped him right in the dick! He fell over and smashed his face on the toilet. Your mom screamed and I just yelled right back at her then zapped her in the tit. I wanna zap someone else!"

"I'll tell you what. Let's get out of the shower, and then dry off, and crawl into bed. You can shuffle around on the carpet, then shock my ass with the static electricity," I joked.

That was a mistake because that little minx did exactly that and made me jump! Of course, she did kiss it and make it better afterwards before we celebrated Christmas the way we should have, by stuffing each other's stockings all night.