Chapter 1: The Christmas Shove

The first Christmas present hit the floor before anyone in the shopping mall understood why Santa Claus was falling backward.

A muscular young man had just shoved him with both hands.

Hard.

The old man’s broad shoulders crashed into the enormous red velvet chair. His black boots scraped across the carpet, a silver-wrapped gift tumbled beneath his feet, and his red hat slipped crookedly over one eyebrow.

A woman screamed.

Several shoppers stopped walking.

And the man responsible for the entire scene burst into laughter.

“COME ON, SANTA! SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT!”

Derek Sloan stood in the middle of the Christmas display, grinning as if he had just delivered the funniest joke in American history.

He was twenty-seven years old, a regional MMA champion with a rapidly growing social media following, and the kind of man who had confused people being afraid of him with people respecting him.

His black sleeveless training shirt stretched across his muscular chest. His blond hair was neatly trimmed, his hands were wrapped in expensive fighting gloves, and the two young men standing behind him were already recording.

One of them, Brett Collins, was laughing so hard that his phone shook.

The other, Jonah Reed, looked considerably less comfortable.

“Bro,” Brett shouted, “you just dropped Santa!”

Derek spread his arms toward the gathering crowd.

“That’s what happens when you put a fake tough guy in a real fighter’s way!”

A few people laughed nervously.

Most didn’t.

The old man in the Santa suit remained seated for several seconds.

Not because he couldn’t stand.

Not because he was frightened.

He was looking toward a little girl standing beside the Christmas tree.

She couldn’t have been more than eight.

She had been waiting for her photograph with Santa, clutching a small stuffed reindeer against her coat.

Now she was crying.

That bothered him considerably more than the pain in his shoulder.

Slowly, Santa placed both white-gloved hands on the arms of the chair.

He stood.

He straightened his red velvet coat, adjusted his hat, and brushed artificial snow from his sleeve.

Then he looked at Derek.