Kayla
and Steve were left with a very large hole in their lives when Benjy
left. They would've settled down into regular lives if Nick Corelli
hadn't appeared. The former pimp, who had been presumed dead in a car
accident, had been found by Steve badly injured. Steve and Kayla took
care of Nick and kept his existence a secret until he decided to
leave Salem. Unfortunately, a man from Nick's past named Eddie Reed
kidnapped Eve Donovan in the hopes of getting some money that Nick
had hidden. Steve and Kayla became involved when they found Nick, who
was trying to save Eve. First they helped him save Eve, and they
safely retrieved Nick's money from a safe deposit box. Kayla and
Steve had to spend one night in their loft with Nick's money -- 2
million dollars. The thrill of having that much money caused Kayla to
seduce Steve and make love on it :) They returned the money the next
morning. Although charges were brought against them (for helping Nick
pretend he was still dead), Steve and Kayla went free after paying a
fine. Soon after, a land deed was sent to the Johnsons in Steve's
name. It was to a large property in the outskirts of town which
contained an old Antebellam mansion. The deed was Nick's way of
saying thanks.
Kayla
fell in love with the house as soon as she saw it. It was definitely
a fixer-upper, but she saw the house's true beauty. While looking
around the house, Steve found a trunk full of Civil War era mementos
that had belonged to the previous owners. Kayla was especially
intrigued by a Union army coat that had a bullet hole through the
heart. To find out more about the house's former inhabitants, Kayla
and Steve read a diary that she found along with the jacket. The
diary. which belonged to Emily
Matthews, had been written in
1864. It told the story of Emily and her soulmate, Gideon White.
Steve and Kayla found the diary terribly romantic and read a little
bit of it every day.
Meanwhile,
Kayla, Steve, and Marcus became the center of strange happennings
that apparently began with the arrival of a travelling minister named
Saul Taylor. Kayla didn't trust the Reverend for some reason. His
negative -- almost racist -- attitude toward Marcus didn't earn any
points with her either. During this time, an attempt was made on
Marcus' life. He'd been searching for his roots but someone was
determined to stop him from remembering his childhood. Determined to
help Marcus, Steve and Kayla travelled with him and his friend Gail
Carson to Charleston, South Carolina. Marcus' orphanage records
indicated that he was from a nearby town named Cleaver.
Coincidentally, the setting in Emily's diary switched to Charleston.
Taking advantage of this, Steve and Kayla took time out to visit some
of the places from Emily and Gideon's story. Their good time was over
very quickly, though. A man named Barney Gillespie tried to shoot
Marcus while they were all getting on a trolley. Barney was obviously
connected to the mystery of Marcus' past, but he wouldn't talk. After
he was arrested, he offered to answer questions. Unfortunately, he
was killed in jail just before he could say anything.
After
returning to Salem, Kayla befriended Saul Taylor's daughter, Faith,
who had been injured in an accident. Meanwhile, Steve informed Kayla
that he was going to go undercover for the ISA in order to stop the
people who were after Marcus. To do so, he'd have to go under surgery
and have his left eye reconstructed. Kayla hated the idea of Steve
changing his appearance, but eventually she accepted it. She even
assisted in the top secret surgery that was performed by Marcus. Soon
after the surgery, Steve told Kayla that he'd be leaving in a short
time to be debriefed. Unfortunately, he left without saying a word.
One day, Kayla simply arrived home to find an ISA agent disguised as
Steve. However, the agent allowed her to say good-bye to Steve via a
wire that he was wearing. Afterwards, the agent took a flight to
Stockholm to make it seem like Steve had left the country to help a
friend.
Kayla
tried to stick to the story about Steve. In the meantime, she
continued to help Faith, who was having problems with her father
because she liked Marcus. Faith and Kayla became very good friends,
and soon Kayla was attending Faith's ministry's revival meetings. At
one of these meetings, Kayla was moved by a drunken bum who wandered
into the revival tent and claimed to have found the Lord again. While
the bum, Daniel Lucas, was speaking about his revelation, Kayla
realized that the man was Steve! He was almost unrecognizable without
his patch. For the sake of the case at hand, Kayla didn't give him
away. She just walked over to him and gave him an old Bible to keep
with him during his mission. Shortly after this, Reverend Saul set up
a religious retreat in the mountains, and Steve had to go in there as
part of his mission. Kayla soon became worried about him and decided
to go to the retreat with the excuse of wanting to see Faith. In no
time at all, Kayla was caught up in a very dangerous
situation.
As it turned out, Saul's ministry was the cover for a large drug empire run by Alfred Jericho. In addition to being a drug kingpin, Jericho was also a racist. When Marcus was a boy, he saw Jericho and Saul blow up a church in Cleaver, killing three black girls; Jericho was the one after Marcus because he was afraid that he'd remember and turn him in. Saul's religious retreat was full of armed guards and very inaccessible to outsiders. In addition to Steve, Kayla was surprised to find Shane at the camp. Jericho had been keeping him prisoner there but he'd escaped with Steve's help. Jericho was suspicious of Kayla as soon as he saw her in the camp and kept a watchful eye on her. When he noticed that she knew Daniel Lucas (whom he also found suspicious), he had Kayla detained. Jericho threatened Faith and Kayla in order to find out where "Daniel" and Shane were, but she didn't say a word. Finally, Steve and Shane were able to rescue her and take Jericho prisoner. Unfortunately, they had to give him up when Jericho's men took Marcus and Faith hostage. In the mess that followed, Marcus and Faith were rescued, but Jericho and Shane apparently died in an explosion. Steve tried to look for Shane without much success. The ISA soon gave up as well and declared him dead. Kayla was the one who had to break the sad news to Kimberly.
The character of Kayla Brady has been
played by the following:
Catherine Mary Stewart (1982-1983)
Mary Beth Evans (1986-1992)
Rhonda Aldrich (1989) (temporary replacement)