Hot Coffee (The Hollens Book 1)

The Swamp

Emma's POV

I woke up tied to a chair with an excruciating pain at the back of my head. I looked around. I was inside of a small wooden house, similar to a shack. I let out a groan from the pain in the back of my head, which drew the attention of three guys who looked at me with raging eyes. 

One came over and stood right in front of me. He was approximately six feet, six inches tall, mid-forties with a dark chocolate complexion.

"What's a pretty little thing like you doing all alone in a dirty swamp?" he asked. 

The other two looked around the same age and built but had cream complexions.

"I was kidnapped." The words trembled through my lips.

"Who would want to do you any harm?" His voice was heavy like thunder.

"My fiancee's mother. She doesn't want me for her son."

The three men broke into laughter.

"You poor thing."

"Why am I here? Please let me go," I begged as tears came.

"We can't do that. You might go to the cops and tell them what we're doing here," the second guy spoke.

"I promise you, I wouldn't do that. You have my word. All I wanna do is go home," I sobbed, lowering my head.

"You're not going anywhere!"

"Please, let me go."

"I say we kill this bitch!" the third guy spoke and aimed a gun at my face. 

He must be the commander, I figured because the other two fell back as he approached me.

"Please don't do this," I begged him. My life wasn't the most important thing to me. If I died, my baby died as well. I couldn't let that happen.

"We're not going to keep you alive. You've seen our faces and you've seen our operation. Any last words?" he asked and pressed the rifle hard against my temple.

"Please. My fiance could pay a ransom for me. Y'all are making one million on this deal, he could double that amount."

I'm so sorry Ethan, I don't want this guy to kill me and our baby.

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"Because I'm pregnant. He wouldn't leave me and his baby for dead. He'll pay it."

"Who's this guy?"

"Ethan Hollen. He owns Hollen Tower."

"Your fiance is Ethan Hollen?"

"Yes."

"Don't lie to me, you bitch!"

"I'm not lying!"

"So where was he when his mother took you?"

"On a business meeting in France. If he knows the situation I'm in, he'll be here fast."

He lowered his rifle and the three of them started a discussion away from my ear shot. After five minutes, the one with the rifle approached me again.

"I've watched enough movies to know how these things go down. Rich boy would have this place swarm with cops. I'm not taking that chance! Cee! Kill this girl," he ordered and handed the gun to the darker guy.

He approached, looking at me with hard eyes and a narrow strip of sorrow. He untied me and marched me outside.

The shack was surrounded by water with just a narrow patched of ground for entrance. He marched me up the path, gun pointed into my back, as we made our way through crooked-shaped trees and long vines.

"Stop," he commanded. 

I halted. I turned to face him. I didn't want to get shot in my back. I'd rather see it coming.

"Any last words?"

"I'm a woman who's pregnant with an unborn child. I'm about to lose my life, and my baby's, because of you. You don't have to do this. I swear to you that I wouldn't say a thing to anyone about you all. I would just tell the cops what my mother-in-law did and forget that I've ever met the three of you. Please, don't do this. Please!" I begged the guy again. My life depended on it.

"What is your name?"

"Emma." I wrapped the sheet tighter around me.

He looked at me hard, his eyes scanning me from head to toe. "Where are you from?"

"I don't know exactly. I was put up for adoption when I was a baby. All my parents left me was a note stating: Emma Cole -DOB July 12th." I filled with rage as I remembered how heartless my parents were to me. Wherever they were, I wished they were the ones in my current situation.

The guy lowered his gun. "Get out of here."

I couldn't believe what I heard him said.

"You're letting me go? Why?" I asked, which was a really stupid thing to ask. Some people wouldn't hesitate to turn on their heels and run as fast as their legs could carry them and here I was asking this giant why.

His eyes twinkled completely now and I felt awkward.

"Get out of here before Braun comes. Run, Emma. Run straight ahead and don't look back."

I turned on my heels then heard him say, "I'm really sorry Emma. I've never meant to hurt you. You turned out to be an incredible woman."

I stopped in my tracks and turned back to the man. I narrowed my eyes in confusion as to what the hell he meant by I "turned out to be an incredible woman"? Where did he know me from?

"Do you know me?" I asked as I got closer to him.

"Emma, you need to go, now. Get out of here!" He fired two shots into the air.

I covered my ears, turned on my heels again and ran. I ran. I ran and I never looked back.

I couldn't help but feel something within me, something strange and common, like a magnet was drawing me in but shielded off because of the situation they had put me through. I ran and thanked God for saving my life and my baby's, and for Cee who didn't pull the trigger.

But why?  What stopped him? Judging from the looks of those guys and the drugs they were dealing, I was certain they had killed people before without any remorse. So why did he stop from shooting me?

I kept running straight ahead. I was exhausted and afraid of running into more drug dealers, or a dangerous animal, or something more terrible, but I didn't stop. I kept going and going and going. How big was this damn swamp and where exactly was I heading? Was I even in New York still?

After hours of running, and jumping over muddy puddles, dodging tree branches that scraped my face, crawling up slopes on my hands and knees, prickles and twigs stabbing all over my body, I finally heard the sound of moving vehicles. I came to a road and there was a huge sign: Oyster Bay, Nassau. I exhaled and collapsed to the ground from exhaustion. 

The morning sun was already approaching in the sky, chasing away the stormy clouds. I looked up as a vehicle stopped and a woman came over to me.

"Oh my God. Are you alright? Can you hear me?" she asked and took her cellphone and spoke into it frantically.

I closed my eyes and blacked out.