Page 14 of Emi's Hero

Emi’s eyes widened. “You can do that?”

He nodded. “My team is highly trained and experienced in combat and extraction missions where we had to sneak into enemy-held territory to retrieve individuals.”

“You can’t tell anyone I’m alive.” Emi’s body tensed. “Fallon has people everywhere. He’ll find out.” She looked toward the door. “He might already know where I am.”

“This cabin is on a secluded beach. No one has access to it other than the owner of the cottage and his guests. I’m the only guest. The owner is in California, and no one saw me carry you in.”

“I need to go,” she said, trying again to kick the blanket off. “Sara’s in danger.”

George shook his head. “You’ll be of little help to her in your current state. But I can help you.”

She drew in a deep breath and let it out. “It doesn’t appear like I have much of a choice.”

His lips twisted. “Better than no choice at all.” He pushed to his feet. “I’ll need as much information as you can give me.”

“Like what?” Emi asked.

“Like, where is Fallon holding Sara?

“In his compound,” Emi said.

“Where is the compound?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

George shot a glance toward Emi. “You don’t know?”

“No.” She twisted the bedsheet. “He never let me out of the compound unless he took me out on his yacht, and none of his staff talked about where we were.” She shrugged. “For that matter, I don’t know where I am now. I was unconscious when I arrived here. I was unconscious when I arrived at his compound.”

George didn’t like the sound of that at all. “You’re on Kauai now.”

She sighed. “Kauai. No one was allowed to speak to me. If I asked questions, they couldn’t answer them. Even Maria, who helped me with Sara, couldn’t talk to me. I know she spoke to Sara when I wasn’t around. Sara learned some Spanish from her. Maria did what she could by bringing Sara a doll fashioned out of scraps of fabric. She also brought us paper and pencils so that I could work with Sara, teaching her a little about reading and writing.”

“How long ago was it that you were taken?”

“Roughly eight years.” Her voice was flat and unemotional, stating the facts.

Holy shit.

George fought back bile roiling in his belly.

Emi told him she’d been with college friends on spring break in Honolulu when she’d left a bar to walk back to their hotel.

“One minute, I was on the sidewalk; the next minute, I woke with a headache in a strange man’s compound.” She shook her head. “He told me that he owned me. If I wanted to live, I had to do everything he told me. No argument.” She looked away, lost in her memories. “I told him to go to hell and that he couldn’t keep me hostage. He wouldn’t get away with it.” Her lips twisted. “He gave me a black eye and broke two of my ribs.”

George reached for her hand out of reflex, his heart twisting. She didn’t pull hers free. Instead, she curled her fingers around his.

“I learned to shut up and do what he said. It hurt less,” her voice faded. “I held onto the hope that someone would find me and free me in a day or two. I just had to hold out, do what he said and survive.” She glanced down at her hands. “A few days turned into weeks.”

George didn’t comment. This was her story to tell.

Emi had been held captive for eight years with no one to help.

“I tried to escape twice. I never got very far. His men brought me back. The first time, he beat me, took my clothes and locked me in a dark room in the basement for three days. The second time I tried to leave the compound, he was so mad he nearly killed me. It took me weeks to recover. That’s when I learned I was pregnant.”

Emi wouldn’t meet George’s eyes.

“Sara was a product of Fallon’s violence toward me. I hated him for what he’d done and continued to do to me. But it wasn’t my baby’s fault her father was a monster. I marched Fallon’s very narrow line throughout the pregnancy to keep him from getting angry and hitting me. I was afraid he’d hurt the baby.” She gave a mirthless laugh. “He still found reasons to smack me around.”

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