A Beautiful Kind of Hope (A Beautiful Kind of Series Book 1)

by Cathy Johns

  Nope.

  "I can't go in there without my shoes" the asshole of a man laughs and I want to knee his balls when he moves closer to me but I hold it. I raise my eyebrows in warning but he doesn't move. "It’s either you get me my shoes or I'll pee here?" I warn again swaying from one side to the other.

  The man moves his hand behind my back and unties me. Big mistake. I stretch my hand, hooking my fingers on my panties and stare at the man. "You need to turn around" I tell the man who looks scary as hell but he's no match for my man. He shrugs his shoulder with a stupid smile on his face and I want to smack his face. I finish my business but he's not ready for what comes next because I charge on him hard, making sure I’ve used enough force to have him smack his head on the wall hard before falling to the floor. I search his pockets and get hold of his phone, lucky it doesn't have a lock code. I dial Taylor's number.

  I know I don't have much time before the others come to find me. He answers on the second ring.

  "Baby?" I whisper.

  "Hope?" he calls. I don't have time so I go straight to the point.

  "Baby, I'm scared. I need you to come find me. I don't know where I am but you need to come and get me." I whisper through the phone the minute I hear a door open and footsteps coming our way. I mute the phone looking around to see where I can deposit it. I step on the toilet seat and throw the phone out the open window hoping it will land somewhere safe.

  I know Taylor is good at what he does and I'm hoping he's able to trace the phone and come find me.

  The door opens a second later and Leah walks in. She looks at me then at the man on the floor.

  "What happened here?" she asks.

  "He tried to touch me." I lie. She pushes the man with her feet but he doesn't move. He must have knocked his head pretty bad. I hope he doesn't wake up to tell the story.

  Leah walks towards me and grabs my arm digging her nasty nails on my skin. I'll make her pay for that later. Right now I'll play along until Taylor can find me.

  We walk towards the corridor but we don't enter the room we were in before, instead she leads us to another room that has music playing. Entering the room, I find it full of men, twenty of them if I'm not wrong. The setting around looks like a stripper club. I feel nauseated when I think of it.

  Before I can think about it, the man who slapped me walks up to me smiling. "He shouldn't have messed with my business when he took you out of the club and now I'm going to hit him hard where it hurts." the man says. This is the man who owns the Magic Well?

  "What do you want?" I ask stalling hoping Taylor will come and find me soon.

  "You're going to strip for all these men and then I'll send the video to him and trust me he will pay with everything he has so that video doesn't go viral." I want to laugh but I don't. I just stare at him shaking my head.

  I lean in and gaze at him. "I promise with everything that is in me that I'll make you pay." I spit on his face and walk towards the stage. I can't do this but if it's the only way to buy time as I wait for Taylor, then I'll do it.

  I stand on the stage and look at the men holding their drinks, I recognize a few faces and even though I still have the mask on, I contemplate on removing it but then again, if this man uses the video and it goes viral, I don't want my kids ever seeing it because as we all know it, the media has a habit of digging up dirt that is as old as our forefathers.

  I place my hand on my tummy and breathe. I can do this no matter how much I hate it. Taylor made me leave this kind of a job and gave me something that makes me feel alive and whole. He has given me a family.

  Before I can grab the pole that is in the middle of the stage, the door comes flying open and I see Mark and a few policemen with him. A man comes from nowhere and stands behind me with a gun pointed at me and I feel the air leave my lungs as the faces of my children come before me, their smiley faces as we laugh with them, then I see my man, Taylor. Who will take care of him, who will take care of my children? I never saw my life coming to an end so fast when I haven’t even lived it yet. I can’t leave them alone. They need me, my mother needs me.

  Before I can think about it, someone fires their gun and the man who was holding his gun on me falls to the ground, crunching his leg. One of the policeman grabs his gun while he cuffs his hands behind his back.

  Everything else happens so fast with people being shoved out of the room, others are cuffed together and I want to cry but I can't now. Not when everything is happening so fast around me. Someone pushes Mark to the side and I see him.

  My world.

  "Baby, Hope..." tears are in his eyes as he squats in front of me. I didn't know I was kneeling on the floor as Taylor takes me in his arms. The touch of his arms around me opens the waterfall. I tug on his shirt and cry against his chest.

  "I thought I was going to lose you." He says kissing the tears away. “I thought I was never going to see you again baby.” He cries with me, his arms crushing me on his chest and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be but here.

  He pulls me up from the ground, his big body covering me from the rest. I'm in my bra and panties, I don’t even have my shoes but I don’t think about it because all I want is to get out of here. I want to go home, I want to see my children.

  "Please, take me out of here" I beg him before someone hands him what appears to be some sort of shawl and covers me. "Your father..." I start to say.

  "My father?" He doesn't know. I nod my head." Where is he?" The anger in his voice vibrates across the room.

  "He's among the men they just arrested." Mark says.

  "Did he say he was my father?" Taylor asks, his voice is calm as he cups my cheek. I nod my head.

  "He's been watching you all along" I burst into tears thinking of the things that awful man said. "Please take me out of here" I beg.

  "I'll take you home" Taylor says pulling me beside him before picking me up and carrying me bridal style leading us out of this godforsaken place.

  Once outside I see there are the blue and red lights around. An ambulance with paramedics waiting to check on me but I don't want anyone to touch me. I just want to get home. I want to be in my man's arms.

  "Baby, they need to check on you before we head home." Taylor murmurs against my ear. I want to protest but I don't. Instead, I hold him tightly in my arms and I'm afraid I'll break his hand.

  As if he notices my needs he pulls me in his loving arms. "I'm not going anywhere" he assures me. "Just let them take a look at you and then we can go home"

  I nod my head and I let the paramedics do their job. They have a look at my legs and hands where they had tied me. I don't have any other injuries apart from the swelling on my face where that man slapped me but they are more concerned on whatever they had drugged me with as they kidnapped me. I should be worried but will have to tell Taylor first before I can confide in anyone else.

  "Can you give us a minute?" I ask the guy whose applying some ointment on my wrists.

  "Sure." He lets us be and walks to stand at a distance.

  I look at my man and smile.

  "This is not how I planned on telling you this. I wanted to cook us dinner, maybe your favorite meal but since I have to let the paramedics check on me, I'll have to say it. I want you to be the first to know because you're the first person I wanted to tell after I went to see Dr. Lee this morning." I smile when I see his eyes trailing all over my body.

  "Is something wrong?" Silly man. Men can be shallow at times but I don't blame him. After what I've been through tonight...

  "How do you feel about having a woman who has four kids?" His hand goes to his mouth when it registers what I'm talking about. He knows the last time I teased him about three kids and that had meant Michael, Kelly and June. But now we're going to have one of our own. I'm not sure when I missed on the pills but with all that we had been going through trying to finish up with the children's home, have the children settled in and not to mention the countless hours I've driven myself insane making sure the
children have everything they need is enough to make someone forget to take their pill.

  "We're going to have a baby?" He whispers still not believing it. I giggle nodding my head. He pulls me in his arms and twirls us around, his laughter filling the air.

  When he puts me down on the bed where the paramedic was working on me, I notice our mutual friends are there with us and also his Mom. Taylor has his hands all over my face, kissing me, laughing like he still can't believe he's going to be a father, again.

  His Mom pushes him aside and comes to hug me. "I'm so glad you're safe honey. You had us all worried." I hear concern in her voice and I hold her tightly more tears flowing down. This woman has been so good to me and to think he raised Taylor as her own.

  She pulls away from my arms and rubs on my back.

  "You all aren't going to believe " Taylor says laugh-crying.

  "What?" Everyone says. Their eyes on both of us. He couldn't keep it to himself even with all the madness that has surrounded us this night.

  "We're going to have a baby." He yells out loud.

  Damn him.

  Everyone congratulates us before letting me answer a few questions that the paramedics have as well as the two policemen in charge of the case now.

  Taylor still can't believe his father was involved in such a thing. Since he was four years, he has never heard from James, his father. And to think he had me as he plotted in taking everything Taylor has ever worked hard for makes him lose it and not to mention Leah…

  I ask him how he found me and he said he tracked the phone that I used to call him with till it led him to the abandoned warehouse in the Industrial Area.

  I'm glad they all found me because I don't want to think what could have happened if they hadn't. My former boss and James seemed to be heartless sons of a bitches who would take pleasure in seeing Taylor suffer.

  Hope

  Even with a shitty night I still find a reason to smile. I thought she was safe being on the pill, thinking about being a dad makes me want to bang on my chest like a gorilla letting the world know about it. I gaze at her covered in a shawl no shoes on her feet and I want to take her home, I’ll deal with the rest of the shit I’ve discovered tomorrow.

  The minute she called me and begged me to come find her, I felt like someone had stabbed me. I had no idea where she was or what Leah had done to her. Hearing her voice on the phone tore me apart. I am trying to hold myself together even when I knew I was breaking apart. I don't know how she managed to get a phone and contact me but I laughed when she told me how she had banged the guy’s head on the wall and throwing the phone out the window hoping it would land somewhere safe.

  I've heard enough stories about this area where people get car jacked and for Hope's former boss to do such a thing just to get at me for taking what he thought brought him business makes me want to kill him already. Who the hell told him that Hope was an asset that he could hold on to in order to boost his business?

  I've never had such a long night or felt like my life was being taken from me right under my nose. I was going crazy, trying to trace Leah's phone after figuring out it was her after "future wife" popped in her message.

  And why would my father, the man who abandoned me when I needed him the most, when my Mama was fighting and working odd jobs just put food on the table want to mess with my life all over again like he didn't do that Twenty-two years ago? He fucking walked out on us, sold our damn house while we were left to sleep on the streets. I know I want answers and to think all this time he was working with Leah?

  How did I not see that? That girl was bad news to start with and who told them I would be worried about Hope's past? She's not ashamed of it but that's not my story to tell. I would never change my mind based on what other people thought but what I know is that I would protect her from anyone who tried to hurt her or her family. She's been through hell and back.

  "I need to take you home baby" I whisper against her ear as I hold her tight in my arms. The night is cold and being in the open doesn't help the fact that she has nothing to keep her warm underneath the shawl.

  "We should go home. It's been a long day and this..." she looks at the car that has James and Leah in it. I can't even call that man my father. What kind of a father takes pleasure in knowing that they aim to make their son suffer.

  Only someone who is sick in the head.

  "I'm tired and I haven't eaten anything since this afternoon" Hope says and my instincts kick in. The mother of my children needs to rest and be fed.

  "Leo, can you take us home." It’s more or less a question. "We can deal with this shit tomorrow when I don't want to kill someone for hurting my woman."

  "Sure" my brother says.

  "What about the car?" Hope asks.

  "Mark will take care of it" I answer her. She's worried about a car she never wanted in the first place. "Come, we have a long night ahead of us and I can only think of a few ways to make it better for the mother of my kids." I smile brushing my lips against hers.

  "Do tell." She teases before nipping on my lip. For someone who just got kidnapped and was about to be forced to do a strip dance... I don't know how she does it. Lightening the situation but news regarding a baby would make someone forget all they've been through especially when their thoughts were about to kill someone.

  "I prefer showing you." I tease back.

  "I'm halfway naked." She giggles.

  "You're making me hard baby. And this no place for anyone to hear you screaming my name." I smirk before picking her up and carrying her in my arms as I walk towards my car.

  "A girl can get used to this." She says against my neck where she has wrapped her arms around me.

  "You better get used to it because you're not just any girl, you're my girl and the mother of my kids. The woman I want to spoil silly." I kiss her as Leo opens the door for us.

  "You two need to get a room." Leo snorts.

  "No need for a room brother. That's why I'm taking her home." I grin.

  "Asshole." he murmurs under his breath.

  "Look who’s calling the kettle black!" I laugh. "Right now, I'm the happiest man under the sun." With that, I get in the car and pull Hope into my arms as Leo takes us home.