Page 59 of Never Finished

"Yeah, I'll wait for the cops. Go find our girl," she said. I turned to go, and she called after me. “And Jaime,” I stopped briefly, looking back at her, "Please be careful. She'll kill me if anything happens to you," she said with a wink.

I gave her a nod and ran toward the maintenance shed, my heart pounding in my ears.

There was no way I would let that motherfucker get away with whatever he had planned for Emma. I wouldn’t let him take her away from me, or end things for us before they even began.

"I'm coming, Emma," I whispered to myself as I ran out the back door of the resort.

Emma

My mouth felt like cotton and everything was dark. There was a dull throbbing in my head, and even though my body felt like lead, I strained to hear and pick up the words floating over me.

The voice was frantic and hushed and… were they crying?

Choked sounds came and my ears tuned in to pick up snippets.

… "I'm sorry, Dad. I don't know how to fix this…"

… "I messed up bad. What do I do now?

… "I just wanted what was owed to me…"

Those last words flipped a switch inside me. Andrew Jr.

That's right. He'd come to my room, started rambling on about promises, then put that god-awful rag over my mouth, and it was lights out for me.

What was I thinking just opening the door like? It was all coming back to me and I realized the horrible situation I was in.

I flexed my fingers. They felt stiff, and I realized my hands were tied together behind my back.

Fuck.

I was still only in the nightie and nothing else, laid out on something hard.

I could see bits of light coming through a window, but I couldn't see Andrew. I just felt his foot pacing at my feet as he muttered into a phone.

I shut my eyes again, trying to concentrate on what I could figure out with my other senses.

I smelled… what was that smell? Motor oil? And wood shavings, and outside?

We were in a building, but it didn't feel like a finished room.

Okay, Emma. You're going to have to gather your courage and start asking questions.

But what the hell did I ask this lunatic?

"Andrew?" My voice came out rusty.

"Oh shit. I gotta go," he said, and then he was addressing me. My eyes could barely make out his silhouette looming over me in the dark.

"Where are we?" I dared to ask.

"Don't you worry about that," he snapped, "Not until I figure out what our next move is." I could see his shadow running a worried hand through his hair as he continued to pace.

"You know, it was never supposed to go this far, Emma. If you would have just cooperated…"

I was silent for a moment as my brain scrambled to think of the right words to say that wouldn't get me killed. "You know," I stuttered out, "It's not too late to make things right."

He snorted. "Yeah, and how do you propose to do that? I mean, I just drugged a woman and kidnapped her. Not really sure how to come back from that, but I have to figure out something—my old man has been no help. "