Page 61 of Never Finished

"Nice try, bartender," he said before leaning over me, his fist pulling back to punch me.

But before he could touch me, there was a sickening sound of metal against bone, and the son of a bitch collapsed on top of me.

I looked up to find Caroline with a shovel in her hands.

"Sorry for the awkward position here, folks," she said, noting how Andrew had fallen on top of me.

There was a myriad of shouts and "Ma'am, let us through!"

Soon police officers were removing a groaning Andrew from on top of me and putting handcuffs on him.

As soon as I was free of his weight, I scrambled to Emma, checking over her face, her arms. "Bella, are you okay?"

Tears were streaming down her cheeks. "I'm okay. Just a nasty headache," she shifted towards me. "Would you mind getting my hands?"

As I reached behind her, a fresh wave of sickness rolled over me at the way she'd been bound, but I quickly undid her restraints. As soon as her hands were free, she threw them around my neck.

"Ma'am, I’m sorry to interrupt, but we need to ask you a few questions, and there’s a paramedic on the way to check you out," a policewoman said.

Emma nodded in response as I held her to me, rocking her back-and-forth, not knowing what to say. Just feeling so grateful I found her.

"You scared the hell out of me, Bella," I said into her hair.

She hiccuped a laugh. "Don't worry, I scared the hell out of me, too."

There was a commotion on top of the other commotion outside as an officer read Andrew Jr. his rights. I heard a familiar but unwelcome voice, booming. "What the hell is going on here?"

Mr. Carter's voice rang out, belittling Andrew Jr. "What do you think you're doing, son?"

By now Andrew had come to, still groaning. He responded, "I only did what you suggested."

Emma and I looked at each other in horror, and I moved to the doorway of the shed to hear more clearly as Mr. Carter lowered his voice and hissed, "I suggested no such thing. I just told you to scare her a little. You took this way too far."

Rage rushed through me and even though there was a voice in me that cautioned to behave around the officers, another voice urged me to get in Mr. Carter’s face and tell him exactly how I felt about how he treated his only daughter.

But once again, someone else was quicker than I was. The next thing I knew, Caroline was charging at Mr. Carter, kneeing him squarely in the nuts.

He doubled over, groaning. "Sick fuck," she hissed. "How could you do this to your own daughter? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

An officer came to restrain Caroline, telling her to calm down and take a breath.

Mr. Carter looked up and snarled, "What are you doing? Arrest her. You just saw her assault me."

The officer he belittled looked at him lazily. "I’m sorry, sir. I have no idea what you're talking about. If you ask me, you got off easy."

Another officer emerged to lift Mr. Carter from the ground and then put him in cuffs.

"Get these off of me. Why are you cuffing me? I haven't done anything wrong."

"Sir, Mr. Travers says otherwise. He claims you're his accomplice, so we're going to take you both down for questioning and sort this all out."

Mr. Carter was seething, and I bit back a laugh before I looked at Caroline and complimented, "That was amazing."

She smiled. "It felt pretty amazing."

I turned back to Emma, who was crying, and my smile instantly fell. "He was in on it," she croaked.

"Oh," I sighed, rushing to her and gathering her in my arms. "Emma, I'm so sorry."