22. Jaime
Iprayed to God my hunch was right.
When Phil said the emergency exit had been tripped, but the cameras were dark, I knew I was on the right track. The maintenance shed was tucked neatly away in the woods several hundred yards from the back of the resort. If he had taken her around any other side of the building, the cameras would”ve picked it up.
My heart was pounding in my ears as I approached the dark shed. Emma must be terrified. As I grew closer, I slowed my steps, wanting to be quiet as possible.
As I neared the shed, I could hear voices.
Jackpot.
I tried to listen to the conversation, but I couldn”t pick up the words. Suddenly, I heard a male voice rise sharply, and I knew she must be in trouble.
I sucked in a breath and kicked in the door to reveal Andrew Travers Jr. and Emma sitting in an awkward tangle on the floor, her hands tied behind her back.
She cried out my name when she saw me, but before I could get to her, Andrew launched himself at me. ”You”re not going to ruin this for me now,” he spit out as I reached for him. I wrapped my hands around his throat as he tried to fight back.
He managed to pry one of my hands from his throat, but I just swung it back into his face, enjoying the sickening crack.
My hand would hurt like hell later, but I didn”t care.
I had an advantage over Andrew, because even though he was taller than me, I had rage on my side. I didn”t even realize the litany of curses flying out of my mouth as I pummeled him.
Somehow in the tussle, Andrew got a hand to the back of my head and yank on my hair, forcing one of my hands to release him. Then he had the advantage, knocking me to the ground. I heard Emma cry out, but I couldn”t focus on that for too long, because Andrew was towering over me.
Sprawled out on the ground, I reached out, feeling around for anything I could use as a weapon, and Andrew chuckled cruelly.
”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.”
She cried into my shoulder. We stayed like that for a long moment until a paramedic announced, ”We’re going to need to check on everybody and make sure you’re all okay.”
We welcomed them in and they helped Emma to a standing position and checked her out in the back of the ambulance.
She was okay, but they said someone would need to watch her sleep to make sure she didn”t experience any side effects from the drug Andrew Jr. used to knock her out.
I happily volunteered.
They gave me a list of symptoms to watch out for, and then she was released to me.
Understandably, Emma didn”t want to go back to the Carter family suite, so Caroline quickly produced the card to her room and said she would go to Emma”s room and gather her things to bring to us.
”I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you, Caroline,” I said.
She smiled. ”Just take care of her,” she said before she was interrupted by a police officer who was asking for a statement.
I didn”t leave Emma”s side as she gave her statement to the officers.
The police were appalled. Of course, this was a small town, and they knew John Carter and Emma, even though she hadn”t been around for a while.
As the policewoman finished up with our statements, she clucked her tongue and gave us a sympathetic smile. ”I’m sorry you had to go through this, Miss Carter. I knew your mama. She was a good woman and kind to everyone she ever met. It”s a real shame she was stuck with that snake.”
”My sentiments exactly.” I replied.
I took Emma back to Caroline”s room to rest.
She assured me she was fine and didn”t think she”d be able to sleep. She just wanted to stay up and lay in my arms. The statement warmed me but also concerned me. I couldn”t get her to stop shaking, no matter how tightly I held her. Despite her insisting she would never be able to sleep, less than five minutes later, she was passed out.
I stayed awake, not wanting to miss a moment or anything that might indicate she was having an adverse reaction to the drugs.
That son of a bitch actually drugged her. It was so evil and unbelievable, and yet here we were.
Emma was still asleep in the early morning hours as the sunrise filtered through the drapes. By then, everyone in town had heard about the arrest of the larger-than-life John Carter.
I had to give the residents of Silverpine credit. From what I gathered from the posts on social media, they didn”t hold back on the details or paint him out to be some sort of misunderstood figure.
Soon my sisters called, as did Charlie. They were all worried about Emma and me.
I tried to stay quiet as I explained Sofia and Maria simultaneously. ”We”re fine. I”m keeping an eye on her… we”re going to get through this.”
”I”m just so glad you thought of that maintenance shed. If you had waited for the police, it might have been too late.”
”No kidding,” Maria chimed in, ”and you need to introduce me to Caroline. She sounds fabulous.”
I laughed. ”Yeah, it”s a relief to know Emma has such good friends who look after her. I know she”s more than capable of taking care of herself, but it”s still comforting.”
”Now she has even more family to watch over her whether she likes it or not and I”m pretty sure all of Silverpine is going to be rooting for Emma, too. Listen, Jaime, I know you probably want some time for yourselves, but the next few weeks are going to be challenging, especially once charges are filed. People are going to be asking us how they can help, so think about what you and Emma might need to get through this, okay?” Sofia said, ever practical about the realities that would face us in the coming weeks.
My sister”s concern wasn’t surprising, but I still choked up.
”Jaime,” Maria said softly, ”it”s okay to let it out. You”ve been through a lot. Just remember, you’ll always have us and we’re going to help you and Emma through this as a family.”
I choked out, ”Thank you. That means the world to me. I”m not even sure why I”m crying—it’s probably the adrenaline crashing,” I said, hoping my sisters would understand it wasn”t just the night before that was making me so emotional. But it was twelve years of feeling adrift without Emma. We had a hell of a time getting back to each other, but she was here now, and I felt like I could breathe again.
”Jaime?” Emma’s scratchy voice drifted up from beside me.
”Hey, she”s waking up. I gotta go,” I told my sisters.
”Give her our love. We’ll check in on you later. Love you,” they said in near unison.
”I love you more,” I said, before hanging up and turning to Emma.
”That was Maria and Sofia. They were checking up on you, and they promised to give us some space, but realistically, that means we only have a few hours before they show up with a casserole,” I grinned.
Emma smiled sleepily at me. ”How long have I been out?”
I looked at the clock. ”Almost twelve hours.”
”Did you get any sleep?”
”Who needs sleep when there’s a goddess spread out next to me?”
She sighed, ”you must be exhausted,” she said as she tried to sit up. I leaned over to help her as she hissed and grabbed her head. ”It”s okay, I”m fine. I just… I can”t believe that actually happened. I”ve been fighting my instincts about my father for so long, but I never thought he’d take it that far,” she said.
”I”m so sorry, Emma.”
She wouldn”t let me continue. ”No, I”m the one who’s sorry. I wasted so much time. We could”ve had all his time together.”
I captured her face gently in my hands. ”We can”t think about it like that. We went out and lived our lives, made mistakes and learned lessons so we could come back together and appreciate how special what we have is.”
She leaned her face into my hand. ”I hope you know I don”t intend to let you go, not in this lifetime.”
”Promise?” I said, feeling warmth flood through me.
”I promise,” she said before leaning forward and kissing me.
The kiss was gentle, but it was just as fervent and meaningful because this was the kiss that would officially start our forever.
”I love you so much, Jaime.”
”I love you more,” I said, leaning down and kissing her.
I don”t know how long we stayed like that, but we only broke apart when there was a knock at the door… along with the sound of my sisters” voices and the telltale smell of an incoming casserole.