Page 44 of Never Finished

I looked around frantically. It was late and most of the guests were in their rooms. The elevator door just opened, and I worried he would shove me inside. He was bigger than me and could easily overpower me.

"I’m not choosing him over you. We work together—you were never an option I considered," I tried to explain as calmly as possible.

"Bullshit, you can't tell me you didn't feel that thing between us. Even our fathers knew we would hit it off and they were right… you're the one who’s causing a problem. But I am a fixer and I'm about to fix this problem," he said, leaning down.

I tried to move away from him, but I was cornered. Just when I thought he was going to make contact, Andrew Jr. suddenly fell to his knees.

I looked up in shock to see Charlie, a bartender at the hotel, with one hand grasping the back of Andrew's neck and the other restraining his arm behind his back. Charlie was a decent-sized man, but not as tall as Andrew, and yet he’d forced him to his knees with ease.

"I believe the lady said no, jackass," Charlie said through gritted teeth.

"Hey, you need to mind your own business," Andrew dared, throwing a glare over his shoulder, but when he caught the look on Charlie's face—a stony mask of fury—he stuttered, then shut up.

"Now, I think you should follow her suggestion and go sleep it off. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to finish the job."

Andrew didn't say anything for a long moment before he staggered to his feet and stumbled into the elevator, muttering under his breath as the doors closed, scowling at both me and Charlie.

As soon as the doors shut, Charlie turned to me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I said, shuddering. "I have no idea what that was about."

"I’ll call security, and we'll get him out of here," Charlie said, turning away.

"No," I said, putting a hand out to stop him. "That won't be necessary. He's just had too much to drink. I'm sure he'll be regretful in the morning."

Charlie looked doubtful, then said, "Fine, but I'm going to walk you back to your room."

"That’s not necessary… " I started, but Charlie cut me off.

"Jaime would never forgive me if I let you go up there by yourself, so I'm walking you to your room and making sure you're locked in for the night. And I put the staff on alert not to serve that guy."

I nodded, "Okay. Thank you."

Charlie and I rode up in the elevator to the top floor in silence. I knew he had questions, but bit his tongue.

Once he delivered me safely to my room, I locked the door behind me and sagged against it, letting out a long breath.

What the hell was that?

I wasn't sure, but I knew my "working relationship" with Andrew Jr. was officially over. Even if he was too sauced to realize what he was doing or the consequences, I wasn't comfortable anymore.

Despite the late hour, I pulled out my phone and, with shaking hands, dialed my father.

He answered groggily, "Emma, why are you calling at this hour?"

I let out a long breath, "I'm sorry Dad, but this couldn't wait. We've run into a problem with the Travers'."

That had his attention, and I could hear him sober almost instantly. "What's going on? What happened?"

"Dad, I’ve tried to be patient with Andrew Jr., but he keeps stalling and making unwanted advances, and tonight, when I returned to the hotel, he tried to force himself on me."

"Force himself? How?"

Embarrassed, I relayed the incident in the hotel lobby. My dad was silent for a long moment.

This was the part where I expected him to blow up on my behalf and call the whole thing off.

I didn't expect his next words. "Dammit, Emma, this should've been a slam dunk," he fumed. I was stunned to silence, but he wasn't done. "I thought you were mature enough to handle going back home, but I should've known the minute you got near that boy, it would be trouble. It's obvious you can't handle the basic task I’ve assigned you, so I'm going to have to clean up this mess myself."

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