Motherfucker must have bailed right before sending the rig over into the lake. Mack yanked the gun out of the back of his pants and walked toward Bone.
“Mack, help! I can’t get the doors open!”
Mack looked back at Liam, in the water and yanking at the back door of the ambulance. It wasn’t giving even though Liam looked like he was yanking with all his might.
Then he looked back at Bone, who was obviously winded but was still grinning at Mack. “Yes Mackenzie, go try to rescue your girlfriend. If it’s not too late, that is.”
“You son of a—”
“Mack!” Liam screamed.
“What a dilemma,” Bone mocked, putting his fist under his chin. “Do you deal with me and let your girlfriend die? Or let me go so you can go try to save her?” He laughed. “This is why you were always so fun to play with. You cared so damn much.” He threw his hands up in the air. “What’s it gonna be, baby boy? Me or her?”
“Who says I have to choose?” Mack said coldly.
He whipped his gun around, aimed, and shot Bone’s dick off.
Then he turned and ran for Liam and Calla.
38
LIAM
Liam only barely registered the gun shot behind him. He looked back, saw Mack still standing, then went back to what he was doing. The back door was locked, so he’d given up on that and swum around to the front of the ambulance. It was totally submerged. Jaysus the whole thing was sinking so damn fast. It had only been thirty or forty seconds and already the front was full of water.
“Calla!” he heard Mack shouting and banging on the back door. At least the bastard had finally got his priorities straight and was in the damn water.
Liam yanked on the front door. It didn’t give at first but after bracing his feet and yanking some more, it finally opened.
Liam took a giant breath of air and ducked underneath the water. He swam into the front seat. It was dark inside, a little bit of light filtering through the submerged windshield. Enough to see that it was the kind of ambulance that opened to the back compartment, thank Jaysus.
It was awkward to maneuver his lanky body through the narrow opening to get to the back. He got the top of himself through but his bottom half became tangled, his foot stuck on the steering wheel. Shite!
He was getting short on air and the back of the ambulance was completely dark. He couldn’t see a thing. Including where Calla was. Or where the surface was so he knew how close he was to catching a breath.
He finally kicked and kicked until he got his legs untangled so he could slip all the way through the opening to the back of the ambulance. He swam up and broke the surface. He took a huge breath and then immediately started searching.
“Calla?” He moved his hands around in the wet darkness.
That’s when he heard the most beautiful sound in the world. Muffled cries came from his left and, following the noise, his hands closed on Calla’s drenched frame, sitting on a gurney.
Jaysus the water was up to her chest. He felt along her body until he came to her face. Some sort of rag was stuffed in her mouth. He yanked it out and she started crying, “Thank you. Thank God. Oh God. Thank you. Thank you.”
“Gotta say, this is the first time I’ve been called God outside the bedroom.”
“Oh my God, if I could smack you right now, I would,” she laughed and cried at the same time. “Get me out of here. I’m handcuffed to this damn thing.”
Shite. Liam felt down her arms to her wrists. On both sides she was cuffed to the handles of the huge gurney. There was no way they were going out the way he came in. And they were running out of time.
“I’m gonna see if I can get the doors open from the inside. I’m only letting you go for a second, okay.”
“Okay,” she said, but her voice shook so much Liam could tell she was terrified in spite of the fact she’d just been making jokes.
Right then there was an ear-splitting bang. And then another one.
Then the ambulance was flooded with light as Mack yanked open the back door. For a second, Liam could only stare. The bastard had shot the lock off the door.
“You could have killed us, you fucking maniac.” Then he shook his head. “Help me get her out of here. She’s handcuffed to this damn thing.”