The Virgin Next Door (Stud Ranch 3)

Mack nodded and waded into the ambulance. He pulled on the handcuffs and obviously saw what Liam had. They weren’t getting her out of there apart from the gurney. Liam was already trying to tug at the gurney and get it free from the sinking ambulance. It wasn’t budging.

“Mack, help me move this damn thing.” He jerked at it some more but while it rattled a bit and sloshed the water, it didn’t move.

“I don’t want to panic anyone,” Calla said, “but get me the fuck out of here!”

Liam looked up and saw the water was at her neck. He would not sit here and watch Calla die.

Mack dove down, probably trying to find whatever held the gurney to the ambulance. Good idea. Liam did the same. He felt all along the floor on the right side of the gurney. But there were just the wheels and the floor and nothing holding the two together. What the fuck was it?!

He ran out of air and surfaced. Only to find Calla’s head tipped back as she strained to keep her nose above water.

“Goddammit!”

Liam looked around… There! He yanked a bit of clear plastic tubing off the wall. It had a mask on one end and some sort of medical something on the other. He ripped both of them off and put the tube in Calla’s mouth just as the water closed over her face.

He held the other end of the tube clear of the water so she could keep breathing through it. But holding it up meant he couldn’t help Mack in the search to free the gurney. And they only had so much time before the whole goddamned ambulance filled and sank. Liam had no idea how deep the water was, but it had been an especially snowy winter and all the reservoirs and lakes were full.

Mack came up gasping for air. He took one look at Liam holding the tube out of the water and Calla submerged. His eyes widened and then he took another huge breath and dived back down.

“Come on, Mack,” Liam whispered. “I’ll take back every time I ever called you a stupid bastard, if you can just figure this out.”

The water continued rising. The tubing Liam had found wasn’t very long and soon, the water had risen almost to the end of it. Shite, shite, shite. He couldn’t— They weren’t going to be able to— FUCK!

He looked around frantically for anything else that might do. Some other tubing that might be longer? But everything was in disarray, half the shit must have fallen off the walls and out of the cabinets when the ambulance crashed into the lake.

He was useless. Calla was going to die. For all his money and power, he was a useless piece of shit who would watch her die right in front of his goddamned eyes—

The g

urney suddenly shifted.

Mack did it.

The bastard actually did it.

Liam wanted to whoop with joy but instead he shook himself and made sure to hold the tubing clear of the water.

Mack came up to the surface, wading wildly with one arm and tugging at the gurney with the other. Jaysus, he was a terrible swimmer.

“Take the tube so she can breathe,” Liam said.

And for once in his life, Mack didn’t argue. He reached over the gurney and took the tube carefully while Liam braced his legs against the side of the ambulance and pushed the gurney out the back.

Calla sputtered for breath as her head finally came clear of the surface and Mack tossed the tubing aside, one hand coming to her face. She spit and blinked. Jaysus, Liam couldn’t imagine how traumatizing everything she’d just been through was.

Even now. She was still locked to a heavy hunk of metal and they were in a lake.

“We’ll get you out of here, baby. Everything’s all right now.”

She just shivered, apparently out of quick-witted responses. Liam couldn’t fucking blame her. He pushed the gurney all the way free of the ambulance, using the doors for the last little bit of leverage before swimming on his own.

Calla’s feet immediately began to sink. She yanked her knees up, twisting and floating but being dragged down by her wrists attached to the gurney.

“Mack, can you get her feet?” Liam asked, trying to keep his voice calm. He wasn’t sure how good a job he was doing by the way Calla whimpered. He stayed at her head, pumping his legs furiously under the water to keep her afloat.

“We’ve got you, baby. It’s just a little way to shore.”

Thank God it wasn’t a lie. While the reservoir dropped steeply off from the road, there was enough silt built up by the roadway. When Mack swam around to the foot of the gurney, they were able to wedge the wheels onto solid land.