The Virgin Next Door by Stasia Black

38

LIAM

Liamonly 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.”

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 gurney 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.

Behind them, the ambulance kept sinking until only the top corner of the doors was visible. Medical paraphernalia floated all around.

Even wedged on the soil, the water was still deep enough that Calla’s waist and legs were submerged. When Mack moved around closer, she threw herself into his arms. Well, as much as she could with her hands still cuffed to the damn gurney. Liam tread water, lifting Calla’s cuffed wrist to get a better look at it. There had to be some way to get it off.

Then he heard sirens in the distance. Thank Christ. He’d gotten into his share of scrapes throughout his years where Garda had gotten involved to be wary of the bastards—but he’d never been happier to hear the police were coming. They’d be able to get Calla free.

“Help’s coming, baby.” Liam pushed some wet hair out of Calla’s face and dropped his forehead against hers. Mack kissed her, all three of their heads close together. Just like they should always be.

Which was when he remembered his last words to Calla about her only being with him for his money.

“I’m sorry I was such a fecking idiot and didn’t trust you,” Liam said, words tumbling out one after the other. “Everyone I ever loved before has let me down. Just wanted me for what I could give them.” Even his da. He was only worth something to Ciarán if he could prove himself worthy of the O’Neill name and legacy—a standard which his da always set impossibly high. Maybe because he never really believed Liam was his son.

“But you aren’t everyone else. You’re Calla.” He grabbed her face between his hands. “You’re the woman I love.” Jaysus. It was so obvious now. “I was a coward not telling you before.” He hadn’t even been willing to admit it to himself. Not before that horrible moment when the ambulance went over the road into the lake and his heart stopped beating.

Calla was worth taking a chance on. She was worth everything. And Mack. He had Liam’s heart too, the big bastard. Calla was the glue, but the three of them were the perfect fit. When he was with them, it felt more right than anything had in his life. Two people who wanted him just for… well, himself. Who found him worthy all on his own.

Liam grasped Mack’s bicep and pulled him close as they both embraced Calla. For her part she cried and laughed and hugged them back.

Until a loud growling shout came from above.

“You’ll never be anything but my bitch.”

Mack jerked back from Calla and Liam right as the figure above them, blood streaming from his—crotch?!—leapt down from the road, knife raised over his head.