Page 40 of A Sudden Response

He ran his fingers through his hair, questioning his motives even as he weaved his way through the other teams getting their equipment together.

“Maybe after this, we can go get a drink,” Johnny said, sounding really fucking eager.

Joe opened her mouth, probably to say yes since the damn woman probably thought it was just the guys hanging outtogether. He really had no idea why she thought that she was one of the guys. She wasn’t. Not even fucking close, but she refused to listen to him. All the guys hit on her, asked her out, and fucking drooled over her and she was too fucking oblivious to see it.

“She’s busy,” Eric said, cutting her off before she could lead the poor bastard on. He shoved past Johnny and scooped her up into his arms. He ignored her sputtered protests as he carried her back to his ambulance.

“Where the hell are you going with my patient?” Johnny called after them.

“She’s mine, dipshit,” Eric yelled over his shoulder, wishing like hell that he didn’t like the sound of that.

He dumped her ass on his stretcher, and before she could make a run for it, he clipped her in. She moved to unclip the safety restraints, but he simply readjusted them so that the belt at her waist covered her forearms and tightened it so that she couldn’t move. He did the same with her legs.

“Comfy?” Eric asked brightly as she glared up at him with a look that promised all sorts of pain and misery in his future. As long as she didn’t go for his balls, she could do whatever she wanted because he wasn’t letting her go.

“What is wrong with you?” Joe demanded. “Let me go!”

“Sorry, can’t,” Eric said with a bored sigh. “The patients are expected to be on the stretcher at the start of the race.”

“I’m not your patient!” Joe snapped.

“Of course you are,” Eric said, leaning back against the back door and forcing her to tilt her head back so that she could glare at him.

“No, I’m not,” Joe said, struggling against the restraints.

“If you’re not my patient, then what are you doing on my stretcher?” Eric drawled as he slowly took in the teams setting up around them.

“Because you’re an ass?” Joe suggested as she managed to get her left arm free.

“Is everything okay?” Dave asked as he walked towards them, carrying a couple bottles of water.

“No!” Joe snapped, making Dave frown.

“She’s just really excited about being strapped to a longboard,” Eric explained with a careless shrug.

“You betraying bastard!” Joe hissed, and he knew the second the competition ended that she was going for that nut shot, which meant that he was going to have to leave her strapped to a backboard for a while.

“Flip the backboard!”

Joe took a deep breath, but it didn’t quite prepare her for being flipped over until she was glaring at the ground. She wished she could turn her head to glare at the bastard, but thanks to the neck collar, tape, and the fact that she was secured from head to toe on a plastic backboard, she couldn’t move an inch.

As one of the refs checked each restraint, she was forced to clench her teeth together as she seethed with anger. She couldn’t believe him. First, he screws her over at work, then he screws with her head, and ignores her only to piss her off by doingthis. She couldn’t wait for this damn competition to end. The second, the very second, he released her, she was going to beat the shit out of him with this backboard.

When she was flipped back over again and placed on the stretcher, anticipation coursed through her veins. He thought she was weak? She’d show him. She’d also show him that he couldn’t push her around and screw with her head. He might beher best friend, but that didn’t mean that she had to put up with this bullshit.

He would learn.

Oh, would he learn...

“What the hell are you doing?” Joe demanded when she suddenly found herself being placed in the back of the ambulance.

“Enjoy the ride,” Eric said before the backdoors slammed shut and the roar of the ambulance vibrated all around her.

He wouldn’t dare...

He did.

CHAPTER 17

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