Page 60 of A Sudden Response

“About you and Joe? Mark’s sister claims that she saw the two of you making out at the movies Sunday night,” Jeff said, looking a little too interested for his comfort.

After ditching his mother and brother at a chick flick, they went to see an action flick, and the moment the lights went out, his mouth was on hers until some kid with too much acne and a flashlight asked them to leave. Before he could bitch the kid out, Joe was dragging him out of the theatre and to his car and demanding that he move his ass. He would have argued with her, but she chose that moment to reach between his legs and caress his aching cock.

“Yes,” Eric said, wondering what the big deal was.

Jeff grinned hugely as he turned around to face the group of men playing pool. “Pay up,” he said, holding his hand out.

“I didn’t think Joe was that desperate,” one of the men grumbled as he slapped money in Jeff’s hand.

“I’m not,” Joe said, walking past him. “I lost a bet.”

“Is our third rider here yet?” Eric asked as he stepped behind Joe to punch in.

That quickly ended whatever amusement the men felt. “Yeah, the cocky little bastard is in the garage hanging out with Teddy,” Jeff said.

“Bill really fucked up when he had him do a third ride with that asshole,” another man grumbled.

“Did he ride along this weekend?” Joe asked as she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water.

“Teddy volunteered to work with him and guess what? The little shit got his first write-up for talking shit to a nurse.”

“And he’s still here?” Eric asked, beyond fucking shocked that he hadn’t been fired on the spot since Bill usually didn’t put up with that type of bullshit.

“Bill tried to give him the boot, but his uncle called in another favor. They’re hoping the two of you will get the little shit to mellow the fuck out,” Jacob said as he walked into the room. “Personally, I’d love to bitch-slap the little bastard, but Bill already asked me not to do that.”

He shared a look with Joe and knew that she was seriously debating killing Bill for forcing them to do this. The two weeks they’d spent with him should have been more than enough, but now, they were stuck with the little bastard.

As long as Greg did what he was told, watched his mouth and didn’t pull any bullshit, they’d deal with him, but the second the little shit stepped out of line, he’d yank him back in line. If that didn’t work, he’d drop his ass back at the station and file a report to keep the little bastard from stepping foot on another truck. He didn’t give a flying fuck if his uncle had a problem with that.

Working on an ambulance was a stressful job. Greg was a nervous wreck, but he could work around that. What he couldn’t deal with was his fucking attitude. Every time Greg fucked up, he got even cockier and now that he thought that his job was protected thanks to his uncle, it was only going to get worse.

That’s how it started with Teddy. He never should have been signed off, but his training officer let him slide and signed him off. That was followed by pairing him with a senior EMT who was more than happy to let him run the show and by the time everyone realized what an asshole Teddy was, it was too late. He’d made it past his probationary period and made it into the union.

That wasn’t going to happen with Greg. If he couldn’t get his shit together and learn how to do this fucking job, then he was out of here. Let his uncle push him off onto another station because Eric sure as hell wasn’t about to sign off on him and have a patient’s death on his conscience.

Without a word, Joe grabbed a shift checklist and headed for the garage. He followed after her, chuckling as the guys’ smart-ass remarks followed. They walked over to the pegboard and found the slot for ambulance seventeen’s keys empty. Hoping the crew from last night left the keys in the truck, they walked over to the van style ambulances and found Greg and Teddy leaning back against the ambulance, trading bullshit stories about the women they’d fucked.

He cleared his throat and thankfully, they got the message. They sent Joe a look before changing the conversation. Teddy was a pig, but he knew better than treat any of the females that worked at the station like shit. Every man here would be all over him if he crossed a line.

Joe tried to open the driver’s side door, but it was locked. When she released a groan after looking through the window, Eric knew the keys weren’t locked inside. Great. They were going to be down a truck until whoever worked last night hauled their ass back here with the keys or Bill came in and unlocked the backups.

“Guess we’ll have to call dispatch and see if they can track down a set of keys for us,” Joe said, shifting her backpack over her shoulder.

Greg shook his head as he held up a set of keys. “Don’t bother. I got them right here.”

“Did you check the truck out?” Joe asked, holding her hand out for the keys, but Greg either didn’t see her hand or ignored her as he put the keys back in his pocket.

“That’s the previous crew’s job. It’s a waste of time to check it out in the beginning of the shift,” Greg said with a shrug, moving to turn his back on Joe.

“It’s part of the job, Greg. We need to check the truck out before we go into service. Hand me the keys,please,” Joe said tightly, and Eric knew that she was close to losing her shit.

“The truck’s all set,” Greg said dismissively.

Before Joe could take another calming breath, Eric was in the little bastard’s face. “She’s your training officer. When she asks you to do something, you better fucking do it. I don’t give a flying fuck who your uncle is. If you don’t pass our standards, you will not be working in this station. Understood?” Eric snapped as he held his hand out for the keys.

Grinding his jaw, Greg reluctantly reached into his pocket and handed the keys over. He shot a look at Teddy, who kept his mouth shut. If he thought that Teddy was going to fight his battles, he was out of his fucking mind.

Eric tossed Joe the keys as he gestured to the ambulance. “Get in there and start checking out the truck.”

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