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"I'll take a rain check on that double rack of ribs," she said, pulling away from Nathan to go help kick Eric's ass.
"Wait. When did I promise to buy you a double rack?" Nathan asked, sounding adorably confused.
"About ten seconds before you promised to buy me a double fudge brownie sundae," she said, throwing him a wink.
"Gold digger!"
********
"What the hell is she doing?" Dave asked as he gestured behind him.
Eric looked back and had to bite back a curse or two as he watched Johnny Powers sweep Joe off her feet and place her on his stretcher. His eyes narrowed to slits when the bastard ran his fingers through her hair as he moved it out of her face.
What the hell was she doing?
Was she really that pissed at him that she was willing to help his competition? Or was it something else, he wondered. Everyone knew that Johnny had the hots for Joe. Although whenever anyone told her that she'd just laugh it off. She thought Johnny was just a buddy and being friendly. She was so f**king naive sometimes.
"That reminds me. We're going to need a patient too. Should I go get my sister?" Dave asked, moving to go do just that.
"Nah, I got it covered," he said, tossing the straps back on the stretcher.
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 asked, sounding eager.
Joe opened her mouth, probably to say yes since the damn woman no doubt thought it was just the guys hanging out together. He really had no idea why the hell she couldn't figure out that she was pretty much the only one that saw her as one of the guys. All the other guys as far as he knew looked her at her as a hot piece of ass and she was too damn oblivious to see that, which was pretty f**ked up since she wasn't like this with guys from outside of work.
"She's busy," he said, cutting her off before she could inadvertently lead the poor bastard on as he shoved past Johnny and scooped her up. He ignored her sputtered protests as he carried her back towards his ambulance.
"Where the hell are you going with my patient?" Johnny called after them.
"She's mine, dipshit," he 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. Of course 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 of course.
"Comfy?" he asked brightly as she glared up at him with all sorts of promises of pain and misery in his future. As long as she didn't go for his balls she could have her little revenge.
"What is wrong with you?" she demanded. "Let me go!"
"Sorry, can't," he said with a bored shrug. "The patients are expected to be on the stretcher at the start of the competition."
"I'm not your patient!" she snapped.
"Of course you are," he said, leaning against the open back door of the ambulance, forcing her to tilt her head back to glare at him.
"No, I'm not," she said, struggling against the restraints.
"If you're not my patient then what are you doing on my stretcher?" he demanded, cocking a brow.
"Because you're an ass?" she suggested, struggling and getting her left arm free.
"Is everything okay?" Dave asked as he walked towards them, carrying a couple of bottles of water.
"No!" Joe of course said, making Dave frown and look a little uncomfortable.
"Ignore her. It's just her time of the month," Eric explained with a careless shrug.
"You betraying bastard!" Joe hissed out and he knew the second that the competition ended that she was going for that nut shot, which of course meant that he was going to have to leave her strapped to a backboard to protect his boys.
*******
"Flip the backboard!" the announcer ordered over the bullhorn.
Joe took a deep breath, but it didn't quite prepare her for being turned over until she was facing 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 long hard plastic backboard she couldn't move an inch.
As one of the refs checked each restraint she was forced to ground her teeth as she seethed with anger. She couldn't believe the nerve. First he screws her over at work and then he screws with her head and body and then ignores her only to piss her off by manhandling her. She couldn't wait for this damn contest to end. The second, the very second he let her out, she was going to beat the shit out of him and then tell him off.
When she was flipped back over and placed on a 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 or screw with her head. He might be her best friend, but that didn't mean that she had to put up with archaic bullshit.
He would learn......oh, would he learn........
"What the hell are you doing?" she 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
"Where's Joe?" Nathan asked as he pulled out a chair and sat down while scanning the bar.
"She's out enjoying a joy ride," he said, feeling his lips twitch. He idly wondered how she was enjoying her scenic drive down Old Man Mason's road, a ten mile stretch of country road that hadn't seen so much as a tar patch job in twenty years. It was one of those obscure roads that everyone forgot about, except for the kids who liked to race on the potholed, cracked mess for a challenge.
Nathan threw him a curious look, but shrugged it off as his continued to look around the bar.
"Where's Caitlyn?" Eric asked, looking around the bar for the cute little brunette.
"We broke up."
He really shouldn't be surprised by this point, but he really was. He'd only met the woman a handful of times, but she seemed sweet and perfect for his brother. Then again he hadn't met any of Nathan's girlfriends that he didn't think was perfect for him.
"Why?" he asked, taking a sip of his beer while his brother continued to scan the bar.
"It was just time," he said with a shrug, never ceasing in his perusal of the busy bar.
