Page 3 of After the End
“Thesweetdeputy.”
Lou started to laugh, and he shot her a quick scowl before focusing on his driving again. His glare didn’t deter her, though. If anything, she laughed harder. “Let’s see. How to describe the new deputy…? The closest I can come is if Thor and a Calvin Klein underwear model spliced their genes together.”
Even though Callum knew perfectly well that she was just teasing him, his fingers still tried to strangle the steering wheel.
“I’m kidding.” Her lips pressed against his cheek, instantly lightening his mood. “I didn’t really notice what he looked like. Kind of bland, I guess? His hair might’ve been brown. Honestly, I didn’t pay much attention.”
“Good,” he said, wishing he could take his hand off the wheel to give her a one-armed hug, but the road conditions didn’t allow it. “Now put your seatbelt back on.”
They turned onto the reservoir entrance road, which was, as usual, as steep and icy as a frozen water slide. A sheriff’s department vehicle was parked at the top of the rise. Apparently, Deputy Sweetness hadn’t wanted to risk the drive down to the reservoir’s edge. Callum waited until Lou’s seatbelt buckle clicked back into place, and then he eased onto the slope.
“What’s the deputy doing out there?” Lou asked, sounding exasperated.
Glancing at the frozen reservoir, he saw three people out on the ice, one of them in a sheriff’s department uniform. Clenching his teeth to hold back a curse, he focused on getting to the shore. There was nothing they could do until they got to the bottom and could yell at those idiots. The ice layer on Verde was thin and uneven this early in the season. Signs all around the reservoir warned people not to walk on the ice, but these three had stupidly ignored them, risking a very, very cold dunking…potentially a deadly one. A group of a half-dozen people had gathered at the shore to watch the show, a good distance away from the truck’s path, thankfully.
The pickup slid down the slope as Callum tried to keep the vehicle as straight and slow as possible. The rear of the truck coasted to the side as they reached the bottom, and the truck skidded across the icy ground as the reservoir drew closer and closer.
“Not that I don’t have complete faith in your driving,” Lou said, her voice a little higher than usual, “but I’d rather you not dump us into the water. I’m suited up, so I’ll float, but rescuing you always stresses me out.”
“I’ll do my best.” The truck swung from side to side as the tires struggled to find traction, finally biting into the crunchy snow bordering the reservoir. They’d barely eased to a stop before Lou hopped out. Grabbing the equipment bag from the backseat, Callum got out as well, moving quickly to Lou’s side. He turned on his portable radio and let dispatch know that they’d arrived on scene.
“Hey, Deputy!” she yelled as Callum hooked a rope harness around her. No one was in the water yet, but the couple was over a hundred feet away from shore, and the deputy was over half that. There were plenty of weak spots in the ice between them and safety. “What are you doing out there?”
In answer, the deputy swung an arm at the other two, a man and a woman who appeared to be arguing. She stepped forward and shoved the guy, making him stumble back a step.
“Hey!” Callum used his best carrying voice. “Knock it off and get over herenow! The ice isn’t safe!”
The couple turned toward them and immediately started yelling. With both of them talking over each other, it was hard to understand them, especially at that distance, but there was mention of “flirting” and “sister” and more than a few profanities. They didn’t move an inch closer to shore, either. The deputy, however, started walking toward them, his steps careful.
“What are they saying?” Lou asked under her breath. “Did she just call him a bearded rodent?”
“I don’t know,” he grumbled. “I don’t care. They need to quit talking and get off of the reservoir.”
“Agreed.” She paused. “That’s not quite true. Iaminterested in why they’re arguing. It’s the tiny, train-wreck-watching, petty part of me.”
“What’s the story?” Derek asked from behind them. Glancing around, Callum didn’t see the dive van.
“Did you park on top?” he asked, turning his attention back to the people on the ice.
“Yep,” Derek confirmed. “You and Lou are the only two nut-balls who’d actually drive down that hill.”
Lou made a scoffing sound without looking away from the couple, who’d restarted their argument. “Please. You drove the dive van down here last spring. The problem was getting back up the road. It took you a few tries. Like…what was it? Fifty?”
“Should we get the rescue boat?” Wilt asked over Derek’s sputtering.
Out of habit, Callum almost answered, but then he clamped his mouth shut and looked at Lou.
She thought for a moment before speaking. “Yes. Let’s get it inflated, just in case, but we’ll stay off the reservoir for now. It won’t help anything to add more weight and stress to the ice. Best-case scenario is that they all walk to shore without anyone going into the water. If something does happen, though, we’ll be ready to fish them out.”
Callum couldn’t hold back a proud grin. She’d come a long way from the inexperienced, hesitant rescue diver she’d been at her first training session. As Wilt and Derek headed to the dive van, Callum turned his attention to the three people on the ice. The couple had returned to their shoving match, and the deputy had stopped his slow shuffle toward shore to face them.
“If you don’t get off the ice right now,” Deputy Sweetness bellowed, “I’m arresting you both for reckless endangerment!”
That made Callum like the deputy a little more. The couple paused, and it felt as if everyone on shore held their breath, waiting to see if the threat would work. Callum hoped it would. It’d make things a lot easier if the two would get off the reservoir of their own volition. The more people on the ice, the greater the chance that someone was going in.
The man turned and started to walk back to shore. The small crowd of bystanders gave a cheer, and he lifted a hand to acknowledge them.
Lou made a choking sound. “Hail the conquering hero…” she said dryly.
