Joanna's Highlander (Highland Protector #2)(73)
“Oh, God. I think I’m stuck.” A grunt escaped her as she tried to bump the button again to reopen the panel, but the mechanism shot her hope of freeing herself when it let out a wheezing grind that gradually wound down to silence. Great. It’s dead for sure. “Hello? Is somebody out there? Please really be somebody out there.” From now on, only SUVs. Or Jeeps. No more little clown cars that look cute until they try to eat you.
“I’m comin’, lass. Hold tight.”
Hold tight? Really? If she hadn’t been so frustrated with the situation, she would’ve laughed out loud. “At least it’s a person.” She blew out a relieved breath, sneezed from the air-bag dust, then wiped the back of her hand across her nose. “It’s gonna be okay.”
Solid thuds hit the ground, sounding as though they came from somewhere near the back of the car. Leaves crunched. Sticks snapped. Something sounded like it was either sliding through the leaf mold covering the woodland floor or being dragged into the ditch. She could’ve sworn she’d heard a horse snort, or whatever it was that horses did to make that weird snot-blowing sound. She twisted and tried looking out the side windows, but all she could see in the light of the full moon and the greenish-yellow glow sticks was a hellaciously large downed tree trunk on one side of the car and the dirt embankment on the other. “Hello? You didn’t leave me hanging here, did you?”
“Close yer eyes.”
“Wait—what? Why?” Katie strained to look out the back hatch window of her car, but all she could make out was the movement of a dark form.
A hard thud and shattering glass answered her question and convinced her to close her eyes tight against flying debris. The sound of more breaking glass and metal grating against metal filled the air as the vehicle rocked back and forth.
When she opened her eyes, she was still upside down, but nose to nose with the sexiest-looking rescuer she’d ever seen—even in the eerie lighting. Relief flooded through her and she couldn’t help but smile. Daddy always said there’s a bright side to everything. “Hi. I’m Katie.”
The man gave her an incredulous look, then shook his head. “Are ye hurt, Mistress Katie?” He’d wedged himself in through the window of the back hatch of the car that he’d just oh so gallantly kicked out.
Mistress Katie? Hmm…that’s different. “No…no, I’m not hurt.” Katie took a deep breath in, then let it out, feeling her cheeks get hotter by the minute. She was accustomed to the feeling of flushed cheeks. She did airheaded stuff like this all the time. Thank goodness the lighting was bad so this fine-looking gentleman wouldn’t be able to tell that her face was red with the embarrassment of her managing to land herself in yet another pickle. “But I am stuck,” she quietly added. Even by the light of the glow sticks and hanging upside down, she could tell that the guy was trying not to laugh. “And it’s not funny.”
“Aye, but it is, lass.” Her knight in shining armor smiled as he reached up and gently patted the roof of the car around her waist, yanking on the glass panel of the moon roof that currently had her wedged in place. “How d’ye open this thing usually?”
“There’s a button, but I think it just sang its death song. My car battery must be shot, because the interior lights have faded and my headlights are out now too.” Katie folded her arms on the driver’s-seat headrest and propped her forehead on top of them. “We need a big-ass crowbar or a sledgehammer to break the panel, because I don’t think you can kick your way through it with me stuck in here this way.”
“I’ve the next best thing, lass. Ne’er ye worry.” He started to back out of the car the same way he’d entered.
“Hey, wait a minute.” She had to know. After all, she’d been hanging here this long, what could a few more minutes matter? “You don’t exactly talk like the average run-of-the-mill North Carolinian. Where are you from?”
The handsome smile with the perfect teeth, shining and white even in the phosphorescent glow, disappeared from the stranger’s face. “Highland Life and Legends. Scottish theme park down the road a ways.”
He moved to back out of the car a bit more. Katie waved him to a stop. “Wait!” She gave him her friendliest smile. “I love your accent.” She always babbled when she was nervous and this particular situation had set her mouth into overdrive, but she hadn’t meant to insult him or whatever she’d done to make his cute grin go away.
Dropping his chin to his chest for the barest moment, he blew out a long, exasperated breath, then lifted his head and met her gaze. “Thank ye, lass. Now be still and try yer best t’relax. I’ll have ye out in a wee moment.”
Katie crossed her ankles, then her knees, then thought more about his advice. How the hell do you relax with your ass and both legs in the air? She propped her chin in one hand and her elbow on the headrest. She heard more rustling leaves, then jerked and grabbed the back of the driver’s seat with both hands as thuds hit the roof of the car and she felt the small vehicle shudder.
“What are you doing?” She did her best to keep her voice from pitching so high that it sounded like a nervous squeak but failed. “Uhm…the whole car is moving, you know? The roof especially. Kind of like caving in around me?” Oh shit. I’m about to be a sheet-metal sandwich.