“Get over here and see what you can do with this damn table.”

“We have a deal. Don’t forget that.” It was tough to approach him and not look at his lower body. She lifted a hand and used her fingers to block her view until she was close to the gurney. She ducked down, then gripped the edge of it to help keep her balance. It was shadowed beneath the table, so making out the details was tough.

“I’d kill for a flashlight. Those lanterns are too high for me to reach and take one down.”

“Human eyesight,” he grumbled. “Great.”

“I’m not the one strapped to a table about to have an accident,” she muttered. She dropped to her knees and reached up, feeling the underside of the table.

She closed her eyes since they didn’t do her much good anyway. “This thing is an antique. I can feel rust.”

“Just get me free.”

“I’m trying. I found a lever thing. Let me see what it does.”

She had to wiggle it a lot of times to get it to move. It was stuck. She gasped when it did move, and part of the table collapsed. She threw her body back, narrowly avoiding being struck. Her butt hit the dirt floor hard and the lower half of the table drastically tilted. “Um…okay.”

“What are you doing?”

“Do I look like I know medical equipment? I don’t.” She stood up—and realized her mistake as she stared right at his bare lap.

She spun around. He wasn’t aroused, but she’d seen way more of the man than she’d meant to.

“Get me free!” he demanded again.

“What’s your name?”

“What does it matter?”

“Just tell me your name and stop being a dick.” She instantly regretted calling him that, the image of his still in her mind.

“Veso.”

She hesitated, and then reached for her skirt, shoving it down. He snarled from behind her but she ignored him, stepping out of the skirt. Her shirt fell long, hiding her panties. Glen held the material out and stepping forward. She covered his lap and tucked the bottom and top of her skirt under his butt, careful not to touch skin. She stepped back fast.

“Better.”

He openly examined her legs. “Don’t think of breeding with me.”

“Give me a break! I just was covering you up. I have underwear on, which is more than I can say about you.” She rounded the table and crouched down by his head. “I have an idea. You aren’t going to like it but I need better lighting.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Just stay there.” She chuckled at her own joke. It wasn’t like he had a choice.

“I asked you what you’re goin—”

She found the matching lever on the other side and pulled. It wasn’t rusted. The front dropped, the legs totally collapsing. It left him inches from the floor with the wheels under him.

“That.” She took a deep breath and crawled to the side of the gurney, gripping the edge of it with both hands. “I’m going to roll you over.”

“Don’t!”

“It’s dirt. It shouldn’t hurt. I need to see the bottom of this thing. Do you want to be free or not?”

He glared at her. His eyes were intense and kind of pretty in a strange way, if she could look beyond the anger.

“Do it.”

“Okay. Here we go.”

He weighed a ton. She strained to lift one side. He threw his weight in the opposite direction as much as he could. It helped, and the gurney tore from her fingers, flipping him over the rest of the way to land with a hard thud. Now the gurney covered his back and he lay face down.

“Are you okay? Can you breathe?”

“Now you ask that?”

She grinned and bent forward. “I’ll take that for a yes. I can see everything better. There are screws. I think I can take it apart.”

“Just the wheels or where I’m chained?”

“I’m not sure.” She tried to use her fingernail to twist a screw. It wouldn’t budge. “Shit.”

“What?”

“They won’t move.”

He sighed loudly. “I guess I won’t have to worry about you mounting me now. You’re too weak to flip me back over.”

“Shush. I’m thinking.” She glanced at what little clothes she had left and grimaced. “I have an idea. Can you see me at all?”

“No. My face is in the other direction and I’d have to lift this up a bit to turn my head.”

“Good.” She reached back and shoved up her shirt to reach her bra. “We’re in luck, I think. These are old flat-head screws. It just means I need something straight and rigid to turn them.”

“What’s good about that? You don’t have a screwdriver.”

“No, but I have underwires in my bra.” She removed the garment and pulled down her shirt, studying the lacey material. “Vlad didn’t take it away from me.” She found where the underwire rested and used her teeth to bite the thin material. “These damn things tend to break through at some point, so I end up removing them. It’s annoying how that always happens…but not this time. It’s going to work in our favor.”

She caught a glimpse of plastic through the black bra, and continued gnawing the threads until the tiny hole was just big enough to start pushing the capped metal out of one side of her bra cup. “Bingo. We have one.” She tossed the bra on the floor and fit the straightest part of the wire against the screw. It started to turn.

“I’m a genius!”

He muttered something she didn’t catch.

“What?”

“I’ll think you’re smart if you get me loose.”

“Would you be grateful enough to actually get me to a city or a house with a phone when we break out of here? I can’t imagine an abandoned mine is close to anything.”

He refused to answer. She got one screw free and worked on another. “Ingrate.”

He growled.

She ignored him, hoping her plan would work. She had no idea what she was dismantling, but she’d remove every screw, and hopefully the gurney would just fall apart. That would leave her cellmate free to move around, even if he had to drag a section of metal with him.

Veso fumed. He’d been kidnapped by Vampires. It was humiliating enough to acknowledge that a weaker species had gotten the better of him. He would have turned them into dust if they hadn’t cheated. They never would have captured him if they hadn’t shot him with darts that drugged him into sleep. Cowards!