Raiden’s lip twitched the slightest little bit.
“But if you’re the faster driver shouldn’t you go?”
“He’s the safer driver,” Cullen said soothingly as he nodded toward Raiden.
She looked from one to the other. “Oh for Pete’s sake, I have to be tired to be buying into your drivel. I know SEALs. You’re both safe and fast. You both probably drive Formula One and ambulances in your spare time.” Carys rolled her head side to side, then pushed it far back so the long line of her throat showed, and her strawberry blond braid fell almost to her ass.
Cullen swallowed.
“How do you know SEALs, have you worked with some in the past?” Raiden asked as he repositioned the little girl so that her head rested on his shoulder.
“You could say that. There was a problem a several years back on the island of Santa Flores.” This time when she stretched her neck, she kneaded it with her hand at the same time. “Things got dicey and they had to send in a team of SEALs to help us out.”
Cullen had heard about that. “Wasn’t there an earthquake and a prison break?”
She sighed. “Yes, that was it. My team of doctors went in to give aid, then some of the prisoners took us hostage. We were lucky, nobody died. Well none of us at least.” The last was said in a whisper. She firmed her lips and seemed to realize that her hand was on her neck.
“Enough about the good old days. I know you men can handle anything. So, Cullen, even if your grandpappy was a moonshiner, I don’t necessarily think you’re the better driver. I just want to know who’s staying and who’s going.”
Cough.
Cough.
All three of them stopped and looked at little Farida.
“Ah, shit,” Raiden said as he moved swiftly to the children’s shared bed. He set the girl down as she continued to cough.
And cough.
“Let me,” Carys said calmly. She removed the stethoscope that had been around her neck since they’d arrived.
Raiden stepped back as Carys listened to the girl’s lungs. She rolled her over and listened to her back as she continued to cough. She went swiftly to the curtained off area and brought back a pillow. She sat the girl up and patted her back as she continued to cough. Then, as only a small amount of mucus came out, she told Farida to hold the pillow and encouraged her to cough deeper to bring up more mucus to clear her lungs. Immediately the child’s breathing started to improve.
“You did good,” Raiden said.
“Thanks,” Carys smiled up at him.
“Hey, we don’t have time for the jollygasms, folks. We need to get Raiden and crew on their merry way.”
Carys gave him a sideways look while Raiden grinned at him over her head. It might be in the middle of the shit, but unfortunately, his friend had kind of figured out which way the wind was blowing. Wasn’t that just the stupidest thing in the world when they were in the middle of Goddamn Africa in a critical situation?
Raiden’s grin got even bigger.
“I’ll go explain things to Faizah and the girls,” Carys said as she left the two of them with Farida.
“So—”
“Fuck you, Sato.”
“I was just going to say that we needed to get the truck packed.”
“That is a lie. You were going to give me shit.”
Raiden’s eyes gleamed. It wasn’t often that he’d seen Raiden so amused. If Cullen weren’t in such a twist, he would have been laughing his ass off. Instead, he had a mission to take care of, and a woman to take care of…and impress…and woo.
Ah, fuck, who used words like woo?
“Cullen. Are you okay?” Raiden asked softly. “To hear you tell it, Kane went over the edge just as fast, but to begin with, that mission was a cakewalk.”
“I have my eye on the ball. I’m fine. Trust me, nothing is going to get past me.”
Raiden looked at him. Really looked at him. Then nodded. “Yeah man, you’ve got this.”
6
“Carys, give him to me.”
Carys felt like she was swimming through an ocean. Her eyelids wouldn’t open. But as soon as she felt somebody taking the little boy out of her arms, her eyes were wide open.
“No! Don’t you dare,” she hissed.
“Shhhh, you’ll wake up Shada,” the giant kneeling at her side whispered. “You need to sleep, Carys. Let me hold the baby. Just sleep, okay?”
It was Cullen. Cullen Lyons. She remembered everything now. How long had she been fading in and out of sleep? “I’ve got him. I’m a doctor. Going without sleep is what I do.” Why did it feel like her words were thick honey being poured from a spout with too tiny of a hole? She tried to smile at the man, but it was too much of an effort.
She yawned.
Great, now she could open her mouth wide.
Ever so slowly, without disturbing the newborn, Cullen’s huge hands cupped his head, back, and bottom, then lifted and cuddled him up next to his chest. Carys gulped when she really took a look at him. Cullen was no longer wearing all the outer garments that had included his bulletproof vest, he was now down to his T-shirt. He must have done that to make the baby more comfortable.
Now she had an image of heated honey as she darn near melted at the man’s feet. She tried to sit up to hide her embarrassment.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he rumbled. “Lie back down, you need to rest, Honey.”
Carys thought she might burst into flames when he called her honey.
What, was he reading her mind now?
“I need to go check on Shada.” She pushed up on her elbows, intent to get up.
Cullen gently nudged her back down. It felt like a caress to her overheated body, or was it her imagination that was overheated?
“Carys, I just checked on her. She’s out like a light. Now I understand why you’re holding this little guy, there’s no way she could.”
“Then I need to go check on her dressing.”
“I just did. I figured it was safe for me to do it, since there wasn’t a chance in hell she was going to wake up and freak out that it was some strange man. I peeked, no seepage, so we’re good. I might not be the team’s official medic, but if you know how SEAL teams work, then you know that we all have training.”
She yawned again as she nodded.
“Carys, you need real sleep, not this catnap shit.”
“Do you know how many weeks I lasted on catnaps when I was a medical school resident?”
“I’m thinking that was a few years ago, and I’m sorry to say that, like BUD/S was a ways back, so was residency. Sorry, Lady, neither of us is as young as we used to be.”
She snorted. “Yeah, like you’d still be on the teams if you weren’t in top form.”
Even in the little bit of sunlight that was coming through the shack’s roof, she could see him flush. “You’re right,” he admitted.
She managed a wry grin. “Knew it. But you’re right, I’m not as young as I used to be,” she sighed. “God knows I’m a lot older than you. You’re just a babe in the woods.”
You better remember that too, Carys, she admonished herself.
“I doubt that,” Cullen disagreed.
“I’m thirty-three,” she said, figuring that would stop all this silly flirting.
“You’re a youngster.” He waggled his eyebrows.
She looked at him carefully. Based on his job and his rank… “You’re twenty-seven, right?”
“Wrong, I’m twenty-nine. Good try, though” he grinned. “Plus, I have two younger sisters, which ages a man. Especially my sisters.”
She rolled her eyes.
Wait a minute, I never roll my eyes. Quit flirting!
“So, we finally agree? You’re a youngster. You need your beauty sleep because you’ve been trying to doctor the Southern Hemisphere. I should be the one who finally gets to cuddle this little guy.”
Cullen’s words might be all fun and flirty, but she could see the steel in those tempting blue eye
s.
“He needs skin contact. He needs to feel your body heat and your heartbeat. It’s best if he could be next to his mother, but she needs her rest. But he’s weak. I brought powdered formula and boiled water.” She looked down at her watch. “I fed him an hour ago. Are you good to change his diaper?”
“I’m a pro,” Cullen bragged.
“These are cloth.”
“Carys, I noticed that. You need to sleep. I need to be closer to the door. Hold him for a minute.” She took him back and watched as Cullen tugged off his T-shirt. He went over to the water pot on the stove. He poured out a cupful and magically had some of her antiseptic soap and used both to wash. He pulled something out of his duffel, and she saw that it was a shirt. “It’s clean,” he assured her as he used it to dry himself. “Now, you know you can give me the little guy.”
She was so tired. Once again, Cullen came over and took the newborn from arms that felt like lead. “Thank you,” she slurred.
“Go to sleep, Doc. I’ve got your back.”
SEALs. Gotta love ‘em.
Then everything fell away.
Her head was exploding with pain. He was trying to rip out every strand of hair as he forced her mouth closer to his body.
It wasn’t real, was it? She was dreaming? She was in Africa, not in Santa Flores. Carys slipped deeper into her dream.
God, the smell of him was making her gag. She fought the need to throw up.
Smack!
Pain burst across her cheek from where the man’s meaty hand had backhanded her face. Her head was stopped from snapping back because of the hold he had on her hair.
“Whore!” he screamed in Spanish. “You better not bite me. We will kill everyone in this hospital if you don’t please me.”
She heard the other escaped convicts laughing and jeering behind her. The broken concrete under her knees dug into her flesh, eating into her kneecaps.
Think! You’re a doctor. This is just one more emergency to solve. Think, Carys, think!
The leader smeared his semi-erect penis against her burning cheek.
More tears. Why was she crying? She didn’t want him to know that she was scared and hurting. He shoved her closer to his groin and she saw her red-gold hair tangled with his wiry pubic hair. It was a nightmare. He yanked again.
She was tipping over, she grabbed at his thighs, otherwise, her face would smash into his crotch. Her fingers on her left hand trembled as they dug into the hairy flesh of his thigh, but the Claddagh ring on her right hand scraped against metal where his pants were still partially pulled up.
It was the pommel of a knife sheathed to his thigh. She didn’t think, she just moved. In less than a second, she wrapped her arm tight around his leg then shoved the tip of his knife up into his scrotum. She was pleased and horrified to see his blood drizzle down his inner thigh.
“Kill her!” the leader screamed at his now silent team. She felt spittle rain down on her.
She heard one of the men behind her say that the bullet could end up killing him.
“Come closer and I’ll cut off his cock,” she croaked out in raspy Spanish.
“I told you to kill her,” the man in her embrace shrieked. “You’re two feet away. You can’t shoot straight? Kill the bitch.”
Carys flinched. She was going to die. But maybe stalling for time would allow the other hospital workers to get away.
He yanked even harder on her hair. She felt strands pulled out of her scalp. She clamped her lips shut to stifle her cry of pain.
“Somebody kill her! We’ve got to get upstairs and get with the others.”
She didn’t want to harm someone. It went against every oath she’d ever taken. But he was evil, and these men were just going to hurt and kill more people. She pressed the knife farther into his soft flesh.
He yowled.
“If you won’t shoot, come and get her! She’s killing me!” His panic was obvious.
“You keep talking and threatening me, you’ll never father a child. Tell them to back off.” Carys’ growled the words, surprised to realize she meant every one of them.
“Just walk up and put a gun to her head, you dumbasses,” the leader let out a whiny yell.
This was it, she was going to die. Would she be able to kill him? Maybe. Maybe not.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a man said in American-accented Spanish. “Drop your weapons or I’ll kill you all.”
“Don’t do it, there are three of you and just one of him!” the leader screamed.
Who was he? Carys was going to throw up. Not because of the fear, but because of the stench. Breathe through your mouth.
“Don’t forget her. She seems to be on my side, and she has your leader by the balls.”
She let out a bark of raspy laughter.
Who was he? Where had he come from?
“Shoot him,” the leader screamed so hard that he moved, and the knife dug deeper. He yowled in pain.
“I’m supposed to take you in, and return you to the warden,” the American soldier said in Spanish. “If those weren’t my orders, you’d be dead. Now drop your weapons.”
“Shoot him.”
A shot rang out from upstairs.
Oh no, they were killing her friends. He pulled her hair again. More shots behind her. She couldn’t see as he pulled her hair and yanked her closer. She was going to die. Well, so was he. She plunged the knife and yanked. Hot blood sprayed across her face, hair, and hands. Carys screamed. She would never, ever be able to stop screaming.
She struggled as she felt a hand over her mouth. She scrabbled away from the strong grip, digging her nails into the thick wrist above the hand that covered her mouth.
“Carys,” wake up. It was a commanding voice. She recognized it…barely. She was still lost in her dreams and having trouble separating the dreamworld from reality. She blinked fast, and finally, Cullen came into view. He was holding a baby.
The baby was crying, and she could hear another voice crying out weakly.
Shada.
Africa.
Navy SEALs.
Again.
“Carys, are you with me now?” His voice was now full of empathy and caring. She couldn’t stand that. If he was too nice to her, she’d shatter.
She pulled at his wrist and nodded. Cullen let go.
“I need to go to Shada, are you good with him?”
He nodded again, obviously not wanting to do or say anything that might upset her fragile composure.
She pulled herself up off the lumpy makeshift bed and went in to see how Shada was doing. When she went behind the curtain, she found the woman half on, half off the bed. “Where are my children?” Carys gave a wan grin. God please the woman, she was trying to be demanding and Carys was so proud of her show of strength even though she had to be weak as a kitten. But she needed to get her back into the bed so she didn’t rip her stitches.
“They’re getting help. Your daughter Farida needed medical care in Khartoum, she and your other daughters went with Faizah to get some. Your new baby is here. You still need a day or two to rest before we can take you into Khartoum to be with the rest of your family.”
“No! My husband is there, he will find me and kill me.” She grabbed at the sweat-stained sheet. Carys made a note to switch out the sheet with the other one she had drying on the line. “Give me my baby. You must get my other children. We will go to Egypt. My mother’s uncle lives in Cairo.”
“Does he know you?” Carys asked calmly as she helped Shada back into the bed.
“No, but he will do the right thing.” It broke Carys’ heart to see the look of frantic hope on Shada’s face. The woman knew as well as Carys did how many refugees ended up stranded in refugee camps when they sought asylum in other countries. Carys had worked in too many of them—even this life here, that Shada had, was better.
“Right now, you need to focus on getting well,” she said to the weak woman. “Let me bring in your son.”
�
�My baby is a boy?” she asked in awe.
“He’s a healthy, beautiful boy,” Carys confirmed. She stroked her fingers down Shada’s wrist, subtly checking the IV insertion point, then she placed her fingers on her wrist and looked at her watch so that she could take her pulse.
“When can I hold my son?”
“In just a moment,” Carys assured her. She loved the look of love and wonder on Shada’s face. She tugged the stethoscope from around her neck and listened to her heart and lungs.
“Now can you get my baby?” Shada pleaded.
Carys took off the blood pressure monitoring cuff. She was disturbed by how low her BP was. It was not good at all, and it wasn’t because of the painkillers. “Shada, I’m going to need to press on your abdomen again, okay?”
Shada looked at her with trepidation. Finally, she nodded. Carys pushed firmly, doing what she needed to do to help the woman’s uterus contract. Shada was crying by the time she was finished.
“All done. Now I can bring him in for a visit.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
“Wait!” Shada held out her hand. She reluctantly pulled down the sheet. Then she also unbuttoned the nightshirt that Faizah had dressed her in. “I don’t think my milk has come in.” Her expression was anguished.
“Ah, Honey. It’s all right. Sometimes it takes a while. I’ve already been feeding him formula, he’s doing fine. Trust me, everything will be fine. Let me go get your son.”
Carys went around the blanket and almost ran right into Cullen. After her nightmare, it was disconcerting to have to look upwards into the face of such a large man. Normally she would be a little bit fearful. But really, how could she be when confronted with a man who was humming a lullaby to a tiny baby?
“I heard,” he whispered. “Here you go,” he deftly placed the little boy into Carys’ arms. “Is she good to feed him? A bottle I mean. I warmed up some boiled water, mixed in the formula and then let it cool.”
Carys shook her head and smiled. She was impressed. “You did? Yes, she’s fine.”
He went and plucked the bottle off the rickety table. “Here you go.”
“Thanks,” she grabbed the glass bottle from him and ducked behind the blanket to where Shada was in bed waiting for her son. When she handed the newborn to his mother and saw the two of them together, tears welled up. She was stunned. That wasn’t like her. Normally she kept it together far better than this. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t be able to cope with some of the things she had been forced to see over the seven years she’d been with Doctors Without Borders, but that dream had really messed with her head.
Her Tempting Protector: Navy SEAL Team (Night Storm Book 2) Page 6