Adam.
Shada.
Saline.
“Yep, I got it.”
“Did I just say all that out loud?”
Cullen’s laugh made her heart sing. “You sure did.”
“Even the part about you turning me on?”
“That was my favorite part.”
She softly hit her forehead against the side of the truck. He pulled her back against his front. “No hurting my girl.” He spun her around and kissed her forehead. She held her breath. Would he do more?
She blinked hard. They didn’t have time for this.
“Did you get saline?” she asked.
He squatted next to a huge duffel bag on the ground and opened it up.
“The saline’s in there. I need to be careful with it.”
“Of course you do, the saline is critical,” Carys said.
“I’m talking about the bag. That thing cost me an arm and a leg, it’s the finest leather, you know. As a matter of fact, everything on this trip was expensive. I met a pint-sized hustler, I thought he was going to talk me out of my underwear and then sell them back to me.”
She squinted down at him. “I didn’t think you could fit boxers underneath those pants.”
“You’ve been thinking about what kind of underwear I have on? Fancy that, I’ve wondered about yours.” He said it with a sideways grin as he plucked out the two bags of saline from the orange bag.
How could he rile her up and get things done at the same time?
“Do you need any help?” he asked her as he handed her one of the bags. “Where’s Adam?”
He was back to business. Good, she needed that.
“Can you check on him? He’s in the front seat. I’ll work on Shada. I was in the back of the truck. I was—”
“Taking care of your charges. I know, Carys. You always do what’s necessary.” This time he wasn’t flirting, his smile was filled with admiration for her work ethic. That was something she could understand. She nodded.
“Exactly.”
He headed for the front seat and she went back to where she’d left Shada. The last three times she’d checked on the woman, it had been the same thing. She’d been feverish and delirious. Carys couldn’t get her to eat or drink anything, not even the applesauce.
Weak with relief, Carys hooked up one of the bags of saline and adjusted the drip up temporarily, so that she could get some of the life-giving fluid into Shada’s system as quickly as possible. She situated herself in a pretzel position so that the woman’s head rested on her lap. Carys desperately wanted to provide comfort to the young mother. It felt like Greece all over again. She didn’t know how she would cope if one member of this little family didn’t make it.
She heard the click of the engine.
“You making supper?” Carys asked Cullen.
“Bubba’s thinking my little finger has the ability to provide sustenance. He’s going to figure out pretty soon that no milk is coming his way, so I’m heating up din-din.”
“Can you do all that while holding Adam?”
“Honey, this is one of the easiest assignments I’ve ever had. I have a doctor on call and a baby to cuddle. Hell, I even scored more formula, saline, food for us, two jerry cans of fuel, and I could have had beer and sex medicine if I wanted it.”
“What?” She couldn’t have heard right. “What is sex medicine?”
“I have no idea.”
“And beer? Maybe in Khartoum, but in that little town?”
“I’m telling you, I met a wheeler-dealer who would have made the guys from Ocean’s Eleven look like pikers. This kid hustled me.”
“How can you say he hustled you when he delivered?”
“Carys, I bring a couple hundred dollars in American money with me on most assignments. That’s about any of us need on a mission, that’s over-the-top, really. He ended up getting most of my cash, and I felt fine giving it to him, the little shit.”
She giggled. She could hear the admiration in Cullen’s voice. Then Adam started to whimper.
“I think he caught on to your ruse.”
“Hey, little buddy. Dinner’s almost ready. Can you hold out for another sixty seconds?”
A louder cry came out. Carys loved hearing it—there was nothing sadder than a baby who was so malnourished, he couldn’t even cry.
“What’s next on the agenda?” she asked.
“We eat.”
“I know, you’re feeding Adam.”
“No, I’m talking about you and me. It’s nine o’clock. I want us to eat, then we’re going to sleep until two. I want us on the road at three a.m. That will put us on the highway to Khartoum two hours before dawn. We’ll be less likely to be noticed.”
“I don’t understand. Won’t people notice us then, as opposed to during the day when there are more cars on the highway?”
“Our truck is going to be really suspicious with the windows blocked out in the back. If I thought it would be less suspicious to have them unblocked with Shada lying there, I’d go for it, but we’re screwed either way. So, we need to fly under the radar, which means at the witching hour.”
Shada began to relax in Carys’ lap, and in return, Carys’ shoulders slumped in relief. The saline was working. She adjusted the drip down.
“Carys, did you hear me?”
“What?”
“I knew you weren’t listening. What’s going on back there? Is Shada doing better?”
She heard the worry in Cullen’s voice, and that too warmed her heart. The amount of care, concern and actual love that radiated through this little slice of Africa tonight was amazing.
“She’s doing better. She’s not out of the woods. But with the saline you got, she’s going to make it to Khartoum.”
“Good, because she came too far for this little guy to be without a mom.”
“You sound like that would be the end of the world,” Carys said quietly.
“It would be.”
Wouldn’t that be nice to feel that loved by a parent? She didn’t know how that felt. She’d been raised by Rosa, and her mom and dad didn’t want her to form too much of an attachment to the housekeeper, but they sure as heck weren’t offering much from themselves. She could tell that Cullen’s upbringing was just the opposite. His parents gave him the love that Shada was trying to provide to her children. Of course, she wasn’t providing any sort of protection, at least not yet.
“You’re thinking pretty hard over there. I can hear you. You’re going to disturb the scorpions.”
“Don’t remind me,” Carys shuddered. It was the main reason she’d taken watch in the truck bed and not beside the truck. She’d heard too many stories about the increase of scorpion stings along the Blue Nile with all of the mining.
“So, tell me what you’re thinking about. Tell me a secret,” Cullen coaxed.
She heard a rustle on the other side of the seat, and she peeked over. Cullen had Adam tucked up against his shoulder. He was rocking him and rubbing his back. He was trying to get him to burp. What was it about men and babies? Or was it just this man?
“What secret do you want to know?”
“Carys, if I knew, it wouldn’t be a secret.” His blue eyes captured hers in the moonlight that shone through the windows.
“I wasn’t happy in my marriage.”
He snorted. “Uhm, you got divorced. That’s kind of easy to figure out.”
“I mean really unhappy. I knew it was a mistake when I walked down the aisle unhappy. I did it because I could finally do something to please my parents. Derek wanted me to be the pretty little hostess like my mom, so I was an epic failure all around.”
“How old were you?”
“Old enough to know better.”
“How old,” he insisted.
“Twenty-one.”
“Let me guess, a sheltered baby. I bet you went to an all-girls’ school for high school.”
Her head shot up. “How’d you know that?”
; “And what university were you going to? If it was to please Mommy and Daddy, was it Smith or Wellesley?”
“Far too political for my parents’ tastes. Nope, Bryn Mawr all the way. What took you down the path of all-girl universities? Your sisters?”
“We’ll save my secrets for another night. This is you, Dr. Adams. So, tell me how you rebelled.”
They were interrupted by, not a burp, but a belch.
“That’s my boy. High five.” Carys watched as Cullen pulled Adam’s hand out of the swaddling and touched his huge palm against Adam’s tiny palm. “I think he’s ready for bed again. You gave him a pretty sweet set-up.” Cullen chuckled. “He’s toast.”
“Ya think? I don’t know how to break it to you, but he’s brand new. A three-day-old baby isn’t up for high fives,” Carys smirked.
“He’s a baby genius. Oh, shit, I forgot to take off my shirt.” He looked seriously upset.
“I think you’re fine. He just needed to be fed. The way he’s swaddled also soothes him and helps him to sleep. We’re good.”
She saw Cullen relax. “Okay, Little Man, let’s put your hand back in here, and get you settled for the night.”
“Better check his diaper.”
“Already did. He’s clean and dry. However, after all that formula I see a diaper change in my future.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“You’re going to be sleeping, Missy.”
“No, you are. I’ve been counting, you’re on two-and-a-half days without sleep. That’s ridiculous.” Carys started to extricate herself from under Shada. She used the sheet to wipe the woman’s brow. “You’re doing good,” she whispered in her ear in Arabic. “Your children need you. Get better.”
She stretched as she got out of the car and quietly shut the backseat door. Somehow the stealth ninja warrior was beside her. “How do you do that?”
“What?” he asked with a satisfied smile.
“You know what. You sneak around like a thief in the night.”
“I’m quieter than a thief. They train us. Anyway, you were louder than Adam at full roar. It was easy to sneak up on you. Do you need a trip over to the trees before we bed down for the night? I now am the proud owner of half a roll of toilet paper.”
She knew that her eyes had to be glowing along with the saliva that was probably dripping out of her mouth. She was down to the last four tissues from the three packets of Kleenex she’d brought.
Cullen fished out a flashlight and the roll of TP, and took out some clothes. “I’ll walk with you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“It’s in the SEAL code book. I have to.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot.” She took the proffered toilet paper and walked beside him as he shined the light close to the ground. He found a large rock for her to do her business. When she was done, she found him back in his normal clothes.
She bit back a laugh. “What?” he demanded.
“I’d really hoped I was going to see Raiden’s expression when you showed up in the other pants. He’s kind of hard to read, so it would have been good to see his reaction.”
He gave her a considering look and laced their fingers together as he guided them back to the truck. “Raiden I could have handled. It would have been my friend Kane and my lieutenant that would have had lasting consequences. Kane would take a picture for his fiancée.”
“And that would have been bad how?”
“I don’t know. That’s the problem, she’s positively evil. She’s worse than Kane and that’s saying something. There would be a cake, a banner, a bronze statue. Something.”
Carys shook her head—she didn’t believe him. When they got to the truck, she peered in at Adam and Shada and they were both sleeping soundly. She indicated the news to Cullen, who smiled. She watched as he hopped—literally hopped—over the side of the truck just using one hand for balance, and he did it without making a sound.
“Hold on, I’ll give you a hand up when I get the bedding situated.
“What bedding? There’s no bedding.”
“I paid prime dollar to Mohammed. We are kitted out. Now, it’s not like we have anything so silly as a pillow.”
She watched as he pulled out a Dora the Explorer blanket. “How old did you say Mohammed was?”
“He couldn’t have been older than six years old. This blanket was the only thing that seemed kid-like about him. Well, I guess the Spiderman blanket was kind of kid-like, but when I asked for that instead, I couldn’t afford it.”
She snickered. “So, six? And he was that much of a wheeler-dealer?”
“Yep. He took me around to almost every store and stall in that little town, and every single shop keeper knew him. It was obvious he brought in a bunch of business. Not only was he skimming money from me, he was taking a cut from each of the vendors. That kid had it coming and going.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“Nope.”
“Was he being taken advantage of?” She’d seen it before. Kids being used as shills by adults. It was a form of exploitation.
Cullen laughed again. “I checked it out. I met the whole family. I mean the whole family. I swear, he’s related to half the town. Not a mark on him. He took me to his house and showed me his collection of comic books. They were his treasures. Nope, he’s fine. Part of the reason he targeted me was so he could practice what little English he had. He’s determined to be able to read some of those comics by the time he’s eight. The kid has goals.”
Carys grinned. She wished she could go to Wad Gala and meet the boy.
Cullen came to the tailgate and crooked his finger at her. She darn near tripped over her own feet to get there. He hoisted her up into the bed of the truck and she practically swooned at the sight of the blankets.
Heaven.
“Are you going to be okay sleeping next to me?” Cullen asked seriously.
Could the man be any nicer? If she wasn’t so tired, she knew she would be shy, embarrassed and more than a little turned on at the thought of lying next to this man.
She stopped short and looked at him in wonder. This would be the first time since the incident in Las Flores that she would be sleeping next to a man, and here she was looking forward to it. Who would have guessed?
“Carys, are you okay?” His voice was husky as he looked down at her. She couldn’t form any words. “Carys? Why don’t I grab the thobe, and just go sleep out on the ground? It’s not a problem.”
She clutched at his arm. “Absolutely not. That’s not it at all. I’m fine with us in the truck together. I’m more than fine, and it surprised the heck out of me.”
He reached up very slowly and cupped her cheek. “I hadn’t thought about what you went through in Los Flores. I just assumed it was so long ago…”
She searched his eyes, begging him to continue.
“When was the last time you slept with a man, Carys?”
“So long. It’s been so long. But I’m not scared with you.” She swallowed. “To sleep together.” She swallowed again. “I mean to sleep in the truck together.” Her hand gripped him harder. “I mean—”
His thumb brushed over her lip.
“Honey, I know what you meant. It’s all good. Nothing’s going to happen tonight but us eating dinner and getting some shut-eye. I’m honored that you feel safe with me.”
Her entire body relaxed.
“Thanks for understanding.”
He gave her his crooked grin. “Now let me show you what Mohammed wrangled up for us.”
Carys was happy to change subjects. She sat down cross-legged on the blanket as he started pulling out things from the duffel. She was happy not to see a protein bar or MRE in the bunch. The warm can of orange Fanta was almost obligatory. Her mouth watered. How many of these had she drank over the years? Two large bottles of water, that were properly sealed and not glued shut. Another can of warm Fanta.
“Pineapple,” she eeped. “Mine!”
“We have a fan
,” he grinned as he handed over the bright yellow can. She held it close to her breast.
“I love pineapple. I don’t care what else you have in there. This wins the day.”
“Well, we have some flatbread,” he said as he pulled out something that looked like tortillas or naan in waxed paper. “Here’s some gheema, which is spiced potatoes. He kept trying to offer me his mother’s spicy meat. I couldn’t pass on it otherwise I would have seemed rude, but I left it out in the desert for one of the critters to eat. The last thing we need is something that’s not going to agree with our intestinal tract.”
“Been there, done that,” Carys agreed. “The last time was goat in Pakistan.”
“Yeah, and he never would tell me what type of meat it was. So, this is an all-vegetable and starch dinner.”
“And Fanta,” she said as she petted her yellow can of soda.
“Oh, and we have dessert.” He pulled out a piece of cake that was also wrapped in waxed paper. “His mom served it with some excellent cinnamon tea. I tried to get out of there as quickly as I could, but I was stuck.”
“I understand.” And she did, you had to be gracious. Especially when someone was helping you as much as the child had been.
“This is lemon cake. It’s awesome. So, this piece is for you.”
She looked at it longingly. She loved sweets. Even more than chocolate, something fruity like this was her downfall.
“I don’t want to take this from you,” she demurred.
“Well, now I know the way to your heart,” he smiled warmly.
He might make her feel safe, but he also made her feel wanted. She looked down and slowly popped open her can of soda, glad that she had when it started to fizz. Boy, wasn’t that a metaphor for her feelings.
“Careful,” he whispered.
“I’m not sure I can be,” she admitted.
“That’s true, you were ogling that drink like it was Christmas and your birthday all rolled into one.”
Sure, I’ll stick with that answer.
She closed her eyes and took a sip of the pineapple goodness and thanked God it took her mind off Cullen’s blue eyes and wide shoulders for a moment.
Her Tempting Protector: Navy SEAL Team (Night Storm Book 2) Page 12