Page 65 of Her Tempting Protector

As soon as he walked away, Cullen called Kane. He wished he had his normal mic and receiver system, but they weren’t on a normal mission, so there had been no point. He kept his phone out of sight on his lap.

“Kane, we’ve got a problem, he’s going to talk to his supervisor, I need a diversion.”

“You got it,” Kane said.

Even though Kane had already been waved through, he had only gone a hundred meters beyond the checkpoint. Cullen grinned as he saw him turn the Thing around and then do a three-hundred and sixty degree turn into on-coming traffic. He pulled his gun out and shot into the air.

“Well, that’s sure a diversion,” Carys deadpanned.

They watched as four of the current men manning their checkpoints jumped into Jeeps to follow Kane. Cullen knew that those men would be toast.

The man who had been questioning them came back and threw Cullen’s fake I.D. back through the window. “Just go,” he said in disgust. When it took Cullen a moment to start the vehicle, he hit the roof of the truck angrily. “I said go!”

Adam started to cry and Cullen put the truck in gear and sighed with relief as he made it onto the main street of Khartoum.

“Raiden said to take her to the same hospital where you were before. Some of our guys have it secured. I’m going to call ahead.”

“Have them put one of my people on the line, I’ll tell them what I need.”

Cullen’s gut clenched. He was pretty sure that there was bad news, really bad news regarding her team, but now wasn’t the time to tell her. He placed a call to his lieutenant, Max Hogan, who didn’t pick up. He went down the line until he got ahold of Nick Hale, the junior member of their team.

“Where are you, Nick?”

“I’m leaving the airport now. The lieutenant said I needed to get my ass to the Khartoum General Hospital and meet up with all y’all.”

“Is it up and running?”

“It’s one of the few. The Marines, and a couple of SEALs from the Midnight Delta team, have it covered. Nobody is messing with it.”

Cullen looked over at Carys who was nodding that she was hearing everything. “I’m going to put Dr. Adams on the line. She’s going to tell you what she needs when she arrives. Everything needs to move slick as snot when we get there. You got that?”

“One oiled pig coming up.”

Cullen slowed the truck down as he rolled down the window. He motioned for Raiden to come up beside him. When he could see his friend, he yelled over to him. “Get us past all of this mess to Khartoum General.” He motioned his hand toward the mob in the street in front of him.

Raiden nodded, and pulled out in front of him. He took an immediate left down a side street. Cullen followed. Before they got to another huge cluster of protesters with signs and banners, Raiden took a right going down a one-way street the wrong way, but it worked.

Cullen continued to blindly follow his teammate.

Right.

Left.

Left.

Right.

Finally, he did a fast turn into a parking lot that Cullen didn’t recognize, but he continued on, four-wheeling over the double curb that took them to the back entrance of the hospital.

Nick and two orderlies appeared like fucking magic rolling a gurney down the back ramp. Nick had a huge grin on his face like he’d just solved world hunger. “Somebody need a ride?” he called out above the screeching of the Unimog’s tires. As soon as Cullen stopped the truck and put it in park, Carys handed Cullen the baby. She was out the door and shouting orders as she opened the back passenger door.

The orderlies gently lifted the entire mattress with Shada on it, onto the gurney. Carys held the bag of saline high above her head.

“Nick! Come here.” Cullen shouted. Before Nick could get to his door, Raiden was there, opening the door and taking Adam into his arms.

“Your doctor has it under control, but I know I’d want to be there, so go,” Raiden nodded toward the doors that had just closed.

Cullen ran up the rampway.