Page 70 of Her Tempting Protector

“She didn’t know. She said they weren’t wearing any kind of uniform.”

Cullen scanned the crowd. There were just too many people. The three men could have split up. For all they knew, Adam could have been passed off to one of the women in the crowd.

He looked around, trying to come up with some sort of way to find Bubba. Like a beacon of light, he saw his solution on the wall. Then he looked up—sure as shit, there were sprinkler heads on the ceiling. He ran to the wall.

“Grab the Marines and cover the hospital entrance,” he yelled to Raiden as he ran to the fire alarm.

“Fire,” he yelled out in Arabic at the top of his lungs, as he pulled the fire alarm lever.

He turned and saw the Marines and Raiden holding their weapons, stopping anyone from leaving the lobby through the front entrance. Everyone got soaked as they screamed in horror, begging to be let out. Cullen knew that he was causing havoc in the rest of the hospital, but he didn’t care. His sole focus was on finding Adam.

Like rats on a sinking ship, he saw two drenched men in thobes coming toward him trying to exit the back way since they knew their way around the hospital.

“Cullen,” someone yelled from down the back hall behind him. Was that Drake?

He let the first man whose arms were empty go right by, figuring his fellow SEAL would take care of him. Meanwhile, the man holding the baby—well, he wasn’t going anywhere.

When the man saw Cullen, he straightened up, not caring that Adam was soaked, water streaming into his mouth.

“Let me by,” he commanded. It was clear he was used to being in command.

“No way. Give me the child,” Cullen said as water dripped down his face and he held out one arm, his gun in the other. The man’s eyes squinted—they both knew that Cullen wasn’t going to use it; he wouldn’t risk Adam being hurt.

“He is my son, he stays with me.”

Cullen lifted the gun higher and the man smiled. “Try it. I still have my man watching you. You will soon die.”

A lie. Cullen would already be dead if that were true.

“You’re a war criminal who is trying to kidnap a baby from his mother, now give me Adam.” Cullen stepped forward, gripping his gun tighter.

“What kind of name is Adam?” the man’s lip curled in disgust. “He will be named after my father. Nobody will deny me my son, certainly not some American thug.”

The sprinklers had stopped, but why was wasn’t Adam crying? Water wasn’t running into his mouth anymore. Cullen saw Raiden at the edge of the crowd of students.

Cullen heard a high-pitched scream, and Drake’s yell, then a shot fired from the hallway behind him.

Adam finally gave a weak cry, but not because of the noise, it was because the stupid bastard was suddenly squeezing him too tight. Goddammit, the man might end up killing his own child!

“You’re hurting him,” Cullen ground out as he pointed his gun at the man’s head.

The man glared and pulled Adam tighter to his body. “You’ll never shoot me.” In a flash, he changed his grip on Adam, gripping the baby by his legs, causing him to dangle upside down in front of him as a shield. “Now I will walk away from here. If you try to shoot me, the boy falls and dies.”

Raiden was directly behind him, waiting for the word from Cullen.

Cullen took two steps toward the monster who fathered four beautiful children.

“Now!” he shouted.

Raiden wasted no time. With his gun pointed upwards at the base of the man’s skull, he literally shot his head off as Cullen caught Adam before he had a chance to hit the floor. They were both covered in blood, and Raiden grabbed the bastard’s body so he didn’t fall on them.

Adam was screaming. Cullen thought he might blow apart at the seams.

He blocked out the shouts of the crowd and the questions that swirled in his head. Instead, he cradled the child in his arms, wishing he could make him happy, but gratified he was alive to scream.

The only thing that would make this moment perfect would be to share it with Carys.