Page 22 of Her Tempting Protector

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.