Page 26 of Her Wicked Hero

“Dex,” Zed started.

“I’ll make it fast.”

“Good man,” Zed said and disconnected.

“Zed, do you guys always read each other’s minds?” Marcia asked.

Zed scrubbed his hand through his short black hair. “I think it’s part of being a team.” Hana started to cry again, and they both looked over at her. Marcia turned back to look at Zed. “Dex will call back in under three minutes, trust him.” He liked the fact that even though he’d introduced himself as Dante, she’d picked up on the fact his name was Zed. She was smart.

Zed grinned as the phone in his hand vibrated.

“Whatchya got?” Zed asked.

“Normally, you would give the baby child strength Tylenol. What you’re going to need to do, is give her one-third of a tablet of the Tylenol you have in your kit, then put her arm in a splint. In four hours, alternate with a third of a tablet of ibuprofen.” Zed handed over his first-aid kit and flashlight to Marcia.

“Knife?” she held out her hand expectantly.

He shook his head. She rolled her eyes and handed him the tablet. He precisely shaved the dosage for the little girl and handed it to Marcia.

“Show-off,” she said as she snagged his camelback water pack. “Do you have something for the baby to sip water out of?”

Zed fished around in his backpack and found his collapsible cup with his utensils and handed it to her. Marcia efficiently poured some water into the cup, and he watched as she showed the medicine to Nurul. She pantomimed feeding the pill to the baby, and the mother quickly caught on. With a little coaxing, Hana eventually swallowed the tablet along with some water.

“Zed, are you listening to me?” Dex asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I heard you,” Zed interrupted. “You said the Eco-Tourist camp is about five miles down-river. I think that will take us about three hours to get there at night in this terrain. Tell me about it.”

“It’s tiny. It’s run by a family. At the max, they have twelve tourists.”

“How’d you find that out?”

“Their website,” Dex laughed. “Okay, so three hours to get there?”

“Maybe four,” Zed conceded.

Marcia gave him a pointed look.

“Hold on Dex. Marcia has something to say.”

“Is there any way that we could rest here for an hour or so?” Marcia asked Zed.

Shit, he should have thought of that. She’d been on the move since they’d overtaken the camp that morning.

“Absolutely,” he told her. Then he took a really good look at the mother and the baby. “It might be a good idea to just wait until morning before we start again.”

Marcia gave him a relieved smile and turned to the others while he went back to talking to Dex.

“Did you hear that Dex?”

“I did. Zed, do you anticipate Raymond to be at the camp?”

He looked over at Marcia and saw she was occupied with getting the mom and baby comfortable for the night. He pulled out a survival blanket from his backpack and handed it to her and got up to walk a bit away, so he could have some privacy.

“You with me Zed?” Dex asked.

“Yeah, I’m here,” Zed answered. “In answer to your question, yes, I think Raymond is going to be waiting for us. I don’t have the full story yet, but he has a hard-on for Marcia. I’m not sure if he wants to kill her or capture her, but I can tell you this, he’s not going to let her go.”

“Then wait until the day after tomorrow for an extraction. That’ll give Gray and the others time to be part of the rescue effort. They’ll make sure you and Marcia are covered.”