Page 11 of Her Tempting Protector

“Answer the question,” Cullen shook Hans’ shoulder.

“What question?”

“I asked you how many men do you have working with you?”

“There’s four of us, but Roger’s already dead.” Hans’ words came out shaky. For that matter, so was his aim.

“Stop shooting, you’re useless. Go over it again; you went out and spoke to the RSF rebels, why did you do that?”

“The police were finally here. I figured it was safe. So, I took a chance. I told them they had the wrong place, there were hardly any doctors here, I figured they would go away. The police pulled me back, and then the rebels just opened fire.”

Jesus.

Hans popped up again and took another shaky shot. He almost hit the wall instead of shooting out the window into the barricade.

“Just sit your ass down below the windowsill and keep answering questions.” They needed intel. By the time they’d arrived, the hospital was already surrounded.

Cullen and the rest of the Night Storm team had been informed that the peace talks between the newly formed government and the rebel RSF had broken down in a big way. One of the generals on the Transitional Military Council had been murdered. Shot in the face. Now they had yet another man calling himself the General in charge of the real and good Rapid Support Forces. But nobody really knew who could be trusted.

“So, Roger is dead, who’s alive on your security team?” Cullen yelled above the gunfire.

Please God, say they were of more use than Hans.

“There’s Isaac. Then there’s Kip.”

“Where are they?” Asher demanded before Cullen could.

“Upstairs,” Hans mumbled the answer as Cullen took three more shots. “They’re positioned on the south and north sides of the third floor, or it could be the east and west, I’m not sure. They said they could protect the patients and fire at the rebels. Isaac sent me down here when he saw you plow through rebels’ barricades into the hospital lobby with the armored truck.”

“Wait a minute, I thought you said you were in charge,” Asher questioned as he looked over the windowsill and took another shot. Cullen watched with satisfaction as another rebel went down.

“I am,” Hans said.

It looked like the rebel forces might be pulling back. At the very least, they were waiting on their sniper to take them out.

Fools. They were leaving their flank open and their sniper was going to bite it soon. He didn’t stand a chance with Raiden Sato holding a rifle.

Hans started to get up. “It’s over, right?”

Cullen shoved Hans so hard that he skidded down the wall onto his butt.

“Sit your ass down! I’m not going to tell you again. The next time I’m going to watch you die and figure it’s for the best because you’re too much work to keep alive.”

It was time to contact Kane and Leo. At least the dumbass had the good sense not to say a damned word while Cullen reported into Kane.

“Yeah, Raiden’s been on the roof for about two minutes,” Cullen confirmed. “Apparently, we have two of the Doc Without Borders security forces helping us out on the third floor. We have one…” Cullen glanced over at Hans and decided to be nice. “We have their C.O. with us. He’s along the lines of Anderson from BUD/S.”

“Are you shitting me?” Kane asked through the comm. “Are his other two any better?”

“Don’t know. All I know is that Asher and I have stalled the rebels for a minute, and Raiden said that he has his sights on the sniper’s location. If you or Leo would be kind enough to flush him out, that would be really helpful,” Cullen said sarcastically.

“Raiden!” Kane snarled into the shared comm.

“Do you see the bank building to the right of the Chicking Fried Chicken shop?” Raiden asked in his normal calm tone of voice. “There’s a balcony on the fifth floor. If you could get some fire coming from the east so that he moves, I could take him out.” Why did Raiden always sound so damn polite?

Asher stabbed his finger at Cullen before he said anything. Cullen sighed.

Come on, who wouldn’t say something smartass about a restaurant called Chicking Fried Chicken? Asher’s eyes were gleaming. He was thinking that it sounded like Frickin’ Chicken too.