Proud Hearts (Wild Hearts Romance Book 2) by Phoenix Sullivan Read Free Book Online Page B

drawn.
    Reena—
    Reena was on the ground, her tripod tipped beside her.
    “It bit me!” she cried.
    “What?”
    “Snake!”
    “Damn.” Dee’s eyes snapped down as I made a cautious run toward them. “Find it!” That last was directed at me and an absent Gary.
    “Gary, get your scrawny butt over here!” I yelled to where he was sitting in the Range Rover ready to slam the doors shut and roll up the windows.
    He didn’t move, may not have even heard me over the distance, but I couldn’t worry about that right then. Something tan slithered through the grass. “Here!” I shouted.
    Hunting on the other side of Reena, Dee ran over, gun still in hand.
    For being so short and fat, the snake was remarkably quick. I kept up with it as it angled for a thicket of brush. If it disappeared before Dee got to it…
    It didn’t.
    “Oh, damn,” was all Dee said when she caught enough sight of it to identify. Her gun arm dropped.
    “Aren’t you going to shoot it?”
    “Don’t have to.” She was already on the run back to Reena. “I know what it is. And we don’t want to scare the lions more than we already have.”
    She dropped next to Reena while I hovered over them. The bite on Reena’s lower calf was already bruising and swelling. This hadn’t been some innocent grass snake that had gotten her.
    “Give me your shirt.”
    I stripped out of it and put it in Dee’s waiting hand. She wrapped it high around Reena’s thigh.
    “Keep your leg straight and don’t try to move it,” Dee instructed Reena.
    “I can’t anyway.” There was fear in Reena’s dark, expressive eyes.
    “What is it?” I wondered if I looked as frightened as Reena.
    “Puff adder.” Dee struggled to keep her voice calm for Reena’s sake, but I could hear the underlying panic.
    “Wha—what does that mean?” Reena was panting now, as much from fear as pain, I guessed.
    “It means we’re taking you to the hospital right now.” Dee threw the keys to the SUV at me.
    Since Gary was finally stalking over, watching the ground carefully as he came, I threw the keys to him. “Bring the Rover as close as you can without grounding it on the rocks. Move!”
    He scrambled back to the vehicle. I knew he couldn’t get it much closer, but trying would keep him focused and give us room to work without his added drama.
    “Am I going to die?”
    I was certain those words needed a more panicked inflection in them. How was Reena’s voice remaining as calm as it was?
    Dee looked Reena straight in the eye. “It’s gonna hurt like hell, but you won’t die. It’ll mess up your leg for a while, but the doctors can treat that.” She turned to me. “Can you carry her?”
    I nodded. Those morning workouts weren’t all for show.
    Reena gasped with the pain as Dee helped lift her into my arms.
    To Gary’s credit, he’d cleared out the Rover’s cargo bay so Reena had room to lie while I sat cross-legged beside her, holding her hand.
    With Dee driving, we sped off for the nearest town. Back to Zambezi, probably.
    At Reena’s insistence, Gary, in the backseat, picked up one of the handhelds to film us.

    The attending in the same white lab coat worn by doctors worldwide joined us in the waiting room of Zambezi’s only clinic—well, they called it a hospital—after about half an hour. “You are the husband?” he asked me in surprisingly decent English with just a hint of British inflection—surprising, until I remembered English was actually the official language of Zambia.
    When I shook my head, he turned to Gary, who shook his head even more emphatically.
    “Not a chance, honey.”
    “We work together,” Dee explained.
    “Alone? In the bush?”
    “Filming lions, yes.”
    “But there is a husband?”
    “Not for any of us, no,” I said. “But we’re as close as family as Reena’s got out here.”
    The doctor looked at Gary and me. “One of you is her boss?”
    I didn’t think hysterical laughter would be the appropriate response, and