Tender Savage (Siren Publishing Allure) Read Free Page A

maliciously. Her weapon was to hand, and she’d even found a flask of tepid coffee, so, crawling under the makeshift shelter, she tied a fresh piece of rag around the cut on her hand and then indulged herself in a small drink and a broken biscuit.
    Looking vacantly at the wreckage, she wondered about the other passengers. Who they were. Where they had come from. Whether they had children. And how the way their lives had ended would leave a void that their families would find difficult to contend with. How was it she had been saved? she wondered. What had she done to deserve it when others had lost their lives? She wasn’t a particularly good person, but she wasn’t bad either. Since she was single, she had no one to mourn her loss except her brother, who was up to his eyes in debt and now most of the time, due to a lifetime of drug abuse, away with the fairies. Her parents were she knew not where. Abandoned at the age of three with her younger brother, she had been brought up in succession of foster homes. Luckily enough to be beautiful, at the age of sixteen she’d had a break and been signed up by a modelling agency and had never looked back. Her brother, on the other hand, had rebelled at society and convention. He joined anything that had been the cause of the moment, and no matter what she’d done to try and prevent it, he’d eventually gone off the rails. The result had been prison, rehab, and now finally, an institution. Working hard, she had managed to stash away quite a bit of money and was hopeful that within the next couple of years she’d have enough to ensure her brother could be looked after in comfort for what was left of his life. Lowering her head onto her drawn-up knees, she sobbed for herself, the wasted life of her young sibling, the lost lives of the crew and passengers, and for all the small injustices life had brought.

Chapter Three
     
    Abraham was moving with speed. It had been three hours since he had parachuted into the jungle, the sun was high in the sky, and the air was moist and humid. Sweat trickled down his back and beaded his brow. Stopping for a drink, he checked his compass, took a swig of tepid water, and then, adjusting the pack on his back, continued the uphill climb. Brushing past ferns as big as trees and hacking back climbers, the stems as thick as a man’s wrist, he moved deeper into the jungle. Appearing completely at ease with the environment, he blended in, becoming one with his surroundings. His solid leg muscles worked efficiently and effortlessly, propelling him forward, sparing no time to admire the beauty of the wilderness around him or to notice the vibrant flowers or the colourful striations of the insects. He was focused. Oblivious to the textures and the smells of the jungle or the purity of the sky above him peeking through the dense canopy, he single-mindedly powered on.
    His thoughts on the task ahead, Abe gave little consequence to the passengers. Compassion could not help them now and would not aid him with the task ahead. He’d learnt at an early age that giving into his emotions didn’t get the job done. Joining the military at sixteen after being kicked out of the house by a drunken stepfather on the day of his mother’s funeral, he’d never looked back. Working his way through the ranks, he’d proven his worth, and after a series of exams and with some help from a benefactor, he’d joined the SAS. He smiled wryly to himself. Hell-bent on proving his capabilities, he’d volunteered for every dangerous assignment which came his way and in time had earned him the rank of colonel. Years spent undercover on special missions had made him hard, he admitted that, but deep inside he wanted what other men had, a home, a wife, and a family.
    However, growing up in the way he had, he found it hard to trust, and the one time he’d given into his yearnings he been let down—big time. Now never for him, the loving arms of a wife and the comforts of home and