Viper (Second Wave Book 1) Read Free Page A

of
pain in his head until he confirmed his fears. The heavy sigh he heard was
unmistakable in the silence surrounding them.
    No! He screamed in his mind, fear
causing him to tremble as he opened his eyes and looked around the camp for the
blurry images of the Relian’s. His heart almost stopped beating when he heard
the quiet whisper behind him.
    “Just move your head to acknowledge
me, if you can. Can you understand me?”
    Viper closed his eyes and breathed
in deeply, the scent and sound enveloping his battered senses. The sound of her
coming closer caused him to open his eyes and shake his head.
    “Go! Run!” Viper whispered
hoarsely, trying to get her out of danger.
    Several moments passed before he
heard another heavy sigh from a little closer behind him this time. Viper
closed his eyes, hoping to will her away to somewhere safe and far from here.
Breathing deeply again, he drew her scent into his lungs, making sure that no
matter where she went, he would find her.
    “Yeah well, I’m not the running type.
And me and guys like this, we have a longstanding private thing going on so I’m
not walking away. Now pull your feet up towards your chest.” The angry whisper
that came from behind him told Viper that whoever she was she had dealt with
the Relian’s before.
    Viper flinched when he felt the
surge of energy that flooded him at the slight touch of her hands on his own.
Somehow she had shimmied on the ground until she was lying flat on her stomach
behind him and cutting through the tightly bound ropes around his wrists.
    “It would really help if you put
your knees up. That way when I hand you the knife, you can cut your ankles
without them noticing. It will give us an edge of surprise if they don’t know
you’re free.” Lara whispered quietly behind him as she struggled to cut the
thick, tight ropes without cutting the bleeding man.
    Lara didn’t know who he was, and
she didn’t care. All she knew was that the same kind of men who had killed
John, who had betrayed her country and her team, were in her woods with another
victim. Another soldier like John, judging by the way he was dressed.   
    She couldn’t save John, but she
damn well would save this guy and kill the five morons that dared to come into
her forest to harm another soldier.
    “You have to run; I will find you
later. I promise.” Viper said with a groan as he felt the rope finally fall
free of his wrists. Leaning his head back he flexed his fists, trying to bring
the feeling back into his fingers.
    Lara just chuckled quietly. Where
she was going, she would never be found.  
    “Stay still. How bad are you
injured? Can you fight? Can you run?” Lara asked, grabbing the man’s hands and
quickly wrapping his bleeding wrists before placing a Ka-Bar knife in one hand
and a 9mm in his other.
    “Vision is blurry, but I can fight.
Now go!” Viper hissed as he clutched the weapons tightly in his hands, wishing
the woman was anywhere but here. Even as he had to fight within himself not to turn
around and look at her.
    “Stay focused soldier! We don’t
have time for this! Assess yourself and get ready on my go.” Lara whispered
gruffly. The guy must have a pretty bad concussion to think he was getting out
of this without her; she thought.
    The second Lara had seen the huge
men in the clearing she had known they would die. That she would kill them. The
fact that they were beating on a guy tied to a tree was only part of the reason
why.
    These were the same traitors to her
country that she had dealt with in Afghanistan. Maybe not the exact same ones,
but working for the same people. They were the same kind of men who killed
John, and they weren’t going to kill this man while she still had breath.
    Lara ignored the man’s growling
curses as she scooted back to the tree line and moved silently away from the
man, not wanting to make him a target when she got the attention of the five
bastards stomping around the clearing.
    Making sure she was