Viper (Second Wave Book 1) Read Online Free

said,
looking into his unfocused eyes until he nodded his head.  
    Lara knew he’d never make it far
without help, so she grabbed his forearm and gently pulled him back the way she
come.
    “Tree branch, on your right,
fourteen paces. What’s your name?” Lara said, warning him to watch his footing
up ahead.
    “Viper fle’ te’ Trugh. What is
yours?” Viper asked, hating that he was almost completely helpless to protect
her right now. They were sending reinforcements; he had heard the response on
the comm before he had shot the man firing on the female.
    Lara whistled low. “That’s a hell
of a call sign soldier. I’ll just call you Viper. I’m Sgt. Lara Blain… well I
used to be anyway. Now I’m just Lara Blain again. I need to grab something I
left behind up ahead; you wait here for me. I’ll only be gone a few minutes.”
    Lara waited until Viper nodded his
head slowly before heading to get the packs she’d left behind. His strange
accent confused her; she had heard it before but couldn’t place where and what
language it was. Goosebumps had skittered down her spine when he had said his name,
which he pronounced Flay’ Tee’ True.
    As strange as the name was, Lara
could have sworn she had heard it before, or a name similar to it. She tried to
clear her head from the strange spell the man seemed to have over her and think
of what she was going to do with him.
    It would take four days to get him
out of the forest from where they were now. Judging by the quick assessment
she’d made, he had a serious concussion, a few broken ribs and a couple of bad
lacerations that had enough time for blood to dry and crust them closed. All of
which needed to wait while they put some distance between them and the dead
guys before their back-up arrived.
    Grabbing her packs, she sucked in a
deep breath and had to pant away the pain when the pack strap laid over the
hole in her shoulder. Uncaring at how awkward it would make her stride; she slid
the pack off her wounded shoulder and added it to the other pack on her right
side.
    Picking her way quickly through the
forest she made her way back to Viper, who was still standing exactly where she
had left him, to her relief.
    “Let’s go. We have a lot of ground
to cover before we can rest.” Lara said, trying to avoid his piercing green
gaze. He didn’t look the least surprised at her return, as if he had known she
wasn’t far away and would keep her word to return to him.
    Shaking off her crazy thoughts,
Lara grabbed his arm with her left and hoped he wouldn’t fight her and pull on
her injured shoulder as she began walking them to the closest, safest spot she
knew of.
    Viper allowed her to help him
through the trees, and he hated to admit he was grateful that she was. He
stumbled more than he liked, and although he had no idea where she was taking
him, he knew beyond a doubt that she was leading him to be somewhere safe.
    More importantly, the longer she
touched him, the more his energy sparked and grew. As if she was feeding him,
helping him heal faster. He’d never experienced anything like it. Even his
brother could not accomplish such a feat.
    They went an hour without a word
between them. The silence normally would have been uncomfortable and tension
filled for Lara, but with this man, the time had passed almost peacefully. John
had been the only person that she could do that with.
    She stopped suddenly, and was
surprised when Viper stopped just as quickly instead of bumping into her as she
had expected. He had to be paying very close attention to her movements to be
able to do that, she thought.
    Lara shook off the feeling of déjà
vu’ and let go of his arm while she pulled the heavy packs off her now numb
shoulder and let them slide to the ground with a thud.
    Viper winced at the sound of the
heavy weight hitting the ground. He’d had no idea she was carrying anything so
heavy and felt terrible that he hadn’t offered to bear the weight for her.
    “I’ll