Read Online The Survivor Chronicles (Book 3): The Forsaken by Erica Stevens - Free Book Online Page A

be fine," he assured her.
    Her eyes narrowed upon him and for a second he thought she might actually punch him again. "You're a stubborn ass."
    She didn't seem at all pleased or calmed by the smile he gave her, one that had made other girls melt but only made her glower more fiercely. "Well it takes one to know one," he replied.
    "John, give me a hand with the chair," Carl commanded from the door.
    John placed his gun down on the end table by the couch and hurried to help Carl. They lifted the recliner from the corner by the fireplace and carried it down the stairs to block the front door. They both hurried back up the stairs.
    "Is there another way out of here?" the man inquired from the doorway to the kitchen.
    "Do we look like the family in the picture?" John retorted as he gestured to the family portrait of a mother, father, and two boys over the mantle.
    "John," Carl said in a low tone and shook his head.
    John pulled the curtains framing the picture window aside and peered out. "It's calm out there; maybe they won't come after us."
    "They'll come," the girl whispered in a forlorn voice. Xander hadn't realized that she'd returned until she spoke. In one hand she was holding a towel, a box of cloth bandages and an ace ankle wrap. In the other she possessed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and one of peroxide. "They always come, they will always keep coming."
    "Yeah well they're in for a fight when they get here," Riley said as she snatched the supplies out of the girl's hand.
    The girl didn't seem to notice Riley though as her gaze remained focused on the window. "There is no escape," she whispered.
    There was a blank look about her that concerned him, but his attention was torn from the girl as Riley knelt before him. She twisted the cap off the alcohol and unceremoniously began to pour it on his leg. His hands clenched on the couch and his breath hissed in through his teeth. She didn't give him a chance to protest before she began to pour some of the peroxide onto the wound too. Foaming bubbles enveloped his leg and slid down toward his sock.
    "Kitchen table," Carl said and nodded for John to follow him from the room.
    Riley opened the box and pulled the bandage free. "This looks awful," she muttered as she gently dabbed at the cut with the towel and wiped the excess liquid from his leg.
    He took hold of her hands before she could start to wrap his leg again. He was shocked to find her hands trembling within his. "It will be fine," he assured her.
    She took a steadying breath and nodded. He squeezed her hands, briefly savoring in their warmth before releasing her. Her shoulders stiffened as she bowed her head and approached the injury with a lot more care and caution. He heard the thud of the kitchen table being placed against the backdoor.
    "They're going to just keep coming and coming and..."
    "No, they won't," Riley interrupted the girl briskly.
    "Debra," the man said calmingly and rested his hand on the girl's shoulder.
    "We should check out the basement," Carl said as he and John reentered the living room.
    Riley finished taping the bandage and sat back on her heels. She rested her hands on her knees before rising to her feet and grabbing her gun from where she'd left it on the coffee table. He'd always known she was tough, always known there was a steel rod within her, but staring at her now she reminded him of an Amazon woman. Her chin jutted proudly out and she held the gun with far more comfort than she had the one he'd handed her in the den of the police officer's house. His heart skipped a beat as her eyes slid to him. He was struck by just how beautiful she was and just how much she had changed since he'd last seen her.
    I killed Lee , the words, spoken so bluntly by her in the grocery store had rendered him speechless, but it had been the look in her eyes that had robbed the breath from his lungs when she'd said them. She had killed one of his best friends and as she stared at him now he knew that it had broken a