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

piece of her. It had damaged her, but it was damage that could be repaired and healed given enough time and understanding.
    He rose awkwardly to his feet and balanced on his good leg as Carl and John thumped down the stairs to the basement. "You should rest," Riley protested. "We might have to run again, soon."
    He grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her against him. "I love you Riley Lennox," he whispered in her ear. "I always have, I always will."
    She remained unmoving in his embrace before her arms wrapped around him and she hugged him back. The feel of her was better than the smell of freshly cut grass or a cold beer on a hot August day. It was better than anything he'd ever experienced before. He hadn't even realized just how broken and fractured he was until now, and she helped to fix those broken pieces.
    "I love you too Xander Noland." His heart soared with joy as he pressed her closer. Her fingers dug into his back, she turned her mouth into his neck and kissed him. "But I'm not dying in this damn house and I'm not carrying you so sit down, please."
    He laughed as he hugged her against him once more and released her. Though she was right, he wasn't willing to sit on the couch again. He felt much too vulnerable when he was sitting down. Riley moved to the curtain and used the tip of her gun to pull it back so that she could look out. Resting his hand on her shoulder, he stared at the silent street over top of her head.
    He looked over the half wall that separated the living room from the double stairway of the split level ranch. Carl was leaning over the recliner pressed against the front door to peer out the window. "What's downstairs?" Xander asked.
    "Just the basement," Carl answered. "There's a way out through the bulkhead if we have to take it and a door into the garage. No vehicle though."
    "Of course not," Xander muttered.
    He looked back to the window as a small shiver ran through Riley. "The back door," she said and spun away from him.
    She pushed by the man and woman still standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Xander hurried forward as the man turned to go with her. The girl was still silently weeping; her head was bowed over her hands and her shoulders shook from the force of her sobs. Xander wanted to stop and comfort her, but he didn't like the idea of Riley out of his view with a stranger.
    The man was standing by the window over the kitchen sink as Riley peered out of the glass in the backdoor. "I don't see anything," Riley murmured.
    Xander stepped into the kitchen and glanced down the hall. The door at the end was open to reveal the posters covering one of the walls. The irresistible urge to shut the door seized him and he hurried down the hall to the room with rock bands and women lining the walls. The room reminded him of his own when he'd been fourteen and he couldn't help but smile a little as he shut the door on the memory.
    He closed the other doors along the hall as he made his way back toward the others. Carl and John had climbed the stairs and were standing by the front window. The young woman was still crying but now she was murmuring words that he couldn't quite make out due to her bowed head and broken voice.
    Apprehension gnawed at him, he glanced at the others but none of them seemed to have noticed this new development. He didn't think they could hear her words, but she made the hair on the nape of his neck rise as she continued to talk to herself. He rested his hand on the young woman's shoulder and squeezed it.
    "Everything will be alright, Debra," he assured her.
    She lifted her head and looked up at him from under strands of straggling brown hair. His hand fell limply back to his side as she pinned him with her green eyes, but though she was looking at him he felt as if she was staring right through him. There were panes of glass that weren't as transparent as he felt right now.
    Cuckoo , ran through his mind and he couldn't help but take a step away from her as tears continued to