Her Wild Hero

She swung her M4 over her shoulder. “Let me check.”


The urge to feel her hands on him was way more tempting than it should have been given the circumstances. But right now, he had to get his head screwed back on right and get them out of here, and he couldn’t do that with Kendra playing nursemaid.

He caught her hands. “Later. We need to get out of here before more hybrids show up. The gunfire is bound to draw them like flies.”

She frowned, her gaze lingering on his wounds, but then she nodded. “You’re right. Sorry. I had to shoot. I couldn’t figure out any other way to put them down.”

“You don’t hear me complaining.” He gave her hands a squeeze. “Let’s get our stuff and get going.”

Unfortunately, getting their stuff turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. Kendra’s pack was a goner, as was most of the stuff in it. She ran around, trying to pick up what she could salvage—ammo, protein bars, and the gun cleaning, survival, and first-aid kits. Her clothes were scattered and shredded, but she still checked to see if any of them were usable.

“Forget about those,” he said. “You can make do with the uniform you’re wearing.”

She put her hands on her hips, pinning him with a look as he dropped to one knee beside a dead hybrid and began going through its cargo pockets. “And what am I supposed to do about underwear?” she demanded.

“I don’t know.” He moved to the second hybrid. “Can’t you just do without?”

Declan was sorry he’d said it the second the words were out of his mouth because the image it brought to mind—of Kendra running around the jungle bare-ass naked—was seriously distracting.

She bent to rummage through another pile of clothing. “I’m not even going to answer that.”

Thank God. Because if she’d said yes, he really would have been in trouble.

Once Kendra found what she was looking for, she ran over to his rucksack and crammed the remains of her belongings into any space she could find in the stuffed bag. What didn’t fit in his bag went into the cargo pockets of her uniform pants.

Declan didn’t find anything of value on the first two hybrids. No food or water, no survival gear beyond two cheap knives, not even a map that might have told him where the hybrid camp was located. There was a handheld radio, but it had been smashed to pieces in the fight, so there was no chance eavesdropping on any communications. As for weapons, the hybrids had been carrying heavier FN SCAR assault rifles, so even the small amount of ammo that went with them was worthless to Declan and Kendra—it wasn’t 5.56 mm, so it wouldn’t fit in their M4s.

He walked over to where Kendra was standing beside the third body—the hybrid he’d stabbed with the syringe and she’d shot.

“What the hell is that?” she asked, pointing at the hypodermic needle.

“It’s a syringe.”

She gave him an impatient look. “Really? I never would have guessed. I meant, what was a hybrid doing with it?”

“They were trying to stick me with it.”

She kneeled down and yanked the syringe out of the hybrid’s neck, then depressed the plunger the last few millimeters until glistening, yellow goo squirted from the tip. She seemed so fascinated Declan almost asked if she was going to taste it like they did on TV shows.

“What do you think is in it?” she asked.

“I’m pretty sure it’s not vitamin B. I wasn’t going to let him stick me so I could find out.”

When she leaned close and sniffed the needle, Declan decided he’d had enough. He pulled the syringe out of her hand and tossed it to the ground, then reached down and pulled her to her feet. “We have to go.”

“Hope the stuff I added to your pack didn’t add too much weight,” she said as he slung it onto his shoulder.

He chuckled. “I think I can handle a few spare magazines and some shredded undies.”

That last part prompted yet another unwanted image, this time of Kendra prowling around the jungle wearing nothing but a sexy smile and some strategically ripped underwear. He shoved that thought aside and focused his attention outward as he started to run through the trees.

“I should have had you carry my stuff all along,” she said as she pulled even with him. “We probably would have moved faster that way.”

He only grunted and picked up the pace. But a part of his mind rebelled and painted a nice picture of him digging through his rucksack looking for ammo and finding her cute little panties instead.

Damn, he had issues.





Chapter 6


“You sure she’s leading us the right way?” Carter asked softly. “How the hell does she know where the crash site is without a GPS or compass?”

Angelo chuckled as he stepped over a downed tree. “She knows where she’s going, trust me. And she doesn’t need toys to tell her.”