Page 111 of Operation: Defiance

Chapter Twenty-Four

Raine

My body wants weeks of sleep. My brain won’t sign off on it.

Every time I drift, my thoughts circle back to the same place, as if rest itself is something I can’t give into yet.

The pain isn’t keeping me awake. That has a rhythm I understand now. What won’t let go is the weight of what comes next. Not something being done to me, but something I have to do.

Photos. Memories. Proof.

Letting a camera record what they did to me isn’t the hard part.

I survived it.

Seeing it is.

Asher seeing it.

I’ll have to look. Really look. Remember every bruise, every mark, every place they put their hands to remind me who was in control.

Asking for anything still twists something tight and ugly in my gut. Asking for this nearly steals my breath.

I focus on what’s steady instead.

The low wash of instrumental music threading through the room. The heater cycling softly. The faint, distant sound of traffic beyond the walls. None of it demands my attention. It’s just…here. Enough to keep me from spiraling.

Asher hasn’t stirred. His head lolls to one side, dark stubble shadowing his jaw. He looks tired.

No. Not tired. Worn.

I could let him sleep. Make this wait.

Except it can’t. Even after only a day, there’s a faint ring of yellow around some of the bruises.

I swallow. My throat pulls tight, but my voice doesn’t waver. “Asher.”

He jerks awake, attention snapping into place, eyes sweeping the door, the window, then locking on me.

He’s fully present in seconds. “What is it? Body or mind?”

Both.

“I’m okay,” I say. “I mean…no new…crisis.” My chest tightens. I push through it anyway. “I need your help.”

His posture shifts. Shoulders easy. Spine straight. Alert, but not alarmed. “All right. With what?”

The sentence I practiced tangles on my tongue. I take it apart slowly.

“I need to document it,” I say. “All of it. What they…did. To me.”

His gaze hardens into something almost feral. “You want a record they can’t bury.”

I nod.

The words he doesn’t say sit between us.

In case they find a way to bury me.