Page 195 of Operation: Defiance

Another measured breath. This one doesn’t make it the whole way. But the next one does. The tension eases slowly. As does her grip on the notebook. Her gaze finds mine, and thank fuck her eyes are clear.

My chest aches for her. For Ellen and Tessa and everyone Coherent Path has ever touched.

Raine clears her throat. “I…went back there. In my head. I thought it was just once. I thought…when you found me…that they knew they’d gone too far and couldn’t risk that I’d tell anyone how badly they’d hurt me. I was wrong.”

A single tear shimmers in her eye, and she swipes it away, a tiny tremor in her fingers.

“The protocol they described? That’s what they did to me. Three times. Increasing amplitude. At the end…one of them said, ‘Manual intervention requires a signature.’” Her hands flex in her lap. Her thumb moves to her index finger, stops, and she dips her hand into her pocket and pulls out my father’s challenge coin. “I think…they needed approval to force a cardiac event. And until they had it…they just…left me there, hoping I’d die.”

Rage detonates behind my ribs. For a long moment, I can’t breathe.

I understand it all now. Why there were no cameras in that room. Why they’d left her without food or water for so long her blood pressure had bottomed out and her heart was racing.

My hands shake. I don’t try to hide it. “Raine.” My voice is wrecked, stripped raw by fury and fear and something sharp enough to cut me in two. “Can I—” The rest won’t come. Asking feels wrong.

She studies me, clocks the anger, the desperate need to ground myself in something. In her.

With a nod, she shifts closer, leaning against me, her breath ghosting over the curve of my neck. “Put your arms around me, Asher.”

I keep the pressure light. Low on her back. Holding her anchors us both to the same piece of solid ground.

But inside, I’m burning.

They tried to break her. And when that failed, they made a conscious decision to end her.

The voice in my head is calm. Lethal. Vicious.

They don’t get to do this to anyone ever again.

Raine stays in my arms for another few seconds, then lifts her head enough to look at me. The determination in her eyes reassures me. She’s not going to let them get away with this. And she’s already decided her next steps.

“Did you—? Were you able to check on Tessa?” she asks.

My jaw tightens. I ease back, waiting until she mirrors my position to continue. “You were right about her monitoring. I saw her go into a building a little north of Green Lake. The sign said it was a dental office.” I shake my head softly. “Whatever happened in there…it cost her something. She was shaken when she came out. Less than, somehow.”

Raine’s eyes shimmer. Sadness, then right behind it, anger. “They’re seeing how far they can push her without leaving marks. Because of me. They probably told her it was my fault. What she’s going through now. So there’s one less person in this world who’ll trust me. They’ll do that with everyone I’ve ever worked with if we don’t stop them.”

She presses her index fingers hard against the notebook, and after a beat, straightens and glances at the window. “It’s almost dark.”

A hard knot tightens in my stomach. “Well, then let’s pack up the laptop and take off. If we leave now, I’ll still be able to make risotto for dinner.”

Chapter Forty-Nine

Asher

Raine tucks the bottle of body lotion into her go bag like it’s a precious thing. It hits me then—how little of her life is actually hers anymore, and how hard she’s trying to reclaim even a small bit of normalcy.

“That’s it,” she says, her voice barely a whisper. “We can go now.”

“Not quite.” I open the dresser drawer and pull out a dark blue baseball cap and a pair of thick-framed glasses. “The car’s windows are tinted, but not enough to hide our faces from traffic cameras.”

She stares at the hat, reaches out, and brushes the brim with her fingers. “I…having something on my head…”

Shit.

“We can figure something else out. You don’t need to⁠—“

“Yes, I do. Going outside as…me is dangerous. For both of us. It’s just…loud, and I have to recalibrate.” Her eyes go glassy, and she presses her hand to her chest. One breath, then another, and she shudders. “Glasses first. They’re quieter.”