Page 209 of Operation: Defiance

“Can’t…breathe,” I gasp. My fingers claw at my throat. At the hood ties that aren’t there. Another sound tears free, smaller this time, raw and humiliating.

“Raine.” Asher’s voice is close to my ear. Steady. Strong. Familiar. “You’re not back there.”

I can’t process the words. My skin is wrong. The air is wrong.

He’s in front of me now, his deep blue eyes locked on mine.

“Let. Go. Now,” he snaps at Claire.

My knees buckle, and Asher catches me, wrapping an arm around my waist so I can sink against him.

“Look at me, Raine. You’re outside. Pike Place. No restraints. No hood. No hands but mine.”

My vision stays glassy, the market blurring at the edges. I can’t control my racing pulse no matter how hard I try.

Claire’s voice drifts in from somewhere behind me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean⁠—”

“Don’t.” There’s a lethality to Asher’s tone I’ve never heard before. It would be enough to pull me back if I could only get some air. “Don’t touch her. Don’t say another word.”

My lungs are still locked tight. Each breath is borrowed, and I don’t have anything left to spare. I focus on Asher’s face. On the furrow between his brows. On the line of his mouth.

The market noise pushes back in, piece by piece. People laughing, the honk of a car horn, a seagull screaming overhead.

“There you are,” Asher whispers, leaning forward to touch his forehead to mine.

Exhaustion drops over me like a blanket. My legs feel hollowed out. But my mind is here. I’m here.

I turn my gaze to Claire. She clutches her purse to her chest, eyes rimmed with red. “Maybe…” The word catches, and she tries again. “Maybe you should start from the beginning.”