CHAPTER 79
Ryle shot the first man. We breached. I saw the mercenary with the baton...
The impact. The world turning gray.
And then?
Lauren found she had a complete blank regarding the actual moment of her capture. She could only recall the disjointed aftermath: muffled screams, the acrid scent of gunpowder, and Ryle’s panicked voice, urgently yelling, “Lowe is compromised and extracted!” as her surrounding environment faded into unconsciousness.
Ryle’s panic was the last thing she remembered clearly—his voice, raw with desperation, abandoning the ‘Commander’ facade for pure, desperate fear.
A sickening wave of remorse and guilt washed over her, chilling her to the bone. It was not the pain of the wound or the fear of Valerius that broke her control; it was the gut-deep conviction th
