The freezing rain lashed against my bare arms, every single drop feeling like a tiny, icy needle piercing my skin. I walked mechanically toward the dense, foreboding treeline at the edge of the sprawling estate, my bare feet sinking deeply into the freezing mud. The heavy barrel of the lieutenant's Glock remained pressed violently against the center of my spine, a constant, lethal reminder that my life was dangling by a microscopic thread.
"Keep moving," he hissed over the deafening roar of the October storm. "There is a heavily armed extraction team waiting exactly two miles out. Do not even think about slowing down."
"They will kill you," I choked out, my teeth chattering so violently I could barely form the coherent words. "Valerius will completely tear you apart. He doesn't just kill
