“Don’t move, Emily,” Senior Chief Jonah Mercer whispered from right behind me.
Chapter 3: Blood and Betrayal
The betrayal didn’t register right away. It felt like a glitch in reality.
Jonah Mercer. The man I had carried for two miles through hostile territory with a sucking chest wound. The man who wept at my non-existent husband’s memorial. He had his service weapon pressed against my brain stem.
“Mercer, what the hell are you doing?” Ryan yelled, raising his own rifle, aiming it squarely at the man who had saved him from drowning just months ago.
“Stand down, kid,” Mercer said, his voice trembling slightly, but his grip on the gun remaining absolute. “Don’t make me kill her.”
“Drop the gun, Jonah,” I said softly, my eyes locked on Lucas at the end of the hall. Lucas was struggling against his zip-ties, his face a mask of rage.
