Too Late to Hold Me Back novel Chapter 151

"Can you please keep it together? You're a grown man, why are you always panicking when something happens?"

Shane Porter’s train of thought was abruptly broken, leaving him visibly annoyed.

"They... we've lost contact with them."

He had arranged this entire operation himself. If anything went wrong, he would face severe punishment.

But that wasn't even the most important part.

The truly disastrous part was that the assistant had secretly slipped his own son into the operation today.

He shared Shane’s mindset, believing that with the Aurelius Circle on the job, victory was guaranteed.

His son's combat skills didn't even come close to the standards of a Aurelius Circle member.

He had only done it so his son could get a cut of the massive payout reserved for the top-tier operatives once the job was done.

Maybe he could even use the merit from this mission to officially secure a spot in the squad.

But he never expected this...

"What do you mean? What do you mean you lost contact?"

"I mean the dozen or so men we sent out have all gone completely dark."

"All of them?"

His assistant nodded frantically, his face twisted in distress.

"Impossible! Who in all of Melvion City could take down fourteen Aurelius operatives in one fell swoop? Keep trying to reach them."

"I've tried everything, Boss. I called every single one of their phones, and they all went straight to voicemail."

The assistant’s voice cracked as he fought back tears.

But in Shane's eyes, this just showed how deeply the man cared about the elite bodyguards and how fiercely loyal he was to him.

"How could this happen? Send someone down to look for them."

"Yes, sir."

Shane grabbed the assistant by the arm and hauled him up. "I know you're loyal and you're thinking of the big picture.

But we don't even have the final results yet. You can't just fall apart on me now."

This assistant was incredibly dedicated, though Shane hadn't seen him this worked up in all the decades they'd worked together.

Did people just get more devoted as they aged?

"Wait, send a few more men. And remind them to keep a low profile. We can't afford to attract the cops' attention."

"Understood."

Half an hour later, the assistant stumbled back into the office.

But the assistant's brief glimmer of hope was instantly snuffed out.

He had to swallow his panic, terrified his boss would see right through him.

Another update came in shortly after: Mira Mercer had arrived at Solflare Entertainment, completely unharmed.

Mr. Porter frowned in confusion. "If she didn't get them, why are they hiding?"

"Boss, is it possible that the Mercer girl called the cops, and our guys are on the run?

That has to be it. That's why they don't dare turn their phones on. They're afraid the police will track their location."

The more the assistant thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. It meant his son might still be alive, which was all that mattered.

"That’s not entirely out of the question."

Shane found himself believing the assistant’s theory as well.

"Don't make any obvious moves yet. Just keep investigating quietly."

He still couldn't quite figure out what Mira was capable of. Until they got to the bottom of this, it was best not to act rashly.

...

When Mira returned home, Elara Finn was there waiting for her. She had come over to help clean the apartment today.