Page 16 of Deceptive Lies

Don’t let me be wrong about this.

Please.

The familiar clank of the padlock being unlocked had her closingher eyes. It was the best way to deal with the onslaught of light when the trapdoor was flung open.

Even with her eyes closed, she felt that light cut straight through her skull.

“Get up,” Professor Mahmoud ordered, and she sensed him standing before her even though her eyes were still closed.

Normally, she’d shoot back some sort of retort, but today, she just didn't have the energy. It was becoming increasingly evident that her body had already given pretty much all it had to give. Her tank was almost dry, and once it was, it was only a matter of time.

A foot connected with her hip, and she had to bite on her lip to prevent a moan from falling out. Almost empty or not, she was not going to give Professor Mahmoud the satisfaction of breaking her.

“I said, get up,” he ordered again, delivering another blow to her hip and making the entire left side of her body feel like it had caught fire.

Gathering what scraps of strength she could find, Willow managed to drag herself to her feet. As soon as she was standing, the metal cuff on her wrist was unlocked and she was picked up and thrust up into the arms of one of the men who worked with the professor.

From the voices chattering around her, she knew this was going to be bad. Most of the time it was just the professor who doled out his torturous beatings alone. But sometimes, he invited his friends along. Those days were always the worst, and not just because more people meant more pain.

It was how much it reminded her of the worst night of her life.

Somehow, the universe seemed to get off on continuing to torture her with her father’s death, even twenty years later making her life turn into an echo of his murder.

Before anyone could get to her, Willow managed to scramble to her feet. She swayed precariously, almost going back down again, and with nothing to reach out to and use to steady herself, she had to cartwheel her arms a couple of times to remain upright, but she managed it.

The men surrounded her, looking at her with curiosity. She wasn't like the women they were used to, she didn't cower, didn't blindly obey, and had a role beyond what they believed women should have, and she loved that all of that angered them.

“I know who you really are, professor,” she said, her voice weak from pain but still confident. “I know what you do. I know what all of you do,” Willow added, letting her gaze roam the gathering of men in this dusty yard. “I know that you’re recruiting as many young men as you can so that you can groom them, convert them, then instill them in positions of power in the countries of your enemies. I know you're planning a Trojan Horse kind of thing and that you want to destroy everything that doesn’t align with you and your beliefs. If I survive, I'm going to shout it all from the rooftops and bring you down.”

The men laughed like that declaration was the funniest thing they’d ever heard, but they knew she had enough intel to destroy them if she really should manage to escape or be rescued.

It was why she had to keep fighting, even when they converged on her and blows began to rain down on her already broken body.

Why giving up wasn't an option no matter how much her injured body pleaded with her to do so.

When the American came, she was going to do whatever it took to make contact with him.

Because it was her last hope.

If the American didn't save her, nothing else would.

Chapter

Five

July 11th

6:47 P.M.

This time he wasn't walking away until he was sure he’d gathered every piece of intel to glean from Tarek Mahmoud.

“Hey, Coop, you gone inside yet?” the voice echoed inside his ear from the comms unit he was wearing. Tonight, he was going into the professor’s home wired. Anything the man said would be heard by all three of his brothers and both his stepbrothers. Cassandra had opted out, although they never hid anything from her, she had decided to take a different path in life than the rest of them, and they all respected her boundaries and her desire to keep out of danger and away from the filth that littered the earth.

“No, just pulled up outside,” he answered Connor’s question.

“Good, we got an ID on the guy following you today at the pyramids,” his twin informed him.

“Cass is still jealous that you got to see them, and she hasn’t,” Cole added with an amused chuckle. “You're going to hear all about it when you get home.”

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