Page 20 of Deceptive Lies

Would if her mouth wasn't currently covered with tape in an attempt to keep her silent.

Given that he knew she’d been thinking about trying to contact the American to beg him for help on his last visit, Willow knew the professor would be a lot more confident if she wasn't there. Unfortunately for him, the American had shown up without warning, and he hadn't had time to return her to her cell. His own need to have her close so he could lord it over her, how she was his prisoner, was coming back to bite him.

Now, she lifted her head and shifted her body as best she could while chained to the wall.

The American noticed her movements and turned to look at her, something flared in his eyes as their gazes met. If nothing else, then the fact that her eyes were blue when the vast majority of the population of Egypt had brown eyes had to give him at least an inkling that something wasn't right.

Quickly realizing things could fall apart in an instant, the professor stood, moving between them and breaking the connection their gazes had made.

“Darius,” the professor called out.

Almost immediately, another man appeared in the doorway.

“Take her,” Professor Mahmoud ordered, inclining his head in her direction.

“You have a woman chained up in your kitchen?” the American demanded, shoving his chair back and pushing to his feet. “What the hell is going on here, Mahmoud?”

Whatever excuse the professor gave, Willow wound up not being privy to it. Jerked to her feet fast enough her head spun, she was dragged out of the room before she even properly got her feet beneath her.

Instead of taking her back outside, Darius pulled her into the office at the front of the house. She’d been in this room only once before. The night she was captured while following the professor, tied up, thrown in the back of a van, and brought there.

Tonight, she was bent over the desk as Darius planted a foot between hers, preventing her from closing her legs. One of his handsmoved to circle her neck while the other shoved at the long black dress she was wearing, pulling it up to bare her backside.

Hot breath touched the side of her face while a hand connected with her backside. “I've been waiting to have you all to myself,” Darius whispered in her ear.

Was this it?

Was she going to be killed now, while her chance at surviving was only yards away in another room?

Chapter

Six

July 11th

7:17 P.M.

Ignore it.

It has nothing to do with us.

Nothing to do with why we’re in Egypt.

Cooper could practically hear his brother’s voice in his head even though he still had the home end of the comms on silent so neither he nor anyone else could hear what his siblings were no doubt currently discussing.

“Explain,” he barked at Mahmoud, loud enough and harsh enough that the man began to tremble.

“It is complicated,” Professor Mahmoud hedged.

“Uncomplicate it for me,” Cooper ordered. The woman had blue eyes, so it was highly unlikely she was of Egyptian descent, although, of course, not impossible. If she was in Egypt as a tourist, there would be no reason for her to be sitting on the floor in a professor’s kitchen, chained to the wall as she’d been.

All along he’d had a bad feeling about the figure in black, whohe now knew was a woman. Something had been off about it, and he always trusted his gut. He’d just allowed himself to put his own needs first and not done anything about it.

Because of that, a woman had been hurt.

There were bruises on the small part of her face that had been visible between the black material covering her head and most of her face. One of her eyes had been partially swollen, and the remains of black and blue marks were clearly evident.

“Now,” he growled when Professor Mahmoud offered no more information.

---