Page 22 of Deceptive Lies

“Because I know who you work for and what happened to your mother. I’ve heard the stories and the rumors. I had to be sure you were just here to do what you said you were and not for any other reason.”

“What other reason would there be?”

“I don’t know, but I always know it’s better to be safe than sorry. I should have trusted that you just wanted to learn about your mother, but I got a little paranoid. Maybe because I'm aware of the rumors about her. I don’t know what she was doing the night of my wedding. She came as the guest of an invited guest. She looked stunning, and even though I love my wife, those eyes weren't ones you could forget easily. It was the first time I'd ever seen her, I exchanged a few words with her, and that was it. By the time I returned from my honeymoon, I heard the rumor that she was involved in the death of her husband and his team. I’ll admit I gossiped about it a little, and I was aware that she had been arrested and committed suicide. Maybe because she was somehow connected, no matter in how small a way, with the happiest day of my life that I couldn’t not reach out when I saw her photo floating around. But I don’t know anything more, I'm sorry.”

The speech was delivered emotionally, with all the right intonations and facial expressions, yet it didn't feel real.

Maybe because the professor kept darting nervous little glances toward the door.

The same door the mysterious woman in black had been dragged through.

It was obvious Mahmoud didn't want him getting too close to the woman. As soon as she’d made any attempt to connect with him, the older man had made sure she was taken away. The woman knew something, meant something, was somehow an integral part of this whole thing, and Cooper knew he needed to somehow get to her.

With a sigh, he dropped his head and stepped back, spearing his fingers through his dark locks. “That’s it? That’s all you know?”

“All I know.”

“And you aren't lying?” he asked, shooting the man a look that clearly conveyed that if he was, there would be consequences.

“Swear, no lies.”

“All right. May I use the bathroom before I go? After running from your little friend for half the day, I had to drink about a gallon of water once I got back to my rental car.”

“Of course. There is one through there, take the door under the stairs.”

As soon as Cooper was out of the kitchen, he heard it.

Muffled cries of pain.

Instinct had him heading toward the sound, and when he approached the half-open door to the office at the front of the house, fury ignited in his chest at the sight of the woman in black bent over a desk while the man who had pulled her from the room had his hand around her neck while he rained down blows on her bare backside.

For once in his life, calm, composed, and logical flew out the window and he just acted.

July 11th

7:24 P.M

Slowly, the pain beganto fade.

What had once been blinding terror at the thought of death shifted until it became acceptance, and something more.

Peace.

That kind of tranquility you found when you sat on the sand on the beach, listened to the sound of the waves, and watched the sunset on the horizon. Or when you were out in the middle of the woods, the tall trees stretching their limbs far above your head and up into the blue sky while scattered sunlight made dappled patterns on the ground and the twittering of birds mixed with a babbling brook.

As the hand around her neck squeezed a little tighter, Willow floated a little further away from the land of the living.

I'm ready, Dad.

Please be there waiting for me.

Maybe stepping over into whatever came next wouldn't be so scary if her dad was standing there with open arms ready to catch her.

Just as the world went black around the edges, all of a sudden, she could breathe again. The weight that had been crushing her body was gone. The hand that had been striking her bare backside was no longer there.

Weak as she was, her brain struggled to comprehend what had just happened. Why she wasn't dead. And why a strong set of arms gently gathered her up into an embrace.

“Hey, honey, it’s okay, you're okay now,” a voice crooned in her ear.

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