Page 51 of Deceptive Lies

A mistake that could undo everything he’d just done.

Ramming the weapon in his hands back, he felt the other man grunt as it connected with his ribs, but he held on tight. There wasn't much room for him to fight, and he needed the pilot alive and uninjured to get them safely down.

Giving the man another jab to the ribs he felt the hold around his neck loosen a little.

Then all hell broke loose.

Willow lunged forward swinging the assault rifle he’d given her at the man’s head. It connected if the further loosening of the arm around his neck was anything to go by.

But then the man reached for Willow.

They tussled over her weapon as Cooper turned with his, intending to end this now.

Just as he fired at the man, Willow’s gun went off, peppering the control panel of the helicopter with a spray of bullets.

The man attacking him slumped over, a red dot on the center of his forehead indicating that Cooper’s bullet had struck its target.

No longer was the man a threat, but now they had bigger problems.

The helo was shrieking at them, the pilot panicked as he tried to regain control of the machine that was now spiraling right toward the ground at a sickening pace.

July 13th

1:33 A.M

They were going to crash.

Willow knew it with absolute certainty.

Just because she wasn't wearing a headset and couldn’t hear much of anything above the constant roar of the rotors, she could tell from the way they were falling, the way they’d tipped sideways.

She’d tried to help but she’d only made things worse.

Cooper had been fighting against the other man who had risen almost from the dead to attack him. There wasn't enough space for him to properly fight off the attack and she had no idea if the pilot was also armed.

So, she’d thought she could just knock out the man attacking Cooper.

But he’d reached for the weapon she brandished more like a club, they’d fought over it and she knew it was those bullets from the weapon she was responsible for that had fired into the helicopter’s control panel.

They were going to die, and it was all her fault.

A scream fell from her lips as they lurched sideways, and she was thrown toward the open door where Cooper had thrown the other man guarding them.

Frantically, she threw her hands out, scrambling to hold onto anything within reach so she, too, didn't go flying out that door. Just because they were quickly losing altitude didn't mean they were close enough to the ground to survive the fall.

Somehow, she managed to catch onto a seatbelt with her bad arm. Pain screamed through the limb from her broken finger to the likely broken bone in her forearm, but she couldn’t let go.

If she did, she’d fall right out the door.

Whimpering, she clung with all her might to the seatbelt that was the only thing keeping her alive.

In the front, the pilot was frantically pushing buttons. From the way he moved, he knew nothing he could do would save them. The helicopter was damaged, it was going down, he’d already lost control over it and that meant their fate was sealed.

The miracle that had seemed within their grasp when her gaze met Cooper’s and she’d read his instructions to get down when he made his move, had now shimmered completely out of reach.

Her grip on the seatbelt loosened when the helicopter tipped further to the side.

There was no way she could hold on much longer.

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