Page 1 of Deceptive Lies

Chapter

One

July 9th

10:57 P.M.

The loudest sound he’d ever heard ripped him from a deep sleep.

It sounded like an explosion only …

Why would someone be blowing up his house?

Thirteen-year-old Cooper Charleston jerked upright, his heart hammering so hard in his chest it physically hurt, blood pumping so furiously through his body he felt strung out, like he’d just run a marathon even though he’d just been sleeping.

“Coop?”

The trembling voice came from the other side of the room, and he looked over to see his twin brother’s shadowy form also sitting up in bed.

“What was that?” Connor asked, voice scared.

He was scared, too. Frozen in fear.

Some unknown instinct inside him screamed that he needed to move, to do something, but he had no idea what. Something waswrong, that much he knew, he just had no idea what it could possibly be.

“I don’t know.” He managed to force the words out through a throat that felt like it was closing up.

Before either of them could say more, the door to their room was flung open.

Connor screamed.

Maybe he did too.

He wasn't quite sure.

The fear inside was too much. There was no fight or flight for him, just fear, just freeze, just sit there in the bed as four huge figures dressed in black stormed into the room he shared with his twin brother.

Another scream fell from his brother’s lips, and from the corner of his eye, he saw his brother scramble out of his bed.

That’s what he should be doing.

Trying to escape before the men got them.

They lived in a big house with five bedrooms—one he shared with his twin, one was shared by their older and younger brothers, one was used by their baby sister, one was used by their two stepbrothers, and the master was now for his mom and stepdad. Only six months ago his dad had been killed when his Delta Team had been attacked. The only survivor of the attack was now married to his mom. Nine people lived in this house, and if four men had gone running into all those bedrooms, there were at least twenty men who had broken into their home.

Why?

Who were they?

What did they want?

The questions ran through Cooper’s mind as his body shook, stuck in place as two men approached his bed. The other two had gone to Connor’s bed and yelled at him as his twin tried to fight them off.

A high-pitched scream echoed through the house.

Cassandra’s scream.

His little sister was only five years old and wouldn't start kindergarten until the fall, she was just a baby.

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