Page 40 of Deceptive Lies

The voices continued to murmur to one another and then she heard the sound of receding footsteps.

Letting out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, Willow sagged in relief that they hadn't come this way. If they did, they would have seen her for sure. She wasn't really in a hiding place, more just tucked into a corner, totally visible depending on which way you approached the area.

Seconds ticked by.

Turning into minutes.

Sweat rolled down her back, and she wished she could remove the heavy jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt and replace them with a light, floaty sundress. But she had to cover up as much as possible to hide her bruises so she didn't stand out like a sore thumb.

Fear for Cooper grew with each passing moment.

It wasn't that she didn't trust him, or think he had the skills to take on five young men and win, it was just that she liked him, a lot, more than should be possible for how long they’d known each other, and she didn't want anything to happen to him.

If he died because of her …

Willow couldn’t even allow herself to think that.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the little runaway journalist.”

The words had her head jerking up and she saw a man standing atop the wall where she was hiding, looking down at her with a smirk.

There was no conscious decision on her part, Willow just scrambled away from him. If ever there was a time to disobey Cooper’s rules, this was it.

The sound of feet hitting the ground behind her spurred or on, but a hand snapped around her ankle and dragged her back.

She fought.

Kicking with her free foot, swinging out with her arms.

It didn't do any good.

Knees clamped around her hips, and a hand closed around her throat, which was already still sore from Darius the previous night.

“Boss said whoever caught you could have some fun with you before we hand you over to him,” the young man, who couldn’t be more than twenty tops, sneered down at her.

The look in his eyes told her exactly what was going to happen to her.

It would forever be seared into her mind.

Greedy hands grabbed at her breasts, squeezing them painfully before moving to the zipper of her pants.

He was going to do it there?

Where some random tourist could stumble upon them.

Willow was torn between screaming for Cooper to help, and fear that if she did, the remaining men would use it as an opportunity to ambush him.

Yanking her pants open enough that his hand could slip inside, Willow did her best to clench her thighs together, but it didn't do any good. A finger prodded at her entrance, forcing its way inside her.

Bucking him off didn't do any good, and he swatted away her hands like they were nothing more than annoying pests each time she tried to hit him. Willow knew it was do something now or be raped at the world’s oldest pyramid.

Instead of trying to brute force her way out of this, Willow reached out to grab a handful of sand, then threw it directly at the man’s eyes.

He howled and pulled back, allowing her to scramble backward and put a little distance between them.

A snarl that sounded more animal than human was herfirst warning.

Then Cooper seemed to drop down from the sky like an avenging angel, even though she knew in reality he’d jumped off the same wall her attacker had. A single swipe of his knife across the man’s neck ended his life.

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