Page 47 of Deceptive Lies

1:05 A.M

Thankfully, they’d been left alone after the leader of their band of abductors had knocked her unconscious.

Willow had no idea how long she’d been out, but it was enough for Cooper to start panicking.

Since she didn't really think of the former Delta Force operator turned Prey operative as a panicker, she knew he was truly worried.

Not that he was the only one.

As they’d sat tied to the chairs in the big empty warehouse, they’d watched through the windows as the sun sank and the room grew dark as night fell. She thought the professor would have arrived by now. Theycouldn’t have driven for more than two hours or so, possibly less, so they weren't all that far away from Saqqara, which was only a thirty-minute drive or so from Cairo.

Why wasn't he here?

What did that mean for them?

Despite her lies that Cooper didn't know what Professor Mahmoud was up to, no one had attempted to let him go. Maybe they’d set him free after they killed her.

No.

They weren't going to do that.

Whether she lied or not, they’d never been going to let him go.

They couldn’t.

Whether he knew what had brought her to Egypt or not, he knew she’d been held against her will by the professor. That alone was enough for him to be killed.

A grumbling sound had her lips curling up into a small smile despite the direness of their situation. “Hungry?” she asked, looking over at Cooper who shot her a sheepish smile.

“I'd say no, but my stomach gave me away.”

She huffed a small chuckle, wincing as the small movement aggravated the pain in her head. Blood had flowed down her face from the wound the blow that knocked her out had inflicted, and the feel of it sticky and crusty against her skin was almost as annoying as the pain itself.

At least there was one benefit to a concussion.

Nausea had stolen her appetite, and even though she hadn't eaten for hours, and before that had been half-starved for two weeks straight, the thought of food made her ill.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Just because Cooper kept telling her that none of this was her fault she couldn’t stop feeling otherwise.

Theywerehere because of her.

That was just a fact.

How was she supposed to be okay with it?

Sure, it had been Cooper’s choice to investigate when he no doubt heard Darius strangling and spanking her, but she had been the one who had allowed herself to get kidnapped in the first place. Sheshould have been smarter, should have been stronger, should have done something differently.

“Don’t make me say it again, honey,” Cooper told her. “You know this isn’t on you. You didn't force Mahmoud to join a terrorist cell. You didn't force him to start targeting young men at the university to convert them. You didn't force him to come up with a plan to plant radicalized young men in various places in our country and then coordinate an attack. And you certainly didn't force him to abduct and torture you. None of this is on you. The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of one man.”

“Why isn’t he here already?” she asked, even though she knew Cooper couldn’t know the answer to that question.

“Don’t know, but I'm going to count it as a blessing. He’s already played with fire and almost gotten burned, I don’t think he’s going to drag things out this time.”

Willow swallowed down a rush of bile.

She knew exactly what that meant and she agreed.

This time the professor wasn't going to keep her alive for weeks while he had his fun doling out daily beatings and watching her wither slowly away.

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