Page 48 of Deceptive Lies

This time he was just going to get the job done.

Kill her.

Dispose of her body.

Try whatever he could come up with to mitigate the damage her article was going to cause.

It would be one thing if she was going to be the only one to suffer that fate, after all, this was her fight, but knowing that Cooper would suffer along with her was too much.

Tears leaked out of her eyes, and she didn't bother to fight them back.

It hurt too much knowing this man who had risked everything for her was going to wind up dead because of her.

“Shh, honey, don’t cry,” Cooper whispered, his voice soothing only this time it couldn’t wash away the knot of terror lodged in her chest. “It’ll probably be quick.”

“Not why I'm crying,” she said through her tears. “I'd take a long, painful death if it meant you got to live.”

“You're crying over me?” Cooper asked like he couldn’t comprehend that.

“Of course. You saved me and now you're going to pay the ultimate price for that.”

“I'm not giving up yet,” Cooper said fiercely, and as she looked at him through the tears filling her eyes, she could see new determination on his face. “As long as we’re alive, there’s still a chance.”

A chance, maybe, but not a big one.

They were still cuffed to the chairs, the men were on the other side of the room whispering amongst themselves, with their weapons slung over the backs of their chairs. Any move they attempted to make would be seen and stopped before they could do anything. And even if they could somehow silently slip out of their bonds, they would never make it to the warehouse door without being shot.

Lapsing into silence, both lost in their own thoughts, Willow’s head jerked up when she heard the loud, unmistakable sound of an approaching helicopter.

For a second, she wondered if somehow Prey had managed to dredge up their location and mount a rescue. That idea was quickly squashed when she saw the expression on Cooper’s face.

This wasn't his people coming to rescue him.

Which meant it was likely a herald of Professor Mahmoud’s imminent arrival.

So, it really was over.

Death was mere minutes away.

Maybe the professor would torture her a little first, try to find out exactly what she had on him so he could try to formulate a plan on how best to wriggle out of the charges that would no doubt soon be coming.

But even if he did, it would only delay her death by minutes at the most, and possibly not delay Cooper’s at all.

When the men began to approach them, Willow was caught off-guard. She would have thought they’d head outside to meet their boss. The roar of the helicopter’s blades was deafening, it must have been landing right outside the warehouse.

There was no way to protect her ears from the too-loud sound, so instead, she focused on trying to look strong and brave as the men stopped before them.

“End of the line,” the leader snapped, a look of glee on his face. It was clear these men worked for the professor and weren't just a random group of mercenaries he’d hired for this particular job. Willow hoped whatever investigation was started because of her article wound up bringing these men to justice as well.

She wanted all of them to pay.

For Professor Mahmoud’s entire house of cards to come tumbling down.

If it was the end of the line, at least Willow knew she could be proud that she had fulfilled her promise to her father. Her life had meant something, she’d taken what evil had been done to him and turned it into something good. Her article would dismantle a dangerous terrorist group. Sure, another would rise to take its place, but she had still done something good.

Instead of standing beside them, two of the men moved forward to cut the ties binding both her wrists and ankles to the chair, and Cooper’s. Hands immediately clamped around her shoulders, pulling her to her feet and over toward the door.

She stumbled, partly because her limbs were numb, partly because she was in pain and dizzy from the concussion, but also partly because of shock. This was the room where she believed she would take her final breath, but it looked like she was wrong.

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