Page 64 of Deceptive Lies

“You think I like saying it?” she whispered. She hated it but it was true. Refusing to accept reality wasn't going to help either of them, least of all Cooper, and that was all she was focused on right now.

“I won't leave you,” he said fiercely.

A sad smile curled her lips up. “I know you don’t want to, but you have to, Cooper. I’m too weak, and the sun … it’s too hot … I feel like I'm burning alive. Each step … it’s agony. Maybe I can go a little further, but I can't walk out of the desert. You can, Cooper. You have to. Please. I don’t … I don’t want you to die because of me.” Tears started falling down her cheeks in a torrent and she didn't even bother trying to hold them in.

“Oh, honey.” Cooper shifted her so she was facing him, sitting on his lap. His hands framed her face, and his thumbs caught her tears. “There is not a chance in hell I am walking out of here and leaving you behind.”

“But you have to,” she wept.

“I don’t have to. We keep moving forward together. I wish I had water for you, I wish I had shade, I wish I had painkillers and a bed so you could get the rest you need. I wish I could just transport you out of here and back home where you're safe. But, Willow, listen to me because I'm only going to say this once.”

His hands stilled and he waited until she met his gaze squarely.

“We are in this together. We live together or we die together. It’s as simple as that.”

Chapter

Sixteen

July 13th

2:47 P.M.

For as long as he lived, Cooper would never forget that Willow had been prepared to sacrifice her own life to give him a chance at surviving.

If he hadn't already been falling hard and fast for her, that would have pushed him over the edge.

But he was falling, and reality was quickly crashing down around him.

When he’d dozed for those couple of hours early this morning, and he’d been thinking on what their next move was, he’d rated their chances of making it to a town or village as maybe eighty percent. It would be hard, but they hadn't been in the air all that long, so he didn't think they could have been overly far from civilization.

Hour by hour those odds were dropping.

Their injuries and the heat were affecting both of them, but he was in a much better position than Willow, and he was starting to genuinely believe that there was every chance she actually wasn't going to make it.

Thirst clawed at him, the temperature alone would have dehydratedthem even if they’d had water. They would have had to be constantly guzzling down bottles of the stuff to keep enough water in their systems.

No water in the desert equaled certain death.

There was no way they could walk fast enough to get out of there before that happened. On his own, Cooper was sure it was doable, he wasn't as badly injured, and he could move a whole lot faster.

But for Willow …

The truth was, her body was just too weak.

Which meant he now gave them a less than ten percent chance of surviving this ordeal, mostly because he wasn't ready yet to accept that this was hopeless.

Because once he did there was no going back.

One thing he knew for certain, though, was that he wasn't walking out of there and leaving Willow behind. If she wasn't going to make it there was no way in hell he was going to allow her to die alone in the desert.

No damn way.

If she died, then he’d have to make a choice. Try to walk out carrying her body or bury it in a layer of sand so it wouldn't be found if Tarek Mahmoud and his men searched this area, and leave some sort of marker so he could come back to it later. And he sure as hell would come back.

One way or another, he would bring her home.

Beside him, Willow suddenly cried out and dropped to her knees, her good hand scrambling to reach for her calf as tears streamed down her cheeks.

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