Page 81 of Deceptive Lies

Not when she was so close.

Keep walking, that was all she could do. If this didn't work out, she wanted to know she had done everything within her power to get the professor. At least when she got home and wrote her article, the world would know who he really was, and he’d be a target of every agency of every country across the globe.

Just then, she heard an engine rev and tires squeal as a white van rushed up beside her.

Four men jumped out of it, grabbing at her even as she screamed and backed away.

Hands closed around her arms, lifting her off the ground.

Zip ties were secured tightly around her wrists.

A bag was thrown over her head.

And her body connected with the floor of the van with a bone jarring thud that had her moaning in pain as she was tossed inside.

Looked like playing bait had worked because she’d just been kidnapped.

Chapter

Twenty

July 15th

10:10 A.M.

“We shouldn’t have let her go off alone,” Cooper said into the quiet car.

It was more than just his need to keep the woman who’d come sneaking into his heart when he wasn't looking safe, it was something else.

Something felt wrong.

He couldn’t put his finger on what exactly it was that was bothering him.

While he’d never been a fan of this plan just because, on principle, he wasn't ever going to like anything that was Willow walking willingly into danger, he’d gone along with it because he’d agreed this was the best way to get what they needed to keep her safe long term. Just because he didn't like something didn't automatically make it bad or wrong, and Willow was right when she’d said this was the quickest and most efficient way to bring Mahmoud in.

There was no way that the man could resist getting his hands on Willow to punish her.

Not even self-preservation would keep him in hiding.

His brothers had been meticulously working out the details of the plan while he and Willow slept last night, and when they’d climbed into the car in the early hours of the morning, he’d been confident they could pull this off without a hitch.

Now he wasn't.

Nothing had outwardly changed. They were still sitting in the vehicle, parked out in the desert not all that far from where they’d dropped Willow off. They’d tracked her to the barn where she was going to pause and stay for a bit, then they’d watched as she started walking.

Being forced to sit there and twiddle his thumbs while Willow trudged slowly along in the heat, following her progress on the screen, had left him antsy. He didn't want to be sitting doing nothing, safe and sound in the vehicle, while Willow was out there alone. He should be with her. Watching her back. Hell, he should be carrying her because they all knew she wasn't strong enough yet to be out there walking, possibly for hours.

But over the last few minutes something had changed.

Now he didn't just feel antsy he felt like a million fire ants were crawling all over his skin.

His gut was screaming at him that something wasn't right, but he didn't know what specifically was wrong.

Only that he needed to get to Willow.

“You know this was the right move,” Cade said, his voice calm, borderline disinterested. Just because Cooper knew his older brother would move heaven and earth for anyone in their family, or their Prey family, and since he was with Willow now it made her one of them, didn't mean his attitude didn't irk.

What right did any of his brothers have to be so calm while he was an anxious mess?

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