Page 20

Chapter

Twenty

July 15 th

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?

“Feels wrong,” he muttered, absently rubbing his chest because it felt too tight. He wasn't used to anxiety like this on a mission. Of course, he always worried about the safety of his team, they weren't just his colleagues but his family as well, and Cade had a kid at home who’d already lost her mom, so he always worried a little more about his big brother. But he was never consumed with fear like he was in this moment.

Because never before had the stakes been this high.

His brothers were his family, he loved them unconditionally, they’d all been there for each other through the hell of their teenage years. But Willow was his future. She had the power to complete him in a way he hadn't even known that he needed to be completed. She filled holes in him that had scabbed over but never completely healed.

Now she could be gone.

“It feels wrong because you care about her,” Connor said sympathetically. Leave it to his twin to be on his side no matter what.

As grateful as he was that none of his brother’s had questioned his sudden and completely unexpected obsession with the woman he’d saved from certain death, he needed them to grasp just how deep those feelings already ran.

They needed to understand that losing Willow would break him in a way that losing their parents hadn't.

“It feels wrong because something isn’t right,” he corrected. Cooper just wished he could put his finger on what exactly that was.

“This just because you're into her?” Jake asked, his assessing brown eyes studying him in that calm way he always did. Jake was a quiet man, he thought more than he spoke, he always assessed every situation, noticing the tiny details that others often missed. Not only was Jake an asset to Charlie Team, but he was an asset to their family as well. Cooper couldn’t have picked better stepbrothers than Jake and Jax, and he saw them as his brothers as much as those who shared his DNA.

“No. I can't explain it … I just have this gnawing feeling in my gut,” he replied.

“What do you want us to do about it?” Cole asked.

“Want us to get closer to her? Get eyes on her?” Jax asked.

Yes.

That was exactly what he wanted.

Maybe if he could get her in his line of sight, he could figure out what had him tripping out.

Before he could say that, the dot on the screen suddenly started moving at a much faster rate. It was what they’d been waiting for but now it didn't seem so good.

It meant that Willow had been taken.

It meant that they’d gotten what they wanted.

It meant they could finally stop sitting around and actually do something.

Finally end this, follow the dot that would lead them to Mahmoud and take the man into custody. Or kill him. Which is absolutely what Cooper would prefer. The man had hurt Willow, littered her soft skin with so many bruises that she was more multicolored patchwork quilt than human being right now. The man deserved death. Ideally, a long, slow, painful one.

“Show time,” he said, forcing a grin because the knot in his gut didn't fade.

If anything, it felt worse.

While he should be feeling relief that he was finally heading off after Willow and would soon have her back in his arms where she belonged, his nerves were ramping up.

Cade was sitting in the driver’s seat, and started up the engine, taking off in the direction that Willow was moving.

Had they hurt her when they grabbed her?

Fear for what she was going through pulsed through his body. Just because she’d signed up for this didn't mean Willow wasn't going to be scared when Mahmoud’s men kidnapped her.

“Won't be long,” Cole consoled him, slapping a hand on his back.

“Bet anything that Mahmoud is already in the area. Shouldn’t take them long to get Willow to him,” Connor added.

However long it took it would be too long.

Every second that he didn't have her safely on his lap, his arms wrapped around her, his face buried in her hair, inhaling her sweet scent, it hurt. A physical ache inside him.

“Hold on, bro.” Jax nudged him and shot him a reassuring smile.

Sand flew up and surrounded them as Cade floored the gas, and a few minutes later they were turning onto a road. Fields lined either side of the narrow dirt road, interspersed with the occasional small hut of a house .

Where were they taking Willow?

Was Mahmoud really close by?

Could Cooper really have her back in his arms soon?

Hope started to edge away a little of the fear that had settled over him. At least now this wasn't all on Willow’s shoulders. They’d track them to wherever she was being taken, get confirmation that Mahmoud was there, then strike. It should be easy enough, the same thing they’d done dozens of times before over their careers. Just because the stakes for him were higher than ever didn't mean he would allow it to affect him.

This would go down without issue.

It had to.

Because if one tiny little thing went wrong, he would lose Willow and the future he could have had with her.

Just as hope pushed away more and more of his fear, clearing his head, calming him, allowing him to settle into the zone, prepare himself to do what he knew how to do, they rounded a corner and his world all but screeched to a halt.

The road before them was blocked.

A truck was parked in the middle of it, and surrounding it were what had to be at least two dozen cows. They were wandering aimlessly about, filling the space from the field on one side of the road to the field on the other.

Leaving them no access.

There was no way they could get past.

Which meant there was no way he could get to Willow.

Which left her alone and helpless in the hands of a man who would risk his own safety for a chance to make her pay for attempting to bring him down.

July 15 th

11:03 A.M

The guys are coming .

Cooper is coming.

You did this once already you can handle it again.

Willow kept repeating those thoughts over and over again as the van she’d been thrown into careened down the road.

She wasn't alone in the back. The four men who had jumped out of the vehicle to grab her had gotten in with her. They sat around her, talking and laughing every time her unprotected body was tossed about. With her hands restrained behind her back and the bag over her head, she was helpless to do anything to stop herself from sliding across the floor of the van each time it turned a corner, braked, or accelerated too fast.

Her Arabic wasn't the best, she knew some basics but not enough to make out everything they said.

Not that she needed to.

Their tones were ones she’d heard plenty of times before as a young woman.

It seemed like the game plan had changed.

Before, when he was keeping her held hostage, Professor Mahmoud hadn't allowed any of his men to touch her in a sexual way. She’d believed it was because they viewed her as a dirty westerner, she was the enemy, and they hadn't wanted to contaminate their bodies by joining them to hers. That fit in with the propaganda she’d learned about Allah’s Warriors, they believed in abstinence as a way to draw closer to their god.

But the way the men were speaking now sounded like the professor was about to give them free reign to use her body as they wished.

Icy cold dread settled into her bloodstream, pumping its way through every inch of her until she shivered uncontrollably.

Cooper will get here before they touch you.

Unless the professor was further away than they believed and Cooper and his brothers had to wait for confirmation before coming in to rescue her.

Terror spiraled inside her and Willow could feel herself losing whatever control she had on her emotions. Before she could devolve into a full on panic the van slowed and came to a stop.

Time was up .

They’d arrived.

Now all she could do was pray that the professor was already there waiting for her. If he was then this would all be over in minutes. Well before what she feared was about to happen ever got a chance to get off the ground.

Still laughing and chattering amongst themselves, the four men dragged her out of the van along with them. With her arms bound, and still no vision, if they weren't holding her up then Willow was sure she would have stumbled at least a dozen times.

After a brief walk, she was taken inside a building. The slightly cooler air was a relief. With the bag over her head not only couldn’t she see, but her much too fast panicked breathing only made it hotter beneath the rough material, increasing her fear.

Doing her best to control it, she found it so much harder than it had been before.

Maybe it was because now if she died, she’d be leaving a hole in someone’s life whereas before she’d felt untethered to anything.

“Well, well, well,” Professor Mahmoud snickered as she was shoved down onto something soft, a mattress by the feel of it. “The prodigal daughter returns.”

It took everything Willow had to give to hold it together as the hands on her shoulders shoved her backward, and more hands grabbed at her ankles. The only reason she didn't lose it completely as she was twisted so she was lying flat on her back, and the unmistakable sound of duct tape filled the air was because she knew Cooper would be coming any second now.

The professor was there. It wouldn't take the guys with their gadgets long to get visual confirmation, then they’d be breaking down these doors and killing everyone inside.

Bloodthirsty or not, Willow wanted Professor Mahmoud dead and she didn't even care if that made her a bad person, which she didn't believe it did.

“No one is going to save you this time, Ms. Purcell,” Professor Mahmoud said, and she could feel him close beside her even before he snatched the bag off her head revealing his smirking face.

Yeah, that’s what you think .

Doing her best to keep her face impassive, Willow pressed her lips together and merely returned the man’s stare until his brows knit together in irritation.

“Your friend is dead, died in the crash, but you know that don’t you?” Professor Mahmoud leaned over her until the hot stench of his breath invaded her nostrils. “He’s not coming to your rescue this time, and you are going to end up just like his mother did.”

That revelation caught her attention, and she shoved away her fear. She had to gather as much intel as she could for Cooper because she was pretty sure that neither the professor nor his men were going to be alive much longer.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

Tossing his head back, he laughed. “Always the reporter, aren't you, Ms. Purcell? I guess it doesn’t hurt to tell you since you won't be alive much longer. My wedding day wasn't the first time I’d met Caterina Charleston. I met her for the first time six years earlier. A night I remember very well.” His hand dropped, caressing her neck before sweeping lower to palm one of her breasts. “Very well,” he added with a chuckle, the hand on her breast squeezing painfully tight.

Her breathing accelerated, and she tugged on her bonds even as she attempted to command her body to stay still. These men would pounce on her fear and use it to their advantage.

Cooper is probably right outside this very second. Just hold on a little longer.

“She was tied up much the same way you are right now,” Professor Mahmoud continued. “Only with a little less clothing on.”

Straightening abruptly, he nodded to one of his men who approached her with what looked like a box cutter.

Instinct had her flinching and all the men in the room—over half a dozen of them—laughed.

There was nowhere for her to go, no way for her to fight as the man sawed at her clothing, nicking her dozens of times as he cut her clothing off her until they hung in rags between her body and the mattress.

Tied spreadeagled as she was, there was no way for her to close her legs or cover her private areas. They were on display for every one of these disgusting men to ogle, and even though she’d been so strong every other time she was in the professor’s presence, this time she couldn’t prevent a couple of tears from escaping.

Come on, Cooper. What are you waiting for?

Smiling in delight at her tears, Professor Mahmoud cupped her center, one of his fingers forcing its way inside her body. He added another, and then another, tearing at her dry skin as he laughed at her vain attempts at expelling him from her body.

“I hear being raped to death is one of the most horrific ways a woman can go,” he said, then crushed his lips to hers in a bruising kiss.

They were both breathing hard when he pulled back, although for very different reasons. While he might be turned on, she was one step away from a full-on panic attack.

“We’ll be back, Ms. Purcell. We must go and pray before we come back and enjoy your body.”

The men trailed after him as he left the room, and Willow just lay there, frozen in terror.

Cooper had to be close by, she got that he and his brothers hadn't been able to follow the van close enough that they’d be spotted, but she’d been there several minutes now, they had to be outside.

The problem was, if she waited for them to rescue her it might be too late.

She had no idea what was involved in this prayer time the professor and his men were going to engage in, but she’d seen the hunger in their eyes and knew it wasn't going to last long. They were eager to get to work violating her body, and tied up as she was, she couldn’t stop them.

Waiting wasn't an option.

She had to take charge of her own fate.

Tugging on the tape that was wrapped around her wrists and ankles, binding her to the bedposts, she tested its strength. It hadn't been wound too tight, and there was a chance she might, given enough time, be able to work herself free.

Time was the one thing she didn't have, though.

Then she spotted it.

The box cutter.

Lying just an inch away from her right hand. Her good hand .

How could they have been so stupid as to leave it right there?

Were they really that drunk on lust that they’d make such a potentially idiotic mistake?

Stretching her hand as far as she could, she ignored the pain in her muscles, something she was, thanks to the professor’s violent beatings, quite good at now. Her fingertips brushed across the box cutter, but not enough to get a hold of it.

Tears of frustration burned her eyes.

She had to do this.

Flat out.

There was no other option.

There were a thousand reasons why Cooper and his brothers hadn't stormed the house already, but whatever they were, if she just lay there and waited for them it would be too late for her. That she was certain of.

If she wanted to live, she had to fight for herself, same way she always had to.

And she did want to live.

For whatever reason Cooper wasn't already there by her side, it wasn't because he didn't want to be, that she knew for sure.

Trying again, she strained as hard as she could, pulling on the tape, and it gave just a little. Enough that her fingers were able to scoop the box cutter off the mattress and into her hand.

There was no time to enjoy her brief victory, she was still nowhere close to being free.

Sawing at the tape was awkward and the blade slipped, cutting her skin more times than she could count.

But Willow didn't give up.

She couldn’t.

Relief had her crying out when she finally cut through the tape enough that her arm came free. It felt heavy, blood flow returning slowly, but there was no time to wait and nurse it. She had to keep moving.

Reaching across her body, Willow made quicker work of sawing through the tape on her left arm. Once it was free she sat up. Her head spun, the room along with it, but she blinked away the fuzziness and went to work on her ankles .

Slippery with her blood, the box cutter continued to slide between her fingers, adding more tiny wounds to her already battered body.

Determination was the only thing keeping her moving, and it paid off when the last bit of tape came free.

Shoving off the bed, Willow wavered for a moment and then ran to the window, searching the area outside for any signs of Cooper and his brothers.

She found none.

Maybe they were around the other side of the building.

Wherever the house was that she’d been brought to, there were other houses around so the guys would have been able to follow more easily without fear of being spotted. They had to be out there, just plotting the best way to get inside, get her out alive, and the professor and his men caught or killed.

There was a smaller building not far from the room she’d been left in, if she could get to it, she could hide in there until she spotted one of the guys.

Thankful she was on the ground floor. Willow eased the window open and climbed out.

Unfortunately, that was where her luck ended.

Just as she started creeping toward the small building, she spotted Professor Mahmoud and his men praying to their god on their knees in the sunshine.

Of course, it was too much to hope that they wouldn't spot her.

They did, and as she broke into a run, she heard feet pounding the ground behind her.

“Going somewhere?” the professor growled as an arm wrapped around her neck, yanking her backward and pinning her in place as something cold touched her temple. Willow didn't have to look at it to know it was the barrel of a gun.

So close yet so very far.