Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
July 13 th
10:03 P.M.
In his career in Delta Force and at Prey, Cooper had seen a lot of atrocities.
He’d heard the screams of the dying, stared into cold, dead eyes of evil men, and rescued children from certain death.
Nothing was harder than this.
Sitting helplessly under the clear inky sky, dotted with millions of glittering stars twinkling merrily like they weren't watching an innocent woman die.
And Willow was dying.
As much as he’d love to hang onto denial, pretend it wasn't happening, that a miracle was suddenly going to come blasting through the night, Cooper had to accept reality.
Over the last couple of hours, Willow had continued to deteriorate. Her speech had become slurred, she’d become confused and agitated, fighting against him as he tried to carry her.
By the time the sun had sunk low in the sky and then disappeared altogether, it had taken his last shreds of hope along with it. Acceptance had sunk in and now all he could do for Willow was stay by her side, hold her head on his lap, her hands in his, and make sure she wasn't alone as she passed.
It wasn't enough.
Never in his life had he wanted to save someone as badly as he did this woman who had blasted into his life and wriggled her way under his skin with her bravery and strength. She was a fighter, and even now, she was hanging on. While her breathing was too fast, and her pulse beat a harsh staccato beat against his fingertips, each time he touched them to her wrist, she was still alive.
For now.
But would she still be alive when the sun rose again, baking them with its inescapable heat?
Cooper feared she wouldn't.
Even if she was, there was nothing else he could do for her. Unless water and shade suddenly sprung up out of nowhere, he didn't have the tools necessary to save her life. Another hour or two and even that wouldn't be enough. Once her body got past a certain point there would be no going back, even if he managed to find them a safe haven.
“Come on, Willow. Hold on for me. I know I'm asking the impossible, but I can't let you go. I need you to fight,” he pleaded as he brushed his knuckles across the hot, dry skin on her cheeks.
There was no way he wasn't going to blame himself for Willow’s death. What he could have done differently, he had no idea, nor did it matter. He’d failed her.
Bright lights suddenly broke through the darkness, and Cooper’s head snapped up.
Someone was coming.
Salvation or certain death?
Those were the only options.
It was either Tarek Mahmoud’s men who had finally managed to track them down, or a random person who could transport them to a town or village.
Carefully easing Willow’s head off his lap, he quickly moved away from her, wanting to put a bit of distance between them. If it was the professor’s men, he could always lie and say Willow had already died and he’d left her body behind. There was a chance they’d search the area anyway, and even if they believed him and only took him, it wasn't like Willow was strong enough to walk out alone. But it might give her a couple of extra hours and who knows what could happen in that time.
Knowing he could be signing his own death warrant, Cooper also knew he had no choice but to wave down the vehicle. If it was Mahmoud, then all that would happen was he’d hasten their deaths by a couple of hours, but if it was anyone else then he still had a chance to save Willow’s life.
Running toward the approaching vehicle, he shouted and waved his arms, praying that he wasn't making a mistake.
The vehicle slowed, it was make-it-or-break-it time.
Body tense, weak as he was, mouth dry as the sand surrounding them, sunburn on his exposed skin, dying for a drink of water, the beginnings of muscle cramps hindering him, Cooper was ready to pounce if these were Mahmoud’s men.
No way would he go down without a fight.
“Coop?”
His twin brother’s voice was the last thing he expected to hear in the vast desert.
“Connor?” he asked, barely able to believe what he was hearing. Was this the equivalent of a mirage? Was he losing it, too?
More figures climbed out of the vehicle. He recognized every single one of them. Connor, Cade, Cole, Jax, and Jake. His brothers. His team. Here. In Egypt.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, frozen in shock.
“Jumped on a plane when you didn't check in yesterday,” Cade explained.
Yesterday?
Was it really only a little over twenty-four hours ago that they’d been caught at the Step Pyramid in Saqqara? Forty-eight since he’d rescued Willow from that underground cell?
It felt like a lifetime.
While he wanted to know how his brothers had found him, it wasn't what was most important right now .
“Willow,” he said, turning and running back toward where he’d left her. His knees hit the sand beside her and his hand immediately reached for her neck. Relief slammed through him as her rapid pulse thumped against his fingertips.
Still alive.
He hadn't lost her yet, and now he actually had a chance of saving her life.
There was no need to make sure his brothers had followed him, he knew they would. Knew they had his back. Hell, they’d jumped on a plane and managed to track him down in Egypt.
“What happened?” Cole asked as he knelt beside Willow and immediately reached for her wrist to check her pulse. Cole was a medic, and never traveled anywhere without a fully stocked first aid kit.
“What didn't,” he said wearily. “We got caught by Mahmoud’s men. They took us to a warehouse and broke Willow’s finger when she wouldn't give them what they wanted. They were transporting us on a helicopter to meet with Mahmoud who was going to kill us.”
“Tell me you didn't,” Cade said, voice tight.
“I did.”
“You crashed a helicopter?” Jax asked incredulously.
“Well, it wasn't on purpose, but it did get us away from them. Willow is suffering from dehydration and heat stroke.” His voice had a pleading quality that he knew his brothers wouldn't have missed. But thankfully no one called him on it.
“How long as she been unconscious?” Cole asked as he began to rifle through his medkit.
“She’d been fading all day, but she passed out about an hour or so ago, hardly stirred since,” he answered as he reached out to grab Willow’s good hand, clutching it tightly between his.
“We have to get her temperature down,” Cole said. “Get all the water we have in the truck,” he ordered the others.
While Connor, Cade, Jake, and Jax ran off to do as Cole ordered, Cooper stared helplessly at his little brother. “Tell me it’s not too late,” he begged.
Cole’s dark eyes met his, the truth was plainly written in them. “We’ll do everything we can for her, okay? ”
Cooper nodded because what else was there to say?
Help had arrived in enough time to save him, but maybe not to save Willow.
“Let’s strip her clothes off,” Cole said, but sat back and allowed Cooper to be the one to remove the long-sleeve T-shirt and jeans he’d bought for her, baring her pale, bruised skin to the moonlight.
His brother’s jaw tightened as he took in the bruises littering almost every inch of Willow’s body. “She went through hell,” he snarled.
“She did.”
“She survived it. She’s a fighter,” Cole added as he pulled out an IV kit and started setting it up. “We’re going to pump fluids into her and get her temperature down. Start washing her down,” he ordered as the guys returned with several bottles of water. “Don’t worry about saving any, we can get more when we get to a motel. I’m giving her fluids intravenously, so keep a bottle or two for Cooper, the rest is best used to cool Willow down.”
“We’ve got icepacks in here, too,” Jake said.
“Neck, groin, and armpits for those,” Cole ordered. “You, drink first.” His little brother pointed a finger at him then the bottle of water he’d just set down on the sand beside him.
“Willow needs?—”
“Willow is getting what she needs,” Cole countered. “Right now, you're also dehydrated and need water. Just because it hasn’t progressed as quickly doesn’t mean you aren't also in the early stages of heat exhaustion. Rest. Drink. Trust your team to have your back and hers.”
Trust wasn't the problem right now.
There was nobody in the world he trusted more than his brothers and stepbrothers—and his little sister, but right now Cassandra was safe at home—but they weren't miracle workers, and in the last forty-eight hours Willow had become important to him.
Knowing there was still a good chance he could lose her, that help had arrived too little too late, made it almost impossible to breathe.
What was he going to do if she didn't make it?
July 14 th
8:08 P.M
She was cool.
That was the first thing that struck Willow as her groggy mind swum through the thick, foggy swamp it was stuck in and back toward consciousness.
Other than one side of her body which was toasty warm, the rest of her was cool almost to the point of being too cold.
Blinking open confused eyes, it took her a moment to realize that she was no longer surrounded by endless blue sky and sand in every direction. Instead, there were walls painted a light gray, with darker gray curtains covering the windows. It was hard to tell what time it was because she couldn’t see the sky, but whenever it was and wherever she was it was a whole heck of a lot nicer than the desert had been.
Shifting slowly, Willow was pleased to see that her pain had dulled until it was more of a nuisance than anything else, and for the first time in what felt like forever she wasn't dying for a sip of water.
Where was she?
As she turned her head, she saw Cooper’s big body laid out beside her, fast asleep. He must be the source of the warmth, and she smiled as she looked at him. Peaceful for the first time since she’d met him. The gash on his head had been stitched and his face was clean, she felt clean, too, and it finally sank in that they’d been rescued.
They’d gotten their miracle.
Tears stung her eyes, and as much she wanted to wake Cooper and celebrate, he needed the rest. If he felt safe enough to go to sleep in a bed beside her then wherever they were was a secure location.
It wasn't until she realized she needed to pee that she heard hushed voices.
Panic immediately followed.
Voices meant people.
People could mean danger.
Heart racing and pulse thundering in her ears, Willow tried to reassure herself that there was no way Cooper would go to sleep if they weren't safe.
It didn't work.
Carefully, she lifted her head, wincing at the pain between her temples, even dulled it was enough to almost tear a groan from her lips. Somehow, she managed to keep it in and scanned the dim room.
There.
On the opposite side from the bed.
Men.
Five of them.
Big, scary-looking men.
They were sitting around a table and didn't appear to realize she was awake.
Did she need a weapon? Chances were there were none around and she could hardly drag Cooper out of there with her. Heck, she could barely hold her head up, she was in no condition to either run or fight.
As though sensing her growing distress, one of the men looked over at her, and her heart felt like it beat its way right out of her chest.
The man.
He looked exactly like … Cooper.
Brow furrowing in confusion, she looked beside her, but Cooper was still there, fast asleep.
There was no way he could be in two places at the same time.
Had her mind finally snapped?
Was this just all some pre-death delusion?
Rising slowly, the man held up his hands, palms out, and cautiously made his way toward the bed where she lay. Behind him the other four men also turned in her direction, and Willow whimpered and pressed herself into the pillows.
They didn't look like a delusion, and this didn't feel like some hallucination. Two of the other men also looked like Cooper and his double, who was still making his way toward her.
“Shh,” he soothed as he approached. Other than the fact that his eyes were blue instead of gray, he looked exactly like the man lying asleep beside her. “It’s okay, Willow. I'm Connor, Cooper’s twin brother. Behind me are Cade and Cole, and Jax and Jake. Did Cooper tell you who we were?”
Giving a shaky nod, her gaze darted between Connor, the others, and then Cooper. “H-how did you f-find us?”
Last she knew they’d been out in the desert, she’d been no longer able to walk, and Cooper, stubborn man that he was, had been carrying her, then everything had faded away. Try as she had she’d been unable to hold her eyes open any longer, and even though she knew that as soon as she lost consciousness that could be it for her, she might never wake up again, she hadn't been able to stop it from happening.
“Cooper’s watch has a tracker in it. We tracked it to the desert, but then lost the signal. We were driving around looking for you guys when we found Cooper waving us down,” Connor explained.
“You were lucky we found you when we did,” one of the other men told her as he also approached the bed. “I’m Cole. May I?” he asked, nodding at her arm which she now realized had an IV running from her elbow to a bag that was looped around the top of the bedpost.
Tentatively, she nodded and forced herself not to tense when he perched on the edge of the mattress beside her. Cooper’s warm body was still pressed against her side, and it was a testament to how exhausted he was that he hadn't woken yet.
“Just going to check your pulse, okay?” Cole asked, waiting until she nodded her assent before his fingertips pressed against the inside of her wrist. “You're doing better,” he told her with a smile a few seconds later.
“You guys saved me. Us,” she added, looking down at Cooper. “Thank you.”
“That’s what family is for,” Connor told her with an easy smile.
“How long have we been here?” Willow asked.
“Going on twenty-four hours since we found you two,” one of Cooper’s stepbrothers replied, only she wasn't sure which. He must have seen her confusion because he gave her a warm smile. “I'm Jax. That’s Jake,” he said, pointing to his brother.
“Twenty-four hours?” Had she been asleep that long?
“You weren't in good shape when we found you,” Cole explained. “We started cooling you down with water and got an IV with fluids going then got you into our truck. Put you in a cold bath when we got here to the motel, but it took several hours before your temperature dropped enough that I was satisfied you were going to be okay. Came pretty close to having to risk a trip to the hospital.”
“I'm glad you didn't have to, it would have put targets on all your backs.” Willow dropped her head, unable to meet their gazes any longer. “I'm sorry for almost getting Cooper killed.”
She could only imagine how much they must resent her.
If it wasn't for her, their brother would have taken the intel he got from the professor and headed safely back home to his family. Instead, he’d almost been killed several times over and they’d had to hop on a plane and fly halfway around the world to rescue him.
“Look at me.” The hard voice offered no option to disobey, and when she lifted her gaze, she found Cade’s dark eyes drilling into her. “None of that talk. It’s not your fault and you don’t apologize for someone else’s actions. You did nothing wrong. Cooper’s made it clear that you're important to him, he wouldn't let himself rest until we knew you were out of danger. If you're important to him then you're important to every single one of us. Got it?”
Sure her mouth was hanging open in shock and she was staring at him with wide eyes, Willow found she couldn’t do anything else but nod.
When she looked around at the other men, she found they were all nodding in agreement, and she couldn’t help but feel she’d just kind of been adopted into this family she didn't know just because of a man she’d known a couple of days.
“Is Cooper okay?” she asked, looking down at his still sleeping form.
“Better than you,” Cole answered. “Nothing broken, a couple of cuts that needed stitches. In addition to the dehydration and heat stroke, I stitched your head and another few cuts I was worried about. Strapped your arm which is almost definitely broken, and splinted your finger. Cheekbone is also broken and I'm pretty sure you have at least a couple of cracked ribs. You also have more bruises than I've ever seen on a person before.”
“Professor Mahmoud liked having his own personal punching bag,” she said softly.
The protective energy in the room surged, and despite everything, Willow chuckled as she looked at the big, burly men surrounding her who looked like they’d give anything to get their hands on the professor.
“Umm, this is a little embarrassing, but I have to pee,” she announced.
Cole grinned at her. “Music to my ears. Means your body is hydrated again. After you go, we can take the IV out.”
Disconnecting it from the port in her arm, he helped her swing her legs over the edge of the bed and kept a steadying hand on her arm until the spinning in her head stilled enough that she wasn't going to fall over.
As she hobbled into the bathroom, Willow wondered what happened when they got home. She and Cooper had admitted there were feelings there, but that didn't mean they would work out. What if once the adrenalin was gone, and they were no longer in danger and running for their lives, he decided he was no longer interested in her? What if he was just one of those guys who had a savior complex and once she didn't need saving anymore she lost her appeal?