Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
July 15 th
11:38 A.M.
Seconds had never felt so long in his life.
They literally felt like eternities.
Every single one of them.
Sixty in just one minute.
Minute after minute.
It was over an hour since the tracker Willow was wearing began to move faster indicating she was no longer walking but now in a vehicle, and Cooper was more than ready to lose his mind.
The only thing keeping him clinging to sanity was the knowledge that Willow needed him.
Needed him to be not just in the game but at the top of his game. Anything less and she might not walk out of this alive.
If she even was still alive.
No.
He couldn’t let himself think that.
Surely the delay of moving those cows out of the way wasn't enough that they’d lost their window of opportunity. Mahmoud wanted Willow dead, but not to the extent that he wasn't going to taunt her first. He thought he’d won, and he was going to make sure he rubbed that in her face before no doubt inflicting a long, slow, painful death on her.
Hold on, honey. I'm coming.
Please, baby, hang on.
Fear like this was crippling, and his hands were physically shaking as he followed his brothers.
The house where Willow’s tracker indicated that she was being held was in a small community. There were other houses within eyesight of it which meant it was easier for them to approach without being immediately noticeable. But on the other hand, it meant that a shootout was going to draw unnecessary attention.
Attention that could wind up slowing them down and getting Willow hurt.
It wasn't until they scaled a fence, and his feet landed on the ground inside the property where Willow had been brought that Cooper finally felt a sense of calm settle over him. This was what he knew how to do. What he was good at. The stakes may be higher than they’d ever been before but that just meant there was zero room for error.
Almost there, Willow.
Hold on just a little longer for me.
Out on a small patch of lawn were around a dozen men. They were all down on their knees, and from the looks of it they appeared to be praying.
What did that mean?
Good news for Willow or bad?
Cooper wished he could at least lay eyes on her. Then he’d be able to reassure himself that he hadn't failed, that he wasn't too late, that she was still alive, and he could do what he’d promised her he’d do.
Because if he did fail, if that small delay had cost Willow her life, he didn't think he’d ever be able to move forward. Willow had never had anyone in her life to watch out for her since she was an eight-year-old little girl, and she’d watched in horror as her father was beaten to death right in front of her for crimes he hadn't committed.
“Cooper, you get inside the house, find Willow. The rest of us will take out the men,” Cade’s voice came softly through the comms. His older brother was a natural born leader, and it was only because Cade had a little girl at home that he wasn't Charlie Team’s leader. When they’d all agreed to join Prey about three years ago, Cade turned down Eagle’s offer for team leader and instead suggested Cooper fill the role. He’d always been proud his big brother had thought this was a job he could handle, and he’d done his best to lead the team the way Cade would have.
But today he was happy to allow Cade to take over.
His nerves could not handle the additional responsibility when his entire being was screeching at him constantly to get to Willow.
Diverting away from the others, while they headed to the front of the building where the men were, Cooper headed to the back. The house was quiet, too quiet as he approached it. The backdoor stood wide open and much like the house where he’d first spotted Willow huddled in a corner, a kitchen took up the majority of the back end of the building.
The kitchen was empty, so he crept through it and began to clear the other rooms on the ground floor. While he would have loved to have flown the drones they had with them, gather more intel without revealing their presence, the fact that they’d been delayed had changed everything. They no longer had the luxury of staying hidden while they confirmed Professor Mahmoud was there, they had to act now or risk being too late to save Willow and possibly too late to capture Mahmoud before he went to ground and was never spotted again.
Holding it together well considering the circumstances, that all fell away when Cooper entered a smaller room off the wide hallway toward the front of the house.
That’s when he lost it.
The room was mostly empty other than a bed and a dresser.
Lying on the bed were clothes.
Willow’s clothes.
The ones she’d been wearing when they were caught and crashed the helicopter to escape.
The ones she’d put back on this morning when they’d prepared to drop her off and use her as bait.
Now they lay on the mattress, cut to pieces.
A roar echoed inside his head, and for a moment, Cooper wondered if he’d just cost all of them their lives by screaming out loud. Then he realized the agonized howl was trapped inside his mind.
Willow had been there.
They’d stripped her naked while she was bound to the bed if the scraps of duct tape left on the bedposts were anything to go by.
She’d been there but where was she now?
Was she already dead? Was that why the men were outside? Were they having some sort of celebration that they’d killed one of their enemies?
He’d been so sure that whatever Mahmoud had planned for Willow would take time, but obviously he’d been wrong.
He should have trusted his gut. It had been screaming at him that Willow playing bait was too dangerous, and all morning he’d known that something was wrong. He’d allowed himself to be talked out of listening to his instincts because everyone believed those instincts were compromised by his feelings for Willow.
Attention drawn to the commotion happening outside, Cooper moved to the window, saw it was open, and a tiny tendril of hope lit inside him.
Was it possible Willow had been the one to open it?
All the other windows in the house were closed except this one. Could she have escaped?
Renewed by hope, Cooper jumped out it and once he’d gone a few yards forward he could see his brothers fighting the men who had been praying. In an attempt not to alert everyone in the area with gunfire, his brothers were using a combination of their hands and knives to eliminate each threat.
Desperate for answers, Cooper rushed into the fray, grabbing the closest man still standing and slamming him down to the ground, holding the blade of his K-Bar to the man’s neck.
“Where’s Willow?” he growled, low and dangerous.
The man sputtered but stared defiantly up at him.
Everything around him faded away.
He would get answers, no matter what it took .
Pressing the blade just deep enough to draw blood, he repeated his question. “I know she was here, where’s Willow?”
The man swallowed hard, forcing his neck deeper into the blade. “I … she …”
“She what?” he roared.
“We … the professor … he promised us …”
“Promised you what?”
“That we could share her,” the man blurted out. “That we could use her however we wanted until she died.”
Time felt like it stopped.
Horror burned inside him.
Of all the deaths he’d pictured over the last few hours, Willow being raped to death hadn't been one of them.
Something had happened though. Because Willow was no longer in the bed where the men had put her. She had to have gotten free somehow, so where was she? And where was Mahmoud? He wasn't there with the others.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
“She escaped. Came out the window. The professor went after her, told us to keep praying, we need to give thanks that God handed our enemy over to us, give thanks that he would allow us to touch her without becoming dirty because she is a sacrifice to our god,” the man babbled as tears streaked down his cheeks. Not really a man, more like a kid, he couldn’t be more than early twenties if that, maybe even late teens.
Not that the kid’s age would give Cooper even an ounce of guilt over what he was about to do.
Plunging the blade of his knife deep into the man’s neck, he yanked it free as he stood, his attention already moved on from the kid who would have participated in raping his woman until she bled out and died.
Around him was a sea of dead bodies, but the two people he wanted to find were nowhere to be seen.
“We’ll find them,” Jax assured him.
“They can't have gone far,” Cole added.
Scanning the area, Cooper tried to go slow when all he wanted to do was spin in wild circles and run and scream Willow’s name until he got a response.
There.
Over by a small outbuilding.
Movement.
Trusting his team to have his back, he took off toward the small building.
As he got closer, his heart dropped.
Hidden between a tree and the side of the building were Willow and Tarek Mahmoud. The man had her pressed against his body, using her as a human shield, with a weapon held to her temple.
July 15 th
11:42 A.M
Everything was happening too fast.
Her already aching head was spinning.
All Willow needed was a moment to gather her thoughts, pull herself together, and figure out a way that they all made it out of this alive, but she didn't have that luxury.
Just as Professor Mahmoud had grabbed her, shoving a gun against her temple and telling his men to get back to praying, a commotion had broken out behind them. Like the true coward he was, the professor hadn't rushed forward to help his men, instead, he’d pulled further back into hiding, taking her along with him.
As much as she wanted to call out, because Willow knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was Cooper and his brothers out there, doing what they did best, she was afraid to make any move that would put them any more at risk. They were outnumbered, and while she was confident they would still come out on top, she wasn't going to make it harder for them.
Besides, she was confident of something else, too.
While Professor Mahmoud badly wanted her to die as punishment for trying to take him down, he also wanted to live.
She was his best bet at walking out alive. Although she trusted the guys to do what they knew how to do, and knew they would never allow the professor to walk out with her, Willow also knew if it came down to it, she would sacrifice her life if it meant that Professor Mahmoud also lost his.
Cooper’s voice wafted over to her before she saw him.
She heard him order someone to tell him where she was, and it took all her willpower not to call out to him.
The weapon that pressed to her temple was motivation enough to keep silent.
If she wanted this to work out the way it should, she had to play this smart, not allow her fear to make her impulsive. She was sure a moment would come, but she had to wait for it. Right now wasn't that moment.
Footsteps pounded across the ground and then a moment later she looked into those stormy gray eyes that had become her anchor.
Cooper was there.
Her world settled.
Everything was going to be okay so long as he was with her.
“It’s over, Mahmoud,” Cooper said, his weapon trained on the man cowering behind her, using her as a human shield in an attempt to save himself.
Behind Cooper, she could see all of his brothers. They all wore fierce expressions, but there was a confidence in their eyes that she could feel was lacking in the professor. They knew what they were doing, they had done this kind of thing dozens of times before. Professor Mahmoud, on the other hand, was used to convincing young men that their purpose was to fight against their country and destroy it. Something he did from the safety of his university world, this was all foreign to him and she knew he knew it, too.
“Your men are all dead,” Cooper continued, taking another step closer, his weapon never wavering. “There’s no one coming to help you. Put down the weapon and let her go.”
“If I let her go you shoot me,” Professor Mahmoud said. While his voice wobbled, the weapon pressed against her temple remained steady .
“Trust me, knowing what you did to her while you were holding her captive, and knowing what you were going to do to her if we hadn't shown up, there is nothing that would make me happier than shooting you and watching you bleed out slowly. But in the end, all I want is for you to pay for what you did, and if that means you sitting in a prison cell for the rest of your life then I'm up for that as well.”
“I’m not going to prison,” Professor Mahmoud shouted like he had more than two options.
“Well then, pick the body bag. Personally, I don’t care either way, but one thing is for certain,” Cooper said, his voice dark and menacing, “you are not walking out of here with my girl, so make your choice.”
“I-I have to g-get away,” Professor Mahmoud wailed, and for the first time the weapon held to her head began to waver just the tiniest bit.
All Willow needed was one little chance.
In her hand, she still held the box cutter. She was not stupid enough, even in the haze of fear, to put down a weapon and leave it behind. If the gun moved away from her temple, even just an inch, she could use the box cutter to get the professor to loosen his hold on her.
Then all she had to do was drop to the ground and let Cooper and his brothers do their thing.
“Why do you have to get away, Tarek?” Cooper asked, a measure of calm to his voice she knew he wasn't feeling because she could see the anger and terror for her raging in his eyes.
“Because otherwise they’ll kill me,” the professor mumbled.
“Who?” Cooper asked. “Who will kill you?”
“It wasn't supposed to go this way,” Professor Mahmoud keened, ignoring—or not even hearing—Cooper’s question.
“What wasn't supposed to go this way, Tarek? How was it supposed to go?” Cooper asked.
“I didn't want to reach out to you,” Professor Mahmoud babbled. “It was dangerous. Stupid. They made me. It was supposed to divert attention away from them, put it on me. I was just supposed to give you a tiny bread crumb, not enough to give you anything that you would be able to use to prove what happened to your mother. I said it was stupid. That you’d never be able to figure things out anyway, but I was outvoted.”
The professor was starting to sound panicked, and Willow got the feeling that the man was devolving. And quickly.
She needed to look for an opportunity to make her move.
Right now, Cooper was restricted in what he could do because the professor was using her as a human shield, and with the gun to her head it was too great a risk for him to try much of anything.
This was on her.
If she wanted to live to have the chance with Cooper that she so desperately wanted, she was going to have to get herself out of this mess.
“Tell me names, Tarek,” Cooper ordered in a voice that brokered no arguments.
“I can't,” Professor Mahmoud wailed. “They’ll kill me.”
“ I’ll kill you,” Cooper said matter-of-factly. “So, pick your poison. There are only three options. You do something stupid and get yourself killed right here and now, which I’ll say is my personal favorite. Or you put that weapon down and let me take you into custody. If we go that way and you’re prepared to tell everything you know, then we’ll make sure whatever prison you wind up in you're protected. Or we can take you into custody and leave you wide open to whatever attack comes from your friends.”
Behind her, Professor Mahmoud’s body began to shudder. He wasn't just afraid of whoever he’d been working for, he was flat out terrified.
She needed to amp up his fear.
Cooper and his brothers were an intimidating bunch, and right now they were the biggest threat because they were right there and itching to kill him.
If she could push him over the edge, she was sure she could get that gun away from her head long enough to act.
This was not the way she wanted to deliver this information to Cooper or his brothers, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Sending up a quick prayer for forgiveness for blindsiding the man she was falling for, Willow said the words she knew would break Cooper’s heart.
“He raped your mom, Cooper, probably with these men he’s scared of,” Willow told him as gently as she could .
The anger radiating off the six armed men staring at them flew up several dozen notches and she got exactly what she’d hoped for.
Professor Mahmoud’s shaking increased.
The pressure against her temple disappeared.
Willow’s fingers tightened around the box cutter.
Slamming the blade down, it sank into the professor’s thigh, causing him to howl as he stumbled backward, raising his weapon so it now pointed at her and the men behind her.
Still between Professor Mahmoud and Charlie Team, Willow lifted the blade again, this time plunging it down into his neck.
With a surprised gurgling sound, the professor dropped his weapon. It fell with a thud at his feet as his hands flew to the blade buried deep in his neck.
He yanked it free but that only sped up the process.
The professor sunk onto the ground.
Cooper shouted behind her.
She heard footsteps once again thundering closer.
Blackness encroached on her vision.
Overwhelmed, her mind and body had reached the end of the road.
Everything swirled around her and then disappeared altogether as unconsciousness took over.