Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
July 15 th
11:46 A.M.
Never, no matter how long he lived, would Cooper ever forget the sight of a weapon held against the temple of the woman he was falling for.
Ever.
That image was burned into his mind’s eye for all eternity.
Now he reached Willow’s side just as her knees buckled and she dropped.
Thankfully, he was close enough to catch her before she hit the ground, and quickly swung her into his arms.
Just when he thought he couldn’t be any more impressed with his girl, she decided she had to one up herself. Willow had saved herself. She’d set up Mahmoud to be distracted for a split second and then struck when the opportunity presented itself.
She was everything.
The words she’d spoken just before she struck the professor hadn't sunk in yet, but they would. There would be time to be horrified and devastated by what his mother had gone through, there would be time to figure out how that played into what had happened to her and who had set her up to take the fall.
But that time wasn't now.
This time was to take care of the precious bundle he cradled in his arms.
“Mahmoud is bleeding out, no way to save him,” Cole said from where he was crouched beside the dying man. There was a hint of frustration in his little brother’s voice that Cooper knew had nothing to do with Willow saving herself by killing the professor, and everything to do with the fact that they now had more questions than ever and no way to get any answers. Professor Tarek Mahmoud had held the answers they sought in the palm of his hand, but those answers were going to die along with him.
“Good riddance,” Connor snarled, glowering down at the professor, whose hands had fallen by his sides and who’s eyes were taking on the glassy, empty look of death.
“Wish we could have gotten names out of him, but that’s one hell of a woman you have there,” Jax said, shooting an appreciative smile Willow’s way.
“She hurt?” Cole asked as he straightened and came to touch his fingertips to Willow’s neck.
“There’s blood all over her, but I think most of it is Mahmoud’s. There was some blood on her fingers before she stabbed the professor,” Cooper replied. There were still scraps of duct tape wrapped around her wrists and ankles as well, and since she was naked, he could see dozens of small wounds dotted around the tape, probably caused when she cut herself free.
Naked.
That hadn't even hit him yet.
He’d been too focused on the gun at her head.
“Here.”
Looking over his shoulder, Cooper saw Cade approaching with a blanket in his arms. While the rest of them had been standing around watching the professor bleed out, his big brother must have returned to the car and retrieved the blanket to wrap Willow in. Why was he not surprised that of all of them, Cade was the one to note this seemingly small thing but one that would be huge to Willow, and take steps to rectify it?
Cade was always taking care of all of them, he just did it with a perpetual scowl on his face.
“Her hands are a mess, and I’ll have to check them out more closely when I clean them, but nothing looks too deep,” Cole pronounced as he set Willow’s hands on her stomach.
“We need to decide how we’re going to handle the fallout,” Jake reminded them all. “We’re here with Prey’s blessing but still have a dead world-renowned Egyptologist. Are we going to take responsibility for the kill? Willow’s article hasn’t run yet, and I’m sure she’s going to want to include everything that he did to her in it.”
“She’ll keep our names out if we want her to,” Cooper immediately interjected. None of them would stand in the way of everything Willow had achieved, she deserved to take all the credit, but he knew she’d also respect whatever they decided.
“Never doubted she would,” Jake assured him. “I was just thinking it could work to our advantage to have it known that we’re onto whoever Mahmoud was working with. If we claim involvement in what went down then we make it harder for them to try to take us out because it would paint too big a bullseye on them, draw too much attention their way. At the same time, it would make them nervous, maybe make them slip up. Could be the only way to get the answers we all need.”
That all made sense, and Cooper knew they were going to have to sit down and talk about all of it.
But not now.
Now he had to focus on Willow.
“I’m fine with whatever you guys choose. Right now, I just want to get Willow home,” he told his brothers as he started walking toward the vehicle.
Priorities.
The word had been echoing in his mind from the moment he stepped foot in Egypt. When he’d come there it was for the express purpose of getting whatever intel he could out of Mahmoud. As soon as he’d spotted the figure draped in black sitting in the corner of the professor’s kitchen, his priorities had been torn. But as soon as he rescued Willow, and got to know her, those priorities had shifted once again.
Now they were the woman he held tight against his chest.
This was what his mom would want him to do. As much as she would be proud of all of them for fighting to clear her name—something he still intended to do—she also knew that what mattered most in life were the people you loved.
As he slid into the back seat of the SUV, Willow moaned slightly, and as he settled her on his lap her eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks. Dark bruises of exhaustion were painted under her eyes, blending in with those caused by fists. The mottled blues, blacks, greens, and yellows gave her a washed out, sickly look, and he was overcome by a need to just lock her away someplace safe for the next few months, so she had nothing to worry about but recovering and regaining her strength.
“Cooper?” she murmured, struggling to get her eyes open all the way.
“Right here, honey.” Dipping his head, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. The sight of blood on her soft skin made him nauseous and he tucked the blanket tighter around her to cover as much of it as he could.
“Professor Mahmoud … is he … dead?” she asked, finally managing to pry open her eyelids and look up at him.
“Yeah, honey, he’s dead. He can't ever hurt you again,” he assured her. While he would have settled for taking the professor into custody, would have made sure he was personally in charge of the interrogation so he got the answers on his mom his family needed, Cooper was glad things had worked out as they had. Willow deserved to be able to recover without the added weight of knowing her tormentor was still out there somewhere.
“I … killed him.” Her throat worked as she visibly swallowed down her emotions and her eyes had a sheen of tears.
“I know, honey, you were magnificent.”
His words seemed to surprise a laugh out of her and some of the horror disappeared from her gaze along with the tears swimming in those turquoise depths. “Thank you,” she murmured as she snuggled closer. “Can't seem to keep my eyes open. ”
“Then don’t, honey. Your body knows what it needs, don’t fight it. Sleep,” he urged.
“Are you … I'm not sure … what happens now?” she asked vulnerability evident in the way she kept her face tucked against his neck.
“Now, we drive to the airfield, get on a plane and fly back home. You go straight to a hospital where a doctor will check you out. You’ll take as long as it takes to allow your body and your mind to heal. And I’m guessing you write your article and show the whole world just how magnificent you are and how you singlehandedly brought down an entire terrorist cell.”
“And what about you?” she whispered.
Hooking a finger under Willow’s chin, Cooper nudged until she lifted her face and looked up at him. “I’ll be right there beside you every second.”
The anxiety melted away, and Willow gave him a small smile. “Good.”
“The only thing that changed is that I somehow respect and admire you even more,” he told her. “Unless anything has changed for you?”
Her brows knitted together. “Why would it?”
“Because I almost didn't get to you in time.” There was no way to wipe away the knowledge of what would have happened if he and his brothers hadn't shown up when they had, and he still had no idea what might have happened to her because they were delayed.
“Did you get to me as quickly as you could?”
“Damn straight.”
“Then nothing has changed for me. I just want to go home with you,” she said with a sleepy sigh as her eyes fluttered closed.
Home with you.
No words had ever sounded so perfect.
July 18 th
6:55 A.M
Today was the day.
After three days of working on her article every chance she got between doctor’s visits, debriefings with agencies where she shared everything she knew about the professor, and sleeping, today was the day her article was released into the world.
She was proud of it, not only had she managed to gather the intel she needed to ensure that the professor would have to pay for his crimes, but she’d actively participated in making him pay and managed to write an article she was pleased with. True to his word, Cooper had helped, and there was a chance she may have even been a little bossy with him while he did so.
More than that, her trip to Egypt hadn't just ticked professional goals, she’d also met the man she was already convinced she was going to spend the rest of her life with.
Right now, he was asleep beside her in his bed at his house. Since her apartment was tiny and she used it only as a base while she spent most of her time traveling and working on articles, they’d kind of set up at his place. Cooper hadn't wanted her to be alone and she wasn't all that keen on the idea of being without him anyway, so when she’d been discharged from the hospital it had felt natural to come there.
Everything with Cooper felt natural. It was like finding a piece of yourself you hadn't even realized was missing.
Just having him by her side had made these last couple of days so much easier. He’d been right there with her at the hospital while she was poked and prodded, her arm x-rayed and casted, tests and scans performed, and fluids and antibiotics pumped into her. And he’d been right there with her while she told her story over and over again, repeating everything from what first put the professor on her radar to how she’d taken his life.
Maybe that hadn't quite sunk in yet.
While she knew it was the right thing to do, it had saved her life and those of Charlie Team, it still settled uneasily in her stomach to know she had killed someone.
“You're thinking too loudly,” Cooper grumbled from beside her as he rolled her over so she was lying on top of him. “It’s too early for thinking. ”
That made her giggle. “It’s almost seven in the morning. I bet you get up hours before this to do PT.”
“No PT today though, honey, just you and me, and that means it’s too early for thinking.” His serious gray eyes looked up at her. “You doing okay? Today’s the day your article comes out.”
“I’m doing all right,” she assured him, and it was mostly true.
Willow wasn't na?ve enough to think there weren't going to be bad days coming. So far, she’d had enough to do to keep her mind occupied so it didn't wander, but sooner or later, it was bound to creep toward darker thoughts. Small, hot, dark cells, and fists and feet striking her body, all of those things would have to be processed, but for the moment, she was as good as she could be given the circumstances.
“I’m mostly talked out though,” she added. Cooper had insisted on making sure she didn't keep anything bottled up, encouraging her constantly to talk about whatever she was feeling whether it be anger, fear, helplessness, or anything else. He’d shared his own emotions with her and reminded her regularly that keeping things trapped inside would lead to problems later on.
“What do you want to do then? Want to celebrate today with a big breakfast? Or we could call my brothers and sister, see if they want to come over and hang out? We could go out and do something just for fun, or we could just stay inside and chill out, you definitely deserve that. Whatever you want, honey, today is your day.”
How she’d spend the rest of the day Willow had no idea.
What she’d spend the next hour doing she knew for sure.
“Right now, I just want you,” she said, sliding a hand between their bodies to stroke along his length. It jerked at her touch and a smile lit her lips, she loved knowing how badly Cooper wanted her because she felt the same way about him. Like she could never get enough of him even if she spent the rest of her life in bed with him.
“Mmm, that I think we can make happen.”
Before she knew what was happening, Cooper had flipped them over so she was on her back and he was balanced on his hands, staring down at her with desire dancing in those gray eyes she found herself getting lost in every time she looked at them.
“Way too many clothes,” he teased as he pushed the T-shirt of his that she was wearing up to bare her breasts to him. Since that was all she was wearing, it gave him an unobscured view of her body.
For a moment, Willow had to fight the urge to cover it. While she wasn't self-conscious about her appearance usually, right now her body was a literal roadmap of all she’d endured. Bruises in every shade, cuts and deeper gashes, plus she’d lost a fair bit of weight over the last few weeks and her hip bones and ribs protruded in a very unattractive way.
If it wasn't for the greedy desire burning so brightly in Cooper’s eyes, she would have covered it. Instead, all she could do was watch in wonder as he kissed his way down her chest, pausing to feather the lightest of kisses to her nipples, making them both pebble. When he got to the apex of her thighs, Willow pressed them together.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” she said shyly. While she’d had her share of sexual partners over the years, she hadn't been invested in any of those relationships and she’d never pushed any of those men to give her more than reasonably good sex. She certainly hadn't pushed for foreplay, and they hadn't offered.
“Oh, honey, I want to,” Cooper assured her, nudging her legs apart.
When she stopped fighting against it, he hooked his hands under her knees and lifted them, bending them over his shoulders so she was completely spread open for him.
There was no room for embarrassment when he looked at her like he couldn’t get enough of her, and when that first stroke of his tongue slid along her center, Willow forgot how to think altogether.
All she could do was feel.
Each swipe of his magic tongue, the vibration of his lips as he moaned when he took her already trembling bud into his mouth and suckled on it.
A finger slid inside her, then another, and a third, filling her almost as delightfully full as his erection would have. Those fingers stroked relentlessly, hitting that spot inside her with each thrust.
Sensations built.
Quicker than she was prepared for.
They swelled inside her, reaching out to claim every cell of her body.
Then when his teeth scraped across her bundle of nerves as he sucked hard and stroked deep with his fingers, she detonated.
White stars burst behind her closed lids, and she screamed Cooper’s name at the top of her lungs.
There was no time to recover from the all-consuming orgasm because Cooper was moving up her body, and thrusting inside her. He set a fast, almost desperate pace, and all Willow could do was hold on and go along for the ride.
His mouth found hers, his fingers slipped between them to work her overstimulated bud, pushing her quickly toward a second orgasm.
This time when it hit, she wasn't riding that wave alone.
Cooper was right there with her.
They clung to one another as pleasure zinged along their every nerve ending, and Willow loved every single second of it.
For so long she’d been all alone. One person’s desire to make a name for themselves had changed the entire course of her life. The last twenty years she’d thought all those changes had been for the worse. She’d lost her dad in the most horrific of ways, and then her mom to grief and guilt. While she enjoyed her career, it probably wasn't what she would have chosen had her dad not been killed the way he was.
But now she felt anything other than alone.
She was one of the lucky few who managed to find their other half.
Because that is exactly what she thought she and Cooper were, two halves of the same whole. Split apart by the universe but destined to find one another.
It didn't matter that they’d found each other in the darkness, because through that battle for their lives they had forged a bond that nothing could break.
The man holding her so tenderly as he stayed buried inside her, his body warm and strong above her, his lips soft and gentle against hers, was more than she could have hoped for even if she’d been given a million wishes.