Page 66 of No Promises, No Lies

My forgotten phone rings, the vibrations shattering the quiet, and I curse, fumbling with the device, scrambling to silence the call. Even on vibrate, the sound seems so loud. I hold my breath once I’ve silenced it, waiting to see if anyone else heard it…

They’re still loudly working on breaking down the door. And by the sounds of splintering wood—they’re almost through.

My phone is still in my hands when it goes off again, and I stare blankly at the device. An unknown number appears on the screen.

Carefully, I slide my thumb across the screen to answer the call, eyeing the hall door through the crack in the closet as I do. “Aidan?” I whisper as loudly as I dare.

It’s him alright. Aidan’s voice blasts through the speaker,“Kostalova, why the fuck didn’t you text me when you got home? I told you?—”

I swallow hard, only half listening to him rage on the other end, the crashing sounds coming from my room distracting me… they’ve broken through. For once, Aidan isn’t my biggest problem.

“You better have a damn good reason for not sending that text, love, or trust me when I say there will be consequences.”

Despite everything going on, my stomach does a flip at the thought of what Aidan’sconsequencesmight be… Just then,something crashes hard against the wall at my back. My muscles lock up, tense and rigid. Shouts in Russian come through the wall and the crashing sounds intensify as furniture and other debris fly around the room as they search for me. I choke out a sob, slamming my hand over my mouth to keep quiet.

There’s silence on the other end of the phone.

“Rory?” The sharpness of Aidan’s voice refocuses my attention, and I remember I’m on the phone.

“There’s someone in the house,” I get out, hoping he can decipher my terrified whispers.

His voice cools to something frigid, “Who?”

“I don’t know I?—”

“Your father’s men?”

I shake my head before remembering he can’t see me. “No,” I answer him, “I-I heard them mention Volkov…”

Aidan curses.

“Aurora, come out, come out wherever you are,” Ivan sings through the wall and my breath catches. Something else crashes down hard in my room, sounding an awful lot like my bookshelf collapsing.

Aidan’s quiet for a moment and I check my phone to see if he hung up, but the screen still shows us connected. “Aidan?” I whisper, panic in my voice, though I don’t know what I expect him to do about it. Hell, he’s probably enjoying this, putting me on speaker for the O’Rourke clan to hear.

“Where are you?”

I stumble over my words, trembling at the sounds of boots in the hallway. “Hiding. In one of the guest room closets…”

“Don’t let them find you.”The line goes dead and I stare down at the phone…

He hung up.

My fingers tighten around the phone.

He hung up on me…I can’t believe he hung up on me.

With the Russians tearing through the bathroom across the hall, I regroup, scrolling through my contacts until I find my brother’s name. Niko’s phone goes right to voicemail.No, no, no…I go back through my contacts, but there’s no one else… and so I try Niko again.

By now, Ivan and his men have left my bedroom. A couple of them thud back down the stairs, but at least two stay back, searching the other rooms.

Someone pushes the guest room door open and I hold my breath. My finger slides across the red bar, ending my call. My body trembles with adrenaline. I don’t dare move as he enters the room and looks around. “I know you’re in here, doll,” Ivan’s voice croons.

My mind races to come up with a plan, any plan, but before I can come up with anything, a shadow blocks out the light illuminating the closet.

“Found you,” The Russian sneers, wrenching open the closet door and dragging me out by my hair.

“Let me go!” I struggle against him, but he’s got a solid grip and tears stream down my face from the burn in my scalp. He shoves me toward the bed, thankfully releasing my hair, but there’s nowhere to go—nowhere to run. He’s got me cornered.

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