Page 35 of No Promises, No Lies

I smile.

Rory takes off into the living room, circling around the couch. I take a shortcut, jumping clear over the sectional to land behind her, tackling her to the ground.

We fight for a minute as I struggle to get her under control. She rolls onto her back, clawing at my face, eyes, anything she can reach. I pin her hips down under mine. It’s already over, but it takes another couple of seconds for me to pin her wrists down over her head.Her chest heaves as she stills, recognizing defeat.

Koen and Alex move so they’re behind me. Liam must be keeping Reagan in the kitchen, tucked safely away from the drama unfolding in the living room.

“You told him,” she bites out. Her words are directed behind me at Alex, dripping with betrayal. Her eyes smolder like a storm at sea.

My friend’s jaw tightens, but he says nothing.

“Cuff her,” I order.

Koen hands cuffs to Alex, who bends down and slips the metal bracelets around Rory’s wrists while she shoots him daggers with her eyes. He finishes binding her hands together and steps back. Watching me. I’ve known Alex my entire life. He’s one of us, an O’Rourke—unofficially. He trusts me with whatever I decide to do, but—there’s a wariness in his dark eyes.

Fuck, he cares about her.

I take hold of the chain linking the metal cuffs and drag the girl up so she’s on her knees. She tries to stand up, but I push her back down with a warning glare.

No wonder she looks so familiar. It wasn’t just that I’d seen her around the rink a time or two. She’s the spitting image of Nikolai Kostalov.Herbrother.

They could be twins. Hell, maybe they are.

I take my gun out and push it into her forehead. She glowers at me.

The balls on this one.

“No. More. Lies,” I growl out, tapping her head with my gun with each syllable. I drag the gun down the side of her cheek, the cold metal lifting her chin before I drag the barrel across her lips. Momentarily distracted when the tip of the gun parts them.

“Give me one reason I shouldn’t put a bullet in you right now…” I grip her chin roughly with my other hand, forcing her gaze to stay on mine when she tries to look away. “…send your little Russian head in a box to your father with a pretty bow on top?”

This fucking girl looks me right in the eye when she says…

“I can’t.”

Her response pisses me off. I haul her up. Slinging her over my shoulder, and I storm down the hall to the bedrooms.

Her legs kick furiously, and she beats my back with her cuffed hands. Screaming the whole way. The noise isn’t a problem; we own this entire building. It’s not like anyone can hear her, but it doesn’t mean the sound doesn’t go right through me.

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” I smack her ass with my gun. It stuns her enough into blessed silence.

We enter the guest room I had her in, and I toss her onto the bed, her body rigid.

She was right to be wary about this bed. I’m on her before she realizes, holding her body down again with my hips, ignoring the hits she gets in with her bound hands. They bounce off my hard chest, and I laugh as I reach up and pull out the chains tucked between the headboard and the mattress, a leather cuff attached to the end of each one.

She’s a whimpering mess now as I pin her hands over her head, releasing one wrist only to secure it to the bed.

“Please, you don’t have to do this.”

I ignore her, taking her second wrist and pulling it to the other side. She’s stopped fighting me. Probably realized she’s going to end up exactly how I want her, no matter how much she fights or begs.

I step back to admire my handiwork as soon as her second wrist is secured. She tests the new restraints. Her fingers curl around the metal chains attached to the leather cuffs on her wrists.

“Now here’s how this is going to go,” I begin, lightly pacing the room. “I’m going to ask you questions, and you’re going to give me some fucking answers. Or Ipromiseyou, things are going to get a whole lot worse for you around here.” I turn mydark gaze on her and she shrinks further back into the mattress. “And God-fucking-help you if you lie to me. Got it?”

When she only stares back at me, I repeat my question, louder this time, “I can’t hear you, little lion, I said, do you understand?”

She bites her lip before she nods her head. “Got it,” she replies weakly.

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