Hijacked

Chapter One

The shrill ring of the phone was impossible to ignore. Emily had just stepped out of the shower and wrapped a fluffy white towel around herself when it started. She tried block the sound out as she wrung out her long, wet hair, but after three rings she couldn't ignore the annoyingly loud sound any longer.

"Phone!" she yelled through the closed bathroom door, hoping someone in the house would hear her and pick up the call. It occurred to her that if her housemates weren't hearing the phone then they certainly couldn't hear her through a closed wooden door, but that didn't stop her from yelling to them anyway.

The phone rang again, loudly. The voicemail wouldn't pick up until the sixth ring and it had only been four.

"Ben, Kevin, phone!" she shouted as she yanked the bathroom door open and stuck her head into the hallway. The cold air made her shiver as steam from the bathroom escaped around her and billowed up towards the ceiling.

Now it was on the fifth ring, one more and the machine would finally pick up the call. With a muttered curse she left the warmth of the bathroom and hurried down the hall and into her bedroom to pick up her extension.

She hated the sound of a ringing phone. It grated on her nerves and she had to answer a call, no matter what. It was one of the reasons she still used a landline and didn't always carry her cell. Screening her calls wasn't an option for her. She never managed to let voicemail pick up before she answered.

Her wet feet slid on the hardwood floor and she clutched the towel closer around her as she rushed into her room. She almost fell on her bed as she grabbed the phone and threw her wet hair off her face as she answered the call and pressed the receiver against her ear.

"Hello?" she asked and was rewarded with a dial tone. "Hello? Hello! Of course," she muttered and cut the connection before she slammed the phone down with another curse

"Now what did that phone ever do to you?"

She turned to the source of the voice and saw Kevin, her older brother, standing in the doorway, grinning at her as he leaned against the frame. Kevin was ten years her senior, but they were as close as could be.

Kevin was thirty-four, but didn't look a day over thirty. He'd always been an exceptionally handsome man and it had seemed that for the past ten years or so he'd looked more or less the same age. He'd looked much older than his age when he was a teenager and he'd always been mistaken as being older. When he'd hit his mid-twenties it was as if he'd just stopped ageing. His face was smooth, youthful and completely unlined, and his eyes still held a twinkle of youth when he smiled.

"Didn't you hear it ringing?" she asked grumpily as she stood, making sure the towel hadn't slipped. She was freezing and she was very perturbed that she'd been forced to run out of the bathroom soaking wet in nothing but a towel, and all for a hang up. "I shouted too, did you not hear me?" She pushed her sopping hair out of her eyes and tried to glare at him, but his lazy smile was infectious and she couldn't help smiling back.

"I heard the phone, and I heard you," he said with a grin. "But I was busy."

Emily glanced over his shoulder and saw Ben, his boyfriend, walk past her door with a grin and a wave. He winked at her and lightly tapped Kevin on the butt as he passed by.

"So I see." She grinned in spite of herself and waved back before Ben disappeared down the hall.

"We could solve all of this if you just got rid of the landline. You can always put your cell on silent," he pointed out. "You can join the new age of technology along with the rest of us."

"And give my cell out to every store and online application that needs a phone number?" she said as she just gave him a look. "Yeah, not going to happen."