CHAPTER 47AureliaLeviAureliaOwenIsaac #2
The second she whispered the name Kyle , it all clicked into place. Kyle Morris. The abusive bastard from the police reports, the one whose history Owen had uncovered and quietly kept an eye on. He was nothing more than a violent parasite who should have rotted behind bars years ago. And now?
Owen wasn’t leaving this hotel until Kyle was hauled out of here in handcuffs—or a body bag.
But the anger didn’t stop there.
No, the worst of it—the blackest, ugliest part of his fury—was reserved for his so-called best friend.
Levi.
The man who should have been here. The man who promised to protect her.
Instead, Levi took one look before he tucked his tail and ran. Didn’t even stop to think, didn’t let her speak, didn’t listen to him when Owen spelled it all out in the car.
He had left her bleeding, in pieces, barely conscious, and standing alone in her worst nightmare.
And that? That was something Owen wasn’t sure he could forgive.
His hands shook as he pulled out his phone and dialed for an ambulance, his voice tight but controlled as he rattled off the details. When the police arrived, he was all business, laying out exactly what had happened, his eyes burning holes in Kyle’s unconscious body as the officers cuffed him.
He stayed with Aurelia every second, his broad shoulders a silent shield as the paramedics worked, his jaw clenched so hard it ached.
When they lifted her onto the stretcher, her fragile body engulfed by the hospital blankets, Owen climbed into the ambulance without any qualms.
“She’s been drugged,” he told the paramedics grimly. “I’m absolutely confident you’ll find something in her system. Run the tox screen.”
He didn’t leave her side, not once, until the ER doors swung open for her and a nurse gently guided him to a quiet waiting room far from the chaos.
He sat there for god knows how long, unmoving, his fists clenched so severely his knuckles could have split open from how tightly his skin was stretched, his mind a whirlwind of fury and betrayal.
The phone in his pocket wouldn’t stop buzzing—Levi, over and over again.
Owen let it ring.
Let it burn.
For the first time in his life, Owen Voss didn’t have a single goddamn thing left to say to his best friend.
Isaac
Isaac stayed close behind Levi, following him down every flight of stairs from the eighth floor, all the way into the parking lot.
Levi had stormed out without a word, avoiding the elevator like it offended him.
But when Isaac stepped in front of the driver’s side door, blocking his path, that finally forced a stop.
“Get out of my way, Isaac,” Levi growled, his voice raw with fury.
“You’re in no condition to drive,” Isaac said evenly, extending his hand. “If you’re going to run, then hand over the keys and get in the passenger seat.”
Levi’s glare dropped to Isaac’s outstretched palm.
For a brief, dangerous second, Isaac saw the flicker of violence in his friend’s eyes—like Levi might shove him aside and take the wheel anyway.
But after a tense, silent moment, he ripped the keys from his pocket and slammed them into Isaac’s hand before stalking around to the passenger side and slamming the door shut.
Isaac exhaled the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and slid behind the wheel. He pulled out of the lot and drove without a destination, circling the city while waiting for Levi to break the silence, willing him to say something, anything.
But Levi sat motionless, forehead pressed to the window, fingers tangled in his hair, his reflection in the glass as lost as he felt.
Isaac’s thoughts returned to that hotel room and what he saw when the door finally swung open. At first glance, it looked bad…very bad. But the longer he stood there, the more wrong it felt in a way he couldn’t explain. When he caught Owen’s eye, the same doubt was written all over his face.
The man passed out on the bed hadn’t so much as flinched when Levi battered down the door and shouted loud enough to wake the dead. And Aurelia…
It wasn’t relief on her face when they found her. Not at first. No, there’d been raw, bone-deep fear in her eyes. Relief had only flickered through for a heartbeat—right before Levi lost control.
And lord, did he lose control. He hadn’t seen her fear. He didn’t notice her uncontrollable shaking or the unadulterated fear in her wide eyes. Owen had tried to snap him out of it, but Levi was too far gone, his emotions drowning out every rational thought.
Isaac winced, recalling the awful things Levi had said. Words so harsh they might never be forgiven. He couldn’t imagine ever saying something like that to Grace.
He kept circling back to the part that didn’t fit. He had come to learn that Aurelia wasn’t the type to do something this reckless. She had been so anxious about this event and had worked herself to exhaustion over every detail. To leave it early—and in that state? It didn’t add up.
Owen said she hadn’t touched a drink all night. Isaac couldn’t remember a single time she ever had. She had told their tight circle of friends once that she didn’t really drink. Looking back, he couldn’t recall a time she had proved that wrong.
If anything, it all felt like—
Levi’s voice cracked the silence, raw and broken. “Now what do I do?” His voice trembled. “What is it about me that’s never enough? That makes every single one of them do this?”
Isaac gripped the wheel tighter. “I can’t tell you why this keeps happening, Levi,” he said carefully. “But I think you made a mistake tonight in running before you heard her side.”
Levi snapped his head toward him, eyes blazing. “Did you not see what I saw?” His fists clenched, his whole body straining to hold himself together.
“I did. But I’m not the one drowning in it. I’m the one still thinking clearly. And Levi…a lot of things don’t add up. Owen saw it too.”
Levi’s expression twisted with mistrust. “Like what?” he spat.
Isaac calmly walked him through every detail—Aurelia’s fear, the unnatural stillness of the man on the bed, the timeline that didn’t make sense. As he spoke, Levi seemed to unravel piece by piece, his fury slowly caving under the weight of his guilt.
By the end of it, Levi sat slumped in the seat, his face pale and wrecked.
“You think I should have listened to her?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
Isaac gave a solemn nod. “What if it’s not what you think it is?”
Levi didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.
Without another word, Isaac turned the car around and headed back to the hotel. This time, Levi didn’t object, mired in his thoughts.
But when they pulled into the lot, a wall of flashing lights greeted them. Police cruisers. Two ambulances. And chaos spilling out of the hotel entrance.
They arrived in time to see paramedics rolling a stretcher toward one of the ambulances. A small, motionless figure lay beneath the blanket, colorful dark hair tangled wildly around her pale face.
Owen trailed behind the stretcher, his expression a severe mask of grim fury. When he spotted their car, his eyes locked on Levi with a glare that could have torn him apart.
Then Owen climbed into the ambulance, the doors slammed shut, and the sirens wailed into the night.