Page 108 of Code of Heart
Gripping them tightly, Owen met both Levi’s and Isaac’s eyes. “Let’s get our girl.”
The car tore through the city at a reckless pace, the screech of tires and roar of the engine doing little to distract Levi from the storm raging in his mind.
Owen had already explained an abridged version of what he knew. The tracking device he planted in Aurelia’s phone a month ago. His growing suspicions about Selene. His unease over the entire situation.
Isaac, pale and visibly rattled, sat in the back seat, his face etched with worry.
“I have to ask,” Isaac leaned forward between the seats. “Is she the only one, or do all of us have trackers in our phones?”
Owen lifted a single eyebrow at him through the rearview mirror.
Isaac slumped back against the leather seat, muttering under his breath, “Wow.”
“We’re almost there,” Owen began, his voice tight. “Here’s the plan—”
Levi didn’t hear a single word of it.
His world had stopped the moment Owen confirmed Aurelia’s phone was at the Terra Nova Hotel…and she hadn’t arrived there alone.
He didn’t hear the part about Owen still digging through Aurelia’s background. Or the concern about prior police reports of domestic violence from her past relationship with a man named Kyle Morris.
He didn’t hear that there had been a temporary restraining order, forgetting when Aurelia had shared bits and pieces of this part of her life over dinner.
Or that hotel security had confirmed through surveillance footage that she had entered room 415, heavily leaning against the man who took her there.
All Levi could see were flashes of every betrayal he had ever suffered. Every woman who had left him. Every compromising position he had been subjected to viewing. He tried to stop it and focus on the present, but he couldn’t prevent the onslaught of memories.
Because this time was worse.
Because this time, he had fallen in love with his wife.
And tonight, she inherited millions of dollars and left with another man.
What does she need me for now?
The looming silhouette of the Terra Nova Hotel rose before them like a cruel mirage. A beacon promising answers Levi wasn’t sure he could survive.
Isaac and Owen exchanged tense looks, reading Levi’s stiff posture and barely controlled fury as he climbed out of the car and strode toward the hotel.
He didn’t wait for them.
Didn’t even remember his friends were there.
He powered toward the entrance alone and ready to face whatever truth waited for him on the other side.
CHAPTER 47
Aurelia
Aurelia had been awake for a while, though she was unsure exactly how long.
She hadn’t dared move a muscle, feigning sleep and just listening.Her survival depended on it.
That voice—the one from her nightmares—was here. In the room.
She lay on her stomach in an unfamiliar bed, her head turned to the side, tangled hair spilling across her face. Completely naked under the covers. But it was the pain—the blinding, all-consuming pain—that held her attention.
It took every shred of willpower not to cry out. Even breathing was excruciating.
