Billionaire's Betrayal a contracted revenge (Aurelia) novel Chapter 98

Chapter 98

Chapter 98

Rieck’s POV

54

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I couldn’t remember the last time I had stayed out this late without a reason tied to business or blood.

Aurelia sat across from me at the small corner table, candlelight flickering over the curve of her smile as she told some story about Ronan and a parking spot.

And I found myself staring at her mouth more than listening to the words.

She had changed me. I knew it the way I knew the weather was about to turn, some quiet change in the air that I couldn’t undo even if I wanted to.

Six months ago I would have called an evening like this a waste of time better spent on contracts and territory

lines.

I would have counted the minutes until I could leave, already thinking three moves ahead on some deal or dispute that no longer felt urgent at all when her voice filled the space between us.

Tonight I didn’t want it to end.

I had spent thirty years building walls around anything that might change me, learning early that softness got you killed in a world run by wolves and men who called themselves civilized while hiding worse teeth than mine.

But somewhere in the last few months, without my permission, Aurelia had found a crack in that wall and just walked through it, and I no longer had the will to fill the gap back in.

The waiter refilled our glasses and disappeared again, leaving the two of us wrapped in the low buzz of the restaurant, silverware clinking somewhere far off, the smell of good wine and roasted rosemary still lingering over the table.

Aurelia caught me staring at her and smiled, a small private smile that seemed to reach me alone, and for a moment nothing outside this table existed at all.

That was when I saw her.

A tall figure stood near the far end of the hallway, half turned away, dressed too plainly for a hotel this expensive, her face angled just enough that I couldn’t place her.

Then she was gone, slipping around the corner towards the lobby before I could get a clean look.

“Excuse me a moment,” I said, already rising from the table.

Aurelia glanced up, curious. “Where are you going?”

“I will be right back.”

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16:23 Mon, Aug 3

Chapter 98

54

55 vouchers

The lobby held nothing but a bored concierge and a handful of guests waiting near the elevators, none of them the woman I had seen.

I walked the whole of the marble floor twice, scanning every face and every exit.

I checked the side hallway near the restrooms, then the small alcove by the gift shop, then the revolving door leading out to the street, my eyes on every stranger.

Yet nothing.

Whoever she was, she had vanished, and I didn’t like how easily she had managed it in a building crawling with my own security.

I made a mental note to have Elara pull the hotel’s camera footage first thing in the morning, though something told me a woman like that would have known exactly where the cameras sat.

After a while I made my way back to the table, already forming the question I planned to ask Aurelia about anyone unusual she might have noticed near us tonight.

The chair across from mine sat empty.

My stomach twisted, cold and sudden. “Where is she?” I asked no one, already scanning the restaurant, my eyes moving quickly over every table, every server, every shadowed corner.

“Where the fuck is she?”

I stood up, my chair scraping loudly against the floor, and started towards the back of the restaurant where a narrow hallway led towards the restrooms and a side exit I had clocked the moment we walked in.

My mind circled through every worst possibility in the space of a few heartbeats, the warehouse, the drive, the man with the red eyes, every enemy I had made in the last few months lining up in my head like a row of

suspects.

“Rieck?”

Aurelia’s voice came from a corner near the bar, and I turned fast enough that my whole body nearly betrayed the fear that had gripped me only seconds ago.

She was standing there holding two fresh drinks, her brow furrowed at whatever expression I was wearing.

“I went to get us something to drink,” she said slowly. “Are you okay?”

“Fine.” I forced my shoulders to loosen, forced my voice back into something even. “I… I didn’t see you leave the table.”

“You were gone. I figured I would surprise you.” She held one glass out towards me, her expression still unsure, like she could sense the leftover tension.

I took the glass from her hand, my fingers brushing hers longer than necessary, needing the small contact to settle the last of the adrenaline still running hot under my skin.

2/4

16:23 Mon, Aug 3

Chapter 98

54

55 vouchers

We walked back to the table together, and I pulled her chair out for her before taking my own seat again, my eyes sweeping the room one final time out of pure habit.

But my mind wouldn’t let go of that face. I hadn’t gotten a clean look, only the shape of her, the tilt of her head, something painfully familiar that I couldn’t place no matter how many times I turned it over.

The rest of dinner passed in a haze of pleasant conversation I only half followed, my attention split between Aurelia’s voice and the ghost of a stranger who refused to leave my thoughts alone.

Back home, the penthouse felt colder than usual despite the heat still running through the vents.

Aurelia moved through the living room quietly, her earlier brightness turned into something… closed off, the same change I had noticed the moment we stepped out of the hotel.

She had barely spoken during the drive home, her eyes fixed on the window instead of me, her hands folded tight in her lap the entire ride like she was holding something in that she didn’t trust herself to say out loud.

“You have gone quiet,” I said, watching her from across the room.

“I’m tired.”

“You were laughing an hour ago.”

“I’m allowed to get tired, Rieck.” She didn’t look at me when she said it, her arms crossing over her chest.

“What’s going on?”

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