“Please tell me what happened.”
Will holds his gaze, his sudden smile is unexpected. “Joel didn’t kill himself because of me.”
That is not what he expected to hear. “I don’t follow.”
Will shares the sequence of events since the moment he realized something bad had happened to Owen. From searching around town to going to Nate and being attacked by him from behind. Owen is shocked when Will shares about waking up bound to a tree and having to face Nate’s madness and revelations.
“How do you feel about this?” Owen asks.
Will hesitates before answering. “I need more timeto process a world where I can blame someone else for Joel’s death, but the more I think about it, the more I don’t want to do that. Blaming Nate isn’t going to make what happened any less of a tragedy. Joel was sick. Even if he thought I was having an affair with Nate, it shouldn’t have been enough to cause him to take his own life. He was likely going to do that eventually with how none of us was able to help him. Maybe the Joel I once loved was still there before the end. He couldn’t stand what he had turned into, so he decided to stop fighting.” Will clears his throat. “I will always mourn that version of him and pity the one he turned into.”
Owen raises Will’s hand to his lips. Whatever happens between him and Will, Joel will always be a memory floating in the shadowy corners of their relationship. But he doesn’t feel threatened, since Will can now put some of his guilt to rest and move on.
A doctor walks in, happy to see that Owen is awake. He wants to do a full checkup on him, so Will moves aside to give him room. By the time he’s done with the checkup, Owen is tired, but he still wants to see his aunt. She took a bullet for him, and God knows he’s not going to hear the end of that.
Will helps him down the hall, rolling the IV stand that the doctor said must remain until morning. When they reach the right room, his aunt is awake and reading a magazine with one hand, since the other one is in a sling.
Owen opens his mouth to say something witty, but he ends up bursting into tears because nobody should get shot because of him.
His aunt gestures for him to come over. She hugs him with one hand, telling him that crying in front of his boyfriend is making him look less manly.
Owen wipes his eyes. “Will likes me as I am, Aunt Sheryl. Even when I’m a bit dramatic. Are you in pain?”
“They gave me something for that. It’s just uncomfortable and itchy. How about you?”
“My brain’s a bit floaty, but it’s getting better. Thank you for coming to help and for finding Will after Nate… you know.”
“That idiot left Will’s truck in front of his house, then put on music in the woods like no one could hear.” She shakes her head, sadness showing through the anger. “I used to consider him a friend.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Oh, none of that. Mitch said he knows more about what happened. He’ll tell us tomorrow. Whoever sent those men after you is still free, and that’s a problem.”
Owen shivers at the thought. “I shouldn’t have agreed to do that undercover work.”
“Oh, you think? Your mom always said you were more heart than brains.”
“She didn’t say that!”
His aunt shrugs. “I think she meant it as a compliment.” She looks at Will. “With me here and Nate in jail,we don’t have enough officers to have someone watching him, so I need you to do that.”
Will nods. “That’s my plan.”
“Okay. You two go away now. Those drugs are making me tired.”
Owen kisses her cheek. “Good night, Aunt Sheryl.”
He returns to his room and gets into bed. Will turns down the light, becoming a shadowy figure standing close by. “Sleep now.”
“Okay.” Owen sighs, deeply tired even though he woke up recently. “I wonder who was behind this.”
“I know who it was, but you shouldn’t worry about that at the moment.”
“He must be a horrible man.”
Will nods in the shadows. “He is. I know that better than anyone.”
Chapter 23
