Fighting With Light (The Coldwell Brothers #2)

17. Liam

17

Liam

“It’s Ben,” Aelia grits out. Her tears are replaced with anger and she turns away from me, throwing the door open.

I hurry out of my side and flip the switch on my blade, approaching Ben with considerable caution.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Why didn’t you just call me!” Aelia screams and pushes on his chest. I take another step, unsure if he will hit back. He lifts his hands as her small body pushes against him. I thought I was going to die tonight to give Aelia the chance to live. I’m a little angry, too.

“What did you want me to do, Aelia? You know what would happen if I called your dad. I didn’t know who you were with!” he yells at her. While he’s distracted by Aelia, I get closer. I might be able to pull his gun from his holster. I’m sure their gun connection here got him one pretty easily. That or I’ll just have to aim straight for his head or his neck with the knife. I’m pretty good with knives.

“If I wanted you here I would have called you, asshole! I don’t need you shadowing me!” she yells.

“I don’t care, Aelia. We’re leaving,” Ben says and grabs Aelia, squeezing her arm. She glares, trying to rip herself away from him and winces from the bruise he likely left her.

I growl and take a step forward. “Let her go, Ben,” I say and lift the knife.

He chuckles and yanks on Aelia. She reaches for the knife strapped to her thigh and Ben catches the movement, grabbing her wrist and pushing it back. If he squeezes or pushes it anymore, he will break it and that’s simply unacceptable .

“Let her go or this blade will end up in your eye.”

He glances between me and her. There’s no realization of who I am, even in the dark with only the headlights for light. He must think I’m just another one of Aelia’s men.

“Who the hell did you get yourself involved with this time, Aelia?” Ben grunts out to her.

She glances at me and I shake my head. Aelia pins her lips together, trying to keep her cry in.

“I won’t repeat myself. Let. Her. Go,” I command.

He laughs and starts to turn away with Aelia in his grip. I throw the knife aiming for his shoulder and it strikes true. I caught him by surprise enough that Aelia got free and slid his gun from his holster.

That’s my girl .

He turns slowly facing her, and I run over to her, taking the gun and putting her behind me. She huffs, but she can deal.

I lift the gun to his head and he raises his hands. “On your knees, that’s the last time you underestimate her,” I growl at him.

“What do you want from me, man? I’m doing my job. Do you know who she is? Do you know who her father is? If you kill me, he will come looking for you and he won’t let you live like I was going to.”

“You’re not letting me do anything. However, I will let Aelia make the choice here. I don’t care who you are. I’m happy to put a bullet in your head and leave you in the ditch. You touched what didn’t belong to you.” I glance at Aelia. There isn’t a trace of fear in her expression because she’s fuming. “Show me your arm,” I command.

She turns to the side and I can see the bruising already forming.

“I shouldn’t even let her have the choice now, but you hurt her, therefore, you should die.”

His jaw ticks and his hands are still up while his knees rest on the pavement.

“Aelia, this is up to you,” I tell her.

She tips her head back and lets out an irritated sigh. “You know, Ben, all you had to do was text me or call me, and I would have told you I’m fine because I am. Instead, you ruined what I had hoped would be a very good evening.” She looks at me with desire in her eyes and it already confirms what I was feeling in the car.

Yeah, it would have been a good night.

“I’m not going to have him shoot you in the head even though you are super irritating and never listen to me. So now you have no choice.” I glance at her. I was hoping for the bullet-to-head situation.

She leans in and stands up on her tiptoes while my eyes remain on Ben. “I don’t like him, but I don’t want him dead. Can we bring him with us?” she asks.

I grit my teeth because the obvious answer is a resounding no, but it’s pretty much impossible for me to tell her no. “I don’t like this, princess,” I grit out.

“Look at it this way…it would be way more of a headache to get rid of his body.” I side-eye her and keep the gun aimed at Ben, using my peripheral vision.

I drop the gun and sigh. “Fine, I’ll call my brother. He’s going to be pissed. ” She smiles at me and gives me those eyes. This woman. “Does he have handcuffs in there?”

“I’ll look,” she says, and goes to fish around in the car.

I lift the gun at him again. “Lay your cheek on the pavement. She wants you to live, but if you move, I will not hesitate to end this disaster right here and now.”

He lowers himself to the pavement and rests his cheek on the ground.

Within easy shooting distance, I step away to call Emerson. I’m going to get an earful. God help me. The time on my phone reads ten at night, and I need at least seven hours of sleep before my competition tomorrow. I’ll just have to run off pure adrenaline and maybe some Aelia.

Lifting my phone to my ear, I wait for Emerson to answer while I stare at Ben, hoping he moves so I don’t have to deal with a captive because that makes everything a lot more complicated. Then again, Aelia is right. A body wouldn’t be easy to deal with. This is not my turf. I’m within enemy territory. My only saving grace is I won’t be waking Emerson up, otherwise he might actually kill me.

He answers the phone .

“What, Liam? I’m training,” he says.

“Hi, big brother. It’s good to hear your voice,” I say, smiling into the phone. I can hear his eyes roll all the way through the phone.

“Liam, I’m busy,” he says, a little breathless.

“Like busy, busy ?” I ask him with a shit-eating grin.

Aelia yelps and holds the handcuffs she found up in the air, and proceeds to handcuff Ben’s hands behind his back.

“ No, Liam, I’m training. I have a fight tonight.” I frown at that. I was hoping he stopped the underground fighting, but it could very well be a last minute legal fight.

“What kind of fight, Emerson?” I ask him seriously.

“Don’t worry about it, Liam. What do you need? Isn’t it late there? Don’t you have a major surf competition tomorrow?” I glance at Aelia again and she’s walking over towards me and the car.

“I have a situation,” I tell him.

He sighs and waits.

“So, I need you to come and get my new friend. He can’t stay with me,” I tell him.

Aelia leans against the Porsche’s hood and my mind goes blank. Pictures pop up in my head. Blood rushes in my ears and then I realize Emerson is talking.

“Liam? Liam, did you hear a word I just said?” I shake my head, blinking a few times.

“What? No, say it again,” I tell him.

He grumbles something. “Why do I need to come get your friend ?” he asks.

“Well, I ran into a situation and the only way for me to be able to do what I need to do, is if this friend is out of the picture.”

Emerson is silent on the other side for a moment. The only reason I know he’s still there, is the sound of a glove hitting a punching bag.

“What did you do?” he asks.

“Surprisingly, this is not on me. So you can stop the blame game, Emmy. I need your help. Please get on the jet and come to Portugal.”

He sighs again. “Do I need to call Kai?” he asks .

I glance up at Aelia again, both of her hands are behind her and her head is tilted back. She is a picture. Ignoring Emerson, I swipe for my camera and snap a quick picture before she notices. I don’t know why I do it. But, I don’t question myself.

“No, no, don’t do that. He and Cordi have Theo to take care of. Leave them alone.”

“You understand I will need more information, right?” Emerson says.

I groan into the phone because I wasn’t ready to tell them what was going on. I figured it would be better to ask for forgiveness later instead of asking for permission now.

“Yes, I do. But I don’t have all the information to give at the moment. Can you please trust me? I need your help.”

“Fine,” he grunts. “It’s going to take me a couple of hours to get it scheduled. I’ll text you when I’m on my way.”

“Thank you, Emerson.”

He grunts in response and hangs up.

“Okay, well, that’s settled. We just have to keep your friend occupied until Em comes to take care of him for us.” Ben shifts on the ground and I know he’s listening, but it doesn’t matter.

“He’s not my friend,” Aelia says, lifting off the hood.

“Fine, whatever, I’ll get him into the trunk. Can you drive the Porsche back to the house?”

“Hell yeah I can,” she says excitedly.

“Great, I’ll get Ben.”

After I load Ben into the trunk of the SUV, I let Aelia lead the way back to the house and barely keep up with her. It’s quiet on the roads, so she’s going way too fast, but I don’t blame her. That car makes your blood pump a little faster.

We drive down the long driveway to the house and Aelia hits the brakes hard, and hops out of the Porsche. I pull the SUV into the garage and turn it off.

Leaving Ben in the trunk, I pull her to the side so he can’t hear us. “How strict do we need to be with him? Will he try to leave?”

“Well, based on the situation, I’m thinking he is more likely to try to contact Dad or one of my brothers.”

I run my hand through my hair that’s no longer styled in place. “Maybe I’ll tie him up and put him in the room with just a bed.”

“If only we had a basement or a room with no windows,” she says, looking out at the garden.

I stare at her, and this is not the time to smile, but I can’t help myself as I bite my lip, trying to hide it. We are two peas in a pod, as ridiculous as it sounds.

She looks back at me. “What?” she says.

I chuckle, shaking my head. “Nothing, princess,” I murmur, and she lifts her head, leaning in to kiss me and I dodge her, kissing her on the cheek. Our similarities are starting to scare me. Her lips pout, but she brushes it off.

“We’re going to keep him in the garage. There’s nothing in here and I think I can rig something to him that would make it very difficult for him to leave.”

She gives me a funny look and I wink at her.

When I put Ben in the trunk, I found his bag with a rope and another pair of handcuffs. It appears he was going to hog-tie her and try to take her home. I don’t appreciate that at all.

I open the trunk and Ben is glaring at me. But his lips stay shut.

“For the record, you made this a lot harder on yourself, you know,” Aelia says from behind me.

“Whatever,” he grumbles.

“Look, I can make this super uncomfortable or you can cooperate. Your choice.”

“I need to take a piss,” he says.

Pulling the gun from my waistband, I hold it up to him while Aelia unties him.

“I said it before and I’ll say it again. I have no qualms about pushing your body over the edge of the cliffs. Don’t piss me off or I’ll just put a bullet in your head. Say one wrong thing to Aelia, I will make it hurt. Do you understand?”

“Who the hell is this, Aelia?”

She grins and looks up at me .

“He’s mine and that’s all you need to know,” she says brightly.

My heart stalls in my chest, my stomach does a weird flip thing, and my limbs feel heavy. Her confidence overrides my fear, and I have no idea what to do other than grab her neck and haul her to my lips. I kiss her, keeping my eyes open with my gun still pointed at Ben. She nips at me, then wipes the corner of my mouth. Her eyes are an inferno, burning like a jungle on fire.

Ben makes a disgusted sound and I hit him with the butt of the gun.

“Do it again, Ben, I’m begging you.”

He sighs. “Can you just put me somewhere so I can contemplate my life choices?”

“Happy to.” I grin.

I push him towards the bathroom and unlock his hands, keeping the barrel on his head. “Go ahead, do your business.”

Ben looks at me over his shoulder. “Can I have a minute?”

I take a step back, out of sight, keeping the bathroom door open. Aelia comes back from backing the SUV out of the garage and leans against the wall right outside the door, dragging her eyes down my body and I can feel every inch.

The toilet flushes and I lift the gun again. “Good?” I ask Ben.

He shrugs.

“Great, you’re going to help me redecorate a little.”

He looks at me funny and I hand the gun to Aelia.

She points it at Ben while I move over to a buffet against the wall and open the doors to pull out the shelves. I set them all to the side and then stand on one end. “Okay, lift your side. We’re going to put this in the garage.”

Ben’s confused expression doesn’t change and we walk down the hall and into the garage.

I stop until the furniture is sitting in the center of the garage. There is nothing he can get reach to free himself. I open the doors and gesture towards them. Ben’s eyes widen and he glances at Aelia.

“You cannot be serious,” Ben says .

“Oh, I am. It’s either this or I create some kind of questionable rigging to hang you off the side of the cliff. I have some climbing rope and carabiners, so I guess we could try that.”

“No, this is fine,” Ben says quickly.

“Great, we’re both in agreement, then.” I hold the handcuffs up and he lifts his wrists. He takes a deep breath and looks at Aelia one more time before he squats down and inches himself into the cabinet. It’s barely big enough to fit his body and he’ll have a hard time turning around. Once his feet are in, I close the cabinet doors and grab the climbing rope purchased for Aelia and me to go rock climbing. I tie it around the cabinet, centering it across the cabinet doors and knot it in the back where he doesn’t have access to untie it. I tie it in a couple of climbing knots designed to hold people and tap the top.

“Goodnight, Ben,” I say in a sing-song voice.

“Asshole!” he yells. Aelia walks back into the house and I follow behind, locking the door.

“I’m sure you’re tired,” Aelia says.

“Yeah, it’s been a night. He should be good until tomorrow. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she says.

I take a deep breath and run my hand through my hair again. “I’m going to get a quick shower I have to be up in…” I look down at my watch to check the time. “Five hours.”

“Okay,” she says quietly. I grab her elbow, press a kiss to her temple, and go back to my room. I know there’s video footage to watch, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.

***

I sigh, laying my head back on my pillow, and as my eyes close, my bedroom door opens. Aelia’s figure slips through the door and closes it behind her. She steps up to the other side of the bed and stands there for a moment. I grab the covers and throw them back, holding my arm out across the pillows. She slips into bed and I notice her pink, silky night dress before she pulls the sheets up over her. “Is this okay?” she asks.

I dip my head down and kiss her minty lips. Our foreheads meet and I nod against her. “It’s more than okay,” I tell her, pulling her into my chest. She wiggles around and then tucks her head under mine.

“I’m sorry, Liam. I feel like this is my fault.”

Drawing my hand up and down her silky spine, I say, “None of this is your fault. My brother will be here soon and take Ben, and then we can focus on everything else.”

“You’re going to do great tomorrow,” she says into my chest.

I can’t help the smile that grows on my face as I close my eyes.