Fighting With Light (The Coldwell Brothers #2)

18. Aelia

18

Aelia

We had to get up at five in the morning, which was entirely too early for me. We let Ben out of his cabinet so he could do his business, eat a sandwich I made for him, take a walk around the yard, and back into his cabinet by the time Liam was ready to go.

I don’t know what to say to him. I’ve never dated a professional athlete, which surprised me after I thought about it. We’re not dating, dating. It’s just a casual sort of dating. Yes, that makes total sense.

Deciding to keep my mouth shut, I watch him inspect his board, wax it, and get it loaded up on the Bronco. The dress code wasn’t clear, and I didn’t want to ask him a stupid question about swimsuits, so I opted for my best beachwear, especially if cameras were there. I obviously have to look my best. I have my favorite red bikini on, with a sheer cover-up that doesn’t cover much, but the pattern of the lace is pretty. Then I decided on my simple Hermes sandals, no heels. My nails are still good and I’m amazed I didn’t break one last night. I did light makeup and brought a hat in case I needed to be less noticeable. When Liam saw me come outside, he just stared at me for a moment, then went back to checking his board and his bag. I think maybe he’s getting his head straight to compete.

While I’m waiting, I look up the way surfing competitions like these are scored. He’s one of a few other men competing against each other in a heat. There are multiple heats throughout the day for everyone to compete in. He goes five times and the highest and lowest score is dropped, then they average it out. He’s shooting for a twenty-point heat, which is perfection from all the judges. If I understood what I was reading correctly, then that means his place is guaranteed in El Salvador.

How he achieves those twenty points is beyond me. All I understand is he has to surf well because he’s up against the best surfers in the world. I saw him listed on the lineup and smiled at the picture of him all tan, hair bleached in places from the sun, and a wide grin. There’s no doubt in my mind he’s going to kill it.

Liam keeps the music off and it’s silent as he drives us to the beach. He keeps looking at me, though, and every time his eyes touch my skin, it prickles. I have to force my mind not to think about last night because it just makes it worse. I slept better than I have in a very long time. He held me the entire night. I fell asleep in his arms and woke up in them. We may have agreed to temporary, but the way it felt waking up to him felt more like… no.

Liam startles me a little and grabs for my hand, linking his fingers through mine as he drives with one hand. “Are you okay? You’ve been quiet,” he asks me.

“Oh, I wasn’t sure if maybe I needed to be so you could…I don’t know, get your mind focused.”

He chuckles. “Thank you, that’s nice. Usually, it’s just me, so it’s always like this. I didn’t think anything of it.”

“Are you excited?”

He shrugs. “I’m not, not excited. I try to keep my energy in check because once I get on a wave, I have very little time to make it count, so I try to reserve it even though that probably makes no sense.”

I smile and squeeze his hand. “If it makes sense to you, then that’s all it needs to do, right?”

“Right, thank you for coming.”

“Why are you thanking me? I told you I would.” He glances at the rearview mirror.

“When I was a kid, my family used to come to my competitions, but that stopped once I started traveling. ”

“Why?” I ask, trying to suppress my excitement that Liam is volunteering something about himself.

“I don’t know. We’ve had to deal with a lot. My brothers were being looked at to start their professional careers. Mom could only split her time so much, and they were all close or within the continental US. I was all the way over here or Fiji. The plane rides are a little longer than an hour’s drive.”

I squeeze his hand again. I think he feels forgotten.

“Don’t get me wrong, they care. They would call me after a competition. Kai would watch my heat and talk to me about it. Which I appreciate, but I don’t know…being here to see me means more if that makes sense.”

“It does.”

He keeps our hands linked until we park and he turns off the Bronco.

“I have to get all checked in at the tent. Will you be okay by yourself?”

“Oh yeah, don’t worry about me.”

“I do,” he says under his breath. I barely heard it.

“Well, right now, worry about your feet on that board. I’ll be sitting on the beach watching you. So don’t mess it up,” I tell him, grinning.

He chuckles and hops out. “Yes, ma’am.”

I wait by the side of the car while he unhooks his surfboard and gets his backpack over his shoulders. He’s already in his baseball hat, standard board shorts, and competition jersey he has to wear. Sunglasses cover his eyes and I slip mine on, following Liam onto the sand.

He drops his bag, but keeps his surfboard in his hand. “Alright, I’m going to get ready.”

I start to walk away and he leans forward grabbing my chin. “Kiss for good luck?” he asks, dipping down to my height.

I lean back avoiding his lips and shake my head. He frowns, waiting for me to explain. “Nope, consider it your motivation, you earn one when you place.”

He chuckles. “You drive a hard bargain, princess.”

I purse my lips and take a step back. “Well you have to make it worth it,” I tell him, throwing my hands out .

“Oh, it will be worth it,” he says. I can’t see his eyes behind his dark sunglasses, but I wish I could. Liam chuckles and stares at me a moment longer before grabbing his bag and walking through the sand to the tent labeled check-in.

I spot a few people with towels and chairs sitting in the sand. They look like spectators, so I make my way over there and get comfortable in the sand. The horizon is dark, almost as if a storm is on its way in. The waves look crazy, but I don’t know what a proper surfing wave looks like.

Everyone sits there for what feels like forever. I should have brought a book. Instead, I spend my time daydreaming about me and Liam. Last night, aside from the ridiculous car chase, we had an amazing evening and I enjoyed myself. I was hoping our night would proceed to something even better than dinner seeing as it started out with a Dirty Dancing reenactment.

It was a recipe for nothing but success. Only it didn’t end that way, and I feel bad for Ben, but I can’t lie; it feels nice not to have his annoying presence around. He wasn’t ever directly mean to me, but he treated me like an unruly teenager. I’ve always just dealt with it because the alternative would have been my father locking me up at home, which wasn’t an option.

Liam’s family is interesting to me, and I’m interested in meeting Liam’s brother, Emerson. He’s attractive, but out of the three of them, there is a darkness around him in the picture I saw. He was standing in a boxing ring, and it could have been because he was going to battle, so to speak, but it felt like more to me.

The dark sky has come closer to shore and the wind speed has picked up, but behind me, the sun and clouds are still floating around. A horn blows and then the people who were out on the water paddle in.

People around me start packing up and I’m not sure what’s going on, so I gather my things and go back to where I left Liam. I wait again for another twenty minutes until I see his dirty blonde head walking towards me with his hat turned backward. I don’t understand why that’s so hot, but it is. He walks up to me with his surfboard and bag in his hand.

“They called off the comp because the waves aren’t good.”

“Oh, so what does that mean?” I ask him.

“It means we try again tomorrow.”

“But what if it’s bad again tomorrow?”

He grins and tilts his head. “Bored already, princess?”

I look down at my feet and shift my bag over my shoulder. “I should have brought a book, but I’m curious. What happens?”

He laughs and starts walking back to the Bronco. “We would try again the next day. That’s why the comps are nine or ten days. We’re working with Mother Nature and she gets to decide when we surf.”

“That makes sense. So what’s the plan for the rest of the day?” I ask him. He sets his stuff down and remote starts the Bronco.

“Watch recorded footage and get Ben to Emerson.”

I sigh, frustrated. “Sounds like a blast,” I mutter, deadpan.

“Sorry, princess, I can’t be your jester today.”

I roll my eyes and jump into the Bronco, rolling down the window to wait for him to get everything hooked up again.

While we’re on our way back from the beach, I grab his hand this time. “You’re not a jester to me, Liam, that’s not what I meant.”

“I know, I’m just a little frustrated, I’m sorry.”

“I get it. You were ready to get out there and now you have to wait again. That would drive me a little crazy.”

“It’s the sport, I guess.” He glances at me before going back to the road. “So you’re not going to be happy about this, but I think it’s how it has to be.”

“That’s one way to warn a girl,” I grumble.

“You can’t come with me to hand Ben over to Emerson.”

“What?” I shriek. “Why? If you say it’s to keep me safe, I will punch you in the face with the brass knuckles in my bag.”

His head snaps to mine. “You have brass knuckles?”

“I don’t know, Liam, do you want to find out?” I ask him.

He grins. “I don’t know…I kind of think I do.”

“Liam!” I yell.

“No, it’s not to keep you safe, but it’s because I haven’t told my brothers we’re working together and I’m not ready to tell them yet.”

My head pounds with confusion and I really might punch him, sans brass knuckles.

“Explain,” I command.

“I’m going to just get Emerson to take Ben and tell him I’ll explain later. Then you and I are going to find the proof we need to build a case, and then I’ll tell my brothers.”

“Why don’t you tell them your plan? Don’t you trust them?”

He snorts. “Of course I trust them, but I’m not the one that plans, so…I just want to have our ducks in a row.”

“You don’t want to disappoint them,” I say for him.

He’s silent for a moment and clears his throat. “Yeah.”

“Fine, but if you don’t call me when you get there and when you hand him off, I will get in the Porsche and I will put a bullet in your hand or something because you need your feet to surf.”

“I kind of need my hands, too, though. It’s a full-body situation.”

“Well, then I’ll shave your head.”

“Ouch, princess. I thought you liked my hair?” He grins.

“Shut up before I say something I’ll regret.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he says saucily. I don’t like it but I get it. Of all people. I. Get. It.

***

When we arrive back at the house, Liam handles Ben and then ends up tying him up in a chair outside. He called it outside time and Ben didn’t seem to be opposed to it because it was that or back in the cabinet.

Liam walks back into the house and closes the door behind him. “I’m going to get my board off the top of the truck. I’ll be back.”

I nod and he goes outside to the front.

I stare at the back of Ben’s head and part of me wants to go talk to him, tell him I’m not betraying my family. I’m trying to save them from themselves, but what’s the point? Ben and I have never been close, and I doubt he would care about what I have to say. If only he just stayed where he was and checked in with me, he would have never put us in this situation.

Liam walks back in with his bag and throws it on the tile floor. “How did Ben find me?” I ask him.

“Give me your phone,” he says and holds out his hand. I frown and hand it to him then he disappears down the hallway with it. I hurry behind and he sits it on his desk and pulls out a little screwdriver set. He unscrews the little screws holding the phone together, pops off the back, and lifts it up. Then he grabs a flashlight and scans every inch of the back. “Ah, right here.” Liam uses his fingernail and pops a tiny, black square off the back. I wouldn’t have known it was there unless I opened the phone and looked myself.

“So what you had already done to my phone didn’t matter.”

Liam takes the little device and snaps it in two. “Nope, it was something externally transmitting, and the way you use your phone it’s hard to tell how much it was pulling from the battery. I should have looked.”

“So why did he wait so long to come? He would have known where we were the whole time.” Liam looks at me for a minute then stands and leaves his office.

“I don’t know, let’s go ask him.” I follow Liam back down the hall and outside where Ben is sitting.

“Are you the only one that was tracking her?” Liam asks Ben.

Ben shrugs and tilts his face up into the cloudy sky. “Ben, answer his question, please.”

“Why? You guys are just going to kill me anyway,” he says.

“No, we’re not,” I snap back.

“Trust me Benny Boy, if I had my way, your body would be feeding the ocean life at the moment, but the one you have been protecting told me no, and you’re lucky I can’t say no to her. Please don’t make me repeat myself, answer the question.”

He sighs and looks at me before staring Liam down. “I was trying to figure out who she was with…she has never done this before. She’s never gone to the trouble of going to a man she’s seeing. ”

“It’s none of your business, Ben,” I snap.

“It is because you two are up to something and the boss is going to be pissed,” Ben says.

“Don’t worry about that, I’ve been sending—”

Liam cuts me off and says, “This conversation is getting boring. The point here is no one else was using the tracker on Aelia, is that correct?”

Ben nods.

“Well, you can relax Ben. Let’s consider you on an indefinite vacation, your ride will arrive in …” He checks his watch. “An hour to take you to your private island.”

“What does that mean?” Ben asks with narrowed eyes on Liam.

“It means what he said,” I mutter and grab Liam’s elbow before he chokes Ben out and kills him.

“I am very ready to be done with him.”

“Do you think we’re okay? I know you wanted to keep me quiet to your family, but that may no—” Liam kisses me so gently that I lose my train of thought, and when he pulls away, my mind is blank.

“I’ve been wanting to do that all day, I figured since I didn’t compete, there was no kiss to win so I could just take it now,” he says.

Smiling, I grab his shirt, pulling him down to me and kiss the living daylights out of him. It’s not gentle, it’s messy and wild and… needy. He groans into my mouth before standing back up to his full height.

“I would love to continue this, but I have to take Ben.”

I groan and lean my head against his chest. “Remember your promise to me, Tarzan,” I mutter.

“Yes, dear, I won’t forget,” he says sarcastically and leaves me standing in the kitchen.

Liam drives off with Ben in the SUV Ben was driving and I hope and pray to get a phone call soon. I understand why Liam didn’t want me to come, but it still pisses me off. I hate being told no and I don’t like being told I can’t do something, even if it makes sense. So I go back into the house to watch video footage of the gate to see if there has been any change. I suppose I have the time now.