Fighting With Light (The Coldwell Brothers #2)

19. Liam

19

Liam

Aelia is standing in the driveway as I leave her behind and take Ben to Emerson. Before I left, I fixed her phone, kissed her on the forehead, and told her to behave.

She just flipped me off in answer.

I’ve been trying to figure out what to tell Emerson regarding who this is, but I couldn’t come up with anything. Yet, I know telling him the truth will just piss him off. Then again, it might be wise for him to know everything.

I let Ben sit in the back seat, and though he’s handcuffed, I put three seatbelts on him and pulled them to lock so he can’t move.

When we pull up to the private airport, I spot our plane and drive up next to it on the tarmac, and text Aelia.

Liam: Here

Princess: Did you kill him yet?

I grin at the phone and shake my head.

Liam: No because you asked me not to

Princess: I like that you don’t like to tell me no…most of the time. I should have come Liam.

Liam: You know why we couldn’t

Liam: Did you find anything yet on the footage?

Princess: Not a thing, it’s boring and I wish I was there.

Liam: Aelia

Princess: *sigh* you’re an ass

Liam: I’ll see you soon princess

I slide my phone into my pocket and hop out to get Ben unbuckled.

Emerson walks around to my side and pats my shoulder. “Hey, little brother, how was the comp today?”

“It got canceled. We’re going to try again tomorrow.”

“Well, I came all this way. I wish I could have stayed,” he said.

“I know. Thank you for doing this. Does Mom know?”

He shakes his head. “Are you going to tell me who this is?”

“Would you accept the answer of not yet?” I ask him.

He frowns and crosses his arms. “Did you get yourself into trouble, Liam?” he asks and hands me the small duffle bag of what I assume are guns.

I look down at my feet. It depends on what you call trouble.

Is Aelia Costa trouble?

Yes.

Did I get myself into said trouble with her?

Also, yes.

Am I going to do something that could get us both into more trouble?

Maybe, but probably, yes.

We are a terrible influence on each other, that much is quite obvious. But I can’t say any of that to Emerson, yet.

“No, not that kind of trouble.”

“If I know anything, that means my little brother is about to get himself into trouble,” Emerson says. I shrug and open the back door .

“I’m working on something and this guy is part of that something.”

Emerson frowns and takes Ben in. He doesn’t say anything. I didn’t even bother gagging him because he seems resigned to the fact he thinks he’s going to die. Emerson takes Ben’s elbow and takes him towards the plane steps.

“You know, it would have been nice to hang out here for a bit.”

I guffaw. “Now Mr. Homebody wants to travel?”

He shrugs and looks around. “Seems like a cool place,” he mutters.

“It is. Let’s come back sometime.” If I don’t get myself blacklisted from the entire country because of what Aelia and I are about to do.

“I don’t know what you’re doing, Liam, but be careful. I expect the full truth soon.”

“You’re really just going to trust me?”

Emerson stares at me for a moment. “Why wouldn’t I, brother?”

I shrug, not realizing that meant so much to me. “I don’t know.”

“I do, Liam. Just…remember to think something through before you do it. Don’t just fly in half-cocked.”

I grin, shooting finger guns at him. “Why not? It’s more fun that way.”

He makes a face and climbs the stairs.

“Give Mom, Theo, and Cordi all my love,” I tell him.

“What about Kai?”

“There’s not enough love for that.” I smile and Emerson shakes his head, I’m sure muttering idiot under his breath.

“See you later,” he calls out and pulls the plane door closed. I get back in the car and wait for the plane to take off before I leave. I just hope this is all worth it in the end. I hope it’s the missing pieces. We need to be done with Dad forever.

***

“Honey, I’m home,” I call out into the house with no answer as I walk into the kitchen and living room, but Aelia isn’t there. Checking my office, I find her asleep in the chair while the footage plays at double the speed. I smile at her sleeping form and take a step towards her.

Her eyes spring open, and she stares at me. “Oh, you’re back,” she mutters.

“Yeah, so how long do you think that’s been running?” I ask her, pointing at the screen.

She groans. “Dammit, I don’t know when I fell asleep.” She looks at the clock. “Maybe thirty minutes?”

“Okay, well, you can go lay down. I’ll take over.”

She shakes her head. “I’m staying right here. This is on both of us, Liam. Stop trying to do everything yourself.”

“So demanding,” I mutter.

She punches my arm and I sit down next to her.

“How did it go?” she asks.

“Fine, but I won’t be able to keep Emerson at bay much longer. We need to find something fast.”

She sits up straighter in her chair. I roll the tape back thirty minutes and we watch it double the speed.

We sit there for hours and hours and nothing changes other than the guy standing guard. A few trucks get checked in, but I cross-checked their tags as they came in and it wasn’t anything important and unrelated to Ferreira’s business. Although that would be smart, it would also be a lot of trouble to get his shipments out. So I doubt they are anything to be concerned with.

“Do you need to get some sleep?” Aelia asks. I nod, trying to see if there are any other connections to the containers that were checked in.

“Did you eat?”

“Not yet. The chef should be here any minute, though,” I tell her. The doorbell rings and I go to answer it. I have a gun in my waistband now and the familiar weight feels good on my back. I haven’t given the other to Aelia yet, but I probably should.

After dinner, I head for the shower so I can get to sleep at a decent hour and feel a little more prepared for tomorrow. “Hey, Liam?” Aelia calls.

I spin on my heel and she’s standing a few steps away down the hall. “Yeah? ”

“Can I…can we sleep together again? I know you have a competition tomorrow, so I won’t bother you, but…”

“Yeah, princess, I’ll keep you safe from the boogie man,” I tell her. I cough, trying to clear my throat.

She rolls her eyes. “Okay, I’ll be there in a minute. I’m going to go get ready for bed.”

***

I poke my head out of the bathroom to see if Aelia is already there, but the bed is still made up. After I finish brushing my teeth, I find Aelia sitting on her side of the bed in that nightie I couldn’t see last night. I’m suddenly very thankful for electricity.

The dim, yellow light casts a shadow over half of her, but I can still see every little detail of what the minx is wearing. Her tanned legs cross together and the lacy V of the top of the dress creates a soft contrast with the white bed linens. “How is a man supposed to sleep when you look like a present meant to be unwrapped?”

Her face splits into a wide smile and she lifts a shoulder. “Maybe I am your present.”

I groan and go to my side of the bed, pulling the bedding back. Aelia wiggles herself under the covers at an arm’s length away. I lean up and flip off the light, plunging us into darkness. We lay there for a moment, and because I’ve felt this pull to her since I saw her in Hawaii, I reach over, grabbing her waist, tugging her into me. She giggles and makes herself comfortable.

I’ve begun to like this part of whatever we are, friends with benefits, or maybe frenemies with benefits. Whatever it is, I enjoy waking up with someone next to me. Regardless of the circumstances and the fact this isn’t home. It’s nice to come home to someone waiting for me. It makes me feel good and nervous at the same time. It’s part of the reason I haven’t pushed for more with her, even though I know we both want it. For the first time, I am scared of the consequences. I’m afraid that it will create an unbreakable bond that was never meant to be a bond in the first place.

My brothers wouldn’t be okay with her. I don’t hold the sins of her father against her, but there is no way we could have a legitimate future together when this is all said and done. She’s still a mob princess, and I’m still…well, I don’t know entirely what I am. Sure I’m a surfer, I’m a rock climber, but those are just things I do, those are things that have shaped me.

I’ve lived my life anticipating what my father could do to my family. I know it messed me up. I know it has created issues for me. One of them being my inability to commit to anyone because I’m afraid of being alone for the rest of my life. So if I bounce from girl to girl, country to country, say hi to my family every once in a while then my dad can’t get to me, and then I’ll never be alone because I’ll leave before they have the chance to. At least that’s what I tell myself so I can sleep at night .

It’s the only control I have in my life, deciding who stays in it. I love my mom and my brothers. I would do anything for them. It’s why I’m in this position now, but Aelia is giving me a glimpse into what life could be like with someone who wants to be with me not because of my name, the money I have, or the fancy dinners, but because she likes who I am, the man I have become despite every single reason for me to have turned out worse.

She hasn’t shied away from me once, even when I had her tied up. Until then, she had no clue who she was kissing and going out to dinner with. Yet she hardly blinked an eye. I don’t know if that means she’s worse than I am or maybe…we’ve found a kinship between us because of it.

I’m not normal , but I’ve always wondered what normal was because I’ve never experienced it and neither has Aelia. I look down at her on my chest. Her eyes are closed and I lean in to kiss the top of her head. She leans back and opens her eyes. Her gaze sweeps over my face, and she presses her lips to mine as she slides her hand behind my neck. The scrape of her long nails sends a shiver down my spine and I clasp her cheek with my palm.

She opens her mouth to me as we explore each other. Her hand pulls me in tighter and her nails dig a little deeper, making me groan. Aelia throws her leg over my hips, pressing her silky front as tightly as she can to me, and sighs. Neither of us duel for dominance. It’s equal, it’s giving and taking. I pull away, nibbling on her lower lip, and she inhales sharply before leaning in to press her lips to mine again.

Dropping my hand from her face, I wrap her in my arms. Her warmth against me feels grounding, steady, calm. We lean back at the same time and I look into her eyes. “Why does it feel this way to you?” I ask her.

Her tongue dips out over her puffy lip and she blinks a few times, like she can’t process my question. “I don’t know, but I’ve been asking myself that question since Bali.”

I brush my lips across hers and smile. “I like that you’ve been trying to figure it out. Is that weird?”

“No because I’m glad you feel like this with me. I’ve never…this is so much slower, it’s…I like it.”

“Me too,” I murmur against her lips. We fall asleep like that, wrapped up in each other because there is an unspoken agreement to take full advantage of the time we have in this temporary arrangement, despite knowing we would hurt each other. But the thought of walking away from her right now and going back to our separate lives hurts, even if it’s what’s best.

But, we are not our fathers, so does that mean the divide between us doesn’t apply, either?

***

“Good luck, Tarzan. Go shred the gnar,” she says with a lip gloss-covered smile. I chuckle.

“Where did you learn that?”

She shrugs. “I’ve been researching.”

I shake my head. “Thank you, princess. I’ll see you soon.”

She waves and I watch her walk away on the sand towards all the other spectators .

With my board under my arm and bag in my other hand, I get checked in and hope that the judge calls the waves good. They look like utter perfection right now, so that gives me some hope that I can shred the gnar as Aelia put it.

When we woke up this morning, it put another nail in my coffin. Waking up to her is unlike anything I’ve experienced. It doesn’t matter if she was drooling a little, it doesn’t matter that her hair was in my face. None of that bothered me. I can feel the tide change within me, and as cliché as it sounds, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to ride it. I’m not sure how to adjust to it because it’s unfamiliar territory. It’s a different ocean.

Aelia is a woman you fight for, and I don’t know if I’m the man who’s meant to fight for her because she deserves better than me.

I get checked in and start stretching. My heat is the second one of the day and the first is already out and waiting for the go-ahead. I said hi to a few friends I’m competing against and then went out to study the waves. I have a plan in my head, but that’s the thing with surfing, it’s a little unpredictable. You can know what you have to do in order to get the points you need, but the wave isn’t always consistent and it can throw you off before you have a chance to accommodate the change.

Surfing is about going with the flow and responding accordingly. It’s been almost a week since I’ve been out on the water and it’s killing me. I need to get out there. I need to feel her warm caress on my skin.

Aelia is down the beach and I can’t see a lot of her, but she’s leaning back on the towel in her bikini and cover-up. I love the one she wore yesterday, but this one made me have to tie my mouth together.

It’s a little black bikini that leaves nothing to the imagination. It’s borderline lingerie if you ask me, but she’s not swimming, so I’m aware it’s more of a fashion statement. She didn’t go with the sheer cover-up dress this time. She’s wearing a thin sarong around her hips, so it hides nothing. The top is like a bra with underwire pushing her chest together and her bottoms sit high on her hips, and don’t even bother trying to cover her butt. I had to swallow the growl that bubbled up when she walked out of the house. Based on the look she gave me, she got exactly what she wanted out of that exchange, so my response was no response at all. Two can play that game, princess.

The first heat begins and I watch one of the four surfers paddle into their waves. A guy from Australia biffs it and falls off his board. The Brazilian kills it in the nick of time with a great top turn. The heat goes on for about thirty minutes and I get ready to get in the water and prove myself.

Once the first heat is on their way back, me and two other guys all jog into the water and hop onto our boards. Water splashes, making me smile as I paddle towards the larger waves. We duck dive down under the wave and pop back up, getting behind the break.

Everyone gets turned around while we wait for the flag and horn to give us the start of the heat. Excitement bubbles in my veins and my muscles almost twitch, ready to shred. The wait time is the worst, you have to let the waves pass you even if they look good. We wait and wait. A few rolled by that didn’t look so hot, but that’s not unusual. Part of the competition is being able to judge the wave so you have the best chance to show off enough skill to score high and get your points. Right now, my standing is second overall and today I wanted to push my way into first.

“Man, what’s taking so long?” James says. James is from Australia while my other competitors are from South Africa.

I shake my head and look towards shore and try to spot Aelia. She was sitting closer to the water, only she’s not where I last saw her. I continue scanning the shore and find her standing in the water. Her hair is up and she’s standing with her hands on her hips, looking out towards me with sunglasses covering her eyes. I smile, staring at her figure focused on me, cheering me on from the sidelines. It feels good to see someone there for me. It makes me feel like I can grab my twenty points without even trying.

A horn sounds and a flag is waved, signaling for us to come back in. We all grumble and swim back to shore.

The judge meets us at the edge. “Hey guys, sorry, we’re going to push this to tomorrow. Wave deterioration is too great, but the weather is looking frothy for tomorrow. We’ll see you then.” I shake hands with a couple of guys, and then we pack up, and I go look for Aelia in the same place we separated.

“Again?” she says, shielding her eyes from the sun.

“Yeah,” I grumble.

“I’m sorry,” she says carefully.

“Hey, it’s all good. Tomorrow is expected to be a good day.”

She smiles and takes my hand. My steps falter a little at the natural move. What is this woman doing to me?