Fighting With Light (The Coldwell Brothers #2)

27. Aelia

27

Aelia

Liam was up with the sun this morning and I stayed in bed. I thought I’d roll over and go back to sleep, but I can’t, especially when a shirtless Liam is doing yoga on the back patio. It’s already in the seventies and he’s glistening with sweat. I’d rather watch this than sleep, anyway.

Portugal was a whirlwind. I’m happy that we got the gun shipment evidence. That can go a long way, but only if we are able to connect to my father in the States, otherwise it doesn’t really do much for us. I’m no lawyer, but I’m pretty sure if guns in Portugal can’t connect to someone receiving them in America, then it makes the information and photographic evidence useless. Sure, it’s still a crime, but it’s a crime that isn’t tied to my father or Liam’s.

Liam stands, going into tree pose and I lean against the headboard to watch. I can only see his profile as his chest inhales deeply and then releases slowly. Reaching for the room service phone, I order everything I’ve seen Liam eat and extra coffee.

The ocean crashes subtly in the background of the villa. I can barely hear it over the AC kicking on every so often. Liam looks like he’s at the end of his yoga session, so I decide to get out of bed and change before food gets here.

I’m not sure what our plan is today, so I grab one of my simpler two pieces out of my suitcase. It’s a pair of high-cut lavender bottoms that half cover my butt and a matching underwire top. I pull my silky tank off and grab the swim top.

“Where do I get tickets to the show?” Liam asks, stepping through the door.

I turn with my hands behind my back, latching the hook into the hole. He stares at me for a moment, then there’s a knock at the door .

“Breakfast,” I tell him. He runs his hand through his hair and goes to answer the door. I finish changing and run into the bathroom to brush my teeth and get my messy hair out of my face.

I stare at myself in the mirror as I pull my hair up into a low ponytail, and my cheeks are flush. I’m tan, so my brown skin is even more bronzed, and I look…happy. I have my moments, but generally, I try to be a happy person. But right now, I feel like it’s the kind of happiness I’ve wanted all my life, but knew I would likely never get it. Smiling at myself in the mirror, I refuse to think about anything else in the future. I’m here now, with a man that has grown on me. Sure, he’s hot, but he’s so thoughtful, he’s protective, and he cares for me more than any other before. That speaks volumes to me, despite what he thinks about himself.

“Princess!” Liam calls.

I check myself in the mirror one more time and meet him out on the patio. “I hope outside is okay. It’s nice out. I thought we could enjoy it.”

“Sure,” I say, reaching for the coffee.

“Allow me,” he says and grabs the carafe, pouring it into one of the cups.

“Thank you,” I murmur, taking a light sip.

“No problem, thanks for ordering. I’m starving. I was trying to let you sleep, but I suppose you’re on my schedule now.”

I chuckle and watch him shovel large spoonfuls of the eggs onto his plate and reach for the empanadas and stuffed bread. I thought it sounded good, so I told them to put it in there. “Did you have a good yoga session?” I ask him.

He nods and takes a sip of his coffee.

“Did you enjoy the show?” he asks with a knowing look in his eyes. “Eyes of an eagle, baby. The moment you moved, I knew you were up.”

“I’ll have to be sneakier then,” I quip.

He laughs. “Or you could join me.”

My stomach flips. “I didn’t want to bother you. I know you have a whole regimen. ”

He shrugs. “I do, but I don’t. I know I’m a professional athlete and blah blah blah, but I just do what I think I need to and eat a ton of protein. It’s worked this long. Why wouldn’t I add you to it?”

“I don’t know. What else do you need to do?” I ask him.

He takes another bite and I grab one of the stuffed breads called Bollos. It’s warm with strawberry compote and has a slight consistency of cornbread.

“So I need to get a surf in and wax my board, but we also need to look into Colombia.”

I sigh, still nervous about that one. “I don’t know a lot about it. I think my father is merely a purchaser. I don’t know if he is the Marín cartel’s only client. I don’t know the other players and I don’t know where they cook it, so I’m not entirely sure how it’s going to help us.”

Liam grins and chews. “Ye of little faith, princess.”

I roll my eyes and put my foot up on the edge of the chair. “What are you going to do? Play Seal Team Six and infiltrate the cartel? The coke he gets is coveted. People are disturbingly obsessed with it. They say it’s the best high they’ve ever had.”

He stills and levels me with a stare. His eyes turn a little darker. “And how would you know that, Aelia?”

I shrug and look out across the sand and water. “I may have talked to some people that partake in those activities.”

“Why are you with druggies and drug dealers, Aelia? Are you trying to get yourself killed?” he asks me, his pitch rising.

“Hey, it’s fine. I was just helping some people out.”

He takes another sip of coffee, clearly waiting for further explanation.

I sigh and my cheeks puff out. “You know my dad trafficks women on a much smaller scale. Well, one way he gets them into the trade is by pulling them in with free coke. He gets them to work for his strip clubs, gets them addicted, and then they end up dead or sold to some evil scum of the Earth.” I pause, my throat feeling tight. I hate that he is my blood. I hate that he is my father. He is the worst type of evil because he’s not just out for power. He will do whatever he needs to for more of it and doesn’t care who it hurts or kills, or tortures .

“I would go to his clubs periodically and get some of them out. I wish I could force them, try to make them understand what’s happening, but…the drugs are hard to compete with. They would rather be high and die high than anything else. But I’ve been able to get a few women to women’s shelters, get them clean, and then help them disappear. So that’s why I know that.”

Liam blinks and leans back in his chair. “That’s…wow, Aelia, that’s brave but stupid, but also so kind.”

I look away from him. I don’t do it for the thank you. I do it hoping that it will atone for my involvement. I don’t make any of those choices and I don’t support any of them, but my last name is Costa, too, and it’s my own flesh and blood causing irreparable harm to others. I have to do something.

“You make a little more sense to me now,” he says and pours himself more coffee.

I find his green eyes again and tilt my head. “Oh? And how is that?”

He takes a sip and I watch his tongue dart out over his lower lip where coffee spilled. “You feel guilty just like I do,” he says quietly, as if it’s difficult to say the words because they are so heavy.

We are trying to get rid of our fathers who do nothing but hurt others. It’s not just because it’s immoral, it’s because we feel partially responsible, yet we have absolutely nothing to do with it.

“Can you atone for the sins of another?” Liam asks.

I sit my coffee down and rub my arms, feeling a chill. “I don’t know, but I figured I’d try,” I whisper to the sea.

“You can’t, if you were wondering. But the way I see it is we are helping rid the world of evil. So that has to count for something, right?”

I look at him out of the corner of my eye and rub my arms again. “I hope so,” I tell him.

We finish breakfast in somber silence. As Liam starts waxing his board, I realize I have nothing to do. I have no hobbies or things that I enjoy other than clothes. I’ve spent most of my time avoiding my family and killing it with other distractions, like men. Or I spend it by helping others however I can. But right now I can’t do any of that, but I want to be useful. I need to be useful .

“Hey, Liam?” He hums, drawing lines with wax across his board laid across two patio chairs. I stand there popping my hip out, waiting for him to look up. He keeps drawing his lines of wax. I sigh and look out at the ocean, waiting for his full attention.

“Yes, princess?” he drawls.

I find him looking at me with the corner of his mouth tipped up.

“Can I help you with the Colombia stuff? I…I know I’m not all computer savvy like you, but I can still help.”

He drops his wax and comes around the board. He lifts his hand to touch me, then drops it, remembering he has wax on it and touches his lips to my forehead. “Absolutely. I’ll even show you how to do a few things.” I smile, following him into the villa.

After he washes his hands, he sits at his desk chair and turns his computer on. He types in a thirteen digit password and says, “I’ll have you look at satellite images to see if we can find anything.”

“You’re going to hack into a satellite?” I ask him.

He chuckles and shakes his head. “You don’t have to hack into what belongs to you.”

“You own a satellite?” I ask him, shocked.

“You don’t own a satellite, per se, it’s more of a shared thing, but no, I own a company that uses this one and so I have full access to do what I want with it.”

I purse my lips. “Isn’t that…illegal?” I ask him.

He bursts out laughing and grabs my wrist, pulling me down into his lap. I start to get off of him, not sure the little office chair can hold us, but he squeezes my thigh to keep me where I am. “Baby, if you are worried about doing something mildly illegal now, then we need to have a separate discussion because I have a feeling we are going to be forced into going well outside the lines to get what we need.”

“I’m find doing what we have to, but I’d like to avoid prison.”

“The ends justify the means, right? Plus, it can’t track back to us, if it makes you feel better,” he says .

I sigh and look at the screen. “I guess,” I mutter. He kisses my cheek and, with me still in his lap, pushes up closer to the desk. His arms come around me, and I watch him type in a code, and enter something into a search bar. Images of the world come up, similar to Google Maps, and it hovers over what I think is Colombia. It’s not like Google Maps in the sense everything is labeled for you, it’s just green.

“Do you know which state the producer is in?” Liam asks, his breath brushing past my cheek.

“I think I heard Medellín.”

“Oh shit, that’s the big boys.”

I nibble on my lower lip.

“Well, I know from general information a lot of these types cook in the mountains because it’s hard to detect anything. The problem is Medellín is huge,” he says.

I try to recall all the conversations I’ve heard about shipments or issues with the shipments. And something my brother Romeo said pops into my head. “I remember Romeo said something about no runways. You could only get it by truck because there was no place for the plane to land other than a river, but that’s questionable too.”

“Well, that helps,” Liam says and starts typing again in the search bar at the top of the screen. The screen moves again to mountains and what looks like rivers. “So Medellín sits in the valley of the Andes Mountains and there are rivers all around it. The major one is the Magdalena River. Logically, they are probably close to water because they need it. It’s a long shot and a lot of land to cover, but the border of the river is a place to start.”

“They can’t be the only ones who cook cocaine in the mountains. Even if we find something, that doesn’t mean it’s the people my father buys from.”

“No, but I think I might be able to find that information by going through ports again. You said they can’t go near the Gulf or Florida by water, so they come through Mexico. That’s a long ass drive and would cost too much. So…I’m thinking, if it were me and I was shipping millions of dollars’ worth of pure cocaine, I’d want to move it as fast as possible. So I bet they ship it from the mountains to Medellín, then fly it up to Mexico, get it to the border, and then hand it off.”

I try to put all the puzzle pieces together and think of a smarter way to obtain this information. “We don’t have to search through the jungle; we just have to know who’s shipping it.”

“Yeah, that makes the most sense to me. But, I have to admit, it would be really handy if we could find their spot because if we could trace Colombian cocaine all the way to Washington D.C., aka my father, then there would be no sweeping things under the rug, it would be too hard to refute.”

“That’s a lot of extra puzzle pieces, Liam. I don’t know if we can find all of that information.”

He shrugs. “It’s worth a shot. I figure we can start with private airports that fly to Mexico City. I doubt they are going through the international airport, so it would only make sense to start with the private sector. People don’t ask questions, and in a place like that, I’m sure they are happy to look the other way.”

“How am I supposed to help?”

He chuckles and squeezes my thigh. “Well, I know it’s boring, but you’re going to have to go through flight logs and mark any that have gone to Mexico City. Then from there, we’ll compare weights logged. We know they divide into kilograms, and usually, there is a high volume with this stuff. Do you know how much your dad moves?”

I pin my lips together. “I think he gets a lot because my brothers were nervous about the amount coming and being able to move it in time. But I also think he deals in wholesale for other dealers as well.”

“I have to give your dad credit. He’s a good businessman,” he says with bite.

“He won’t be for much longer,” I mutter.

“So I’d assume he probably gets a thousand kilos.”

“Maybe? I don’t really know numbers,” I tell him.

“That’s okay. What I’m getting at is if we can find the right weight, it will help us narrow down transport and possibly where it goes through at the border. I’ll have to hack my way into that information. ”

“But what if we can’t find any of that? This is all assumption.”

“Correct, my dear Watson, so that’s why we’re going to have to dig through the mountains.”

I groan and lean my head on his shoulder. “Why do you get to be Sherlock Holmes?” I mumble.

He laughs and turns, dipping his head to kiss me. I tilt my chin up, leaning into it, and before I know it, he’s stolen my breath. His hand drags up my thigh to my hip and squeezes. I sigh, wrapping my arms around his neck, rallying the heat between us.

“I could do that all day,” he whispers. I smile and bite his lower lip, making him growl. What I don’t say is I could, too. I could do this…for the rest of my life. But I keep my lips sealed and smile instead. “You can be Holmes if you want, princess. I’m happy to be your Watson.”

I laugh and kiss him briefly. “Right then, I have some sleuthing to do.”

He chuckles and helps me off of his legs before showing me how to move the image. “It updates every thirty seconds, so if someone has smoke from a fire, it will pick it up.”

“Cool. And you…own the company to this satellite?” I ask.

“Yep, tech security company and some other stuff.”

“Huh,” I mumble.

He kisses my temple. “Get to work. I need to finish waxing my board and catch some waves.”

“I don’t need to be there for that. I can keep working on this,” I tell him.

He smiles down at me and grabs my chin. “No, you could, but I want you there. I think you’re my good luck charm.”

“Well, how can I say no to that?”

He smiles, stoops down to my ear, and says, “You can’t, princess. I only want to hear yes come from your lips.”

My pulse jumps, and my blood vibrates in my veins because it’s moving so fast. He skims his thumb over my parted, lips and then walks back out the sliding door, laughing to himself.

** *

An hour or so later, Liam calls for me and I grab a towel, my hat, and sunglasses to follow him down the beach. The temperature is in the high eighties, close to the nineties, and I got too hot and ended up getting in the water to watch him from there.

Liam floats across the waves, pulling turn after turn. He said something about the surf not being that great, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering him much as he carves through the water.

My fingers are pruney and I wade out of the water to dry off, then Liam calls for me. “Aelia! Come out here!”

I sigh and begin swimming towards him. I’m not the strongest swimmer, but I’m decently fit and I meet him halfway. We’re in front of where the waves start to break, so the water is a bit foamy. He pulls me up onto the board to sit between his legs, and I lean against his back. “Why did you want me out here?” I ask him, pushing my hair back out of my face. He kisses my cheek and leans to the side, turning us.

“We’re going to surf together.”

I guffaw. “Liam, I can barely get up, let alone keep up with a professional surfer.”

He chuckles. “That’s why you’re going to stand right with me and we will ride together. Don’t worry about it. I’ve got you. Just follow my lead.”