Fighting With Light (The Coldwell Brothers #2)

34. Aelia

34

Aelia

The door opens, waking me up, and I hear the ocean like it’s playing on a speaker before it’s dulled again by the door closing. I peek my eyes open and Liam is standing there with a bouquet of flowers in his hand and a smile on his handsome face.

I sit up, pulling the sheet to cover my chest. “Morning, beautiful,” he says and walks to my side of the bed.

Brushing my hair out of my face, I smile, trying to ignore the way my heart dances around in sync with the butterflies in my stomach. “Wow, Liam, these are gorgeous,” I say, a little taken aback. He grins and hands me the collection of roses, sunflowers, and daisies.

Breathing in one of the roses, my eyes burn, and my chest gets tight. No one has ever bought me flowers before. I glance at him reading something on his computer, and I’m suddenly petrified. I think I’m falling in love with Liam Coldwell, and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.

He’s like cliff diving and not looking at what’s below you. He’s a rush of adrenaline coupled with safety. He’s the man the little girl in me always hoped would rescue her from the dungeon she was born and raised in.

He frowns and takes a step towards me. “Are you okay? Are you allergic to one of those? I can take them back. I’ll find you different ones.”

I shake my head and set the flowers on the bedside table, still at a loss for words.

“Okay,” he says, drawing out the word. “Then why do you look like I kicked your puppy? ”

My eyes burn and I want to say those words to him so much it hurts. I want to ask him if we can find a way. But over the short time we’ve been together, I know what he will say.

It’s impossible.

“No one has ever bought me flowers before,” I rasp.

Liam looks at me and sits down on the bed next to me. “I’m glad I could be the first,” he says. But his eyes say, and I wish I could be the last. “I have to admit, though, that’s pretty hard for me to believe. What man wouldn’t want to buy you flowers?” he asks with that charming grin.

“That’s a great question,” I say, smiling through the heavy weight of loving someone who can’t be yours. What have I done?

He grips my chin and lifts my eyes to him.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re usually beelining for your coffee.”

I lift a shoulder and lean into his hand.

“Did I scramble your brain last night?” he asks with a triumphant look in his eye.

I giggle and roll my eyes. “You wish, Tarzan.”

Liam leans forward and gently, infuriatingly, presses his lips to mine.

“The competition is in about three hours. I’m going to eat and get ready,” he says. Lifting my chin, I kiss him one more time.

“I’ll get dressed now,” I mutter. He stares into my eyes a moment longer, then releases his hold on me and goes back to his computer. He seems calm and ready for his surf today. I’m hoping for his sake it’s a good day. The more rescheduling that happened in Portugal, the more agitated he would get. I’m sure it messes with your head, almost like he’s messing with mine.

Dropping the sheet, I head to the bathroom to pull myself together.

“You should really give a man a warning, princess,” Liam says as I turn around to close the door. His eyes trail up and down my body, and all I can do is wink at him before closing the door.

I get the shower super hot, stand beneath the spray, and cry. I pin my lips together, holding the sobs. I know one sound, and he will come in here wondering what’s wrong. And I would have no choice but to say everything, everything is wrong because this isn’t fair and the moment we agreed to allow ourselves to be hurt by one another was the worst decision of my life. This pain is nothing like I could have predicted. My heart is splitting in two and I simply have to take it.

It doesn’t matter, anyway. I was promised to a man I don’t even know. It’s part of the reason I agreed with Liam. I knew we could never be. But…what if we could ?

Another cry fills my throat and I try to swallow it down and breathe through the pain. I wash my hair, shave, and then turn the water to ice cold to shake myself out of it. I think if I told him about the marriage agreement between my father and another family, he would help me get out of it. Going as far as killing the man I’m promised to. But I can’t put Liam in that position.

Liam has his own family to protect, which is why this all started. I do, too. I have my mother to think about. My brothers can handle themselves, but that doesn’t mean what I’m doing won’t help them, too.

Flipping the water off, I grab a towel, feeling myself go numb to my reality and robotically brush my hair and grab a robe to go find a bikini to put on. I’m not even in the mood to find something scantily clad to mess with Liam. Seeing his fiery eyes when he takes me in just hurts too much.

I open the door and find Liam sitting at the table, shoveling eggs and a giant pupusa into his mouth. The pupusa is a cross between a tortilla and naan. They’re bready, but neutral, and you can eat them with anything.

“Sorry I started without you,” he mumbles around the food in his mouth.

The corner of my mouth tips up and I hate him for it because it makes it that much worse. No, you don’t hate him at all. You’re in love with the idiot, or maybe I’m the idiot. Instead of grabbing my swimsuit, I sit across from him and grab some coffee still wrapped in a towel. He hands me a pupusa and scoops some eggs onto my plate. I take a drink of my coffee and can’t help myself as I smile at him. He takes another bite and then realizes I’m staring at him.

“What?” he asks, mouth full.

I shake my head. “Nothing. ”

I’m careful not to disturb or distract him. I would assume I’m put in the background of his mind, but on our way to the beach in Portugal, he held my hand. He made sure I was okay.

Which tells me one thing. I sit in the forefront of his mind like he does mine, and that can only mean this hurts him just as much. I glance at the computer and remember what we’re doing here together.

This is not a simple fling. We have a purpose, bringing down our fathers, and for a moment, I did forget. It’s easy to lose sight of everything else when it comes to Liam.

I’m aware it’s not considered healthy to lose yourself to someone and forget everything else. But love has that kind of power and it’s not something you can fight. If I’m being honest with myself, I don’t know if I have the strength to do it, anyway.

After I get dressed, I wait for Liam to tell us it’s time to go. He’s outside hooking up his board to the motorcycle. He checks his bag and then looks up through the glass. I take that as my cue and meet him outside.

“Ready?” he asks.

“Are you ready?” I ask him.

He drags his hand through his hair, that’s getting close to his shoulders, and nods. “I think I am. The weather looks good. The ocean looks nice and clean from here, so I think it’s going to be a good day.”

I smile. “I’m ready to see you get aggro, Tarzan.”

He throws his head back and laughs. Then his eyes meet mine with a smile still over his face, and he lifts his thumb to my lips. “Where did you learn that?” he asks.

I lift a shoulder. “The internet,” I mumble.

“Did the internet also tell you that means aggressive, as in aggressive surfing techniques?”

I purse my lips at him and narrow my eyes. “Can we go?”

He chuckles to himself a little more and grabs my helmet. “I like that you’re trying to learn the lingo. ”

We walk the bike to the parking lot like we did before. With the surfboard attached to it, it’s a little harder to get on, but I manage and then he speeds us off to the beach.

While we fly down the tropical road, I rest my cheek on his back and keep my arms around his ribs. I’m living in our now .

***

The waves were perfect and the day ran smoothly. The tropical sun was shining and Liam did really well. He’s going to the finals in California to vie for the world title.

When we make it back to the villa, Liam goes for a shower and I go back to the satellite to keep searching. I’ve lost hope that we will find what we’re looking for, let alone the correct cook sight. But I refuse to give up because I have this feeling that if we find it, then everything will break wide open. We will get all the evidence we need to open a case to investigate both of our fathers. They will fall like dominoes.

We have less than ten days before we need to be in California, so that doesn’t leave us much time to go to Colombia, look around like Scooby-Doo and the gang, and find a clue before the finals—all without dying. I don’t know much about this drug cartel, but I know they don’t mess around, and clearly they are smart because they have their shipping and production operating like an imports-exports company.

The bathroom door opens and steam wafts out into the room.

“You’re still looking, aren’t you?” he asks.

I nod and drag the mouse a little higher up the screen to pan across the landscape. “I’m not so sure we’re going to find it, Aelia.”

“Do you have any better ideas? Because going to a private airport to ask them what type of cargo they have isn’t going to work, and if these men are anything like my father, and it’s fair to assume that they are, they will kill us on the spot, and I don’t think it will be a bullet to the head. I’ve heard stories about them, Liam, they use machetes and…” I trail off, with no desire to continue with that mental picture, let alone the potential to see Liam die. That would kill me on its own, they wouldn’t have to bother with the machete.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. We’ll figure it out. The airport is a place to start. Give me some credit, Aelia. I wasn’t planning on just walking in there and demanding to look in the box.”

“I know,” I sigh. “I just…I think we would be better off finding where they manufacture the cocaine.”

“And you don’t think they wouldn’t try to hack us up with machetes if they catch us?” he asks me.

“I mean…we would have the mountains to disappear in…” I suggest.

He makes a good point.

“We will keep looking,” he says and brushes past me to the closet where he has clothes piled up. I go back to the screen and keep looking, inch by inch.

If I can find this production site, maybe Liam and I could have a chance. I almost startle myself with the thought. This isn’t just about my father anymore. This is about me and Liam, and the potential for a future together.