Fighting With Light (The Coldwell Brothers #2)

38. Liam

38

Liam

Surfing lessons flew out the door when she found what we believe is the manufacturing location. The only way to confirm it is by putting eyes on it ourselves.

I would leave her behind and go by myself, but I know Aelia and she will want to go with me. I ended up hacking into the homemade website for the private airport and found similar manifests to the ones I found that are closer to the Medellín city center. Those could be anything. They could be a consistent shipment of something harmless. There would be no way to know, short of going to open the box myself. The same goes for these manifests, but they stick out more than the others. A private airport that barely has any movement has one plane that always flies to Mexico City and back. It’s the same plane and the manifests list the exact weight. Of course, the content of that weight is unknown. But the likelihood of it being the cocaine we need to track from Colombia to the East Coast could be high. Granted, there’s a lot of cocaine production in Colombia. So, it’s plausible that it’s another organization. The only way to know is to go.

It’s time for me to call my brothers. I’m not ready for our precarious bubble to break just yet, and I’m not ready to give her up either. But I can’t put it off anymore.

Ever since I realized that I’m in love with this woman, I’ve been trying to figure out how we can make it work.

I’ve texted back and forth with my brothers, but they have remained relatively unaware, aside from Ben in the basement, just as I wanted it. I don’t know what to tell them. Up until now, I didn’t think I’d have to. I’m not ready for the slap in the face Emerson will inevitably give me because he thinks I’m being reckless. But this has to be done for all of us.

I spin around in my chair and look at Aelia sleeping. Her lips are parted and the blanket I pulled over her is at her waist.

There has to be a way for Aelia and me to stay together if she still wants me. But the voice in the back of my head says it’s too risky and she probably doesn’t, so I’ll keep my mouth shut and enjoy what I can with her for the time we have left.

Spinning back around, I book our plane tickets to Colombia, first class, tomorrow. We don’t have time to waste and I need to be back in California in five days, which will give us enough time to get what we need, fly back, and give me enough time to be ready to clench the championship.

After I’m done, I kneel in front of Aelia in bed and flick her nose. It squishes, and she brushes in front of her face, her eyes staying closed. I grin and do it again. She brushes her nose, and I reach up to mess with her again and she grabs my hand. “Why?” she mumbles and opens her eyes.

I grin and lean in, pressing my lips to hers. “Because it’s funny,” I mumble.

“I swear you are a child,” she mutters and lets go of my hand. “Are you done doing everything you were doing?”

“Yeah, I think you found it, but we need to put eyes on it. So I booked tickets to Colombia for tomorrow.”

Her eyes spring open and her whole body stiffens.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay. I already figured we would have the cover of being there to climb. There’s some great climbing there. It’s not too far-fetched.”

Her lips purse and she nods stiffly.

I knew she was nervous and trying to find every reason not to go, but I couldn’t figure out how else to confirm this information. It’s not like we can go up to the border patrol and tell them to look for something we don’t know how to describe. Plus, I have a feeling that my father is giving the border patrol a reason to turn their heads to the shipments. I don’t know how he can do that, but I will find out .

“I’ll need to call my brothers because I don’t think this is something we can do on our own.”

“Meeting the family already? I didn’t realize we were that deep in our relationship,” Aelia says with a soft smile.

I chuckle and crawl up on top of her, and lay my head on her chest. “It’s going to be okay, princess. We’re close. We will have a full-blown case so airtight they won’t be able to ignore it.”

“I hope you’re right.” She pauses. “I’m scared, Liam,” she whispers.

I lift my head. “Scared? Princess, you’re with me, and you have nothing to be scared of.”

She rolls her eyes and I kiss her, skimming my tongue around the seam of her lips and she opens for me with a small moan. Aelia lifts her knees and locks her ankles at my thighs, tightening her muscles and trying to pull me down. I relent, rolling us to the side, and hug her body to mine as I thrust my tongue into her mouth, and her nails dig into my neck. Needing to breathe, I rip my head away and we’re both inhaling sharply.

“Do you still want to learn how to surf?” I ask her.

“Yeah,” she says on an exhale. Our legs are tangled together, and she’s wrapped in my arms, and I don’t want to let her go. I want to stay here in this villa to keep her safe, so I let myself believe for just a moment that we have no life-threatening events in the near future. We just like seeking the heart-pounding thrills of trying new things and finding adventure together. This would be the perfect time to tell her how I feel, especially before Colombia, but it doesn’t change the future.

“Okay, come on, princess, I want to see you shred the gnar.” I grin and hop out of bed. She giggles and follows me.

“More like biffing the gnar, but let’s do this.”

** *

“Paddle, paddle, paddle, and up,” I repeat. Aelia pushes herself to her feet, but struggles to place them where they should go on the board.

She groans and stands up straight. “I’m not going to get this. I can’t seem to move fast enough.”

“Maybe you’re more of a learn-by-doing kind of girl. What if we just get you out on the water?” I ask her.

“I feel like that’s a terrible idea, but okay, let’s try it.”

“Atta girl.” I carry my board into the ocean with Aelia trailing behind me. She hops on, and then I get on top of her to paddle us out behind the break.

After we get on shore, I turn us around. Aelia’s legs dangle on either side of the board next to mine as the ocean moves us in a steady rhythm. “Alright, I’m going to leave you to it. I’ll be past the break, offshore. Okay?”

She looks at me over her shoulder. Her wet hair is slicked back and her golden skin is radiant. She’s my Italian goddess. I didn’t know it was possible to be obsessed with someone the way I am with her.

“See you on the other side,” I tell her and tip myself off the board. I pop back up, and she smiles before I turn around and body surf past the break. Once I get closer to shore, I stand to watch. I don’t want to tell her when to go. I want her to figure out when the ocean tells her she’s ready.

She bobs up and down, then she moves.

I tense, watching her decide to take the wave. She looks behind her and in front, just like I taught her as she paddles as hard as she can. She checks again and then struggles to hop on her feet. I grit my teeth as she drops into the wave unsteadily and gets thrown. I wait for a second, looking for her head to pop out of the water, and force myself to take a deep breath.

She’s a decently strong swimmer, she’ll be okay. But when I don’t see her brown hair pop up out of the blue surf, panic sets in because I can’t see her, then I look to my left again, and she’s holding on to the side of the board, brushing her hair out of her face.

She groans in frustration and I can hear it from shore. “I’m fine,” she yells.

Aelia gets herself back onto the board, and I watch her paddle back out behind the break to go for it again, and she biffs it over and over again. At this point, I’m waiting for her to quit and come in kicking and screaming, but her face is set in stone. She wants to surf.

So I stay in the water and give her all the time she needs because right now, we have all the time in the world. We don’t need to think about anything else, like calling my brothers and telling them everything I’ve been up to. I’ve been dodging them. Since we need their help in Colombia, it’s time to face the music.

Aelia lifts herself back up on the board. She’s closer to shore this time, and her boob has popped out of her swimsuit. “Aelia!”

She turns her head to me and I yell, “Your boob!”

She looks down and shoves it back into her swimsuit top, and promptly flips me off. I chuckle, and she seems to convince herself to go back out.

I understand determination, but seeing her swallow a gallon of seawater isn’t fun, either. But that’s something about Aelia that I appreciate so deeply. She’s not only tenacious, but once she sets her mind to something, there is no stopping her. Just like when I was belaying her up the wall. It didn’t matter if she slipped. I wouldn’t have let her fall, but that’s not the point. She set her mind and finished the route, ignoring the fear. I respect the hell out of her for it. Maybe more of us should be as courageous as her.