Fighting With Light (The Coldwell Brothers #2)

40. Aelia

40

Aelia

“For what?” he asks.

I bite my lip, not sure how to put what I’m feeling into words.

“We better get to bed. We have an early flight tomorrow,” I say.

Liam stares at me as if he knew what I was going to say, but he doesn’t push me on it. He goes back to typing on his computer while I finish getting ready for bed.

This is the first time I’ve met anyone’s family. I wish it was under better circumstances. Liam’s family is protective of each other, and based on what I know about them, that makes sense. I could tell they don’t trust me, but Liam didn’t at one point either. The truth can be difficult. I might be keeping things from him, but I haven’t lied because I’ve been lying to myself more than anything.

I love him, I want to tell him, but we have an agreement. We are feeling a lot right now and it would not be a good time to admit those feelings because I can tell the conversation with his family is eating at him. They weren’t happy, but they also weren’t angry. That has to be confusing.

Nervous doesn’t even begin to cover the way I’m feeling about going to Colombia. But I can’t lose sight of the mission. This is going to help my mother and Liam’s family. It will all be worth it. I know that, but at what cost?

I stare at Liam’s back until I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.

The bed moves, waking me up, and I feel his arms come around my ribs. Even half-asleep, it sends butterflies into a dizzy dance in my stomach.

** *

We get up early the next morning and Liam has to drag me behind him while he carries most of our bags.

“Princess, we are going to miss our flight if you don’t hurry your cute ass up.”

“I need coffee,” I mutter, following behind.

“I promise we will get you some after we get through security.”

I roll my eyes and trudge behind him.

“Here,” he says, holding out a blue passport.

I frown and touch my pocket and realize mine isn’t there.

“Wait, where is…”

“We can’t have Aelia Costa recorded as coming into Colombia so, Mr. and Mrs. Banks are going to Colombia to go rock climbing.”

“How did you get this?” I ask him, turning it over in my hands.

He shrugs. “I have my ways.”

“There is no way you got this in less than twenty-four hours.”

He shrugs again. “I have connections, princess, or should I say, wife. ” Liam grins widely at me and the way my heart is fluttering in my chest makes me think being his wife would be…amazing.

Shaking the thought from my head, I take it and follow him to security.

After we get to our gate, he leaves me with the bags to get us some coffee. I sink back into my seat and watch people going to their designated areas. Curious, I flip the passport back and forth in my hand. It went through security without issue. I open it and find stamps from other countries, some I haven’t been to before. My photo is the same, but as I scrutinize it, I can tell my face looks a little longer and my forehead a little wider. Slight differences that wouldn’t pick up on a facial recognition software. It’s a good one, a really good one. It would be pretty difficult for customs to pick up on the differences with the naked eye.

By the time Liam comes back with our coffee, they call to start boarding, and the nerves keep growing. It feels like the closer we are to Colombia, the more this seems like a terrible idea.

“How is the coffee?” he asks .

I take another careful sip. “It’s good.”

“Good, I made it just like you like it.”

I take another sip and realize he put cinnamon in it.

“You noticed I like my coffee with cinnamon?”

We move up the line again as they check people in.

“Well yeah, we’ve been living together for almost two months. And you’re my wife, of course I know you like your coffee with cinnamon,” he says, grinning ear to ear.

For a second I forget my nervousness and giggle.

“You’re so beautiful when you smile, you know that?”

“What about when I don’t smile?” I ask him.

He purses his lips and takes a drink of his coffee like he’s pondering the answer to my question.

“Yep, still beautiful. I just like it when those smiles are specifically because of me.”

It’s our turn and they scan our tickets and we go through the little walkway connected to the plane that feels like it’s about to take us to our deaths.

Once we’re seated, Liam grabs my hand and kisses my knuckles.

We stare at each other and as cliché as it sounds I get lost in his emerald eyes. They change color depending on the day and his mood. When he’s happy and outside surfing, they turn the color of the jade ocean. When he’s on fire for me they are like the first green of spring, bright and full of life.

“Kiss me,” I whisper.

He tilts his head, scrutinizing my face, and grabs the back of my neck, pulling me into him. Our kiss is sweet, careful, and filled with desire. For me, it’s filled with love that I can’t give him in all the ways that I want. He makes a funny noise and pulls away.

“Gotta stop, otherwise we’re going to join the mile-high club and we’re not even in the air yet.”

I giggle and shake my head.

“I’m sorry to break it to you, but I joined that club a while ago.”

He chuckles and kisses my cheek .

“I did too, but I feel like it would be like the first time with you,” he says and winks.

“And that’s why I married you, Mr. Banks, you charmed the panties right off of me.”

“And that’s why I left my playboy days behind, Mrs. Banks because there was no other woman for me.”

A breath startles in my lungs and I try to smile, but I can’t because it feels like another lash to my bleeding heart.

By the time we take off, reality comes rushing back from the little fantasy world Liam and I were living in, and I watch it disappear on a wisp of a cloud that’s only in my dreams.

***

By the time we arrive in the city of Medellín in Colombia, every muscle in my body feels like it could snap like a brittle rubber band. Liam tugs me off the plane holding my carry-on, and we make our way to baggage claim.

His brothers will arrive via their jet at one of the private airports here, so the multiple Coldwell passports shouldn’t ring any bells, we hope. Liam leads me by the hand to baggage claim for us to get our larger bags while he has our backpacks on one shoulder and the other hand rolling the carry-on.

My hand sweats in his large one and I keep looking around, expecting one of my father’s goons to jump out at us. Or maybe he called his connection here and is having them watch for me.

I spot a man staring at us with a straight face, and my heart leaps into my throat. I almost alert Liam when the man smiles. Confused, I look behind me and realize he was waiting for someone. The man opens his arms and hugs a younger version of himself.

Take a chill pill, Aelia .

“Aelia? Aelia,” Liam singsongs. I look up at him and his worried eyes make me take a second. “Can you hold the bags?” I take them while he goes to the carousel to pick up our luggage.

I watch him and keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. He takes his backpack, strapping it on his back, then hangs his surfboard over his shoulder. Liam grabs both of our larger suitcases while I carry the carry-on and my bag.

He doesn’t say a word as we walk out of the airport and he finds us a cab. Liam knows I’m nervous, but he is well aware that nothing he says to me will help assuage my fears because Liam Coldwell can do a lot of things, but he cannot stop a bullet.

We grab a cab and I don’t know where we’re going. It hits me yet again how much I trust Liam. I trust he has a plan to keep us safe, and I’ve never trusted anyone like this ever . The thought makes my heart pang and I lean into his side. We were able to find a minivan cab so everything fit in the back. His arm tightens around my shoulders and I feel his mouth over the top of my head.

I don’t know how he couldn’t be nervous, too. We are walking into a lion’s den with no concept of how many lions there are. We pull up to a hotel and unload our stuff. Liam passes the cab driver a nice tip, and he smiles wide and shakes Liam’s hand.

The moment Liam locks the door to our hotel room, I take a deep breath. My hands are shaking and I want to burst into tears. I didn’t think we would make it this far.

“I thought I might have to carry you because you were about to pass out,” Liam says.

I glare at him and he shrugs.

“Babe, we’re fine. No one was following us. We’re just a married couple on an adventure.”

“If my father has people here they will recognize me, Liam. You understand that, right?”

He nods and pulls me into his arms squeezing me tight.

“Deep breath, we’re okay.”

“You don’t know that,” I mutter into his shirt .

He leans back and holds me out at arm’s length.

“You’re right, princess, we don’t, but my brothers will be here soon and we’ll be gone in forty-eight hours.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to avoid my father anymore, Liam. Especially when we get back into the States.”

He drops his arms. “I get it, but we’ll be taking the private jet home, we won’t go through normal channels when we land. If your father has someone watching our family, we can figure out how to hide you or something. I have a place on the beach. I don’t go there a lot and it’s a shack, but we could hole up there.”

“Then what, Liam?” I huff, exasperated.

His nostrils flair and he drags his hand through his hair.

“I don’t know, Aelia. But, right now, we need to focus on the task at hand or we all really will be dead.”

“Or sold into slavery,” I mutter.

“Lovely, well let’s make sure that doesn’t happen,” he says.

I look around the room and it’s pretty bare. There’s a bed, a chair, one nightstand, a lamp, and a dresser with a TV that has to be at least ten years old. At least it’s clean.

“Nice digs, Tarzan,” I mutter.

He chuckles, pushing his hand through his hair and looking around the room. “Well, princess, I know it’s not the Ritz, but it’s safe, and if they’re looking for us I doubt they will find us in this shit hole. I figured four or five-star accommodations wouldn’t be very incognito would it?”

I pin my lips together trying to keep my laugh in because he’s done everything in his power to make sure we’re okay, and nothing about our situation is a laughing matter, but…My mouth bursts open with a laugh and Liam’s grin spreads across his face and leans in pressing a kiss to my cheek.

“Come on, when do you think those sheets were last washed?”

“Oh, I’m sure they’re fine. I’ve slept on a mat in the dirt before. This can’t be that bad.” He grabs the covers of the bed and yanks them back. They’re surprisingly white.

“See? Not bad at all. ”

I roll my eyes and yank the corner of the fitted sheet to find a mattress cover.

“Fine, you win.”

He chuckles. “Alright, do what you need to do. We need to meet my brothers in two hours.”

I nod and grab my suitcase. I need to look presentable to meet Liam’s family. My last name doesn’t help my situation, so the least I can do is look pretty.

“I’m going to take a shower,” I tell him, grabbing my toiletries bag.

“Why? You look great,” he says.

I smile and shake my head. “Keep giving me compliments like that, and I might have to give you one back.” I wink.

“Well in that case, I haven’t been able to stop staring at your ass in those yoga pants, and I like when you wear my shirt. And your messy bun makes me want to pull it out and—”

“How long have you been thinking about this?”

He shrugs. “Since you got dressed this morning.”

“You’re a charmer, Tarzan. I’ll be out in a minute.”