Page 111 of Fighting With Light

She tilts her head, eyes searching mine. “No, but family is important, I know that. It’s the sole reason you and I are doing this. We just…” she trails off.

I wait for her to gather what she wants to say, but she leans in to kiss me instead. Every time she does, it makes me want to screammine.It makes me want to keep her so no other man can have her because she belongs tome.

She pecks my lips one more time, then leans back. “We should get some sleep,” she whispers.

I hide my nose in her neck, taking a deep breath of her. She hugs me back, and we stay like that for a while. We don’t know what will come tomorrow, or if we’ll survive it, so in this moment I want to remember theway her heart beats against mine. I want to soak in her warmth and the way it feels to hold the love of my life that I’ll never be able to call mine.

42

Liam

The next day we,hole up in me and Aelia’s room and set up our plan. Emerson brought a few maps of the area and the topographic map of the mountains. Aelia and I explain the patterns we’ve found and the terrain around the surrounding area. There are roads up into the mountains, but in some areas they are dirt or no road at all.

“We’re going to have to go in on foot from the east about three miles out. It’s going to take us at least three hours to get to the point, and we don’t know what we’re going to run into. We’ll leave before sunset. That way we can approach under the cover of night,” Emerson says.

Kai agrees and texts on his phone. “We should bring everything with us. I have a feeling we’ll need to go in and get out fast. The plane is on standby, ready for us when we pull up.”

I glance at Aelia, and she’s been quiet this whole time. “Aelia, do you have anything to add?” I ask her.

She blinks a few times and looks at me before peering at Kai and Emerson. “Uh, no, I don’t. All I know is these guys are brutal. I’ve heard conversations, but that’s it. I’ve never seen anything with my own eyes.”

“And you’resurethis is the place?” Kai asks.

“The last thing we need is to get caught up in some drug war with cartel leaders thinking we’re trying to encroach on their territory,” Emerson grumbles.

“No, we don’t, brother, that’s the point,” I say.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense. Liam and I talked about this. My father gets all of his cocaine from here. The Marín cartel has a monopoly on this entire city. Others have tried to get into the area, and he eliminates them withoutmercy. And he’s friends with the cartel over in Bogatá ninety percent of the cocaine coming out of this country is coming from them,” Aelia says.

“And how do you know this?” Emerson asks.

“Just because I’m a woman with a mobster father and brothers, doesn’t mean that I don’t hear things. I’m aware of much more than they think. I may not know every detail about my family’s business, but I do know who we source things from.”

Emerson dips his head once, accepting her answer.

“Look, we are aware it could be some random cook site, and we’ll strike out. But she’s been right every other time. We found the guns, so I think it’s worth the risk for the evidence,” I remind them.

“Have you considered that this could be all for nothing? Is any of this actually admissible? You know our father, Liam. He uses others as human shields and always has an out. He shot our mother and got away with it. Who is to say he won’t get away with it, anyway? I don’t know if you’ve been paying much attention to the polls, but they are all in his favor,” Kai says.

I wince. About eight months ago, we found out that he was looking for hackers to change votes on the electronic voting machines. The Costa’s did the leg work on the dark web and I was one of the hackers. There are multiple machines, and they compartmentalized the job enough that I couldn’t set up back doors to make the switch in vote fail for all of them. So, it will theoretically work. He will win the governorship through legitimate ways or theft. The only way to stop him from gaining more power is to put him away.

“Look, this is how I see it. If it isn’t admissible, then we leave quietly in the night. But if itis,it will take everything from him, and everyone can finally besafe. This case has to be plausible enough to open an official investigation to give them something to work with.This is that something,” I say, looking at Kai.

He’s worried about Cordi and Theo. They are staying with Mom while he’s down here. He has another race coming up in a few days. We all have lives we’ve been living half of, knowing that our father and his partnership with the Costas would always make it difficult. We’re tired of fighting a war we never chose.

“I’m sorry,” Aelia whispers.

She meets my eyes and then each of my brothers. “I’m sorry my father has been so…cruel. I’m sorry for what he’s done to all of you.”

I chuckle and shake my head. “Your father only added to it, baby. Ours has been evil since the day we were born.”

She huffs. “That makes four of us.”

“I agree. It’s worth the risk. But we need to move quickly,” Emerson says.

We all agree.

Kai stands. “I’m going to go call my wife.”