Page 114 of Fighting With Light

“Make it seven, we saw a man dragging a woman on the other side of the camp, and she was fighting him,” Aelia mutters.

“Shit,” Emerson says, looking at the map and trying to figure out a game plan.

“I…I don’t know if my father has anything to do with this, but he is getting deeper into trafficking and…I know you don’t like me, but we have to save them. We have to try to—”

Kai raises his hand. “We’re going to help them however we can; we just need to figure out how the three of us can make that happen.”

I clear my throat, and Kai glances at me.

“Maybe you should stay back,” Kai suggests to Aelia.

Then a branch snaps.

43

Liam

Aelia moves faster thanI’ve ever seen her, throwing my Bowie knife at the man’s shoulder. Stunned, he stumbles back, and I watch in awe as she launches for him, landing on top. All that’s heard is branches snapping and leaves rustling, and then a quiet bang as she shoots him in the head. We look around, holding our breath, hoping no one heard anything.

Aelia lifts off of the man and yanks the knife out of his body. She cleans it off on his shirt, then walks back over to us with the knife in one hand and the gun in the other. She lifts the barrel of the gun, looking at Kai and Emerson as she blows on the barrel of the silencer before putting it in the holster.

My gut tugs, my heart thuds in my chest, and if my brothers weren’t here, my tongue would be down her throat right now. I kind of feel like a cartoon character with hearts shooting out of my eyes. I stare at her as she squats down next to me.Screw it.I grab her neck, hauling her face to mine. Our lips smash together with an electric zing and then I rip my mouth away.

“Well then,” Kai says.

“We need to approach the tents from the east side of the camp. Aelia, you should go in first because I’m not sure the women will respond well to three men coming into the tent first,” Emerson says.

She nods.

“I brought a grenade or two…” I mutter.

“Really, little brother?” Kai says.

“I didn’t pack grenades,” Emerson grumbles.

I shrug. “I know the bags you pack and I may have slipped a few in there.”

“Dumbass,” Emerson grumbles.

“You never know when you might need a grenade.” I grin.

“Well, it looks like we’re going to use your grenade to create a distraction to get these people out of here,” Emerson says.

“But what if they can’t run?” Aelia asks.

Emerson sighs and rubs his chin. “I don’t know. Carry them? None of us are familiar with this area, so hiding them seems too risky. And we would have a tough time coming back to get them.”

“So let’s just hope we can either carry them or they can run.”

We’re all silent for a moment.

“We all understand that the moment we do this, we will become enemies of the Marín Cartel. It will make everything worse. Especially for you, princess,” I say and look at her.

Our eyes lock and I struggle to process what I’m seeing.

“I don’t care. They don’t deserve this. No one does.”

“She’s right. Even if we left to come back with reinforcements, they could be long gone by then,” Emerson says.