Page 44 of Fighting With Light

“Look at it this way…it would be way more of a headache to get rid of his body.” I side-eye her and keep the gun aimed at Ben, using my peripheral vision.

I drop the gun and sigh. “Fine, I’ll call my brother. He’s going to bepissed.” She smiles at me and gives me those eyes.This woman.“Does he have handcuffs in there?”

“I’ll look,” she says, and goes to fish around in the car.

I lift the gun at him again. “Lay your cheek on the pavement. She wants you to live, but if you move, I will not hesitate to end this disaster right here and now.”

He lowers himself to the pavement and rests his cheek on the ground.

Within easy shooting distance, I step away to call Emerson. I’m going to get an earful. God help me. The time on my phone reads ten at night, and I need at least seven hours of sleep before my competition tomorrow. I’ll just have to run off pure adrenaline and maybe some Aelia.

Lifting my phone to my ear, I wait for Emerson to answer while I stare at Ben, hoping he moves so I don’t have to deal with a captive because that makes everything a lot more complicated. Then again, Aelia is right. A body wouldn’t be easy to deal with. This is not my turf. I’m within enemy territory. My only saving grace is I won’t be waking Emerson up, otherwise he might actually kill me.

He answers the phone.

“What, Liam? I’m training,” he says.

“Hi, big brother. It’s good to hear your voice,” I say, smiling into the phone. I can hear his eyes roll all the way through the phone.

“Liam, I’m busy,” he says, a little breathless.

“Like busy,busy?” I ask him with a shit-eating grin.

Aelia yelps and holds the handcuffs she found up in the air, and proceeds to handcuff Ben’s hands behind his back.

“No,Liam, I’mtraining.I have a fight tonight.” I frown at that. I was hoping he stopped the underground fighting, but it could very well be a last minute legal fight.

“What kind of fight, Emerson?” I ask him seriously.

“Don’t worry about it, Liam. What do you need? Isn’t it late there? Don’t you have a major surf competition tomorrow?” I glance at Aelia again and she’s walking over towards me and the car.

“I have a situation,” I tell him.

He sighs and waits.

“So, I need you to come and get my new friend. He can’t stay with me,” I tell him.

Aelia leans against the Porsche’s hood and my mind goes blank. Pictures pop up in my head. Blood rushes in my ears and then I realize Emerson is talking.

“Liam? Liam, did you hear a word I just said?” I shake my head, blinking a few times.

“What? No, say it again,” I tell him.

He grumbles something. “Why do I need to come get yourfriend?” he asks.

“Well, I ran into a situation and the only way for me to be able to do what I need to do, is if thisfriendis out of the picture.”

Emerson is silent on the other side for a moment. The only reason I know he’s still there, is the sound of a glove hitting a punching bag.

“What did you do?” he asks.

“Surprisingly, this is not on me. So you can stop the blame game, Emmy. I need your help. Please get on the jet and come to Portugal.”

He sighs again. “Do I need to call Kai?” he asks.

I glance up at Aelia again, both of her hands are behind her and her head is tilted back.She is a picture.Ignoring Emerson, I swipe for my camera and snap a quick picture before she notices. I don’t know why I do it. But, I don’t question myself.

“No, no, don’t do that. He and Cordi have Theo to take care of. Leave them alone.”