Page 78 of Fighting With Light

I stayed to get Mom back to normal until she told me to leave her alone. I know I was overbearing but…she’s my mom. She’s the woman that saved me and my brothers. We owe her our lives, it’s why we do the things we do.

Coming from my abusive father, barely getting by for a few months to stay hidden, and then being militarily trained to protect ourselves is an odd upbringing. It’s even more insane that each of my brothers are professional athletes in sports that can be quite life-threatening. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that nothing happens without reason or purpose, even the bad things. So with that logic, we are who we were meant to be, and that scares me.But who else is going to get hurt?

The ocean ebbs under my board as I sit there frozen by my own choices. Aelia knows I’m not exactly good, especially because of how we started. But she hasn’t seen the bloodthirsty man, and I hope she never has to. When my brothers and I have to do something to protect our family, it’s like a switch for each of us. We flip into these different men to get the job done. It’s why we call each other One, Two, and Three. It’s not Dr. Seuss, it’s like an alter ego, it’s the men we have to become to protect what matters. I’m not proud of the things I’ve done, but I would do them again, and I don’t know what that says about me.

It certainly doesn’t make me good enough for Aelia. I feel like that makes me just as bad as her father. A sin is a sin, and I’ve committed plenty of them, God forgive me.

“Liam!” I hear from the shore. I find Aelia standing in the water with sunglasses on and her hands on her hips. I glance behind me with the intention of catching something to ride into shore. I have no idea how long I’ve been out here, I forgot to grab my diver’s watch because I was too busy trying to run away from Aelia.

A wave comes up and I paddle hard, leaping up and giving it my all as I ride into shore. The water dies, and I hop off my board and wade toward her with my board. Aelia meets me halfway in the shallow water. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ve been out here watching you. I called for you because you were just floating out there I thought something happened,” she says.

I shake my head and a small smile grows on my face. “No, I’m okay.”

“Are you ready to come in or do you want to go back out?” she asks.

I stare at this small Italian woman and she makes my insides feel like the warm sun beats down on me, it’s comfortable and it makes you smile.

She is my sun.

“Nah, I think I’m done for today,” I tell her and we start wading out of the water. My heart wasn’t really in it because I was too busy trying to ignore all my other thoughts.

“Do you feel ready for tomorrow?” she asks as we walk through the hot sand.

I’ve tried not to think about it. I would rather focus on her. “I think I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” I tell her.

She reaches for my free hand. “I’m looking forward to it, I think you’re going to kill it.”

I smile and lean down kissing her temple. “Thank you, baby.”

30

Liam

When we get backto the villa, I start thinking through ways to find the plane that arrives in Mexico City and figure out what’s on it. But the cocaine may not be all together, it could be shipped in multiple ways. They could parcel it out and send it in three different directions. I have no idea how to find something like that except watching it happen with my own eyes. Those things aren’t trackable with computers because there’s nothing to track. The only thing I can think of is hacking into cameras, but that’s assuming I know what to look for. My jaw clenches out of frustration because I hate dead ends.

I could go at it from looking around the dark web, but again, that’s assuming there is something to find. The AC kicks on and I shiver a little with the cool air.

Aelia groans and spins around in her chair. “This is so boring. I know we have a job to do, but this is killing me. We need to do something fun because this has all been way too serious,” she says.

I put my tablet down. “I mean, it kind of is serious,” I mutter.

She purses her lips and glares.

“Okay then, what did you have in mind?”

“I don’t know you’re the one that’s been here before,” she quips.

“Well, it’s not that late. There’s still time for fun. How about rock climbing?” I suggest.

She smiles at me. “You did buy me all that gear, and I would like to use it.”

“Then it’s a date.” I grin and go over to the room phone. “Get your gear and everything pulled out. I’ve been dying to use my motorcycle.”

She leaps out of her chair, going to her suitcase. Clothes fly while I call the front desk for them to pack up a lunch for us. I know of a place we can go climb and we’ll need to hike half of it.

“Hey, baby,” I call.