Page 94 of Fighting With Light

“Areyouready?” I ask him.

He drags his hand through his hair, that’s getting close to his shoulders, and nods. “I think I am. The weather looks good. The ocean looks nice and clean from here, so I think it’s going to be a good day.”

I smile. “I’m ready to see you get aggro, Tarzan.”

He throws his head back and laughs. Then his eyes meet mine with a smile still over his face, and he lifts his thumb to my lips. “Where did you learn that?” he asks.

I lift a shoulder. “The internet,” I mumble.

“Did the internet also tell you that means aggressive, as in aggressive surfing techniques?”

I purse my lips at him and narrow my eyes. “Can we go?”

He chuckles to himself a little more and grabs my helmet. “I like that you’re trying to learn the lingo.”

We walk the bike to the parking lot like we did before. With the surfboard attached to it, it’s a little harder to get on, but I manage and then he speeds us off to the beach.

While we fly down the tropical road, I rest my cheek on his back and keep my arms around his ribs. I’m living in ournow.

***

The waves were perfect and the day ran smoothly. The tropical sun was shining and Liam did really well. He’s going to the finals in California to vie for the world title.

When we make it back to the villa, Liam goes for a shower and I go back to the satellite to keep searching. I’ve lost hope that we will find what we’re looking for, let alone thecorrectcook sight. But I refuse to give up because I have this feeling that if we find it, then everything will break wide open. We will get all the evidence we need to open a case to investigate both of our fathers. They will fall like dominoes.

We have less than ten days before we need to be in California, so that doesn’t leave us much time to go to Colombia, look around like Scooby-Doo and the gang, and find acluebefore the finals—all without dying. I don’t know much about this drug cartel, but I know they don’t mess around, and clearly they are smart because they have their shipping and production operating like an imports-exports company.

The bathroom door opens and steam wafts out into the room.

“You’re still looking, aren’t you?” he asks.

I nod and drag the mouse a little higher up the screen to pan across the landscape. “I’m not so sure we’re going to find it, Aelia.”

“Do you have any better ideas? Because going to a private airport to ask them what type of cargo they have isn’t going to work, and if these men are anything like my father, and it’s fair to assume that they are, they will kill us on the spot, and I don’t think it will be a bullet to the head. I’ve heard stories about them,Liam, they use machetes and…” I trail off, with no desire to continue with that mental picture, let alone the potential to see Liam die. That would kill me on its own, they wouldn’t have to bother with the machete.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. We’ll figure it out. The airport is a place to start. Give me some credit, Aelia. I wasn’t planning on just walking in there and demanding to look in the box.”

“I know,” I sigh. “I just…I think we would be better off finding where they manufacture the cocaine.”

“And you don’t think they wouldn’t try to hack us up with machetes if they catch us?” he asks me.

“I mean…we would have the mountains to disappear in…” I suggest.

He makes a good point.

“We will keep looking,” he says and brushes past me to the closet where he has clothes piled up. I go back to the screen and keep looking, inch by inch.

If I can find this production site, maybe Liam and I could have a chance.I almost startle myself with the thought. This isn’t just about my father anymore. This is about me and Liam, and the potential for a futuretogether.

35

Aelia

“Aelia, wake up,” Liamwhispers. My eyes whip open and I sit up, thinking something is wrong. “Get dressed, princess, the sun is going to start coming up,” he says.

I groan and throw myself back down. “You woke me up to watch the sunrise?” I grumble.

He chuckles and kisses my cheek. “Every sunrise and sunset is different, it’s like a fingerprint, special on its own, impossible to replicate.”