Page 53 of Fighting For Light
“I hope you both slept well?” Esmarie asked. Kai glances at me, and I hope I’m not blushing right now. Kai takes my hand and sets it on his thigh while he takes a sip of his coffee. “I hope you don’t mind. I took the liberty of ordering a few things for us before you arrived.”
“Thank you, it looks wonderful,” I say, looking at all the brightly colored fruit and Danishes. Kai grips my hand in his, not wanting to let me go, and I collect fruit and a Danish with my other, filling my small plate.
“Did Emerson call you?” Esmarie asks Kai.
“He did, but I haven’t talked to Liam yet, and he was going to look into a few things.”
“It’s an election season, Kai. You know he’s going to announce running again soon. You know what he wants,” she says quietly, leaning forward yet still looking every bit the regal queen that she is.
“Yes, Mom, I do. That’s why we’re trying to figure out what his move is so we can get ahead of it.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible, son. Even when I was with him, I’d anticipate everything, and he’d still surprise me. And I paid for it,” she says. A flash of pain covers her face before she locks it back up into a picture of peace.
Kai’s hand twitches on mine like he’s doing his best to keep his anger in check. “I told Cordelia everything,” Kai says to her.
She glances at me. “And how do you feel about that, Cordelia?” she asks before taking a sip of tea.
I take a drink of my own, looking for the best words to answer her question. Kai squeezes my hand, and I glance at him before facing Esmarie. “There is nothing to say. I love him more than the things he can’t control. I blame his father, not him, and certainly not you.”
She looks me in the eye, likely searching for the lie, but she won’t find one within me. I mean it. I don’t like the position Kai’sin, and I don’t have to agree with all of it, but I certainly will continue to love him through it, nonetheless.
“I applaud you for your acceptance of a difficult past, but you do understand why I struggle to believe you are so quick to embrace it,” Esmarie says. Kai threads his fingers through mine and sits up a little more.
“Mom, we had the discussion. Our family is not easy to love, seeing as we come with a mountain of baggage. That being said, she isveryaware ofallof our realities. I understand your apprehension, but if she says she’s fine with it, then she’s fine with it.”
I thought I would be more scared about everything than I am, but I’m not.
Kai’s long fingers release my own and wrap around my wrist. He lays two fingers on the underside, searching for my pulse point. He’s done that a few times as if he doesn’t believe I’m telling him the truth about how I feel. He presses them to my skin and looks at me. His expression is tight and full of concern. Before I can reassure him, his phone buzzes in his pocket. He leans forward and pecks me on the lips, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
“It’s Liam. I need to take this,” he says, looking between Esmarie and me. She waves him off, and then Esmarie levels me with her stare.NowI’m nervous.
KAI
I walk out onto the patio to a corner where the closest table with people is at least ten feet away. “Liam.”
“Hey, so I found a few things.”
“Alright, what is it?” I ask, taking a deep breath of ocean air. It’s starting to get warm this morning, and the paranoia is building. I spin in place, checking my surroundings. Cordi and Mom are talking, and everything looks normal.
“They know about Cordelia just as Emerson suspected,” he says gently. Adrenaline shoots through my body, and my other senses become hyper-aware as I glance around the restaurant again. Clarence nods to me and keeps his attention on our surroundings.
“Explain,” I say sternly, forcing calm into my body before I grab a chair and beat it against the wall.
“You know Costa is looking for hackers, and we didn’t know why, so I tried to get in with them. Well, I got in with them, and I created a back door to—“
“Spit it out, Liam,” I grit out.
“I accessed one of their phones, and they’re looking into her. Questions are being asked about Cordelia.”
“Do you think they will try to use her against us?” I ask him.
“Yeah, I do,” he sighs. I look at them again, and they aren’t talking anymore. They’re staring at me instead. I wave, trying to reassure them. “You guys will have to get married sooner rather than later,” he says.
“It’s going to be the best way to protect her, isn’t it? Helping her disappear won’t work, will it?” I ask. I don’t want her to feel like she has to marry me with a gun to her head because that is essentially what’s happening.
“I mean, you can try it, but she will be a sitting duck out there. I guess we could send her with security like Mom, but…”
“I told her everything, Liam. She knows about the family and what Dad did. She’s also aware of the very real threat against Mom.”
