Page 13 of Fighting With Light
Liam
I made sure myvilla was cleaned up for tonight. I don’t usually have the staff come in that often, depending on how long I’m here. Plus, there are things that I don’t want them to see, like my computers and the knives I swiped from the kitchen. But I had them come in, clean the bathroom, and change the sheets. Not that we’ll be going that far.
My brothers think I’m a little off and I don’t disagree with them, but this is something I take no pleasure in doing. My gut is telling me she doesn’t know anything, but I have to be absolutely certain. And because I can’t charm it out of her after everything I’ve tried, this is how it will have to be.
***
It’s boiling, but I wore real clothes this time, linen shorts, button up, and sandals. My heart is beating so hard with the conflict of emotions angrily pulling me in two different directions as I walk to Aelia’s villa.
My family has had to sacrifice everything to get to where we are. Most may not see it that way, but they don’t know what it’s like to be the youngest, the most protected, and see your mother and your brothers take the brunt. They shed their blood to keep our father away from me as much as they could.
This is not just duty. This is penance. This is doing the hard thing so my brothers don’t have to.
Emerson has always stood in front of us. He’s the oldest out of the three of us and the first to get hit, aside from Mom.
I always make sure I’m there to pull the trigger if I need to be. Emerson has done enough and it’s my turn to do what has to be done. There have been times when he still won’t let me, though. I think there is still a part of him that believes he has to do whatever it takes to protect his family, even if that means doing it alone. But we’re not teenage boys anymore and we each can hold our own. One, Emerson, doesn’t seem to get that.
I turn on Three, my alter ego. My brothers and I have nicknames for each other, One, Two, and Three, when we have to be different people for the sake of our family. They are more like a mindset. We have to push the person we actually are to the side and allow the focused, trained killer to take the wheel. Typically, that’s no problem at all and I can flip it like a switch. But this time, it’s different. I have to keep the charm on and the focus grounded in order for me to do what I need to do.
I knock on Aelia’s front door and hear her heels click towards it. She throws it open and pops her hand on her hip. “Since when do you come to the front door?” she quips.
I shrug and throw her a smile. “I mean, we’re going this way, so it made sense to me.” She stares at me intensely with soft, green eyes, like she’s seeing something that makes her sad. I clear my throat and run my hand through my hair. “Are you ready, princess?” I ask her.
“Yeah, just let me grab my stuff.” I step into the foyer of her villa and close the door, letting the AC cool me down before we go back out into the sweltering heat. When I called her princess the other day, it just popped out of my mouth. Most wouldn’t have blinked. But I know she did, only she doesn’t realize that I know who she really is. Luckily, I was able to play it off as a nickname that she seemed to be okay with, and I can’t lie to myself. I enjoy calling her princess.
She comes back around the corner and I really look at her. I was more focused on her expression when she opened the door. She’s wearing the dress I bought her. It’s a beautiful, deep red with a gold pattern on it. “You look beautiful,” I tell her. Her cheeks tinge pink.
“Thank you,” she says, looking up at me from under her long lashes. Her hair is twisted again, up off her neck, and she has a diamond necklace paired with agold chain and pendant hanging from it on her bronze skin that’s even darker from the sun. I step to the side and open the door for her to go first and her cherry scent wafts into my nose as she glides past me.
There are three different restaurants in the resort, they combine different kinds of food, not just Balinese. Since we did the local place already, I figured she might be interested in trying the restaurant with more to pick from. We walk nearly to the other side of the resort in silence and I feel like I’m going to blow it. She’s going to know something is up because I’m so quiet.
The restaurant is half inside, half outside. “Do you want to sit inside or outside?”
She sighs and looks at me over her shoulder. “As much as I wish I could say outside, it needs to be inside because it is too damn hot, and as you said, I’m aprincess,” she says and winks.
I chuckle and hold the door open for her.
The host seats us and the blessed air conditioning cools the sweat on my skin. Aelia sits down and takes a large gulp of water. “Can I ask you something?” she says, leaning forward.
I take a drink of water. “Sure. We should play twenty questions.” If I can avoid what’s set up in my room by getting answers now, I will.
“Okay, I’m down, but I go first,” she says.
I smile and make a gesture for her to go ahead.
“Why does it feel like you don’t want to sleep with me?”
I almost choke on my water and cough a little. That’s not what I expectedat all.
“I don’t mean to be crass, but I’ve given you every opening to…take me, and you haven’t tried once.”
I shake my head and the waiter comes up with our menus, handing them to us silently, picking up on the fact we are in the middle of a conversation. Before he walks off, I ask him for a whiskey sour. She leans back into her seat and crosses her arms.
“You need liquor to help you answer that question?” she snips.
I laugh again because that statement is utterly and completely ridiculous. We probably would have never left her villa after day one if she wasn’t who she is. But I am a Coldwell and she is a Costa. Those two things don’t go together; only she doesn’t know that.
“No, Aelia, I don’t. And yes, there was a reason for that.”
