Page 49 of Fighting With Light
“I know, I’m just a little frustrated, I’m sorry.”
“I get it. You were ready to get out there and now you have to wait again. That would drive me a little crazy.”
“It’s the sport, I guess.” He glances at me before going back to the road. “So you’re not going to be happy about this, but I think it’s how it has to be.”
“That’s one way to warn a girl,” I grumble.
“You can’t come with me to hand Ben over to Emerson.”
“What?” I shriek. “Why? If you say it’s to keep me safe, I will punch you in the face with the brass knuckles in my bag.”
His head snaps to mine. “You have brass knuckles?”
“I don’t know, Liam, do you want to find out?” I ask him.
He grins. “I don’t know…I kind of think I do.”
“Liam!” I yell.
“No, it’s not to keep you safe, but it’s because I haven’t told my brothers we’re working together and I’m not ready to tellthem yet.”
My head pounds with confusion and I really might punch him, sans brass knuckles.
“Explain,” I command.
“I’m going to just get Emerson to take Ben and tell him I’ll explain later. Then you and I are going to find the proof we need to build a case, andthenI’ll tell my brothers.”
“Why don’t you tell them your plan? Don’t you trust them?”
He snorts. “Of course I trust them, but I’m not the one that plans, so…I just want to have our ducks in a row.”
“You don’t want to disappoint them,” I say for him.
He’s silent for a moment and clears his throat. “Yeah.”
“Fine, but if you don’t call me when you get there and when you hand him off, I will get in the Porsche and I will put a bullet in your hand or something because you need your feet to surf.”
“I kind of need my hands, too, though. It’s a full-body situation.”
“Well, then I’ll shave your head.”
“Ouch, princess. I thought you liked my hair?” He grins.
“Shut up before I say something I’ll regret.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says saucily. I don’t like it but I get it. Of all people. I. Get. It.
***
When we arrive back at the house, Liam handles Ben and then ends up tying him up in a chair outside. He called it outside time and Ben didn’t seem to be opposed to it because it was that or back in the cabinet.
Liam walks back into the house and closes the door behind him. “I’m going to get my board off the top of the truck. I’ll be back.”
I nod and he goes outside to the front.
I stare at the back of Ben’s head and part of me wants to go talk to him, tell him I’m not betraying my family. I’m trying to save them from themselves, butwhat’s the point? Ben and I have never been close, and I doubt he would care about what I have to say. If only he just stayed where he was and checked in with me, he would have never put us in this situation.
Liam walks back in with his bag and throws it on the tile floor. “How did Ben find me?” I ask him.
