Page 99 of Fighting With Light
He slides under me into the chair, then grabs my waist, pulling me back into his lap. “I like you here,” he mumbles, trapping me between his arms as hisfingers fly over the keyboard. He types into another window and then changes the style of the satellite image again.
Liam zooms in as close as he can to the truck picture and then takes a screenshot. He flips to another tab to depixelate the image. I sit there in awe, watching him zip around on the computer. He goes back to the image, switching to different styles or lenses, zooming in and out.
He pulls back the picture after dropping a pin on the area. As he pulls out, I notice a small town north of the camp. His fingers stop, and then he types something else, and the screen zooms in. He pans across and stops on a small airfield. I watch him click to another tab, type in the town’s name and then private airport, and sure enough, a website that looks homemade pops up. It doesn’t give much information. There is no one listed as pilots or owners, but they list the type of planes that can fly to and from that airport. Most are typical farming planes. None of them are private jets like I’ve been on.
Liam looks up the specs of each plane listed and clicks through them, stopping on a larger version of small aircraft meant to carry cargo—it’s the perfect plane to carry one ton of cocaine.
That sinking feeling has reached my heart, and I feel like I’m drowning, pulled down by the weight of responsibility. Liam remains laser-focused, going between screens and typing things that look like code to me. He’s lost me at this point with what he’s doing, and I stop trying to pick it all up and relax in his chest. Tucking my head on his shoulder, I take a deep breath of his sunscreen scent and close my eyes.
I end up falling asleep in his lap until he wakes me up, carrying me to bed. “Go back to sleep. I know you’re tired,” he says.
“But how do you know it’s the right one?” I ask.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out now.”
My stomach rolls again and part of me hopes it’s not.
38
Liam
Surfing lessons flew outthe door when she found what we believe is the manufacturing location. The only way to confirm it is by putting eyes on it ourselves.
I would leave her behind and go by myself, but I know Aelia and she will want to go with me. I ended up hacking into the homemade website for the private airport and found similar manifests to the ones I found that are closer to the Medellín city center. Those could be anything. They could be a consistent shipment of something harmless. There would be no way to know, short of going to open the box myself. The same goes for these manifests, but they stick out more than the others. A private airport that barely has any movement has one plane that always flies to Mexico City and back. It’s the same plane and the manifests list the exact weight. Of course, the content of that weight is unknown. But the likelihood of it being the cocaine we need to track from Colombia to the East Coast could be high. Granted, there’s a lot of cocaine production in Colombia. So, it’s plausible that it’s another organization. The only way to know is to go.
It’s time for me to call my brothers. I’m not ready for our precarious bubble to break just yet, and I’m not ready to give her up either. But I can’t put it off anymore.
Ever since I realized that I’m in love with this woman, I’ve been trying to figure out how we can make it work.
I’ve texted back and forth with my brothers, but they have remained relatively unaware, aside from Ben in the basement, just as I wanted it. I don’t know what to tell them. Up until now, I didn’t think I’d have to. I’m not ready for the slapin the face Emerson will inevitably give me because he thinks I’m being reckless. But this has to be done for all of us.
I spin around in my chair and look at Aelia sleeping. Her lips are parted and the blanket I pulled over her is at her waist.
There has to be a way for Aelia and me to stay together if she still wants me. But the voice in the back of my head says it’s too risky and she probably doesn’t, so I’ll keep my mouth shut and enjoy what I can with her for the time we have left.
Spinning back around, I book our plane tickets to Colombia, first class, tomorrow. We don’t have time to waste and I need to be back in California in five days, which will give us enough time to get what we need, fly back, and give me enough time to be ready to clench the championship.
After I’m done, I kneel in front of Aelia in bed and flick her nose. It squishes, and she brushes in front of her face, her eyes staying closed. I grin and do it again. She brushes her nose, and I reach up to mess with her again and she grabs my hand. “Why?” she mumbles and opens her eyes.
I grin and lean in, pressing my lips to hers. “Because it’s funny,” I mumble.
“I swear you are a child,” she mutters and lets go of my hand. “Are you done doing everything you were doing?”
“Yeah, I think you found it, but we need to put eyes on it. So I booked tickets to Colombia for tomorrow.”
Her eyes spring open and her whole body stiffens.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay. I already figured we would have the cover of being there to climb. There’s some great climbing there. It’s not too far-fetched.”
Her lips purse and she nods stiffly.
I knew she was nervous and trying to find every reason not to go, but I couldn’t figure out how else to confirm this information. It’s not like we can go up to the border patrol and tell them to look for something we don’t know how to describe. Plus, I have a feeling that my father is giving the border patrol a reason to turn their heads to the shipments. I don’t know how he can do that, but I will find out.
“I’ll need to call my brothers because I don’t think this is something we can do on our own.”
“Meeting the family already? I didn’t realize we were that deep in our relationship,” Aelia says with a soft smile.
I chuckle and crawl up on top of her, and lay my head on her chest. “It’s going to be okay, princess. We’re close. We will have a full-blown case so airtight they won’t be able to ignore it.”
