Craving Lily (The Aces' Sons 4)

“I just wanted to let you know,” she said with a sigh. “I figured I should tell you before it was all over the clubhouse.”

“What?” I replied, grabbing my pack of smokes out of my pocket and lighting up as she climbed to the top of the table and sat down. “Your dad gonna kill me for havin’ you on the back of my bike?”

“No.” She snorted, making me grin. “Cecilia took off last night, er, this morning.”

“Oh, yeah?” I asked easily, leaning against the table.

“She said she was going to California. San Diego,” Lily said softly, like she was trying to protect me from the news. “She called Mom a little over an hour ago, and she’s already halfway there. She hasn’t changed her mind.”

“Good for her,” I ground out, trying and failing to keep the irritation out of my voice.

I didn’t give a flying fuck what Cecilia did, but I knew why she was going to San Diego and it made me want to hit something.

“I don’t know why she had to go so far away,” Lily mumbled, resting her elbows on her knees and tipping her face toward the ground. “Jesus, do you have any sunglasses?”

I looked at her in confusion. “What?”

“Sunglasses,” she said, shielding her eyes with her hand. “Do you have any?”

“I’ve got these,” I replied, pulling a pair of tinted safety goggles from the neck of my undershirt.

She held her hand out expectantly until I’d handed over the glasses, then shoved them on her face.

“Jesus, are these safety glasses?” she asked as she ran her fingers along the edges. “I must be lookin’ hot with these on.”

“Oh, yeah, gorgeous,” I replied distractedly, still staring at her. I opened my mouth to ask why the hell she needed shades, but before I could say a word, she was talking about Cecilia again.

“She doesn’t even know anyone down there,” Lily said in exasperation. “I mean, where the hell is she going to stay? Where will she work? How will she make friends? What if something happens to her? No one would even know for like weeks, because she’s so far away!”

I knew she was worried. Everything about her body language and tone made that clear. But I couldn’t help the derision that seeped into my voice as I replied.

“Your sister always lands on her feet, kid.”

Lily stopped fidgeting with the bracelets on her wrist and turned her head slowly toward me, and for just a second, I could have swore that she was looking right at me.

“You’re pissed,” she said, her voice laced with disappointment. “I thought you would be.”

“Not the way you’re thinking,” I argued, taking another drag of my cigarette. “I’m pissed for you. Pissed for your parents.”

“That’s not it,” Lily replied flatly. “Just because I’m blind doesn’t mean I can’t tell when you’re lying.”

“I’m not lying.”

“It’s okay that you’re mad. I would be, too, if I was you.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?” I asked, standing up straight. I fucking hated being called a liar, and I really didn’t like that this girl who wasn’t even legal was talking to me like she knew something I didn’t.

“I mean, you guys were together for a long time,” Lily said. “I get it.”

“You don’t get shit,” I snapped, the anger simmering beneath the surface coming up to raise it’s ugly head. “Your skank sister went to San Diego because that’s where Mouth is. Playin’ doctor at the Navy base down there.”

“Oh,” Lily whispered, closing her eyes as she shook her head from side to side. “That makes sense.”

“Dude left her and she goes chasin’ after his ass,” I said, trying to explain my anger as she climbed gingerly off the table.

“You know,” she said, turning her head toward me as she faced the clubhouse. “I was always surprised when you never badmouthed my sister, even when I knew she was being a bitch.”

She turned away. “Now I’m glad you hadn’t. My sister isn’t a skank, Leo. She just didn’t want you.”

My mouth dropped open as she walked away from me. Lily had never spoken to me with anything but adoration in her entire life. Hell, I remembered when she was a toddler, walking around the clubhouse singing my name. Singing it. It didn’t matter what was going on, who was fighting with who, or how me and her sister were getting along, she’d still never said a nasty word to me.

Until now.

Pretty sure I’d deserved it.

Still, resentment built up as I watched her walk inside. Whatever. She could think whatever the hell she wanted, I wasn’t going to try and change her mind.

I shouldn’t have called Cecilia a skank, but I had a hard time keeping my mouth shut when it came to that woman. I’d always done my best when Lily was around, but Christ. No one knew all the shit that had gone down with Cecilia back when she was playing me and Mouth. They had no clue how deep that bullshit ran, because we’d kept it that way. A little rivalry between the club kids was one thing, planning on how you’d take out one of the brothers’ kids was another, and I’d spent many nights planning exactly how I’d take Doc’s kid out.