Craving Lily (The Aces' Sons 4)

“Timeframe?” Hulk asked.

“Takes time, but he’ll be out within the next month,” Casper replied.

“Deal with that shit as it comes,” my dad said, scratching his chest like the conversation was nothing. The man could look bored no matter what was being discussed. It was a gift I’d almost mastered.

“Has anyone heard from Cecilia?” Hulk asked, changing the subject. “She still hasn’t called me back.”

“Your sister’s fine,” Casper replied, scrubbing his hand over his shaved head. “Called your mother last night.”

“She found a place to stay?”

“We done here?” I interrupted, making eye contact with my pop. I was all about discussing club business, but as far as I was concerned, Cecilia wasn’t club business.

“Feelin’ a little raw, Leo?” Grease joked, chuckling. “Cecilia ain’t called you yet?”

I ground my teeth together to keep from saying anything that would get my ass handed to me. I was fine in a fight, but Grease was Cecilia’s uncle. Will and Tommy were her cousins. Casper and Hulk were her dad and brother. If I said what I wanted to say, there was no way I was getting out of that room with all my teeth, and my dad wouldn’t do a damn thing to stop it.

“Got shit to do,” I finally muttered.

“We’re done here,” my dad announced, tapping his gavel once on the table. “Casper and Hulk are keepin’ an eye on Sokolov and we’ll let everyone know if anythin’ new comes up.”

I was out of my seat and out of the room before anyone else had pushed back from the table. Sokolov was going to be a problem. I could feel it in my gut. No man got out of prison so early unless he had a lot of shit he was willing to give the Feds, and no organization would let him give that information unless they had something big planned for him on the outside.

I was pretty sure the games we’d been playing with their organization were about to bite us in the ass. I didn’t have time to worry about how Cecilia was doing in California. I also just didn’t give a fuck.

Chapter 4

Lily

It had been two weeks since my sister left. Two long weeks where it felt like everything revolved around waiting for her calls home. Even when she wasn’t in the same state, Cecilia still seemed to demand all of our attention. She never answered the phone when we called her, but at least she’d kept my parents updated on where she was and what she was doing.

According to Cecilia, everything was working out in San Diego. She’d found a job in some barbershop and was renting a room from a lady she worked with. She’d landed on her feet, just like Leo had said she would.

I hadn’t talked to her since she’d left, but I was trying not to let it bother me. I had my own shit going on. The whispers about me and Brent had finally died down at school since he hadn’t shown up at the prom without me. Apparently, he’d had a bad case of the stomach flu, at least that’s what he’d been telling people. The excuse was a bit suspect since, according to Rose, he’d come to school the next week with a nasty black eye. I didn’t really give it much thought beyond refusing to talk to him. Stomach flu or not, he could have at least texted me to give me a heads up.

Now I was just trying to focus on the college applications I was finishing up. I’d always been ahead of my peers in school, really far ahead. So far ahead that most of my teachers were clueless about how to teach me, especially after I’d gone blind. I’d felt like a freak when I was younger, but my dad had assured me he’d been the same way. His parents had shipped him off to boarding school when he was really young, though, and he’d refused to do that to me. So instead, we’d made sure that I was in every gifted class that was available, and that had been enough. I’d also used every tool available to work through my handicap, and to be honest, it hadn’t slowed me down much.

Now, my SAT scores were near perfect, and my GPA was through the roof, and it was time for me to start deciding on colleges. We lived near the University of Oregon, so that was a safe bet, and so were some of the other private colleges in Oregon. Only my parents and Rose knew I was applying to other schools, too. Ivy League schools. Schools that I knew would challenge me and give me one hell of a leg up in whatever field I decided to study in.

More important than that, though, I’d also begun to see. Not clearly. Not yet. But for the first time since I’d gone blind, things were taking shape in front of me. I could see light and shadows, and large obstacles in my path.