Craving Cecilia (The Aces' Sons 6)

“She’s going down,” Lu barked.

Within seconds, someone pressed my head between my knees, the hand on the back of my neck cool and comforting.

“Shit,” my brother said from somewhere above me. “She’s definitely got a fever.” Ah, it was Cam’s hand on my neck.

“A fever?” my mom asked. “What? She’s sick?”

“Come here, baby,” Mark said into my ear as he lifted me into his arms. “Why don’t you lay down for a while?”

“We’re having a meeting,” I argued weakly. If I was being honest, I didn’t give a shit about the meeting. I did just want to lay down for a little while.

“Wilson didn’t show up, either,” Mark said as he carried me up the stairs. “We’ll brief you both later.”

“I’m sorry,” I sighed as he laid me on the bed. “I feel like shit.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied. He strode over to the closet and pulled out a pillow wrapped in plastic and a blanket. “Just get some rest.”

As he unwrapped the pillow and put it under my head, I groaned. It felt like it had been days since I’d gotten any rest instead of just hours. After covering me with the blanket, he left the room, leaving the door cracked open.

I stared at it for a long time, my mind racing, and when I finally closed my eyes, all I could see was Cane, laughing at something I’d said.

He hadn’t looked like a monster.

Chapter 8

Mark

“Is she okay?” Farrah asked as soon as I got back to the kitchen.

“Yeah,” I replied, scratching at the whiskers on my cheek. “She’s laying down.”

“Well, let’s get this over with so I can go up there,” she ordered.

“Okay, so Cane’s the head of the… what?”

“Free America Militia,” Casper supplied.

“Alright. We know anything about them?”

“Not much,” he grumbled.

“I’ll get Wilson on that, pronto,” Forrest chimed it.

“Right. So, we can probably assume that his kid is a member, too.”

“Fair to assume his kid is leadin’ it now,” Casper corrected. “I’m bettin’ it’s run like a monarchy.”

“Put’s a different spin on things,” I mumbled.

“Spin on what?” Lu asked.

“Cecilia was a surrogate—”

“Oh, shit,” Lu mumbled, her eyes widening.

“What?” Eli asked, looking between us.

“She carried the baby, but it’s not hers,” Lu said to Eli. “Safe bet it was the Warrens’.”

“Yep,” Cam said, shaking his head. “Fuckin’ Cecilia.”

“You know what, man—” I growled. I was stressed, tired, and overwhelmed, I sure as hell wasn’t in the mood to listen to Cam listing all of Cecilia’s faults again.

“Enough of that shit,” Casper snapped at Cam. “You don’t got somethin’ helpful to add, keep your goddamn mouth shut.”

“Cody,” Farrah said softly.

“No,” he replied. “I’m done with that shit.”

Jesus Christ. Finally, when Cecilia wasn’t even around to hear it, the man spoke up. I scrubbed my hands over my face.

Forrest waded into the awkward as fuck silence. “So, the kid’s after the baby, then.”

“Yeah.” I grabbed a kitchen chair and spun it around so I could sit down. “Legally, the baby is still Cecilia’s. The way it works is the parents were supposed to legally adopt her after she was born.”

We went over everything, turning and twisting it so we could try to see it from all angles. After almost an hour of talking it out, we still hadn’t figured out much beyond probable motive. We had no clue how the son had found Cecilia at my house so soon.

“I’m going to go check on her,” Farrah finally said. “Who wants the baby?”

“I’ll take her,” I replied, lifting my arms. As soon as Farrah had handed her over, I felt a weird sense of relief. Discussing her fucked up family had made me antsy as fuck, and the warm weight of her calmed me.

And wasn’t that some shit?

“We need to get her back up to Oregon,” Casper said after Farrah had gone. “We’ve got the resources up there to keep them safe.”

“We’ve got resources down here,” I argued.

“Man,” he replied, shaking his head, “you’re all in a motherfuckin’ safe house because you don’t know how they found you.”

“Wilson’s workin’ on that,” Forrest pointed out.

“You’ll be doin’ the same damn thing,” I said to Casper at the same time. “You’ll lock them behind the clubhouse gates until you end this shit.”

“At least she’ll be at home.”

“That hasn’t been home to her in over ten fuckin’ years,” I shot back.

“And whose fault is that?” he asked quietly.

“Don’t put that shit on me,” I replied, my voice just as low. “She was tryin’ to escape that place long before anything happened with us.”

Casper opened his mouth to speak, but didn’t say anything as Farrah came back in the room.

“She’s got a nasty fever,” Farrah announced. “Does anyone have something she can take to bring it down?”

“Fever?” Forrest asked.

“I’ll get something out of the med pack,” Eli said.

“It must be at least one-oh-one,” Farrah told Forrest. “She’s warm.”