Craving Cecilia (The Aces' Sons 6)

I laughed at the accuracy of her statement.

“I heard what you did for Leo,” she said, and I groaned silently. I didn’t want to talk about it or even think about it ever again.

“I’m glad he’s going to be okay,” I replied.

“You haven’t been to the hospital,” she said.

“I’m not your son’s favorite person,” I explained simply.

Brenna laughed, the sound low. “You have zero idea of the affect you have on people,” she said. “It’s a trip.”

“I’ve got a pretty good idea,” I replied. “I’m one conversation away from being on the outs again.”

“You really think that?” she asked in surprise. “You do. Huh.”

I didn’t respond as I watched Heather join the group again, her face no longer pale and sweaty. She laughed at something Molly said and urged her to her feet. They danced across the room.

“How much do you know about when I came home?” Brenna asked. “I’m sure you’ve heard the story.”

“You were the returning princess,” I said, turning my head to look at her profile. Her hair was curly and wild, and she’d pulled it back into a high ponytail, making her look at least twenty years younger than she was.

“Not hardly,” Brenna replied. “I came home with Trix, who Dragon hadn’t even known existed, and I brought back a load of trouble with me. Trouble that got your dad shot.”

“I know about that,” I said.

“Well, you probably don’t know that your Grandpa Slider pretty much told me that if I chose to leave the club’s property, I was on my own against anyone that held a grudge against the club,” she said quietly. “And that I wouldn’t be allowed to take Trix with me.”

“What?” I said, jerking in surprise. I couldn’t even contemplate that kind of threat. “He did what?”

“Oh, yeah,” she said with a huff. “Pop sided with him, too. With the club. God, I felt betrayed.”

“With good reason,” I blurted.

“It took a while,” she said, her eyes unfocused. “But I got it.”

“I don’t,” I replied.

“I’d already taken off once and betrayed Dragon in the process,” she said, looking at me. “They were saving me from myself, even if it didn’t look that way at the time.”

She seemed sure, so I didn’t argue. It still sounded supremely fucked up to me. I’d kill anyone that tried to take Olive from me, and that included my dad. I couldn’t even imagine my dad putting me in that position, though. I’d always considered his loyalty to me absolute—he may not always like me, but he’d never go against me.

“Leo’s a lot like my pop,” she said as we watched the shenanigans happening in the center of the room. “He’s loyal to the extreme, but he also has very stubborn ideas about how things should go.”

“Yeah.”

“He doesn’t hate you, CeeCee,” she said quietly.

“He doesn’t like me, either.”

“He loves you,” she said, and I scrunched up my face in horror, making her scoff. “Not like that, idiot. He’s in love with your sister to the point of obsession. But you’re family. You’ve always been family, and you’ll always be family.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“If he didn’t consider you family, he wouldn’t give a fuck what you did, or who you decided to be with,” she pointed out. “He remembers how it was after Woody left you, and he’s not going to forgive him for it—or agree with you going back to him.”

“It’s not his place to forgive, and I don’t need his permission.”

“I know,” she said. “Give him some time. He’ll see how the two of you are together and soften. He probably already has—which is why you should go see him.”

“I don’t mean to be rude,” I replied, my lips twitching as my mom started dropping into a crouch and shaking her booty, “but I’ve got about all I can handle already. Leo’s feelings are pretty low on my priority list.”

“That’s fair,” she said, reaching out to pat my arm. “But you saved his life and you should give him the opportunity to thank you.”

“I didn’t save him,” I said, my voice rising.

I was strung tight. Mark still wasn’t back, and I was starting to worry. I’d been cooped up in the clubhouse longer than I wanted to think about. My hormones were still out of control. And even though people were being nice to me, I still didn’t feel comfortable around any of them, knowing that, at any moment, I could say the wrong thing and suddenly be persona non-grata.

I didn’t trust them, and it made every conversation I had become like some sort of minefield that I had to pick my way through. I finally snapped.

“It was my fault that Drake Warren was even there. I’m the reason Leo was run off the road. I’m the reason that he’s in the hospital. So, stop saying that I saved him. I’m the one who got him hurt.” By that point I was shouting, and the clubhouse grew silent around me as someone shut off the music.