I opened my mouth to argue, but heard the quiet snick of the door shutting before I could say a word. It was exactly her style. Make an accusation, no matter how unfounded, and then bail before you could defend yourself. She’d been doing it since she was old enough to manipulate people. I shook my head as I scrambled further into the blankets, pulling them up and over my head.

A few minutes later, the door opened again.

“Where was she going?” my mom asked quietly, her voice tentative.

We should have known that my parents would realize the moment she left. If they were waking up every time she came home, it stood to reason that they’d wake up if she was leaving, too.

“California,” I answered, throwing the blankets off my head. “She said she wanted to go to San Diego.”

“Why?”

“I have no idea,” I said honestly. “She said she wanted a new life.”

“Christ. She’ll be back,” my mom muttered. “Get some sleep, kid.”

I heard her step away from the door.

“Hey, Mom?” I called out. “Can you shut the light off?”

“What?” she asked in surprise.

“The light,” I muttered back, pressing my face against the pillow. “Can you shut it off?”

Once the light wasn’t burning my eyes anymore, I rolled to my back and lay there for a long time, my thoughts replaying the last twelve hours over and over.

Chapter 3

Leo

I was sweating like a pig as I tried to pry the engine out of an old El Camino that was brought in the day before. The thing was rusted and dirty as fuck, and I was pretty sure no one had been under the hood in at least ten years. Fucking nasty.

We had cars come in like that a lot—owners expecting us to rebuild on shit that wasn’t even salvageable. The body of the El Camino was in pretty good condition, but asking us to work with the shit they had under the hood was ridiculous. Most things were going to need to be replaced on my current project. There was no coming back from the rust this piece of shit had going on.

“Hey, baby sister!” Cam shouted from across the garage. “Whatcha doin’ here?”

I braced myself as I raised my head, expecting to see Cecilia sauntering in, but found Lily standing quietly in an open garage door instead. She never came inside, even if Rose was with her. The old timers had laid down the law when Lily lost her sight—Lily was no longer allowed inside the garage for any reason. There was just too much shit she could hurt herself on. Even if we kept shit cleaned up—which we didn’t—the cars inside were changing every day. One day there could be a Volkswagen Beetle in the first bay and the next day it was a huge Ford pickup, and there was no way for her to know where everything was. The power tools left out could literally kill her if she fell on them wrong.

The garage went quiet as the guys realized it was Lily in the doorway. They stopped what they were doing out of respect, turning off their tools and pausing their movements so that she could hear what she needed to.

“Hey, Cam,” Lily called back. “Dad asked me to come get you.”

“Everything alright?” he asked as he moved toward her.

“Yeah, just… stuff he wants to talk to you about.” Her voice grew quieter as Cam got closer to her, but she was still in the bay next to mine, so I could hear her pretty clearly.

“Alright,” Cam said easily. “You comin’ inside with me?”

“No.” Lily paused. “Is Leo working?”

My head jerked back in surprise as Cam turned toward me, his eyebrows high on his forehead.

“Yeah, he’s here,” Cam said, jerking his chin at me.

I gingerly lowered the engine back where it was and flexed my fingers as I stepped away from the car and headed in their direction. I had no clue why little Lily wanted to talk to me, but I’d never tell the girl no.

I’d never been able to tell her no. She was just so fucking sweet. It would be like kicking a damn puppy.

“What’s up, Dandelion?” I asked as I reached them.

Cam mumbled something and walked away, so I wrapped my arm around Lily’s shoulder to lead her farther outside. The guys needed to get back to work, but they wouldn’t as long as she was standing there.

“So, thanks for last night,” Lily said. “I really appreciate it.”

“Whatever,” I mumbled. I slipped my hand off her shoulder and grabbed her hand, placing it on the top of the picnic table out front. I didn’t have to tell her what or how tall it was, she could have made it to that table herself with no help from me. The forecourt was a little hard for her to navigate with the bikes and cars always coming and going, but the walkway in front of the building and the grassy area with the picnic tables were as familiar to her as her own house.

Tags: Nicole Jacquelyn The Aces' Sons Erotic
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