Craving Lily (The Aces' Sons 4)

I didn’t tell anyone. Not even Rose.

My sight was too new. I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, and I was terrified that the moment I said anything about it, the little vision I’d gained back would vanish and I’d be in the dark again. My family had been waiting so long for my sight to come back that I knew it would devastate them if I had it and lost it again.

“What’s up with you?” Rose grumbled, elbowing me in the side. “You’ve been spacing out for like ten minutes.”

I’d been trying to make out my dad’s recliner in the corner instead of just a dark shape surrounded by the light coming through the windows.

“Nothing. These applications are boring as hell.” I threw myself back against the couch and rubbed my eyes. “Let’s go do something.”

“Like what?” she asked with a sigh, slamming her textbook shut with a bang. While I’d been filling out applications for early admission, Rose was working on her calculus homework that had been due the day before. While I excelled in academics, Rose… didn’t. It wasn’t because she lacked intelligence; she just lacked the drive to do more than the bare minimum to graduate. She wasn’t even applying to colleges. Instead, she planned to follow me wherever I decided to go.

“I don’t know, river? The club? Movies? Anywhere.”

“You know they’re having a party at the club tonight,” she replied. I knew without seeing it that she was rolling her eyes. “You really want to get into it with our brothers?”

“We’ll just ignore them,” I said, shrugging. Getting around our brothers had become a game when we were twelve years old. It didn’t really matter how pissed they were, Rose and I usually got away with whatever we wanted. It just normally took a lot of fast-talking and innocent expressions, so we rarely went head to head with them anymore. It wasn’t worth the hassle.

“I don’t know,” Rose said, completely out of character.

“What?”

“Last time, your mom was dancing on one of the pool tables,” Rose grumbled. “Not something I want to see again.”

“You know that doesn’t happen very often,” I replied, snorting. My mom had been dancing on that same pool table for years. She did it whenever my dad was pissed it at her. Without fail, he’d drag her off the table and into their room before she’d finished a single song and suddenly, their fight was over.

“Fine,” Rose said, shoving me a little as she pushed off the couch. “Let’s go then.”

“I’m so glad Charlie’s staying the night with Rebel,” I replied as I followed her toward the front door. “Or else we’d be stuck here.”

“Or we could’ve just taken her with us.”

“Oh, right,” I joked, setting my hand on her shoulder once we’d reached the driveway. “That would’ve gone over well.”

“How many parties were we at when we were little?” Rose asked, leading me to her car. “A hundred? If you ask me, this younger generation is a bunch of wimps.”

I climbed in and laid my head back against the seat, watching things go darker around me as the sun went down. “Pretty sure they just didn’t have as many babysitters when we were little,” I pointed out distractedly. “There was nowhere else for us to be.”

“You’re probably right.”

* * *

My cousin Tommy threw his arms around our shoulders the minute we’d stepped through the clubhouse doors. We hadn’t even made it two feet inside. “What the hell are you doing here?” he asked gruffly.

The music was loud and so were the people. It was slightly disorienting if I was being honest, but I still soaked it all in. The clubhouse was a safe place, at least for me. It was where we went if we were in danger, where my dad worked, where I could trip over a family member or longtime family friend if I took a step in any direction. Occasionally, if the guys were hosting other clubs, I steered clear, but for the most part, this place was an extension of my home and always had been.

“We were hoping to get laid and do some shots,” Rose said dryly over the noise. “Point us in the right direction!”

“Also,” I piped in, “if you could show us where the lines of coke are being drawn, that would be fantastic.”

“Little sister,” Cam said suddenly from right in front of me. “What the hell do you know about cocaine?”

“I’m almost seventeen,” I replied in mock seriousness. “I know about all sorts of things.”

“You better not!” He laughed, and suddenly I was pulled away from Tommy’s side and wrapped up in my brother’s beefy arm. “What’re you doin’ here, Lilybug?”

“Just wanted to get out of the house,” I replied as he practically carried me across the room.

“Dad’s gonna shit a brick when he sees you,” he warned, setting me back solidly on my feet. “Gimme a bottle of Jack and a soda for the baby, here,” he ordered someone.