Craving Lily (The Aces' Sons 4)

When I woke up sometime later, I thought for a moment that the blindness had come back. I couldn’t see anything, not a single shape or light. It wasn’t until my eyes started to sting that I realized I wasn’t blind. Then I began to cough as the smoke surrounded me.

Part 1

Chapter 1

Leo

“You wanna go to that party up at the culvert tonight?” Cecilia asked as I dropped down beside her on the couch. I was tired as fuck, but I’d promised her that I’d stop by, so I’d dragged my ass to her parents’ house. It was weird as shit being there. I hated it.

It had only been a little over a year since the party where I’d been shot in the fucking face in their backyard, but I’d never let anyone know how uneasy it made me to step inside that house. I’d never hear the end of it.

“Nah, not tonight,” I groaned, dropping my head back against the couch. “I’m wiped.”

“Hi, Leo,” a sweet voice called out, and I watched as Cecilia’s little sister Lily came into the room, followed by their cousin Rose. She wasn’t moving fast, but there also wasn’t any hesitation in her steps as she came forward and knelt on the carpet in front of us.

“Can’t you do that somewhere else, Lil?” Cecilia bitched as Lily set a book down on the coffee table.

“No,” Lilly muttered. “Mom said to do it down here. It’s not like I can see you, so do whatever you want.”

“Uh, no. Don’t,” Rose grumbled. “I can still see you.”

“Just ignore them,” Lily replied easily. “I do.”

“Aw, Dandelion,” I teased, grinning at her smart mouth. “You know you can’t ignore me.”

“I do my best,” she shot back, waving her hand in a shooing motion. She opened up her book and I leaned forward a little to catch a glimpse of a really simple children’s story written in braille and text.

“Ready?” Rose asked, turning a little so she faced away from me and Cecilia.

“I guess.” Lily’s face grew serious as her finger touched the first page and slid along the edge until she found the little bumps. Her lips moved as she slowly ran the pad of her finger over the braille. “There,” she sounded out slowly, “was…”

“Oh, shit. You haven’t seen this yet,” Cecilia whispered, grabbing a pen off the sidetable. “Watch.”

Before I could stop her, she threw the pen straight at Lily.

Anger rose so quickly that before she’d even dropped her arm, I had her wrist gripped tightly in my fist.

My mouth fell open in surprise as Lily fucking dodged the pen, smacking it out of the air like she’d seen it coming.

“What the fuck, Cecilia?” she said, her face turning red.

“Watch your mouth,” Cecilia snapped back, yanking her arm away from my hand. “You know you’re not supposed to talk like that.”

“Fuck you!” Lily seethed. She slammed her fists against the coffee table, making the entire thing rattle.

“You’re such assholes,” Rose hissed, glaring at us.

“I knew you’d catch it,” Cecilia argued, glancing at me before looking at her sister again. “You always catch them.”

“Not if I’m doing something else!” Lily screamed back, obviously embarrassed. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Why would you do that?” She climbed to her feet and almost tipped sideways as her foot slid on the pen.

My heart pounded and my stomach churned as tears filled Lily’s eyes. Jesus Christ. I hadn’t been in on Cecilia’s little demonstration, and I still felt guilty as fuck.

“What the hell is going on in here?” Farrah asked as she came jogging into the room.

Lily lifted her chin and didn’t say a word as her mom took a few steps forward.

“Well?” Farrah glanced around at our faces, finally stopping on Rose’s. “What happened?”

When Rose refused to answer, Farrah looked at Lily. “You wanna tell me why I could hear you yelling obscenities all the way upstairs?”

“Snitches get stitches,” Lily mumbled back, her face dark. Then she lifted her fist in Rose’s direction and waited for her to tap it with her knuckles.

“Christ, you’ve been spending too much time at the club,” Farrah scoffed. “You have, too.” She pointed at Rose, then glanced down at where Lily was trying to hide the pen with her foot.

“Cecilia,” Farrah said flatly, her eyes rising to us. “Tell me you didn’t throw a fucking pen at your sister.”

“She always catches it!” Ceecee replied, shrugging her shoulders. “It’s not like I thought it would hit her.”

Farrah glanced at me and then back at Lily before she spoke again. “They’ve been spending too much time at the club,” she waved at Rose and Lily. “But you’ve clearly not been spending enough. Learn some fucking loyalty, Cecilia. Your sister isn’t a goddamn circus act.”

Ceecee’s chin trembled and she glanced at me before jumping to her feet and running out of the room.