Revolution (The Lone Riders MC Series Book 1) (11 page)

‘And how the hell was he supposed to do that, huh?’

‘He was
supposed
to make sure nobody knew you were over there. What if any of the others had found out what was going on? What if everything we’d planned so fucking meticulously had fallen apart because
you
couldn’t keep your fucking dick in your pants? Jesus, Coby, she’s my daughter!’

‘They’re all brothers over there, Angie. And they know what can happen if you betray the club. They would have understood the impossible situation we were in.’

‘It wasn’t an impossible… shit!’ She turned away, facing the wall, her hands palm-down on the counter in front of her, her eyes closed. ‘I just wanted my daughter to come home.’ She turned back around, her eyes once more meeting his. ‘And you just wanted my daughter.’

‘She still thinks
Tay
had something to do with Shane’s death.’

‘And she’d be right. Wouldn’t she?’

Coby looked down at the floor, but he didn’t reply.

‘You can’t ever let her know the truth, Coby.’ Angie’s voice was tinged with more than a hint of panic now. ‘You can’t.’

‘She wants answers.’

‘And we’ll keep feeding her lies.’

Coby bowed his head, inhaling deeply, breathing out slowly. ‘It wasn’t just because of what happened with Shane. There was more to it than that. Shane blamed us for so much, he was trying to bring us down, Angie. He was a brother who was willing to betray us at the highest level, and he had… I was always gonna back
Tay
on this one. Always. And you knew – Angie, you knew with Shane gone there was always a chance Lexi would come running back.’

‘And I’m truly glad that she did. I just didn’t expect her to come running back with a son I’d been deliberately kept away from. And I didn’t expect her to tell me
you
were his father.’

‘Charlie thought it best people didn’t know Ozzie was mine. It would mean too much explaining, way too many questions. It was a risk we couldn’t take.’

‘Then, maybe. But now?’

‘There’d still be questions, Angie. That was the only time I’d been over to
England
in decades. Lexi hadn’t been back here in years. The story Charlie has kept running is the best way to deal with this.’

‘And it gets
you
out of the responsibility of caring for that boy.’

Coby’s stare darkened, his voice lower, more threatening. ‘It isn’t like that.’

‘Then what
is
it like? Tell me, come on. Because Lexi is not gonna let that child grow up living a lie. She’s headstrong, Coby. And stubborn. And once she gets her teeth into something she will
n
ot let it go until she’s got the answers she’s looking for.’

‘But you don’t want to give her answers. You want to give her lies.’

‘And we have to make sure she believes them. At least until we can get a handle on this mess.’

‘Are you gonna tell
Tay
?’

‘About Ozzie?’ Angie shrugged. ‘I don’t know. But I’d like him to know before Lexi brings the truth about just who his father really is out into the open. Because she
will
do that, Coby. One day. I don’t know when, but she’ll do it.’

‘And it could mean the truth about Shane coming out into the open, too. Is that what you want? Because
that
could push her away all over again, Angie.’ He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket, lighting it up and taking a long drag. ‘Is that what you want?’

‘Jesus Christ!’ Angie sighed, closing her eyes as she threw back her head. ‘What a fucking mess!’

Coby took another drag on his cigarette, blowing smoke out into the clubhouse. ‘Then let’s just try and make sure that mess doesn’t get any bigger.’ But he knew it was going to. It was going to get so much bigger, and he just wasn’t sure if any of them were ready for the crap that could one day hit this club.

Twelve

‘You ever thought of joining the business?’

Lexi looked at Blake as he sat down next to her on the couch at the back of one of The Candy Cave’s smaller studios. ‘As what? A porn star?’

He grinned at her. ‘You’re way hotter than any of the girls around here. You always have been.’

‘I’m guessing I should take that as a compliment, huh?’ Lexi couldn’t help smiling, because she liked Blake. He was like a brother to her. Both he and Luca were. They’d still only been Prospects when she’d left
Paradise
eight years ago, so she’d been more than happy to see them fully patched-in members on her return, because they always had a knack of making her smile, even on days when it seemed like smiling was never an option.

‘Just saying.’ He shrugged.

‘Yeah, well, I think those days are behind me,’ Lexi sighed, hugging her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them.

‘Don’t batter me for saying this, Lex, but, since I last saw you, you’ve changed.’

She looked at him, a small smile still on her face. ‘For the better?’

Blake looked down at his clasped hands. ‘I just remember you as this wild and crazy party girl who didn’t give a shit.’ He raised his head to meet her eyes. ‘But I guess those weren’t always the happiest times for you, huh? Back then.’

She shrugged, hugging her knees tighter against herself. ‘I’m not sure I’m the same person who left
Paradise
all those years ago, let’s put it that way. And eight years gives you a lot of time to think about things.’ To make more mistakes. Or continue making the same ones. She’d done both.

Blake’s grin grew wide again. ‘Yeah, well, I bet you can still party like the wild girl you used to be.’

Lexi said nothing, she just smiled at him.

‘And I meant what I said. You
are
way hotter than any of the girls around here.’ He winked at her, getting up and leaving her with an even bigger grin.

She shook her head, laughing to herself as he headed off to see what the rest of them were doing. It wouldn’t be anything constructive, that was for sure. They only ever came down to the studios to leer at the girls and act like overgrown teenagers. She didn’t even know why
she
was there. She’d just found herself driving in this direction – because she’d known that’s where Coby was going to be?

Pulling herself up off the couch she walked over to the other end of the studio where Kip and Luca were crouched beside a crate of sex toys, pulling out one after the other and laughing childishly as they tried to guess what you were supposed to do with them.

‘I think Cain wants a word, Luc.’

‘Does he? What about?’ Luca asked, standing up and dropping a bright pink dildo back into the box.

Lexi shrugged. ‘No idea. Try asking him.’

‘Okay. Catch you later, Kip.’

‘Yeah. Later.’ Kip stood up, too, shoving his hands in his pockets as he looked at Lexi. ‘That was subtle.’

‘Isn’t it about time you grew up and started acting like my brother again?’

‘Look, just because Mum’s…’

‘Grow up, Kip. I’m home, all right? I’m home, and I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but, I’m not going anywhere. So get used to it. And know that I miss you, okay? I miss you, you stubborn, blinkered bastard.’

He looked at her, narrowing his eyes slightly. ‘I dunno, Lexi…’

‘I don’t want this shit, Kip. I don’t want any of it. I came home to try and put so many things right…’ She looked down for a second, scuffing her boot off the floor before she raised her gaze. ‘I’m trying. Okay?’

He continued to stare at her, his hands still firmly in his pockets. ‘Yeah. I know you are.’

She knew that was about all she was going to get out of him for now, so she turned and walked away, rather than stringing out something that was quite obviously going to be a much longer game than she’d first thought. And right now, she didn’t have the energy for that fight.

‘You’re both too alike, that’s the problem,’ Kel said as she walked past the door to the office. As well as being the Lone Riders club secretary and treasurer, Kel did the books for the movie business, so he was the one that spent the most time at The Candy Cave. The only one that did anything constructive when he was there, anyway.

‘Guess I’ve just got to give him some more time,’ Lexi sighed, sitting down on the edge of his desk, picking up his mug of coffee and taking a sip. ‘Jesus, Kel, how much sugar did you put in there?’

‘Six spoonfuls. You don’t think I got this figure through cutting back, did you?’

She looked at him, returning the smile he gave her.

‘You look a bit happier this morning,’ he went on, his head back down over the keyboard.

‘Do I?’ She didn’t really feel it.

‘So…’ He looked back up at her, taking off his reading glasses and laying them down on the desk beside his coffee. ‘You and Coby.’

‘What a
bout
me and Coby?’

‘Your mom knows.’

‘She told you?’

‘I can tell she knows, Lexi. The way she watches you both when you’re in the room together… and I have to say, sweetheart, it’s sort of becoming obvious there’s some kind of attraction there between the two of you. Christ knows where it came from, because you never
used
to look at him that way. He was always more of a father figure to you, more so than
Tay
.’

‘No, that was
your
role, Kel.
You
were always more of a father figure to me. You still are.’

‘So
talk
to me. When did all this start up with Coby?’

She looked down at her knees, watching as her fingers fiddled with the hem of her shorts. ‘It hasn’t. Not really.’

‘You’re gonna sit there and lie to me?’

‘Kel, please…’

‘If you’re in love with him, Lexi, you need to sort that out.’

She slid off his desk, saying nothing as she walked out of the office, back into the studio. Coby was there now, leaning back against the wall, flanked by two
Candy
Cave
girls – both of them no older than their early twenties, by the looks of them. Both of them half naked, all ready to get to work. Both of them leaning in towards him with eager looks on their pretty but over-made-up faces.

‘I don’t fucking need this,’ Lexi muttered to herself, walking out of the studio, out into the parking lot. She stopped and leant back against Coby’s bike, closing her eyes as the warm mid-morning sun hit her face. It felt good, that warmth she was still getting used to after so long living back in northern
England
. And even when she felt a hand on her hip, a mouth touching hers, she kept her eyes closed, sliding a hand around the back of his neck, pulling him down on to her, responding to his kiss by pushing herself against him. That familiar scratching of his beard against her skin, the taste of him something she’d never forget; she knew it was him. She knew it was Coby.

‘This is crazy, Lexi.’

She opened her eyes, looking straight into his. ‘I know.’

‘Somebody’s gonna see us here, kid.’

‘So, it’s back to the secrets and the lies and the pretending that none of this is happening.’

‘That’s the way it has to be, baby, you know that.’

She ran her fingers all the way down his leather cut, lingering on his Vice President’s patch, knowing that that position gave him slightly more power than most of the others around that table. But it also put him in more danger. And all of a sudden the thought that she could lose him, the way she’d almost lost Jesse – the way she’d lost Shane; it brought a terrifying wave of fear sweeping over her. And she had to breathe in deep to stop herself from showing that emotion. Fear was a weakness. A big and dangerous weakness.

‘Lexi?’

‘I really can’t do this, Coby. I can’t be strong anymore, I can’t…’

‘You can, kid. You have to be.’

‘Why can’t you just accept what we have?’ she whispered. ‘Why?’

‘Because I don’t know what the hell it is, Lexi.’

She looked at him, right into his dark eyes, remembering the first time she’d lain in his arms, how those eyes had made her fall in love with him, even if she hadn’t realized it at the time. Because that’s where she was now. Maybe she hadn’t been before, maybe she hadn’t really known where she’d been, but she was there now. She was in love with this man, and it hurt. Like a pain she couldn’t describe. ‘Then don’t ever touch me again, Coby. Don’t kiss me, or reach out to me, and please – please don’t make me want to fuck you because I can’t take that, not anymore. Not if you can’t do this.’

‘Lexi…’

‘I love you. Okay? I’m crazy fucking in love with you but if you can’t understand that – if you can’t feel the same, then I don’t want you to touch me. Because it just hurts too much.’

She pulled away from him, almost running back over to her car, climbing inside and driving off before he had a chance to stop her.

Coby leant back against his bike and let out the loudest sigh of frustration, grabbing his hair with both hands as he shouted out loud. ‘Shit!’

Did he love her too? How could he possibly know that, when he’d never really been in love before. He was almost forty-nine years old and he’d never really been in love. He’d just let his life go by in the company of biker mamas and porn stars. And now he had one of the most stunning women he’d ever known stand there and tell him she loved him. A woman he’d watched grow from a ten year old tomboy into someone so beautiful she took his breath away. A woman who, since her return to
Paradise
, he’d spent every waking minute wanting to be with. When he was inside her he felt peace. Calm. He felt strong. Like he could take on the world. But she was a dangerous woman to love, because she’d given an already unstable house of cards a nudge. And he couldn’t risk the whole lot coming down around him. Around the club. He couldn’t risk it. But, at the same time, he knew that, at some point, he was going to have to. He had no other choice.

***

‘My grandson, Charlie! Jesus! You let our daughter go through pregnancy and the birth of her own child and you didn’t think to let her
mother
know?’

‘We looked after her, Angie. She had the best possible care, and Maggie was with her throughout everything…’

‘Maggie isn’t her fucking mother!’

‘And her mother was the one who forced her out of town, out of her home. Her mother was the one who forced her back here, to us. Or have you forgotten that? Huh?’

Angie closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. ‘We’re in a fucking mess here, Charlie.’

‘Tell me about it.’

‘She needs her baby. She needs him home, in
Paradise
.’

‘And he needs stability. You think that’s what he’s gonna get over there?’

‘And what the hell is he getting with you? You telling me you never bring him to the compound? That he’s never around the boys there, never in the clubhouse?’

Charlie sighed down the line, just as frustrated by the situation as Angie was. ‘Maybe we should have sent Coby back to
Paradise
the second Lexi knew he was here,’ Charlie said.

‘Maybe.’

‘We could still have achieved the endgame we were after.’ But Charlie knew that was a lie. He’d needed Coby. He’d needed him to stay. So sending him back to
California
early had never been an option. ‘We made mistakes, Angie,’ Charlie went on. ‘You, me,
Tay
– Coby, even Lexi.’ Especially Lexi. Charlie was more than aware of the mistakes his daughter had made. The mess those mistakes had created. ‘We all made mistakes.’

‘And you let our daughter make an even bigger one… Jesus, Charlie… Coby Walker, of all people.’

‘Coby is one of the most loyal brothers we’ve ever had.’

‘So, you’re happy with the fact he slept with our daughter right under your fucking nose?’

‘What the hell did you expect me to do, Angie? Tag him? Lexi’s head was all over the place after Shane died. I had no idea she’d left the wake and come back here to see Coby. I had no idea, I promise you that. It wasn’t until she told me she was pregnant that I realized what had happened. And she tried to hide
that
from me for as long as she could.’

‘She… she tried to hide the fact she was pregnant?’ Angie felt her stomach give another unwanted dip. Was she ever going to get her head around this situation?

‘She was scared. She might have been thirty-four years old but she was terrified of what had happened. Of what she’d done. She was confused. She wanted me to help her.’

‘You should have called me,’ Angie said, her voice as calm as she could keep it.

‘What good would that have done?’

‘What good…? She’s my
daughter
! Jesus Christ!’

There was a pause, a moment of silence where neither of them spoke. ‘Coby knows the score.’