Revolution (The Lone Riders MC Series Book 1) (14 page)

Sixteen

‘I need you with me today, Coby.’

Coby, who was sitting on the bar in the clubhouse nursing a mug of tea, looked up as
Tay
leant back beside him, folding his arms, his eyes focused on Luca and Blake who were messing about by the pool table. ‘Why?’

Tay
turned to look at Coby. ‘You’re my VP, in case you’d forgotten. Which means you’re supposed to back me up, help me deal with things.’

Coby looked away,
his
gaze now focusing on Luca and Blake. ‘And you’re supposed to keep me informed of all the shit that goes on around here.’ His eyes once more met
Tay
’s. ‘But that seems to be something
you’re
forgetting.’

‘Jesus, Coby, come on, brother. Stay with me on this one, please.’

‘We should have had a vote,
Tay
. You’re going behind everyone’s backs, and that’s not cool. That’s not right.’

‘I’m doing it to benefit everyone.’

Coby’s eyes bored into his friend’s. ‘You sure about that?’

Tay
’s stare was just as hard, just as powerful. ‘I’m sure. Everybody else, they don’t need to know anything just yet. Not until it’s all sorted, all in place. Then it’s just one more job, Coby. One job. That’s it.’

‘Shit,
Tay
… We were out of the fucking gun business. No more outlaw crap, we were clear of it, we were going legit. You pulled us back from all that, and now you’re throwing us right back into it, and you can stand there and tell me you’re doing this all for the good of this club, but something isn’t right here.’

‘You saying I’ve got some kind of ulterior motive?’

‘I don’t have a clue what the hell’s going on with you right now, brother. I’ve got enough shit of my own to deal with.’

‘Get your mind focused, Coby. Because that’s how I need you. Focused.’

Tay
’s eyes were staring straight ahead again, and Coby couldn’t help but find the fact his friend couldn’t look him in the eye for more than a few seconds at a time slightly worrying. ‘What’s going on here,
Tay
?’

Tay
didn’t reply.

‘
Tay
?’

‘I owe Emilio, Coby.’

‘
Owe
him?’

‘Remember that deal that went down with the Cabos, just before I pulled us out of the guns?’

Coby frowned. ‘The one involving the Mexicans, yeah. I remember it.’

Tay
finally turned to face his VP. ‘Things got… they got complicated.’

Coby frowned again. He was becoming more confused by the second.

‘That last shipment that came in… I kept some of the guns back, for us. Told the Cabos and their Mexican contacts that our suppliers hadn’t been able to source everything they needed…’

‘Jesus Christ…’ Coby sighed, pushing a hand through his hair.

‘We were desperate for those guns, Coby. Things with the Cabos were getting more fractured, despite our working together. The threat of something kicking off was always around the corner, and those weapons…’

‘We could have got those guns ourselves, the usual way. When I asked you where they’d come from you told me it was something you’d set up, a deal you’d struck with our own supplier... if I’d known… What the hell were you thinking?’

‘I don’t know… I really don’t know, I guess I was just acting on some kind of instinct…’

‘Less than a bloody year we’ve been out of this shit and now you’re dragging us all back down… Christ,
Tay
… But what I’m not getting here is why, if this is some kind of payback for what you did – why is Emilio paying us such a large sum of money? I mean, why is he paying us at all? None of this makes any fucking sense.’

‘He really needs our help here, that’s why. If we can get this shipment over to the warehouse, keep it safe for a couple of days, and then hand it over to the Mexicans without any problems we get a pay day like we’ve never had before, brother. What I did… it was thoughtless, I know, but the Cabos are gonna make sure we earn big out of this.’

‘And they’ll earn even bigger, huh? So, what’s the risk?’

Tay
paused before speaking again. ‘This shipment, it was meant for the Black Ravens.’

Coby stared at
Tay
, his eyes widening. ‘The Black Ravens?’

‘The Cabos heard about the deal, about the size of the shipment, thanks to one of the Ravens’ crew having too loose a mouth during some ridiculous street fight over someone’s old lady. Word got back to Emilio, he cut in, struck up a completely new deal…’

‘But he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty, huh? Doesn’t want to risk any of
his
crew getting hurt, is that it?’

‘Nobody’s gonna get hurt, Coby.’

‘So, you’re telling me there is
no
risk involved here? That the Ravens aren’t gonna try and intercept this, get back what was originally theirs… You’re telling me that Emilio is just gonna hand over Christ knows how much cash to us, wipe your slate clean, and let us just walk away? It’s
that
easy, is it?’

‘I made a stupid mistake, Coby. A moment of weakness…’

‘We can’t afford moments of weakness,
Tay
. Not in this game.’

Tay
narrowed his eyes as he stared at Coby. ‘No. We can’t. But we all have them. And they all add up to some kind of risk.’

Coby let out a small, humourless laugh. ‘Jesus… what happened between me and Lexi, that is completely different to this. I slept with your stepdaughter, I didn’t steal guns from one of the most dangerous crews around here. A crew we used to have a good relationship with.’

‘We’ve never had a good relationship with the Cabos, Coby, come on…’

‘It was a peaceful one,
Tay
. Things were settling down once we’d got out of the guns.’

‘We were never out of the guns, not really.’

‘Evidently. Jesus Christ,
Tay
! You’re supposed to be the one leading this club into better times not throwing us deeper into the shit.’

Tay
continued to stare at his friend. His VP. His brother in all ways but blood. ‘Yeah. I am. And I will be again, once this is all over. Once this is done I promise you, Coby, we will be one hundred per cent legit. The garage, the movie studio, the boxing club, that’s what we’ll concentrate on, I promise. We just need to do this one, final job.’

‘Why didn’t I hear about all of this at the sit-down the other day? Why did I only get half a fucking story?’

‘I told Emilio to only tell you what I felt, at the time, you needed to know.’

Coby couldn’t stop the cynical laugh from escaping, throwing back his head and letting it out, long and loud.

‘I needed you on side, Coby.’

‘Yeah, well, that didn’t exactly go to plan, did it?’ Coby jumped down from the bar. ‘We hold a vote,
Tay
. That’s the only way I’m gonna help you with this. We hold a vote, and if everyone’s in agreement… Shit! We shouldn’t be going anywhere near this crap…’ He looked at
Tay
, at the hint of genuine fear behind his dark eyes, something that both unsettled and saddened Coby. When had his friend become so lax in his thinking? So selfish in his running of this club? ‘We have a vote. You got that?’

Tay
leant back against the bar, pushing both hands through his hair, nodding slowly.

‘Okay,’ Coby sighed. ‘I’ll get the guys together. We’ll take the vote tonight.’

‘Hey, Coby.’

Coby turned around. ‘Yeah?’

‘You and Lexi… is it serious?’

‘I love her,
Tay
. So, if that’s what you class as serious then, yeah. That’s exactly what it is.’

‘And your boy?’

Coby narrowed his eyes as he held
Tay
’s gaze. ‘What about him?’

‘Angie and Lexi, they want him over here. In
Paradise
. Is that what
you
want, too?’

Coby let out another low laugh, his gaze dropping to the floor for a second or two. ‘Where’s this going,
Tay
?’

‘He comes over here, and I know I said we’d try and work something out, but that ain’t ever really gonna happen, is it? It’s gonna be impossible to keep the truth hidden so, if he comes over here, you know the truth will have to come out, don’t you? Because I can’t see any other way.’

Coby’s eyes once more met
Tay
’s. ‘Maybe it should have come out a long time ago.’

‘Like I said, we all make mistakes.’

Coby waited a beat or two before replying. ‘Aye. Aye, we all do.’

***

‘Is he okay, Dad?’

‘He’s fine, baby. He’s in the office with Maggie today. The boys have made him a play pen so he’s perfectly safe, and he loves it here. Mainly because he’s getting attention on an almost permanent basis.’

Lexi smiled to herself, but that smile was accompanied by a feeling not unlike a rusty knife tearing through her heart. A feeling of loss and emptiness. Ever since Ozzie had been born she’d spent every single day with him, noticing every little change, every tiny thing he did. And now he was thousands of miles away, without her. And she was without him. And it hurt. But she had to make things right with his daddy before she could even think about letting him join them. Things had to be settled, sorted; she had to make sure it was safe for him to come here, to
Paradise
.

‘Good,’ Lexi whispered. ‘That’s good.’

‘Lexi, sweetheart… you and Coby…’

‘We’re together. It’s all out in the open, Dad, so, if you’re gonna try and stop it from…’ She sighed, swapping the phone over to her other ear. ‘What happened, it changed everything.’

‘Nobody knows Ozzie is his. How is that gonna work if you and Coby… Does he
want
his son, Lexi?’

‘Of course he bloody wants him! Jesus, Dad…’

‘Then all kinds of shit is gonna hit the fan, darling.’

Lexi pulled herself up on to the desk, crossing her legs up underneath her. ‘Why was Coby over in
England
? I mean, at the time I really couldn’t have cared less because I knew better than to ask. But now… why was he over there? And why was it such a big fucking secret?’

‘You don’t need to know, Lexi.’

‘Back then, no, I probably didn’t…’

‘It was club business. That’s
all
you need to know.’

‘For Christ’s sake, Dad, I
know
it was club business. I didn’t think he was over there for a holiday. But for nobody –
nobody
– from any chapter… for no one to know that he was over there…’

‘This chapter was in trouble, Lex. Someone was threatening it, threatening to bring us down – to bring
me
down…’

‘Who?’

‘We didn’t know. All we knew was there was a threat, over here. And because Coby knows the area well, knows the people – he still has a lot of contacts here – I thought it best he come over to
England
to help me sort things. He knew the right people to go to, the right questions to ask…’

‘What do you mean, help sort things? And
you
know the area well, Dad. You know it better than anyone. Why did you need Coby? Why did you need
anybody
from any other chapter? Couldn’t you just have used one of the guys over there?’ Lexi picked up a pen, chewing on the end of it.

‘Come on, sweetheart, you know how this works. Sometimes we need to deal with things… sometimes a little bit of inter-chapter help is necessary.’

Lexi was beginning to wish she hadn’t started this conversation now, because the more she listened, the more confused and nervous it made her feel. None of it sounded right. None of it made any sense to her.

‘We deal with things, Lexi. In our own way. Then we move on. Coby helped me deal with something that could have become dangerous, that’s all. And I’m grateful for his help.’

Lexi closed her eyes for a second or two, still chewing on the pen she’d picked up. ‘But then he slept with me, and created a whole new pile of problems.’

She heard her father sigh heavily down the line. But he didn’t say anything. What
could
he say? It was true.

‘So why the secrecy?’ Lexi went on, finally putting the pen back down. ‘If he was only over in
England
to help you deal with some threat that he, apparently, dealt with quite quickly, why all the secrecy?’

‘You don’t need to know any more, Lexi. And you know I don’t have to tell you. You know that.’

She knew only too well the way things worked. Old ladies, family members, even if they chose to know what was going on – and that was purely their decision – they were told only what was deemed necessary, if anything at all. Everything else was kept very much under wraps. And whilst that had never really bothered her before – she understood the “rules”. It bothered her now. Because now she had a family of her own. She had a man she loved, and a baby she loved even more. And if she lost either of them, because of the shit being a member of this club caused…