Revolution (The Lone Riders MC Series Book 1) (16 page)

‘And what about Coby?’

She looked down at her knees, at her fingers pulling at the denim of her jeans. ‘I need to talk to him.’

‘Maybe the truth
is
gonna have to come out, kiddo. If you want everyone to know who Ozzie’s real daddy is.’

‘It
has
to come out, because my son is not going to grow up thinking a dead man was his father. He’ll know his real daddy, no matter what. I’ll make sure of that.’

‘Then the truth – or some form of it – is gonna have to come out. And maybe, from that, we can find out what really happened to Shane, huh?’

Lexi stood up, brushing herself down before raking her fingers through her hair, shaking it out. ‘Maybe. But in the meantime, Kel, keep all of this to yourself, okay? I’ll tell everyone about Ozzie soon enough, but… but for now there are other things I need to sort out.’

Kel stood up, too, reaching out to touch her arm to stop her from walking away. ‘Just be careful, Lexi.’

She looked at him. ‘Yeah. Always.’

Seventeen

‘Why aren’t we storing the guns in our warehouse?’ Coby asked, walking slowly around the huge, cavernous space, his voice echoing in the emptiness.

‘This place is even more secluded,’
Tay
replied, sitting down on a crate by the open doors.

Coby turned to look at him, folding his arms. ‘Why does that make me nervous?’

‘Where do you expect us to store a shipment of guns that size, Cobe? In the back room at the clubhouse?’

‘I still don’t see why we couldn’t store them in our own warehouse. Why do we need to bring them here?’

‘Because this is where Emilio wants us to keep them.’

‘And that’s exactly what’s making me nervous.’ Coby walked over to
Tay
, resting one boot-clad foot up on the crate next to him. ‘This whole set-up is making me nervous, brother. Something doesn’t feel right.’

‘What could go wrong?’

Coby couldn’t help laughing. ‘You’re seriously asking me that? Come on,
Tay
.’

Tay
hung his head, pushing a hand through his hair. ‘I trust him, Coby. Emilio. We have history, a good relationship…’

‘Until you shafted him and his crew. Not to mention his Mexican contact.’

Tay
stood up, kicking back the crate he’d been sitting on. ‘You got a problem here, Coby?’

‘Have I…? Shit, yeah! You noticed, huh?’ Coby also kicked his crate back, facing
Tay
head on. ‘Weren’t you listening to me this morning? Did you not catch what I was trying to say? I’m pissed off,
Tay
. Pissed off with the way you’ve been handling things lately. You’re letting this club down, and it’s beginning to show. The guys, some of the younger ones, the respect they have for you, man, it’s running out. Haven’t you noticed? You’re losing it.’

‘You’re my VP, Coby. You should be helping me…’

‘Hell! Fuck helping you,
Tay
!’ Coby took a step forward, his face now close to
Tay
’s. ‘Tonight we vote on this shit-stupid scheme of yours with the Cabos, and if the others agree then, okay, yeah, we do this one last job. This one
last
job. God help us… And then we are going legit. You hear me? And do you know how I
know
that’s gonna happen? Because I’m gonna take that gavel from you, brother. I’m gonna claim that seat at the head of that table. When all this is over,
that
fight begins.’

‘You don’t mean that,’
Tay
whispered, his expression grim, cold. ‘You wouldn’t do that to me. We’re friends, Coby, you and me. We go way back so… so I know you’re bluffing. You’re just trying to make me nervous…’

‘I’m trying to make you see sense.’

‘You wouldn’t do it. You wouldn’t challenge me, not when I have so much shit on you that could...’

Coby took another step forward, as close to
Tay
now as he could possibly get, his voice low and just mildly threatening. ‘Do
not
bring Lexi or my son into this,
Tay
. I really, really wouldn’t go there.’

‘What is it exactly you’re trying to do here, huh? Take that gavel right out of my hand so that
you
can control the mess that’s gonna ensue? Is that the plan? Because it won’t work, Coby. It
can’t
work. That baby comes over here, and something’s gotta give, brother.’

Coby took a step back, shaking his head, laughing slightly.

‘You haven’t got the balls, Coby.’

Coby raised an eyebrow, his eyes never leaving
Tay
’s. ‘After what you made me do? You don’t think I’ve got the balls to challenge
you
for President of a club you’re losing sight of?’

‘You haven’t got the balls. Brother.’

Coby gave another low laugh, shaking his head as he walked backwards, out into the bright Californian sunshine. ‘Watch me.’

***

‘That doesn’t look like the face of a woman who’s all that happy to be home.’

Lexi looked up as Sheriff Bailey sat down opposite her. She’d escaped the compound for a little while, taking a few minutes out to enjoy some time alone at the coffee shop across the street. But now she couldn’t help thinking she maybe should’ve escaped a little further afield.

‘I’m ecstatic to be home. Sheriff.’

Michael threw her a look before indicating to a passing waitress to bring him a coffee. ‘Everything still a bit complicated over there?’

‘When is it not?’ she sighed, picking up her spoon and absent-mindedly stirring her drink.

‘You settling in okay?’ Michael asked, smiling his thanks at the waitress as she placed his order down in front of him.

‘Getting there,’ Lexi replied, still stirring her coffee.

‘I hear you and Coby… I hear you two are an item now.’

‘Word spreads fast.’

‘It’s a small town, honey.’

‘Yeah. It is.’

‘Something you wanna talk about?’ He took a sip of his coffee, looking at Lexi over the rim of his cup.

She stared at him for a second or two, contemplating whether or not it was a good idea to bring up his involvement in covering for Coby when he was over in
England
, but she decided against it. Things were already complicated enough. ‘No. Not really. It’s just taking a bit of getting used to, that’s all. Being back home.’

Michael took another sip of coffee. ‘Okay. Well…’ He quickly drained his cup, placing it back down on the table, smiling at her as he stood up. ‘If you need anything, sweetheart, you know where I am.’

She frowned slightly. ‘Yeah. Thanks.’

‘See you around.’

She watched him walk over to his car, speaking into his radio as he went. She knew Michael Bailey had been a good friend of the club for a long, long time, over twenty-five years. Him and
Tay
, they went way back, which meant there was almost a kind of mutual trust between the two of them. So Lexi couldn’t help wondering just how much the sheriff really knew about just what it was he’d helped cover up. Did
he
know the full truth? Did anyone? Because she was beginning to wonder.

‘Mind if I join you?’

She looked up at the sound of that familiar, deep Scottish accent, and despite everything going on inside her head, every messed-up, confused emotion, she couldn’t help but smile. ‘Yeah. I do, actually. Fuck off.’

He laughed, kicking the chair back that Michael had been sitting on just a few seconds earlier, turning it around and placing himself on it so his long legs straddled the back of it. Lexi couldn’t help but think how ridiculously sexy he looked with his hair pushed back off his face, his eyes covered by dark glasses.

‘What did Bailey want?’ Coby asked, looking over at Michael as he drove off.

‘Nothing,’ Lexi replied, watching as Coby pushed his glasses up on to his head. Good. She could see his eyes now, which is exactly what she wanted to do when she spoke to him. ‘He’s just being friendly, that’s all.’

‘Another one of the many father figures you had when you were growing up here, huh?’

She smiled, her gaze meeting his. ‘Yeah, well, at least I’m not fucking that one.’

Coby looked at her, smiling slightly. ‘You coming back over to the compound?’

‘I wasn’t planning on it. Not yet, anyway. Why?’

‘I really need to see you alone, Lex.’

She narrowed her eyes, biting down on her lip as she looked at him. ‘Something wrong?’

He looked down briefly, sighing quietly. ‘Just something going down between me and
Tay
.’

‘Like what?’

‘Nothing for you to worry about.’

‘Why mention it, then?’

He stood up, pushing his glasses back down over his eyes, raking a hand through his hair. ‘I’ll be over there, if you do decide to come back.’

‘Coby, hang on…’ Lexi stood up, too, running over to him, slowing up as she reached his side. ‘I’ll come back with you.’

He stopped, causing her to do the same. ‘No, it’s okay. To be honest, kid, I could probably do with a bit of time on my own.’

She reached out to touch his face, stroking his cheek with her fingertips. ‘You can talk to me, baby.’

‘I know,’ he whispered, taking her hand in his and kissing it gently. ‘I’ll see you later.’

‘Yeah,’ she said, watching as he made his way across the road, back over to the compound. ‘Later.’

***

‘Everything go okay today?’ Angie asked as
Tay
walked into the office, throwing himself down on to the couch by the door.

‘Fine.’

‘You sure about that? You look full of hell to me. Something go down with Coby?’

Tay
looked at his wife. ‘He wants to challenge me.’

‘Challenge you?’ Angie asked, swinging her chair around so she faced him.

‘For the Presidency.’

‘Where the hell has
this
come from?’

Tay
looked away, his attention now on the open door, at the sound of the day carrying on as normal out there in the compound. ‘He thinks I’m losing it. He thinks I’m dragging the club down, losing focus.’

Angie sat back, breathing in deep and exhaling slowly. ‘Jesus,
Tay
… Coby he… he’s your best friend, your brother in every sense of the word…’

‘He
was
, Angie. Until Lexi arrived back in town, bringing with her all that fucking baggage.’

Angie leant forward, staring at
Tay
. ‘This is
not
Lexi’s fault,
Tay
.’

His eyes bored right into hers. ‘He was fine before she turned up back here. We all were.’

Angie shook her head, getting up and walking over to the door, pushing it shut. ‘Whatever was going on between Coby and Lexi, that was always gonna come out at some point, and you know that. We were stupid and naïve to think it wouldn’t. And I’m not gonna stand here and blame my daughter for something that
we
caused…’

Tay
leant forward, his eyes back on Angie. ‘Something
we
caused?’

Angie leant back against the wall, folding her arms. ‘If we hadn’t run her out of town for making one, stupid mistake… the same mistake you and I made all those years ago, remember? And nobody ran
me
out of town.’

‘Because you chose to leave.’

Angie looked down at her feet, scuffing the heel of her boot against the skirting board. ‘What’s really going on,
Tay
?’ She looked back up, her arms still folded, her eyes on her husband. ‘Because something is. I can tell.’

Tay
sat back, pushing a hand through his hair. ‘It’s nothing you need to know about.’

‘Shit,
Tay
! Stop treating me like some naïve idiot, I’m tired of all this crap. And I’m tired of the fucking secrets that are destroying us, destroying this club.’

Tay
got up, walking over to her, stopping just in front of her, cupping her cheek in his hand. ‘You really do need to remember your place, Angie. Now, you may be the matriarch of this club, the one everyone comes running to, but that’s
all
you are, okay? You’re Biker Mom, Queen of the compound. But you’re still
just
an old lady, which means there’ll always be shit you really don’t need to know about.’ He lowered his mouth on to hers, his grip on her face tightening slightly as he kissed her roughly before pulling back, pushing her away from him. ‘I’m going out.’

Angie put a hand to her cheek, watching as he yanked open the door and strode across the yard to his bike, climbing on it and speeding off, the sound of the engine roaring filling the compound.

Leaning back against the wall Angie closed her eyes, breathing in deeply. Whatever was going on with
Tay
, she knew he was only using Lexi as a front, some kind of excuse, because whatever was going down between him and Coby, Angie had a feeling it was way more serious than his VP and his stepdaughter’s messed-up relationship. But whatever it was, it was doing nothing but giving Angie one hell of a bad feeling.