Revolution (The Lone Riders MC Series Book 1) (20 page)

‘It’s complicated.’ She folded her arms against herself, her voice little more than a whisper.

Jesse narrowed his eyes. ‘He got some kind of hold over you or something?’

‘It just happened, Jesse. Okay? And believe me, it was just as much of a surprise to me as it has been to everyone else. It was probably the last thing either Coby or me had ever dreamt would happen, but… it happened.’

‘I still don’t understand, Lex. I don’t understand how… you don’t just fall in love with someone, not just like that. I mean, me and you, we were friends for years before we realized those kinds of feelings were there.’

‘This is different. This, it’s… it’s so, so different.’

‘How?’

‘I’m not doing this, Jesse.’ She turned to walk away but he jumped down from the table and ran after her, catching up with her by the entrance to the clubhouse.

‘How is it different, Lexi?’

‘Jesus!’ She let out a heavy sigh, leaning back against the wall. ‘Why is this so important to you, huh?’

His eyes met hers, his hand resting on the wall just beside her head. ‘He’s so much older than you for starters.’

‘Oh, grow up, Jesse. He is not so much older than me. It’s fourteen years.’

‘It just doesn’t feel right, Lexi.’

‘And that’s
your
problem, not mine.’

‘So, you’re gonna stand there and tell me nothing’s gone on between you two tonight?’

‘Like what?’

‘I watched you both before – the way you pulled your hand away from his, the way you looked at him... is it all going downhill as quickly as it started, huh?’

‘I’m done here.’ She pushed past him, but he grabbed her wrist, swinging her back around to face him.

‘If he
ever
touches you…’

‘Like
you
did?’ Her eyes burned into his and he quickly let go of her. ‘I can look after myself, Jesse. All right?’

‘Do you love him, Lex?’ His voice softened, as did her stare.

‘I wish I didn’t,’ she said, folding her arms again, aware of Coby’s voice coming from inside the clubhouse. ‘But I do.’

‘Lexi…’

‘Leave it, please, just… just leave it.’

‘We could have made a go of things, you know? Me and you. We could have tried again.’

She shook her head sadly. ‘No, Jesse. No. We couldn’t.’

Twenty-One

‘Can I talk to you?’

Coby turned around to see Lexi standing in the doorway of the garage, all biker beautiful in skinny jeans, high-heeled, knee-high boots, tattoos and a tight black t-shirt, her long blonde hair hanging loose around her shoulders. He leant back against the bike Blake and Luca were working on, folding his arms, not taking his eyes off her. He hadn’t seen her in days, hadn’t seen her around the compound, and he’d missed her. It just wasn’t in his nature to go chasing. ‘Aye. Sure.’

‘Away from here,’ she said, leaning back against the wall, resting one foot up against it, her hands in her pockets.

‘Away from the compound?’

‘Yeah. There
is
a world outside of this place, you know.’

Attitude. She’d never lost it. And he found that one hell of a turn on.

‘I was just on my way over to The Candy Cave.’

‘Then I’ll come with you.’

‘You want to spend a day with the porn stars, huh?’

‘We can talk on the way,’ she said, ignoring his last remark.

‘Okay,’ he sighed, turning to Blake and Luca. ‘You guys all right here?’

They both nodded, acknowledging him with the raise of a hand.

‘Right. Come on then, beautiful. Let’s get out of here.’

He followed her out of the garage, over to his bike parked out front of the clubhouse. ‘You want to ride with me?’

She nodded, taking the helmet he held out for her.

‘Is everything all right, Lexi?’

‘You told me to come back when I had my head sorted.’

‘And?
Is
it sorted?’

‘Not really. But I think that’s a work in progress. I just know that you and me, we’ve got too much to talk about for me to be pushing you away.’

‘I didn’t want to be pushed anywhere, kid. But if you couldn’t deal with…’

‘What you did to Shane? We’ve all dealt with worse, Coby.’

‘But you’ve never been so closely involved before, Lex.’

‘Like you said, Shane and I, we weren’t even together by that time. We never really were. If I’m being honest, I’m not sure what it was we actually had.’ She looked up at Coby. ‘I guess we were just two people pushed together by circumstances. Which makes what happened to him even more tragic.’

Coby bowed his head, pulling a packet of cigarettes out of his top jacket pocket, dragging one out with his mouth. ‘I’ve told
Tay
.’

She watched him light his cigarette, lift his head and turn it to one side, blowing smoke out across the compound. ‘Told
Tay
what?’

‘That I’m telling everyone the truth. Once this job is over…’ He stopped talking, keeping his head turned away from her.

‘What job?’

‘Just something
Tay
’s got going.’ He shouldn’t really have said anything. It had just slipped out. But that was probably because it was all he could think about right now, this looming run that could so easily go wrong in spectacular fashion.

‘Is this what you were all voting on the other night?’

He finally turned to look at her, taking another long drag on his cigarette. ‘It’s nothing. Just something we need to do for the Cabos.’

She frowned slightly. ‘Don’t the Cabos run the gun business around here now?’

He pushed a hand through his hair, looking down as he flicked ash on to the ground. ‘Aye. They do. We handed it over to them, when we thought
Tay
was getting us out of all this shit.’

‘So, why are you getting involved with them again?’

‘Things aren’t quite as fractured between our clubs as they used to be, Lex.’

‘Really? Is something going on, Coby?’

‘Like what?’ He raised his head, taking one last drag on the cigarette before he threw it away, bringing his heavy boot down on top of it, crushing it into the concrete below.

‘I don’t know, Coby. You tell me.’

His eyes locked on to hers. ‘It’s just a job, Lexi.’

‘Are you in danger?’

He said nothing for a couple of beats before climbing on to his bike, pulling his helmet on, covering his eyes with his sunglasses. ‘Come on. Let’s get out of here.’

***

‘It’s all got to come out, Lexi.’

She placed her helmet on the bike seat and sat down next to him, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her back against the tree they were sitting under. They were about half way to the
Candy
Cave
studios, on the outskirts of
Paradise
, parked opposite a small roadside café, a place frequented mostly by other bikers.

‘Everything?’

Coby stared out ahead of him, his arms resting on his drawn-up knees. ‘About me, you… Ozzie.’ He turned to look at her. ‘It’s got to stop, all these lies and covering up shit that should never have
been
covered up.’ But he knew it wasn’t going to be as simple as that. He knew it couldn’t be. ‘Because look where it’s got us, Lex. Look at the mess it’s created.’ He sighed heavily, pushing a hand through his hair. ‘I thought I knew what I was doing, you know? I thought I’d be okay, that I was in control of it all. I didn’t know that everything was gonna change the second I set eyes on you again. Because that wasn’t supposed to happen. You weren’t supposed to be there… you weren’t supposed to have gotten more beautiful…’ He looked away again. ‘And we shouldn’t be keeping the secrets we’re still keeping from everybody. Our son, he doesn’t deserve that.’

‘No,’ Lexi whispered, looking down at her hands as they fiddled with the frayed knees of her jeans. ‘He doesn’t.’

‘This job we’re doing, Lex…’

She looked up at him. He had his head thrown back, his eyes closed. She’d never seen him look so worn out. So exhausted.

‘What about it?’ she asked, although she was afraid of the answer he was about to give her.

‘
Tay
, he… he got himself into some kind of shit with the Cabos. Don’t ask me for the details, you don’t need to know any of that.’ He turned his head, opening his eyes to look into hers. ‘But we owe Emilio and his crew now. So, this job… we’re helping them transport, store and distribute a shipment of guns coming over from
Russia
.’

Lexi kept her eyes on him, even when he turned his head away again. ‘I thought this club was out of the gun business.’

‘We are… were. After Tuesday night we will be again. For good this time.’

‘Why can’t
Tay
handle this himself? If it’s all his fault.’

‘It’s not as simple as that.’

‘It never is.’

He turned to face her again. ‘This shipment, it was meant for the Ravens.’

She kept her expression steady, her voice calm. But even she knew the reputation the Ravens had. They weren’t a club to mess with. ‘And?’

‘If they’ve got wind of this shipment arriving, of what we’re doing, they might try and intercept it. Take back what should have been theirs.’

‘Do you think they have any idea when it’s coming in?’

Coby shrugged. ‘Who knows. Emilio says it’s all watertight, that there’s no way they
can
know, but that kind of shit means nothing.’

Lexi looked back down at her hands, watching as her fingers resumed the fiddling of frayed denim. ‘
Tay
isn’t stupid, Coby.’

‘Maybe not. But he’s been more than fucking careless on this one, Lex. He’s put us all in danger because of a mistake
he
made. He lost his focus. And as President of this chapter that’s… that’s one huge mess-up.’

‘Have you got back-up?’

‘
Tay
’s drafted in some guys from Hilton, and Emilio’s giving us a couple of his crew, too, just to be on the safe side. But it’s us who face the biggest danger, Lexi. We’ve got the most men out there. But, hey, the money’s good.’

The sarcasm in his voice wasn’t lost on her. But all she could feel now was fear. That familiar, impending shadow of blackness that seemed to sweep over her every time someone she cared about had to go out there and face whatever crap this club was involved in. Most of the time she’d never had any idea it had happened until after the event, but those times when she knew what was coming – when she knew what
could
happen – those were the times that terrified her.

‘You’ve all been through this before,’ she said quietly, still pulling at the frayed knee of her jeans.

‘Aye,’ Coby sighed, throwing his head back again. ‘We have.’

She reached out, finding his hand, letting her fingers curl around his. ‘You can handle this.’

He said nothing, just kept his eyes closed, gently squeezing her hand.

‘Has
Tay
told my mum what’s happening?’

Coby shook his head, looking at her again. ‘Not sure he wants her to know.’

‘Doesn’t she have a right to? I mean, she’s got her husband
and
her son involved in all this. And surely if we’re all prepared back at the compound…’

He frowned slightly. ‘Prepared?’

‘If anything goes wrong. Let’s be realistic about this, okay? Neither me, my mum, or any of the other old ladies – none of us are blind to what goes on. We might not always know the facts, but we know the reality. We’re aware of what can go down. And if we’re prepared for those eventualities, whatever they may be, then we can deal with them all a hell of a lot better than we could if we’re left in the dark.’

‘Nobody’s gonna get hurt, Lex,’ he said quietly, his eyes boring into hers.

‘You don’t believe that any more than I do, Coby.’

He leant over and kissed her gently, slowly, his hand gripping hers tighter as their mouths moved together. ‘Okay… then I’m gonna do my best to make
sure
nobody gets hurt.’

She rested her hand against his rough cheek, searching his tired and handsome face for some kind of reassurance that she knew was never really going to be there. This wasn’t the kind of life that came with guarantees.

‘And once it’s over, once we’re out of this shit for good, we get this club straight. Start a new era.’

‘A new era?’ Lexi frowned.

‘
Tay
’s had his turn, kid. He’s taken this chapter as far as it can go. It’s time for a new President.’

‘And that would be you, huh?’

He smiled slightly. ‘You know I’ve always wanted that President’s patch, Lex.’

‘And
Tay
knows this, does he?’

Coby looked down at their joined hands, his thumb slowly stroking her knuckles. ‘I told him I was gonna push for the Presidency. And then I told him I’d step back.’

‘But, you’re not stepping back, is that it?’

He brought her hand up to his mouth, kissing it gently. ‘We need to work together on this job. Any internal friction is only gonna go against us, make us more vulnerable. We work as a team, we can get through this. I know we can.’

She looked deep into his eyes, wanting to believe him, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t be as positive as him. Because she knew, deep down inside, he wasn’t that positive either. ‘And once it’s all over?’

‘I love
Tay
, you know? He’s my brother. My best friend. But he’s lost his way as President. What’s happening now, that only proves it. And we don’t need those risks anymore, not if our son is gonna be around that compound, part of this club.’

She briefly closed her eyes, taking a short, deep breath, exhaling slowly. ‘Coby, I…’

He shut her up with a kiss, pulling her over so she straddled him, her legs either side of his. ‘I can’t leave this place, Lex. I can’t. All the shit and the danger and the people who give me headaches I can really do without – it’s all a part of who I am. It’s all I’ve known.’

She rested her forehead against his, her thumbs stroking his face as she stared into his eyes. ‘And if I want to leave all that behind?’

He said nothing for a few beats, his stare matching hers, his fingers playing with the waistband of her jeans. ‘But I don’t think you do, Lexi. And I don’t think you ever will.’