Revolution (The Lone Riders MC Series Book #1)

by Betham, Michelle

  And as soon as he’d released the frustration he’d quite obviously been eager to get rid of, he pulled out of her, getting up off the bed and zipping himself back up, grabbing his jacket and cut from the chair, slipping them back on.

  Lexi sat up, pulling the t-shirt he’d thrown aside back over her nakedness. She’d had enough now. ‘Don’t you dare, Coby.’

  He turned around, fixing her with an almost confused look.

  ‘Don’t you dare walk out of here, don’t do that. Don’t.’

  He walked back over to her. ‘What do you want from me, Lexi?’

  ‘I want to know what the hell this is.’

  He sat down beside her, pushing a hand through his hair, throwing his head back and letting out the longest sigh. ‘I might have given just a bit too much away in front of Angie just now.’

  Lexi looked at him, cocking her head slightly. ‘She saw you come in here?’

  ‘You could say that.’

  Lexi crossed her legs up underneath herself, fiddling with the hem of her t-shirt. ‘I’ve told her, Coby.’

  He said nothing for a second or two, leaving a silence so empty all Lexi could hear was the loud and heavy beating of her heart. ‘Told her what, Lex?’

  ‘About Ozzie.’

  ‘Jesus Christ!’ His head fell into his hands, his elbows on his knees as he leant forward.

  ‘She won’t say anything…’

  He looked at her, his expression verging on angry, his eyes hard as they bored into hers. ‘What the fuck did you do that for?’

  ‘Because I am sick of the lies,’ she whispered, holding his gaze. He was not going to get to her. He was not going to manipulate her anymore, nobody was. Because there wasn’t just her to think about now. ‘I’m sick of them, Coby. And Ozzie, he doesn’t deserve to be one of them. He is our son…’

  ‘I’m not doing this, Lexi. I’m not… I’m not doing this…’ He stood up, pacing the floor, pushing a hand through his hair as he walked.

  ‘You have no choice now.’ She got up off the bed, pulling on her denim shorts. ‘I came back here to sort this…’

  He strode over to her, taking her completely by surprise as he grabbed hold of her wrist. ‘You came back here to sort this?’

  ‘Did you think I was prepared to keep Ozzie a secret forever? Is that what you honestly thought, Coby? That this was how it was always gonna be? You’re that fucking naïve?’

  He let go of her, once more raking a hand through his hair. ‘Jesus!’

  She leant back against the wall, tying Jesse’s oversized t-shirt in a knot underneath her breasts. ‘He needs you.’

  ‘He’s got Charlie. And Maggie, and everybody over there at the club… He’s got you.’

  ‘So, for me to be with my son I have to sacrifice my life here, is that what you’re saying? I have to go back to England and bring my boy up on lies? I have to give up what I want in order to keep your secret? Bullshit, Coby! He needs you, he needs his dad!’ She walked over to her bag that was lying on the couch, reaching into it and pulling out a photograph – of Ozzie – turning to shove it in Coby’s face, making him look at it. ‘He is your son, Coby. That little boy is yours, and you can stand there and fight that fact for the rest of your life but I am not gonna let that happen. Do you hear me?’ She pulled the photograph away, putting it back into her bag before turning to face him, her voice slightly calmer than it had been a few seconds earlier. ‘Now, you can push me away, treat me like shit, ignore me. But you will not ignore him. Because he needs you, not some ghost of a dead man who isn’t his father. He needs his daddy.’ She walked back over to him, reaching out to cup his face in her hands, kissing his slightly open mouth gently and slowly, the taste of him overwhelming her, pulling her in, making her love him even more than she already suspected she did. No matter what she was telling everyone else. ‘And so do I,’ she whispered, stroking his cheek with her thumb. ‘I need his daddy, too.’

  Coby’s arm slid around her waist, pulling her closer, keeping their bodies together as he kissed her back, his mouth moving slowly against hers. ‘How the hell did we get here, Lexi? What kind of fucking mess are we living?’

  She rested her forehead against his, her fingers now stroking the back of his neck. ‘I don’t know.’

  He let out another long sigh, his hand fanning out in the small of her back, pushing her against him. ‘I need to speak to Angie…’

  He let go of her, and before she had a chance to stop him he was out of the apartment, heading back into the clubhouse where Angie was still alone in the kitchen, crouched down on the floor tidying out the cupboards. A sure sign she had something on her mind. But didn’t they all?

  She stood up the second she saw him, brushing herself down, wiping her hands on a nearby tea towel. ‘You being careful with my daughter?’

  Coby leant back against the wall, his hands in the pockets of his battered jeans. ‘Lexi told me she’s been talking to you.’

  ‘Because you weren’t careful when you were over in England, were you?’ Her eyes locked on to his, and he got the message. Loud and clear.

  ‘It wasn’t my fault she didn’t take that holiday. How were we to know she’d come back home? That she’d find me there?’

  Angie threw the tea towel back down on to the counter. ‘Charlie should have been more careful.’

  ‘Charlie did his best in an impossible situation, Angie. Cut him some slack.’

  ‘He didn’t stop you from fucking my daughter, did he?’ she hissed, moving closer to Coby, checking over his shoulder that nobody else had come into the clubhouse.

  ‘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 not 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 about 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.’