Revolution (The Lone Riders MC Series Book #1)

by Betham, Michelle

  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…

  ‘Okay,’ she sighed, looking up as her mum walked into the office, throwing her a small smile. ‘Look, I’d better get going. I’ve got work to do.’

  ‘Your mum all right?’ Charlie asked, as if he’d sensed Angie had just walked into the room.

  Lexi looked at Angie standing in the doorway, her arms folded. ‘She’s fine. We’re all fine.’

  ‘Lexi?’

  ‘Yep?’

  ‘Be careful, baby, okay? And keep me in the loop.’

  ‘Yeah. Right.’ Is that what her life was now? A loop?

  ‘Your daddy?’ Angie asked, walking over to the desk and sitting down behind it.

  Lexi nodded, jumping down from it.

  ‘Everything okay?’ Angie’s voice sounded slightly wary, and that only added to Lexi’s suspicions that she really wasn’t being told everything. Stuff that, maybe, she should have been told.

  ‘Everything’s fine.’

  ‘Ozzie?’

  ‘He’s good. I’m just gonna pop into the clubhouse, see if Coby’s around.’

  ‘He’s gone off somewhere with Tay.’

  ‘Oh. Okay. Well, I’ll take these papers over to the garage, then.’

  ‘Lexi, before you go…’

  Lexi turned around, leaning back against the doorpost. ‘Something up?’

  ‘Kel’s been… he’s been asking questions, honey.’

  Lexi frowned. ‘Questions?’

  ‘You told him this thing between you and Coby… you told him it wasn’t something that had just happened.’

  Lexi shrugged. ‘Well, that’s true.’

  ‘But everyone thinks this is a brand new relationship, baby.’

  ‘And everyone would be wrong.’

  ‘What are you doing talking to Kel before you talk to me or Tay? We should be the ones you come to first.’

  ‘Kel is a neutral, Mum. The only thing he cares about is this club. And he cares about me. He has no other ulterior motive.’

  ‘Lexi, darlin’, neither do we.’

  Lexi raised an eyebrow. ‘Really?’

  ‘What about Jesse, honey?’

  ‘Why is this still all about Jesse? Jesse and me, we haven’t been together for eight years. Eight years, Mum.’ She fixed Angie with a look, her eyes hard, cold, even. ‘And that was all down to you. So, if you want to blame someone for a mess that is quite obviously only
going to get worse, then try looking at yourself. Because all those secrets you, Tay, my dad, even Coby, because I know he’s keeping things from me, too…’

  ‘Because he cares about you, Lexi. We all care about you. And all we’re trying to do…’

  ‘All those secrets, Mum, they aren’t going to stay that way for long. You know that, don’t you? This club, the way it works, it can’t carry on like that forever.’

  ‘Baby…’

  ‘My son will be here, in Paradise, as soon as I think it’s safe to bring him over. But until then, just know that if you’ve got something to hide, it will come out.’

  Lexi turned to leave the office, quickening her pace as she crossed the yard on her way to the garage. Sometimes it felt as though she was opening her mouth for the sake of it, trying to deliberately cause trouble, but there were so many lies floating around Paradise that she knew she wouldn’t be able to settle until she knew the truth. Until others knew her truth.

  ‘Hey, kiddo!’

  She stopped and turned around, walking slowly over to Kel who’d just come out of the clubhouse. ‘Something up?’ Lexi asked, clutching the pile of papers she was holding to her chest.

  ‘You busy?’ Kel asked.

  She shook her head. ‘Not really. Just on my way to drop these job sheets off at the garage.’

  Kel whistled at Red, one of the Prospects who was busy cleaning the bikes, indicating with his head for him to come over. ‘Hey, Red, take these over to the garage, will you?’

  ‘No problem.’ Red smiled at Lexi, taking the papers from her and running off across the yard.

  ‘One of the best, that one. Giving him a couple more months then we’re looking at patching him in.’

  ‘Yeah. I like Red,’ Lexi mused, watching as the eager young man skidded to a halt outside the garage, handing the sheets she’d given him over to Jesse.

  ‘Come on,’ Kel said, holding out his hand, which Lexi took. ‘Come and talk to your Uncle Kel.’

  They headed into the clubhouse, and Lexi settled herself on one of the couches at the back of the living area, away from any of the others who happened to be hanging around, although it was fairly quiet in there today.

  ‘Coffee?’ Kel asked, holding out a mug, which Lexi took.

  ‘Yeah. Thanks.’

  Kel sat down next to her, leaning forward, his hands clasped between his open knees. ‘Coby never was in Hilton, was he?’

  ‘He has been,’ Lexi said quietly, her stomach suddenly tightening.

  ‘Let’s quit with the flippancy, kiddo. About fifteen months ago, when Coby was supposed to be in Hilton on some shit-stupid charge, he wasn’t, was he? Even though that was the story we were all spun at the time. Am I right?’

  Lexi nodded, her eyes staring down into her mug.

  ‘You told me to talk to your mum, Lexi.’

  ‘I gather she wasn’t very forthcoming.’

  ‘You know Angie.’

  Lexi said nothing. Yeah, she did know her mother. Only too well.

  ‘This thing with you and our VP… those few weeks he was supposed to be behind bars, he was in England, wasn’t he? He was in Newcastle.’

  Lexi looked straight at Kel. The time had come for honesty. For the truth to come out, whatever that truth might be. And although it scared her, just a little bit – the things she might find out that she knew she’d probably be better off not knowing – it was time. For the truth. ‘I wasn’t supposed to know he was there, nobody was supposed to know. Except my dad. And Maggie. Because he was staying with them. I was supposed to be on holiday…’

  ‘A holiday Charlie had arranged.’

  Lexi narrowed her eyes as she continued to stare at Kel. ‘I’m sorry? Charlie had arranged that holiday?’

  ‘He didn’t want you to know that.’

  ‘How do you know all this?’

  ‘We all belong to the same club, sweetheart. No matter which side of the Atlantic we happen to be based.’

  ‘But nobody else was supposed…’ Her eyes widened as she continued to stare at Kel. ‘You spoke to Maggie, didn’t you?’

  Kel briefly looked away, his gaze falling on his clasped hands. ‘Maggie and me, we go way back, Lexi. I trust her, she trusts me. And she wasn’t betraying Charlie by telling me all of this. She was telling me this because she believes that you want it all to come out, for the truth to be told. Is she right?’

  Lexi paused for a moment. ‘That all depends on what the truth actually is, Kel. I know what I want out there. I just have no idea what else there is to know. What else was going on.’

  ‘Maggie told me Coby was over there to help Charlie deal with a threat to the club. That Charlie had asked Tay to send him over, that nobody else would do. It had to be Coby.’

  ‘Does she – does Maggie know who it was who was threatening the Mother Chapter?’

  ‘If she does she ain’t telling. But who’s to say she was privy to the information in the first place? You know how it is.’

  ‘Yeah, I do,’ Lexi sighed, sitting back against the couch cushions. ‘She might be Charlie’s old lady, but she’s still just an old lady.’

  ‘Did you know there was a threat?’

  Lexi shook her head. ‘Not until today. I’ve just been speaking to my dad. He told me.’

  ‘You were starting to ask questions, huh?’

  ‘You know me. I’m my mother’s daughter.’

  Kel smiled, laughing quietly. ‘Yeah. You sure are.’

  Lexi lowered her eyes again, focusing on the leather bands that covered her left wrist, the tattoos that wound their way up her arm. ‘Kel… do you think this whole story about a threat… do you think it’s true? Or is it just a cover, a smokescreen for some other reason?’

  Kel give a heavy sigh. ‘You think it might have had something to do with Shane?’

  She raised her gaze to look at him, leaving a brief pause before speaking again. ‘I don’t know. I mean, it’s always been there, at the back of my mind, this nagging fear that the club were involved in his death but… because of what happened, with Coby and me…’ She sat forward, pushing both hands through her long blonde hair. ‘I didn’t want to believe it, Kel. And I still don’t. I didn’t want to think that Tay, my dad – I didn’t want to think that they could do something like that. Even though I know the way this all works. I know.’

  ‘The night Shane died… where was Coby?’ Kel asked.

  She looked at him again, aware that she was almost wringing her hands now, and she quickly pulled them apart. ‘He was with my dad. Charlie said they had some club business to sort out.’

  ‘And the rest of the guys?’

  ‘There was… there was a charity event, in the village a few miles down the road. The club, they do something every year to help raise money for the local community… you know how it is. We do the same here, in Paradise. So, the guys were all there. Helping out.’

  Kel nodded. ‘Where were you?’

  ‘I was there, too. With Maggie, and some of the other old ladies… Oh, Jesus, Kel. It was all planned out so perfectly, wasn’t it? The timing… they wanted us out of the way. That’s why they picked that particular night… my dad, and Coby…’

  ‘You don’t know that, Lexi. Nobody knows what really happened.’

  ‘And isn’t that just the way it’s supposed to be? Why was Shane sent out that night, huh? Why him? He was my dad’s Sergeant-at-Arms. It wasn’t his job, to drive that pick-up truck. It should have been two of the Prospects, not one man on his own.’

  ‘Sweetheart… all of us, we do whatever our President asks us to do.’

  ‘Really? That’s really the way it works, huh?’

  ‘What happened to Shane, it could have been an accident…’

  ‘Or made to look like one. Come on, Kel. You’re not this naïve, and you know better than to sugar-coat any of this crap for my benefit.’

  ‘Maybe you’re over-thinking this, Lexi. And whilst I don’t really understand all the secrecy…’


  ‘The secrecy was there because this threat they keep talking about, that was a front. The real reason Coby was there? He was sent over to England to make sure Shane… Shit! I don’t want to believe this, Kel, but it all adds up.’

  Kel sighed again. ‘Maybe you should just leave it alone, Lexi. What good is it gonna do dragging it all up?’

  ‘I need to speak to Coby.’

  ‘He’s with Tay.’

  ‘Where?’

  Kel shrugged. ‘No idea. Listen, Lexi, what happened over there, with Coby… ‘ His eyes met hers, holding her gaze. ‘I know about Ozzie. And I know Charlie’s spun some story that Shane is his dad…’

  She closed her eyes briefly, breathing in deeply as pieces of a messed-up jigsaw slowly started to slide into place. ‘Then you’ll know why this all has to be dragged up, Kel.’

  Kel looked down at his hands again, saying nothing.

  ‘If I hadn’t fallen for Coby, none of this – none of it would matter,’ Lexi said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. ‘And I know that probably sounds harsh and unfeeling because I cared about Shane. I did. I might not have loved him the way I’d loved Jesse – the way I love Coby but, I cared about him. Yet, if all of this hadn’t happened with Coby, then none of this would be an issue. There’d still have been questions, but I would have learned to let them go. Eventually. I wouldn’t have let it consume me the way it has done now.’

  ‘And why has it done that?’ Kel asked, his voice quiet, his eyes focused only on her.

  ‘Because he didn’t deserve it,’ Lexi whispered. ‘What me and Shane did, it was wrong. And we took our punishment, no matter how wrong that felt, too. But it didn’t warrant him losing his life because of it, Kel. And I think… I think I’ve always suspected that his death wasn’t an accident.’

  ‘But it could have been, sweetheart. The way it happened…’

  ‘That’s the way they wanted it. For it to look like an accident. Jesus! Come on, Kel!’

  Kel finally looked away, his eyes back down on his clasped hands. ‘I don’t know, Lexi… I mean, I know things can get kinda brutal around here, but when it comes to hurting other brothers…’