‘He’s coming back here?’
Charlie nodded. ‘It’s his home, Angie. A place he should never really have left.’
Angie closed her eyes for a second, taking several deep breaths. ‘Does everybody back in Newcastle…?’
‘They know now,’ Charlie said quietly. ‘It wasn’t an easy thing to do, to keep it all from them like that, but we couldn’t risk telling them at the time.’
‘And what about everyone here? Do they need to know, too?’
‘Everyone will need to know, Angie.’
‘What is this gonna do to Lexi? Have you thought about that?’
Charlie looked down again, breaking the stare. ‘Hopefully she’ll be able to forgive me, to forgive Coby. Hopefully she’ll love us both enough to do that.’
Angie felt her stomach turn over, a succession of nausea-inducing somersaults she couldn’t control. ‘This is… this is fucking crazy. It’s crazy! I still don’t… What is all this for, Charlie? Why get Coby involved, why make up all that shit about Shane?’
‘Coby is gonna be running this chapter from now on, Angie. With Shane as his VP.’
Angie stared at her ex-husband again, blinking quickly as she tried to take in what he was telling her. More shit she couldn’t get her head around. ‘Since… since when?’
‘Since I found out how he felt about our daughter. How he really felt about her. This club, what Tay was doing to it; the direction he was sending it in, that wasn’t where I wanted it to go, Angie. And now that Lexi is back here, in California, with our grandson, I need security for them both. Surely you understand that? I want them safe – or as safe as they can be. I want them to be looked after. And right now, the only man I can trust to do that is Coby Walker. He wants the same things for this club as I do, he always has done. And that’s very important to me. Tay was moving further and further away from that, he was losing his grip, losing focus. Coby can pull this chapter back to where it needs to be.’
Angie stood up, shaking her head. ‘No,’ she whispered. ‘No, this is crazy, this is fucking crazy. You can’t do this.’
‘I can do what the hell I like,’ Charlie said, standing up, too, his eyes burning now. ‘My father created this club, Angie, remember? And I helped it grow, helped build it up into a club he would’ve been proud of. I run it all, sweetheart. I have the final say – in everything. And Tay, he doesn’t deserve that gavel anymore.’
‘He was sorry for what happened,’ Angie said quietly, her eyes never leaving Charlie’s. ‘We’re both sorry. And you’re still gonna make him pay for something that happened over twenty years ago?’
‘It has to be done.’
‘Do you know how many lives you’ve fucked-up to get to this point, huh? Including your own daughter’s. If you hadn’t asked for Coby to come over to England they never would have gone back to whatever shit it was they’d started in the first place. She wouldn’t have got pregnant…’
‘You saying you regret that baby? That you wish he wasn’t here?’
‘For Lexi’s sake, yes, I am. She doesn’t need Coby…’
‘She needs him more than you’ll ever know, Angie. Try talking to your daughter for once, okay? Because she isn’t that same girl you kicked out of here eight years ago.’
Angie had slapped him before he’d had a chance to defend himself, her hand hammering hard against his cheek, the sound of her palm connecting with his skin bouncing off the corrugated canopy above them.
Charlie looked at her, his hand resting against his burning cheek, a slow smile spreading across his face. ‘You still got it, baby.’
‘Fuck you!’
He laughed, his eyes never leaving her. ‘Nobody’s denying this has all been one big mess from start to finish, but I intend to end it, now. And I’m not leaving here until I’m satisfied everything is in order. So you better get used to having me around, do you hear? Lexi’s gonna need me, and Coby’s gonna need me. Your own daughter is about to knock you off your perch, sweetheart. She’s about to become the new Queen of the bikers around here. And you’re just gonna have to get used to that.’
Thirty
‘That better be you, Coby.’ Lexi smiled, leaning back against him, his hands resting on her hips, his mouth kissing her neck. ‘Oh, yes… that feels nice!’
‘I know where my mouth would rather be right now,’ he whispered, moving his hands up to give her breasts a squeeze.
‘You’re gonna have to be patient, soldier. Anyway, I thought you and Tay had something on today.’
‘We do,’ he murmured, continuing to kiss her neck as she tried to fix a row of bottles for Ozzie. ‘But we don’t have to go just yet.’ He rested his chin on her shoulder, looking at the bottles lined up on the counter. ‘Is the little guy thirsty or something?’
‘Mum wanted me to make up a few. She’s looking after Ozzie at her place today.’
Coby felt his stomach dip. Charlie was as good as his word. Things really were moving quickly. Why else would he be making sure Ozzie was out of the compound today if he didn’t have something planned?
‘What’s up?’ Lexi asked, turning around in his arms, cocking her head slightly as she looked at him. ‘You’ve gone all quiet.’
He reached out to tuck a strand of her dark blonde hair behind her ear, leaning in to kiss her slowly, gently, his stomach dipping again. How the hell was she going to react when she heard what had gone on? Why Charlie was really here?
‘I love you, Lexi. You do know that, don’t you? Everything I’m doing right now – everything I’ve done – it’s all been for you. Because I love you.’
She cocked her head a bit more, frowning as she stared at him. ‘Okay… something’s up, I can tell…’
‘Where the hell is that fucking bastard!’
Coby turned around just as Tay barged into the kitchen, his arm raised, his fist catching the side of Coby’s face before he’d had a chance to realize what was going on.
‘Jesus! Tay… what the fuck…?’ Lexi ran straight to Coby, grabbing his arm, but Coby shook her off, going for Tay in obvious retaliation, catching the older man by surprise with a punch to the chin, which sent him flying backwards, his fall broken by Blake and Jesse catching him.
‘What you’ve done…’ Tay began, regaining his balance, staring at Coby with eyes that were as cold as ice. ‘What you’ve done…’
Lexi felt her heart start to beat wildly, a wave of fear and panic sweeping over her. ‘What’s going on?’ she whispered. ‘Coby?’
But Coby didn’t turn around, didn’t look at her. His eyes were fixed firmly on Tay, even though his words were directed at Blake. ‘Where’s my son?’
‘Outside in the yard, with Angie,’ Blake replied.
‘Put those bottles in the baby bag there on the counter and take them to her. Tell her to get him out of here. Now. You go with him, Lexi.’
‘I’m going nowhere.’
Coby swung around, his eyes dark, and that only served to make that wave of fear come crashing over her again. ‘I said, go with him.’
‘And I said I’m going nowhere.’ She proceeded to put the bottles into Ozzie’s baby bag before handing it over to Blake. ‘Here. Tell Angie everything she needs is in there.’
Blake took the bag and headed outside.
‘You betrayed me,’ Tay said, his voice quiet as he faced Coby, but the anger that lay beneath was almost terrifying. ‘You fucking betrayed me. You kept shit from me…’
‘I did it all for this club, Tay.’
‘Bullshit! You fell for Charlie’s daughter and you’ve spent the past nine years letting your dick rule your fucking head.’
Lexi couldn’t help noticing the look on Jesse’s face as Tay said that, and as the realization of what was happening began to sink in she felt her chest tighten, her stomach dip so low she had to grab on to the counter behind to steady herself.
‘I’m gonna go get Charlie,’ Jesse said, walking out of the kitchen.
‘You never were gonn
a back off, were you?’ Tay went on, his eyes still burning into Coby’s. ‘You were always after that seat at the head of the table. From the very second you first rammed yourself into her…’ He almost spat the words out as he pointed at Lexi, without breaking the stare he had fixed on Coby, ‘… you were always gunning for me.’
‘That isn’t true,’ Coby said, his voice surprisingly calm.
‘Chapel, now!’ Charlie’s voice caused Lexi to look up as her father made his presence felt. ‘This does not get discussed out here.’ He looked at Tay, who was refusing to move his eyes from Coby. ‘I said, chapel. Now. That includes you, Tay.’
Tay finally broke the stare, turning his head slowly to face Charlie. ‘And who the hell are you to walk in here and tell anyone in this chapter what to do?’
Charlie took a step forward, leaning in towards Tay. ‘When shit like this happens – shit that involves my family – then I have the right to walk into any chapter and do what the hell I fucking like.’
Tay laughed, a low, deep laugh laced with cynicism. ‘I never thought you’d stoop so low as to lie the way you’ve lied to me over this. The way you’ve lied to your daughter… she still thinks Shane’s dead, for Christ’s sake!’
Lexi clutched the counter top even tighter. She could feel the colour draining from her face, every inch of her crying out for her Scottish soldier to turn around and explain what the hell was happening here; to hold her and tell her everything was going to be all right, because that’s what he’d been promising her. That everything was going to be all right. But instead she could only watch as he walked out of the kitchen without a backward glance in her direction.
‘Shane’s… he’s alive?’ Her voice was so quiet she could barely hear herself speak the words. She could barely believe she was saying them. But the look Charlie gave her froze her soul. ‘No,’ she whispered, shaking her head. ‘No…’ She felt her stomach heave and she spun around, leaning over the sink and throwing up so violently she almost choked.
‘I’ll be there in a minute.’ She heard Charlie’s voice, heard movement, bodies leaving the room, but she stayed bent over the sink, her eyes closed, her heart beating so painfully she couldn’t catch her breath. ‘Come here.’ She felt Charlie pull her hair back as she spat out the last of the vomit; felt him pull her up, hand her a piece of kitchen paper to wipe her mouth with.
‘He lied to me,’ she whispered, scrunching the kitchen paper up in her fist. ‘He sat there, looked me in the eyes, and he lied to me.’
‘Because I told him to. Everything he’s done, Lexi, he’s done because I’ve asked him to.’
She looked up into her father’s eyes, and all of a sudden every reason she’d ever had for hating this club came flooding back, each and every one a reminder of the crap being a part of this life could create.
‘He lied to me,’ she repeated.
Charlie held on to her arms, determined this mess wasn’t going to get any worse. He’d already known a storm was going to kick up when everything came out, but he also knew that storm would die down. Eventually. And that he’d have to be the one to ease it. ‘You know what Shane did for you and Coby, Lexi. You know he put himself on the line for you… but he also put himself on the line for me. And that was something you couldn’t know about.’
She shook her head, her eyes still staring blankly at her father. ‘I don’t understand any of this. I mean… why?’
‘I wanted Tay to believe I was vulnerable, Lexi. I wanted him to think I was weak, that a threat like Shane’s would throw me…’
‘But there was no threat!’
‘I know. Baby, I know. It was all set up, his death…’ Her slap took him completely by surprise, and he staggered backwards, still staring at his daughter. ‘Jesus… lucky you picked that cheek, kiddo. Your mother’s already had a go at the other one.’
‘Mum knows about this?’
‘I told her everything, Lex. How do you think Tay found out?’
‘You told her… you told her everything?’
Charlie nodded, slowly. ‘About you and Coby, about Shane. About Coby overthrowing Tay to take the gavel…’
‘Coby’s taking the gavel?’
‘That’s what all of this is about, darling. Messing with Tay’s head, taking from him something that means the world to him. Just like he did to me twenty years ago.’
She narrowed her eyes as she continued to stare at Charlie. ‘This is all because of some two-decade-old revenge you want for Tay stealing Mum from you?’
‘He didn’t just take my wife, Lexi. He took my kids. He took my world.’
‘I thought you were over all of that by now. Jesus, Dad… Kip was almost eighteen, it was his decision to leave Newcastle and come here. And as for me, I wanted to stay with you, remember? I didn’t want to go anywhere. It was you who thought I should stay with Mum so don’t…’
‘I bear grudges. What can I say?’
‘But… but why Coby? And what does he have against Tay that could make him want to turn against his closest friend? Shit! I can’t believe this is happening…’
‘Coby knew that if Tay had found out about you and him, back then, while you were with Jesse; he knew what would have happened. He knew it would have finished him.’
‘This is so fucked-up…’
‘And when he ended it with you, he did that because I told him to. Because I told him it could go nowhere, that you two could never have a future together, it was too risky.’
‘It was your idea?’
‘I thought it was for the best. I didn’t know how he felt, Lexi. That he would do anything he could to get you back, to make you his. I didn’t know any of that back then. I didn’t know that, for a long time, he blamed Tay for the fact you couldn’t be together. Coby he… he saw Tay as the one who’d forced you out of Paradise, made sure there was no chance of you and him ever being together…’
‘He didn’t exactly try and stop me from leaving, did he?’
‘Baby, he was following orders. Doing the only thing he could do. Listen, sweetheart, I had no idea how he really felt about you until he came over to England. I just… I just assumed he would’ve forgotten about you, moved on. I didn’t know those feelings had stayed with him for years after you’d left California. But he’s a good man. He doesn’t bear grudges like I do. He got his shit together, worked with Tay just like he’d always done. But when I asked him to come over to help me… I didn’t choose him to upset you, Lexi. I wanted him in my corner because he is a good and loyal man. Someone I knew could run this chapter right one day. His loyalty to this club is second only to mine; he gave his whole life up for the Lone Riders. It saved him. He came to me as a young man in trouble, somebody who’d lost his way, needed direction. This club, it gave him that. And he has paid us back ten-fold. That’s why I needed him back in Newcastle – I needed to bring him closer. To get him on side. But you – you weren’t supposed to be there. Because I knew what would happen if you were. That’s why I tried to make sure you were out of the way. You weren’t supposed to be there. I… I know you were trying to move on, that you and Shane had even…’ Charlie looked down, at his hand holding his daughter’s. He hadn’t even realized he’d taken her hand, but she wasn’t making any attempt to fight him anymore. ‘But you were there. And I watched Coby fight it, I watched that man fight so hard. And I tried to keep you both apart… maybe I didn’t try hard enough. Maybe I should’ve called the whole thing off the second you saw him.’
‘If you’d sent him back here, to Paradise, I would’ve followed,’ Lexi said quietly.
Charlie looked at her. His beautiful, strong but damaged daughter. ‘And maybe I knew that, too.’ He reached out to gently cup her cheek, and for a second a moment of calm took over. A moment where nothing mattered but his being there, with his little girl.
‘This is sick,’ she whispered, pushing his hand away. The moment was broken. ‘What you do. What you consider to be right. It’s sick.’
‘Lexi…�
��
‘No, Dad. You go in there and you get this shit out in the open. I’m going to Mum’s. I want to see my baby.’
‘He’s doing this for you, Lexi.’
She turned around, her eyes blazing, and what Charlie saw in front of him was the image of a young Angie, their daughter epitomizing everything her mother had once been. Everything she still was.
‘I know,’ Lexi whispered. ‘He just didn’t bother asking me if it was what I wanted.’
Thirty-One
Angie found Lexi sitting outside in the yard, Ozzie lying asleep over her shoulder, a bottle of beer in her hand. She looked up as Angie approached, her expression screaming back off! ‘Ozzie’s fine. And I need this, okay? I fucking need it.’
Angie held her hands up in surrender before sitting down next to her daughter. ‘Why didn’t you just talk to me, baby?’
Lexi took another swig of beer, staring straight ahead of her. ‘You think talking would’ve stopped any of this?’ She turned to face Angie. ‘All it would’ve done is cause a different kind of mess.’ She kissed her sleeping son’s cheek. ‘One that meant I might not have my boy.’
Angie took the beer from Lexi, taking a swig of her own.
‘I didn’t love him, in the beginning.’ Lexi’s voice was quieter, calmer, as she gently rubbed her baby’s back. ‘I don’t really know what I felt for him.’ She looked at Angie again. ‘I didn’t make his life easy. I pushed myself at him, gave him no choice in the end because I just wanted him so…’ She closed her eyes, breathing in deeply. ‘I don’t know what it was. I don’t know. He was something I couldn’t have – I guess I always thought of him as this man I’d known since I was a kid. Uncle Coby. And that’s why I wanted him. All of a sudden I was all grown-up, and I thought it would be fun to mess with his head, make him remember me as that ten year old girl he first encountered all those years ago. And then show him the grown-up version. Show him what he could have now. It became this game I couldn’t stop playing, and it wasn’t fair on him, because he really did try to push me away. But the harder he pushed, the more I kept on coming at him with shorter skirts, tits pushed out… whispered promises of all the things I’d do to him if he just gave in.’
Revolution (The Lone Riders MC Series Book #1) Page 29
