Resurrection (The Lone Riders MC Series Book 3) (8 page)

‘Is he in danger?’ Her voice was quiet, and carried just a hint of fear, because she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to that question.

‘He knows what he’s doing.’

‘That isn’t what I asked. Is he in danger?’

Coby said nothing, but he didn’t have to. And once more Mia felt her blood start to run cold.

‘What’s really going on, Coby?’ Another question she wasn’t sure she wanted answering. Maybe she was better off knowing as little as possible.

‘You don’t need to know everything, Mia. Not yet.’ But he knew she’d have to know it all, eventually. He’d known that from the second he’d asked Ben to help them. There was going to come a time when she needed to be strong, and play her part, too. And that time was coming soon.

‘It’s OK,’ she whispered, watching him as he raised his gaze, their eyes locking. She couldn’t fight whatever was going on. She couldn’t stop it from happening. She wanted it to go away, to end, of course she did – whatever crap was going down, she wanted it to end. She wanted everything to go back to normal –
their
kind of normal, anyway – but it wasn’t going to. Not until this, whatever it was, was over. She knew that. ‘You have to do what you have to do. You all do.’ What choice did she have? Ben wasn’t the safe, ordinary lawyer she’d fallen for. He wasn’t the man she’d first thought he was. He had a past, and it would seem that past was now becoming a part of his present, for whatever reason. But at least it explained his mood change.

‘Aye.’ Coby’s voice was so quiet Mia struggled to hear him. ‘Aye. I guess we do.’

Their eyes remained locked, and she couldn’t seem to break the stare; couldn’t look away. ‘I should probably go.’ She finally pulled her eyes away from Coby’s, ending whatever strange moment that had been. ‘I could do with an early night. It’s been a weird day.’

She slid down from the workbench, and was about to head out of the garage when Coby gently took hold of her wrist, swinging her back around to face him. ‘I’m here for you, Mia. Remember that… I’m here, for all of you.’

It almost felt as though he’d hurriedly tacked that last bit on to the end of that sentence.

‘I know.’ Mia smiled, but she just wanted to get out of there now. She longed for the safety of her bed, and a sleep she knew she needed. Maybe everything would look better after a good night’s sleep. Isn’t that what everyone said? Things always looked different in the morning.

Their eyes met for a few more, brief seconds, but then Mia pulled her arm from his grasp, turned around, and walked out. Yeah. Everything would look different in the morning. But just how different… that’s what scared her.

Eleven

‘I need you to promise me that none of that personal crap – none of it spills over into this, OK?’ Coby wasn’t in the mood for any shit. He was in the mood to get things done, and he wanted them done quickly.

Kip leaned back against the wall, folding his arms. ‘What personal crap you talking about here?’

And that was exactly the kind of shit Coby wasn’t in the mood for.

He fixed Kip with a cold look. ‘I know you still have feelings for Mia…’

‘Jesus Christ!’ Kip threw back his head, sighing loudly. ‘Not this again. She’s my fucking sister!’

‘You still have feelings for her, and I know – I know, Kip – that you still don’t entirely trust Ben.’

‘Do
you
? I mean, what you’re asking him to do… It’s fraught with possibilities for him to turn against
us
, you do realize that, don’t you?’

Coby looked back down at the table, turning the gavel over and over in his hand. ‘He won’t turn against us.’

‘You can guarantee that, can you?’

‘We know what happened between him and his father now, Kip. We know his history…’

‘All of it?’

Coby slowly raised his gaze, but he stayed silent.

 
‘You back off from any personal vendetta you might still harbor for our new boy; do you hear me, Kip? Let him get on with what he needs to do.’

‘And if he pulls this off? If he manages to persuade Hector Almeda to take him back into the fold, what happens to Mia then?’

‘She’ll need to back off, too. She can’t be seen with him, not when he’s wearing the Dark Angels’ colors. It’s too risky. Too dangerous.’

‘Does she know all this?’

‘She knows Ben’s working on something. But she’ll need to be told the truth, if everything goes to plan.’ Coby fixed Kip with another look. ‘But that doesn’t give you an excuse to move in and start any personal crap, do you understand?’

‘I’m her brother, Coby. I don’t have those kinds of feelings for her anymore.’

‘You sure about that?’

‘Yeah. ‘Cause I really want to get my arse thrown in jail for fucking my sister, right?’

Coby raised an eyebrow. ‘Look out for her, by all means. That’s what we do here. But no bad-mouthing Ben, no trying to persuade her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. He’s one of us now, you got that? You don’t like it, tough. Deal with it. But he’s one of us, and he’s putting his life on the fucking line for this club.’

Kip held his hands up in surrender. ‘Best behaviour, I promise.’

‘I’m being serious here, brother.’ Coby stood up, his dark eyes boring into Kip’s.

‘I can’t stop caring about her, can I? After everything she’s been through, I think she deserves a bit of security, and I’m just not sure…’

‘What the fuck have I just said, Kip? Keep your personal shit to yourself, OK?’

Kip walked over to Coby, looking him right in the eye, his expression hard. Determined. ‘OK. Anything you say, Pres.’

Coby stared him out, wanting to believe him. But he knew the way Kip still felt about Ben. He knew he didn’t trust him, didn’t think he was the man for Mia. But Coby didn’t have time to baby-sit his V.P. He was just going to have to hope Kip was as good as his word. ‘Go on. Get out of here.’

Kip felt relief flood through him. He’d almost blown it there. Almost let his true feelings for Ben Salter come out in front of the one person he should be hiding them from. Because if Coby knew what he was planning to do he’d have him pulled from this job quicker than he could down a beer. But, despite Coby thinking he knew enough about Ben’s past to trust him, Kip knew
he
was right; he knew Ben was still hiding something. He knew that accepting Ben into the Lone Riders as anything other than their lawyer had been a dangerous move; a rash action. He needed to go. He needed to be out of Mia’s life. And Kip wouldn’t settle until his name was history in this compound.

‘You still here?’ Coby sighed, pushing his hair back off his face. ‘Go on. Out. I’ve got work to do.’

‘Listen, Coby… if all this works out, if we do actually find Shane…’

‘You know what happens, Kip. He has to pay for what he tried to do – for what he
did
.’

‘Yeah. Those are words I really wanted to hear from you, Coby.’

Kip swung around to see Lexi standing in the doorway, her arms folded across her chest, her eyes cold. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’ Kip directed that at Coby before making his escape. The last thing he wanted was to become involved in one of their domestics.

‘I’m not in the mood for a lecture, Lexi.’

‘Why can’t you just accept that he’s probably gone? That he might just have left
America
.’

‘Because we have no proof, Lex! We have nothing concrete, not a fucking thing that says he is no longer a threat. Don’t you understand that, darlin’? Don’t you care that this could be
your
safety in jeopardy here? The man is a fucking mess. He’s twisted, irrational… that is
not
a good mix, sweetheart. And if he thinks he can get to me through you…’

‘That isn’t gonna happen…’

‘How the hell do you know that? How, Lexi? How can you fucking know that?’

‘I don’t…’

‘Exactly. You don’t. So you go back to picking out wedding dresses and leave me to deal with this.’

She stared at him, her eyes still cold, but he could match that. He wasn’t playing here. This was real, and this was happening.

‘You’re putting yourself at risk, Coby…’

‘And if I do nothing, you think the situation changes? You think by ignoring it it’ll all just go away? You really think it works like that?’

‘Don’t patronize me.’

‘Then stop talking crap. Look, the wedding isn’t that far away, and there’s still a heap of stuff to sort out so why don’t you and Angie head out for the day, go shopping…’

‘You’re doing it again.’

‘What?’ he sighed, leaning back against the table. He needed this to end now. He could feel his blood pressure rising by the second.

‘Patronizing me. I’m not some bored Beverly Hill housewife who doesn’t give a crap what her man gets up to as long as she’s got a tight grip on his credit card. I
give
a crap.’

‘And all you’re doing is giving yourself unnecessary worry. Leave it, Lexi. And that’s not a request.’

‘Jesus,’ she laughed – a cold, humorless laugh. ‘Seriously?’

His eyes bored deep into hers. He wasn’t shifting on this one. ‘Seriously.’

‘You can be such a fucking prick sometimes, Coby. A real fucking prick.’

He did nothing to stop her as she turned and left. What was the point? He called her back, they’d only spend the next few hours going round in circles, arguing, fighting, and none of it would end up in sex, so even the perks of making up weren’t going to be there. For some reason he just wasn’t in the mood right now. Too many distractions, too much crap going on inside his head. And when Lexi was like this, bitching and whining and telling him what to do; it was hardly a turn-on.

Walking over to the window he leaned forward, his hands palm down on the window-sill as he stared out across the compound. He’d made sure this club had pulled itself back together in super-quick time after the fire; after everything that had happened just a few weeks ago. He wasn’t about to let anyone destroy it again.

***

‘Mia, baby, I’m sorry, OK?’

Mia looked up as Ben approached her outside the clubhouse. ‘Yeah. OK.’

He sat down beside her, reaching out for her hand and she let him take it. She wasn’t in the mood for fighting today.

‘Things are just… they’re a bit strange right now, that’s all.’

She looked down at their joined hands, but said nothing. She couldn’t think of anything
to
say. In fact, she felt almost detached from the situation. Was that deliberate? Was she making herself feel that way because it was the safest thing to do?

‘I don’t want us to fight, Mia. I love you…’

‘Ben, please…’ She looked at him, right into his eyes. No. The Ben she’d fallen in love with, he still wasn’t completely there, she could see it. Feel it. This wasn’t him. ‘Whatever’s going on, just finish it. Then we’ll talk.’

He let go of her hand and she looked down, watching as it fell from his grasp.

‘It’s the only way I can cope, Ben. Being near you, close to you; loving you, it’s… it’s too hard. Right now, it’s too hard.’

She wasn’t even sure she’d meant all that to come out, but she’d said it, so she must be feeling it, even if she hadn’t fully realized it before.

‘Jesus, Mia…’

‘Please, Ben.’

He reached out to cup her cheek, stroking her skin with his thumb, and for a fleeting second she was sure she saw a flicker of something familiar in his eyes. But it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. And he was back to that person she didn’t recognize. ‘I promise you, Mia…’

She stopped him talking by pressing her fingers to his lips, instantly killing that sentence dead. She didn’t want promises. She didn’t want to hear anything he couldn’t fully mean.

‘I love you,’ he whispered, slowly pulling his hand from her cheek. ‘I love you.’

‘I know you do.’

‘And when all this is over…’

Words. That’s all she was hearing now – words. White noise. Meaningless. That was how she had to handle this, because anything else was too terrifying. So, without another word, without any more acknowledgement she stood up and walked away. She didn’t even know where she was going, she just knew she had to get away from him, find something to take her mind off whatever the hell was going on around here. The situation with Shane, all the crap going on with Ben – if ever there was a time she needed a distraction, this was it.

Walking into the office she was surprised to find it empty. The garage was business as usual, so where was Angie? She was usually the one taking charge in here, and Mia thought she might have been able to lend a hand, do something, anything to help out; to take her mind off things.

‘They’ve gone out.’

She swung around to see Coby standing in the doorway, his tall, imposing frame almost filling the space. ‘Oh. Right. Wedding stuff?’

Coby shrugged. ‘Who knows? I just saw Lexi heading off with Angie a few minutes ago. You could have gone with them. I can call them back if you like…’

‘No.’ Mia shook her head, folding her arms against herself. ‘I’m not really in the mood for shopping.’ That wasn’t completely true. She’d have gone, if she’d been asked. It could’ve been that distraction she was looking for.

‘OK. Well…’ He closed the door, quickly peering out of the window.

‘I was just wondering if there was anything I could help out with,’ Mia said, stopping him from finishing his own sentence. ‘Y’know, if there’s, maybe, something that needs doing around here…’

‘I’m sure everything’s fine. Angie wouldn’t leave this place otherwise.’ He dug his hands into his pockets, walking over to her. ‘You know how she is.’

‘Yeah. Yeah, I do. I’ll… I’ll go find something else to do, then. See if any of the other old ladies are around.’

She started to walk towards the door, stopping only when she felt his hand rest lightly on her hip, but she didn’t turn around. She couldn’t. Once more, that feeling of her feet being glued to the ground returned, rendering her unable to move.

Closing her eyes she breathed in deep, making no attempt to shake him off.

‘Lexi’s giving me shit,’ Coby whispered, his mouth close to her neck, his breath warm on her skin, the faint smell of cigarettes and engine oil making her feel strangely comforted, ‘Ben’s giving you a headache I’m sure you could well do without…’

She took another deep breath, keeping her eyes closed as his hand pressed harder against her, his other one gently pushing her hair away from the back of her neck.

‘We could both do with a distraction. What d’you say, darlin’?’

She felt her stomach give a sudden jolt. The last thing she should be doing was letting the club president touch her like this. It was wrong. Oh, she wasn’t stupid. She knew monogamy was a dirty word around these places; she’d grown up surrounded by the cold, hard facts so she wasn’t that naïve to think it didn’t go on. But this – he was the president, her sister’s fiancé. Was she really so messed-up right now that she was even considering going there?

‘I’m leaving,’ she whispered, taking his hand and gently removing it from her hip.

‘Mia.’

She stood still, closing her eyes. ‘Lexi’s my sister, Coby. So, whatever you’re looking for here, I can’t give you that. I won’t…’

‘I love your sister, Mia. Don’t get me wrong; don’t think I don’t love her because I do. She’s my fucking world. Her and Ozzie, they’re my whole fucking world.’

She slowly turned around, backing up against the wall as he moved closer; stepping into her space, but it was OK. It was fine. She could handle it. ‘So why this, huh? If you love her so much, why this?’