Retribution (The Lone Riders MC Series Book 2) (26 page)

Thirty-One

Lexi looked up into the sky, her eyes as wide as any of the kids’ as she took in the explosion of colors taking place above them. Even Ozzie was transfixed, not in the least bit bothered by the noise.

‘Where’s your daddy got to, huh?’ she whispered, holding her baby boy tight, his tiny hand in hers as he continued to stare up at the sky.

‘Thought all this noise might have scared him,’ Ben said.

Lexi turned to face him, smiling. ‘Yeah, well, he’s hardly being brought up amongst peace and quiet, is he? This is nothing to him, is it, kiddo? Hmm?’

‘Coby not around?’

‘He’s in the clubhouse, talking to Shane about something. Thought he might have come out for the fireworks, though. He wanted to see how Ozzie reacted to them.’

‘And if he’d hated them? What would Coby have done then?’

Lexi smiled again, pulling Ozzie’s beanie hat further down over his head. ‘He’d probably have blamed whoever’s idea it had been.’

Ben smiled too, shoving his hands in his pockets, his eyes down on the ground.

‘You okay?’ Lexi asked, gently rubbing Ozzie’s back as another barrage of fireworks shot up into the night sky.

Ben looked up. ‘Not sure, really.’ He shrugged. ‘Been a bit of a confusing few days. And then tonight, what’s happened with Mia…’

‘Has she talked to you about it?’

‘Sort of… Look, Lexi… about my past…’

‘I don’t care about your past, Ben. As far as I’m concerned the past does nothing but hold you back; keep you from a future you could quite easily have, as long as you let nothing else get in the way.’

‘I was a member of the Dark Angels, Lexi. My dad, he… he helped found that MC.’

Lexi kept her gaze steady, her hand still rubbing Ozzie’s back. ‘I know.’

Ben dropped his gaze again. ‘I guess this changes the club’s relationship with me.’

It was Lexi’s turn to shrug. ‘Can’t see why it should. If anything it makes you even more valuable. All this means is that we now know for sure just how familiar you really are with the MC world.’

Ben’s head shot up, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at Lexi. ‘You’re not planning on getting into any crap with clubs like the Dark Angels, are you?’

‘Not if we can help it.’

‘Don’t even joke about it, Lexi. Please.’

Lexi frowned, her eyes watching every nervous movement Ben made. ‘You know, if you ever want to talk about things…’

‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ he said, holding her gaze.

‘Okay…’

All of a sudden the noise of the fireworks was drowned out by the sound of a slightly muted explosion, followed by a flash of bright light, the excited cheers of delight replaced by screams as panic rippled through the compound.

‘Jesus Christ!’ Ben gasped, turning around to see what looked like an orange glow coming from inside the clubhouse. ‘What the…?’

‘Coby?’ Lexi couldn’t raise her voice above a whisper as she held a crying Ozzie tight against her, his tiny face a mask of fear and confusion. She looked around her, her head moving so fast it was making her dizzy. But she had to find Coby. Because he’d been in there. Coby had been in there. Her eyes fell on Shane, and she ran over to him, Ozzie’s cries still ringing out around them. ‘Is Coby with you? Shane? You were in there with him… Where is he?’

‘I thought he’d followed me out…’

Lexi ran back over to the clubhouse, where Ben was desperately trying to move everyone away from the entrance. ‘I think Coby’s still in there. He’s still in there, Ben. What do we…?’

Ben didn’t hesitate, immediately turning and running into the clubhouse.

‘No, Ben…
No
!’ Lexi cried as Charlie pulled her back, away from the danger.

‘What’s he doing?’ Mia asked, her voice so full of panic she could hardly get the words out. ‘He’s not gone in there, has he…?
Ben
!’

He wasn’t listening. He knew that what he was doing was dangerous, but a natural instinct had kicked in – a need to save another brother.

Bringing his arms up to his face to try and shield it from the heat, he saw the fire raging along the corridor that led to the chapel and the apartment at the back of the building. The smell of gasoline filled the air, giving Ben no doubt that this had been deliberate. Some serious shit had gone on within this club tonight, and it would seem someone wanted to see its President dead. But not if Ben could help it.

Keeping his arms raised in an almost vain attempt to block out the smoke and the flames and the intensifying heat, he ran straight into the chapel, his eyes immediately going to the figure slumped over the table. ‘
Shit
!’ He pulled Coby up out of his seat, ignoring the flames that were licking at his body, the burning sensation threatening a pain he could handle. But letting another brother die – that was something else. ‘Jesus! You are one heavy motherfucker, Coby Walker,’ Ben gasped, dragging him out of the chapel, a strength he’d had to dig deep to find rising up out of him. ‘I’m gonna get you out of here, brother. You hear me? Nobody’s dying on my watch.’ Hauling the Scotsman’s deadweight along the corridor, away from the worst of the fire, Ben took a second to catch his breath, clutching Coby’s waist even tighter. The heat was indescribable, the pain from the burns on his arms and hands beginning to grow but he could shut that out, ignore it. For now. His only concern was getting Coby out of there. ‘You’re gonna be okay, big man. I’ve got you.’

He could hear the faint sound of sirens wailing in the distance, of screams and an air of panic coming from outside, and he tried to focus on the doorway, his eyes sore from the smoke and the fumes. Just a couple more steps and they were there… A couple more steps…

***

Mia’s chest was tight with panic, her eyes back on the open clubhouse doorway but nothing was happening. No one was there.

She was vaguely aware of an ambulance pulling up; of fire-fighters arriving, their yelled instructions nothing but white noise as she silently prayed for Ben to appear.

‘He shouldn’t have gone in there,’ she whispered to herself, suddenly aware of her fingers grasping at her own hair, buried deep, pulling at it nervously. ‘He shouldn’t… shouldn’t have gone in there.’

‘He’s a brave man,’ Lexi said, her voice monotone, her eyes also fixed on the clubhouse entrance. ‘But you’re right. He shouldn’t have risked his own life.’

Mia turned to look at the woman she now knew was her sister. ‘They’re gonna be okay.’ She wasn’t sure where those words had come from, or whether she really believed them. She just knew she’d had to say them, if only to give the two of them that flicker of hope they so desperately needed.

She kept her eyes on Lexi, holding out her hand, which Lexi took, and the surge of reassurance that one action had created was overwhelming. Mia could feel the tears start to course down her cheeks, unable to stop the torrent, a mixture of so many confusing emotions all gathering together in one huge, painful crescendo. She’d lost a man she’d hated beyond belief tonight.
She’d
killed him. He was dead, and she didn’t care. But she wasn’t prepared to lose the man she loved, too. That wasn’t going to happen, she wasn’t ready for that.

Lexi smiled at Mia, squeezing her hand as they both turned their attention back to the doorway. ‘Someone’s there,’ Mia gasped, her eyes widening as she tried to focus. ‘There… there’s someone there.’ She felt Lexi’s hand squeeze hers tighter. She was right. Someone was coming out of the clubhouse, and she felt her whole body sag with relief as she saw Ben emerge, dragging Coby with him.

‘No…’ Lexi whispered, letting go of Mia. ‘No. Coby…
Coby!
’

That almost detached feeling Mia had felt earlier, after she’d shot Lennie, returned with a vengeance as she watched Lexi race over to Ben, sinking to her knees as he laid what appeared to be a lifeless Coby down on the ground. And all of a sudden people were rushing around them – paramedics, other club members; the sound of more shouted instructions, a cacophony of noise filling the air. And yet, above all of that, all Mia could hear were Lexi’s desperate cries. And that was a sound that broke her heart as she, too, sank to her knees, tears still streaming down her face.

‘What the fucking hell…?’

She was aware of arms catching her, holding her as she sobbed, and she didn’t know whose they were, she was just grateful for another body to hold on to.

‘It’s okay, I’ve got you. I’ve got you.’

Kip. It was Kip. ‘I don’t know what happened.’ Even her voice felt detached. As though someone else was speaking the words. ‘I don’t even know what’s happening now.’

She didn’t look at him. She didn’t want to take her eyes off the scene by the clubhouse. Where was Ben? He’d been there a second ago, she’d seen him.

‘Ben,’ she whispered, pulling herself to her feet, Kip rising with her, even though she was making every effort to disentangle herself from his arms now. That brief moment of comfort had been welcome, but she needed to find Ben.

‘Did he go
in
there?’ Kip asked, straining to get a better look at the commotion going on by the doorway.

Mia nodded, the panic returning. She couldn’t see Ben anywhere. ‘Coby was inside. Ben he… he went in to save him.’

Kip pushed a hand through his hair, looking at Mia. ‘Did Coby…? Is he…? What the fuck’s going on?’

Mia’s eyes briefly met his, before she looked back over at the group of people still gathered by the clubhouse. Kip followed her gaze. ‘Oh, Jesus…’ he whispered, catching sight of Lexi kneeling beside a still-seemingly lifeless Coby, her body shaking with loud, howling sobs as paramedics tried to pull her away. ‘Jesus…’

Mia watched as Kip ran over to his sister –
their
sister – pushing past the paramedics trying to pull her off Coby, dragging her up into his arms. It was chaos. Terrifying, unexplainable chaos. And Mia was scared. More scared than she’d ever been in her life; more scared than when Lennie had been at his worst. She was scared of losing so much tonight.

‘Ben?’ she whispered, once more looking around, trying desperately to find him. ‘Where the fuck are you, you stupid, fucking
idiot
!’

‘Is that any way to speak about a man who ran into a burning building?’

She swung around so fast she almost fell over, propelling herself into his arms so hard she almost knocked the pair of them off their feet.

‘The things I have to do to get your attention, huh?’ he murmured, holding her tight, and she never wanted to let him go. Never. All those doubts she’d had before, they were gone. They’d disappeared the second he’d ran inside the clubhouse. Because she knew, if he hadn’t come out of there alive, it would have destroyed her.

She pulled back from him slightly, cocking her head as she looked up at his face. There were traces of black dust on his skin, and he looked tired and worn, his eyes red and sore, but apart from that there seemed to be no more damage there. But then she looked down at his arms and hands, unable to stop the gasp of shock from escaping. His left forearm was covered in a transparent dressing that couldn’t hide the painful looking burns that lay beneath. His hands had also been burned, raised red sores starting to form across his knuckles. ‘Oh, Jesus…’ she whispered, her hand flying to her mouth.

Ben shrugged. ‘Pain I can take, Mia. Letting someone die when I know I can save them… that I
can’t
live with.’

Her eyes met his again, briefly, before she turned back around, just in time to see Coby being lifted into the back of an ambulance, Lexi climbing in after him. ‘Is he…?’ She swung back around to look at Ben. ‘Did you…?’

‘He’s alive,’ Ben said quietly, absent-mindedly running his hand over his forearm, forgetting the pain that would cause. ‘They think he might have been drugged, so the fire could be started without him having a chance to stop it.’ He shrugged. ‘That’s what they’re assuming at the minute, anyway. We’ll know more soon, once the police have had time to investigate. And he’s suffered a few burns, too, but apart from that, they think he’s gonna be okay.’

‘You think this was deliberate?’ Mia asked, turning back to face him.

Ben shrugged again. ‘Certainly looks that way. Gasoline had been emptied all over the place, the smell was just…’ He bowed his head, running a hand along the back of his neck. ‘Someone wanted Coby Walker dead. That’s what it looked like to me.’

Mia felt a wave of fear wash over her again. ‘Do you… do you think Lennie had anything to do with this? I mean, he could be getting Coby back for harbouring me… I don’t know, I mean, everything’s just so messed-up but… Do you think…? Could he have had something to do with it?’

‘I don’t know,’ Ben sighed, watching as the fire-fighters got to work extinguishing the flames that had taken over the clubhouse. ‘It couldn’t have been him, could it? Not after you…’ He stopped talking, just in time to realize what he was saying. ‘But it’s possible he might have had something to do with the planning of whatever the hell this was. I don’t know, Mia. Everything’s too crazy to get my head around right now.’

‘I’m sorry, Ben.’

He frowned. ‘What for?’