“Stella?” The dumb broad’s mouth puckered as she let her eyes drift over me, assessing me in the way other women knew to do in an attempt to make their opponent feel inferior. But I had an ace up my sleeve, one I was sure would change her point of view.
“I was told that Trey asked you to get her.”
All expression was wiped from the girl’s face at the name and without hesitation, she reached for the phone.
Not wanting to take advantage of the point I’d gained, I turned away, careful to not let my face reveal the thrill of victory that ran through me in naming the president of the Hellions. But even I had to admit to being impressed at how just saying Stephen’s one-word biker moniker caused people to jump to attention.
“Can I go lay down on that couch by the window?” J.R. asked when I finally resumed my seat. It had been a long day for us both and I couldn’t come up with a reason of why he couldn’t other than I wanted him, no, needed him next to me as I waited for news of Stan.
“Sure, baby. I’ll let you know when we hear something,” I promised and watched J.R.’s eyebrows come together.
“Why don’t you just wake me up when we can go back to the hotel instead?” And it was at that moment that I remembered I had only completed half of the promise I’d given to Dare. That I’d only told Stan, not J.R.
Rather than replying, I simply nodded as I stowed all the things I carried underneath my chair and settled my butt into its previous indent as I prepared to wait for Stephen, ah, Trey to arrive.
*.*.*.*.*
“Bishop?” The voice, so soothing and so caring seemed to pull him up from the wonderful, cottony space his mind rested in. “Bish? C’mon, precious guy, you need to wake up now.”
While his eyes didn’t want to work, his mouth did. Even though it was so dry he could only smack his lips together in a feeble effort to generate wetness.
“Here you go,” and he felt the press of a straw which found him chasing the elusive piece of plastic with his tongue as he attempted to grab it, knowing it would bring sweet relief. “That’s a guy. There. Wait, not so much!”
The straw retreated before he’d quenched his thirst and he forced his eyes open, blinking to bring the experience into view. But he wasn’t shocked by it, somehow knowing from the smell that he’d been in a hospital. Or by the memories of what had happened earlier that were just then flooding his brain.
“Hey, Stell,” he croaked.
“Back at you, Bish,” Trey’s aunt and the head of St. Pat’s nursing staff greeted. “How’re you feeling, big guy?”
He thought for a minute before responding, his eyes following as she fussed with all the lines coming from underneath his sheets. “Fucking puny.”
“I guess that’s to be expected. You’re also probably dry since I think your IV was supposed to be changed a half-hour ago,” she mumbled as his gaze watched her while she deftly switched out his bag. “The reason I woke you up is because Dr. Levin is going to be here in a minute and we’ve got a Hellion three-ring circus down in the waiting area impatient to see you.”
Having been part of the Hellion activity while waiting for news of a hurt brother, Bishop more than knew the drill so he only nodded. But it was the thought of the doc, the one who would give him the news, the very worst news a person could receive, that had his balls shriveling.
“Even Dory and her kid are chomping at the bit to get in here. When’d she blow back into town?” Stella asked, tucking his bedcovers around him tightly before sliding his pillow out from underneath his head for a plumping session.
“I asked her to come,” Bishop answered never realizing he wasn’t answering Stella’s very direct question.
“Yeah, well. She’s here with a boy that looks like your carbon-copy.” Did Stella’s voice hold a note of sympathy? “You aware of propagating yourself?”
“Not until recently,” Bishop mumbled, turning his eyes toward the window. He was having trouble tracking, at keeping up with their convo. “You really think he takes after me?”
“Have you looked in a mirror recently, dickhead? I swear to god, you boys are so all up in your pretend bad-ass shit that real life passes you right the eff by.”
“Geez, Stell. You really need to come out of your shell. Say what you really mean,” Bishop muttered, taken aback by Trey’s aunt’s plain words.
Bracketing arms next to his head, her awesome bosom only inches from his chest, Stella stared down at him with the big, beautiful brown eyes God had seen fit to give her. “I chose not to be a part of you guys and your club. But that doesn’t mean I’m stupid, boyo. That kid is yours and you better step right the eff up or I’ll tell Trey.”
He swallowed at what he saw on her face, but not at what she said. Trey wasn’t the threat that held him captive, that had him nodding. It was the fact that he was someone’s father, a wonderful boy’s dad that made him scared down to his very soul. “He’s mine, Stell. Real and true. And I’ll take care of doing my duty.”
“Damn straight you will,” she murmured, shoving the pillow back into place just as a short, skinny guy in a white coat cleared the door.
“Mr. Bastian? I’m Dr. Levin,” the man greeted.
And with the greeting, Bishop grabbed Stella’s hand.
There was no way he was facing the news of his imminent demise without having a gorgeous woman nearby.
*.*.*.*.*
As the sheer crowd of people (most of who wore a Hellion cut) grew in the waiting area, I’d moved to sit at the head of the couch where J.R. lay sleeping, oblivious to the voices that grew in the space until it was a gentle roar. Although I recognized a couple of people, I’d been off their radar for so long I was no longer even the tiniest blip, a fact that was confirmed by how their eyes has taken me in and then moved on.
All except for Dare and Huff who stood like sentries next to the couch and, who were then joined by a huge man with beautiful brown eyes and dimples that he tried to hide by using his hand to stroke his goatee.
“You okay, pretty girl?” Dare asked quietly, pressing his leg into my knee as if knowing I didn’t want wake up J.R.
I nodded and brought my gaze to him. Dare had really grown into a good guy, one that I wouldn’t have expected since he’d been such a little shit in the time I’d known him. “As well as can be expected.” I swallowed and blinked before delivering my news. “I told Stan.”
His eyes narrowed and I watched as they dropped to J.R. sleeping form. “You get to the other?”
“Not yet,” I admitted before following his gaze to my reclining and hopefully sleeping boy.
“Dory?” came a voice that reminded me of black velvet. “Is that really you?”
“Stephen? Or should I say, Trey?”
“One and the same, darlin’.”
I stood, knowing I had no choice but to hug the man who bore little resemblance to the kid that had accompanied so many of mine and Stan’s dates, who had spent so much time at our apartment when he’d been younger. I was captured up into a broad, muscled chest and felt his lips against my hair. “Stephen,” I breathed. “You grew up, buddy.”
“I did, indeed. Into a good guy, in spite of all the x-rated stuff I learned by watching you and Bishop, I might add,” he pronounced on a chuckle.
“Dick,” I mumbled against the shirt-front that was pressed against my cheek.
“You shouldn’t have left him, Dore.” I stiffened at the tone I heard behind the accusation of his words.
But I managed to shrug through my hurt, at the thought all of them held. At how I’d walked away from a good man, a good Hellion in some kind of selfish snit. And maybe in retrospect, I had. Especially in light of Stan’s admission.
“Can’t change the past,” I muttered but I felt my face heat and eyes fill as I recognized the truth in my flippant response. I’d expected the large biker to release me but got a tightening of his arms instead before he spoke again.
“Okay, here’s what we got. They gave him shit to stop the v
omiting and the diarrhea as well as to get him sleepy enough to do some tests. The first test came back clear. The rest we have to wait on.”
“What test was that?” Was I a chicken-shit for the third time in not wanting to watch Ste…ah, Trey’s face as he provided his news?
“The one for cancer.”
Oh my god.
I’d forgotten.
Forgotten that both Stan’s dad and his grandfather had died from cancer.
How could I have pushed that knowledge away when I had birthed a male child?
I must’ve made some kind of signal, done something to let Trey know that I had an emotional reaction to his words because his thick arms tightened even further around me.
Stan had confessed he was dying. Had he thought it was from the same disease that had stolen his dad, the one that had taken his grandfather?
“For fuck’s sake, big guy. Let the girl breathe, okay?” I opened my eyes to see a short, tom-boy kind of woman standing next to us, her pretty but unmade up face staring up at the man who held me, her deep black, but shining curls tumbling down her back.
“God. Sorry, Dory. Are you okay? Dallas says I get carried away sometimes…” And with those words, I finally saw the kid that used to dog our heels, who had wanted to be around me and Stan when we did everything we could to be alone. I raised my face and as our gazes caught and held, I saw him. Saw the Stephen I remembered within his warm, chocolate eyes.
“Hey you,” I whispered and saw his eyes flare in recognition. That had been my greeting to the sweet but pestering teenager the then Hellion president had been back in the day.
“Hey beautiful,” he whispered back, giving me his youthful response as well.
“So who’s Dallas?” I continued, still caught up in his accepting grin, his warm eyes.
There was a rustle at my side and I turned my head to look again at the girl who stood next to me. “Me. I’m Dallas. Trey’s fiancé.”
“Hey Dallas,” I offered and after giving Stephen…ah, Trey a squeeze, I disconnected, offering her my palm. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“And you,” she replied with a smile that quickly faded. “I don’t want to be a bitch or anything but do you mind stepping away from my guy? I mean, I’ve never even heard of you before but…”
I held my hands up in surrender and sat back down which seemed to shock her into shutting it. Far be it from me to create waves within the Hellion ranks or with the Honeys. I’d done enough of that shit in my younger days just by damn-well breathing. “I’m sorry…” I started, more than prepared to make amends for any kind of Honey-drawn line I’d crossed in hugging Trey.
“No worries, Dory,” Trey said, cutting off my apology even as he pulled the petite beauty close into his side. I looked her way fully expecting to see a contentious look on her pretty face, but saw only curiosity. “I’ll fill Dallas in later on our sordid past. After we get the full skinny on Bish.”
“Mom?” J.R.’s voice was a welcome interruption to what had been brewing. “Can we go now?”
I glanced at my boy and then at the crowd that was still growing in the waiting room. “Yeah. I think we’re done here.” Even though Stan had told me why he needed to see me, to meet face-to-face, I knew my attendance there wasn’t wanted. Wasn’t a part in the scheme of things.
I reached for my purse and realized I still had Stan’s personal belongings in the hospital bag. J.R. unfolded himself from the divan and scrubbed at his face. “I’ve got to go to the boy’s room.”
“Sure, baby. Let me pass Stan’s stuff off and I’ll meet you by the door.” My eyes trailed after my kid as he began to wind his way through the crowd of people, oblivious to the double-takes he was receiving as he passed by and around the many Hellions that filled the area.
“Heard Bishop had a clone,” Trey stated flatly, but his eyes burned into mine as I raised my face. “Didn’t believe it until just now.” He took a deep breath as he also watched J.R. “So you left my brother, had his kid without his knowledge and then hid the boy from him for years. You want to fucking explain yourself, beautiful?”
“I’ll leave it to Stan to fill in the details,” I said only hoping the couple recognized the dismissal in my voice. I couldn’t, absolutely couldn’t face anymore Hellions with all the emotions flowing within me at that moment. “For now, I need to get my son back to the hotel.”
“Right. Okay. In this instance, and only this once, I’ll let you play it that way. But this ain’t fucking over, Dory. Not by a long shot.” And with a sharp glance filled with meaning I refused to understand, Trey shifted both himself and Dallas away, going back into the throng of people milling around us.
“Harsh, pretty girl.” Dare’s voice from behind was soft but also held a note of correction. “That’s no way to talk to your president.”
“Stephen isn’t my president and doesn’t have the right to threaten me like that,” I shot back hotly, turning to shove Stan’s bag into Josh…ah, Dare’s hands. I’d had just about more than I could take for the day and wanted out, away from any and all Hellions.
I needed Stan to run interference with them, just as he’d always done. But he wasn’t there.
I heard more than saw Dare as he shifted his weight since I was refusing to meet his eyes. “Maybe not, but he’s Bishop’s. A fact that you may have forgotten. And what else may have slipped from your memory is that a kid of a Hellion becomes part of the club, whether or not the other fuckin’ parent approves.”
The fear that swept through me at Dare’s words came on so suddenly and without warning I couldn’t move.
And what I failed to see in Dare’s speech was that he was giving me a warning, setting my expectations of what the future would bring.
Chapter Twelve
Bishop’s mind wandered as the skinny dude’s voice droned on and on. Talking in the medico-speak that drove a regular person crazy when they were in their right mind. For those that were fucked up on the sinfully good pain-killing shit they provided?
The doc’s voice was just the of the ‘wah-wah-wah’ variety.
“Wait…” Bishop muttered, willing both his brain and his mouth to function. “You said C-20. Isn’t that the test for cancer?”
“It is,” the thin guy in the white coat replied. “Yours came back negative.”
A bomb went off inside but Bishop was so motherfucking high he couldn’t get a rewind on what caused it.
Wait…what?
C-20, negative?
Not possible. Absolutely not fucking possible even in the whole messed up, someone-not-reading-a-test-result-correctly arena.
“But that…”Bishop stuttered, shifting his eyes to Stella. “That can’t be right! I know I’ve got it. Got the same shit that both my ol’ man and pops had.”
Stella squeezed his hand and leaned against the bed, her comforting brown eyes smiling into his dazed and confused hazels. “No, precious. The test came back showing you’re clean of that.”
Bishop leaned back into the pillow, admiring the pretty colors of the mushroom cloud that was expanding within his mind. Whatever they’d filled his IV with, that shit was awesome even if it didn’t allow him to connect all the dots.
There was the loud sound of someone clearing their throat and Bishop shot his gaze back to the doc. “As I was saying, tomorrow morning at seven, you’re scheduled for an Esophago-Gastro-Duodenoscopy which is to say that we’ll be putting a camera into your stomach in order to ascertain the damage in your stomach.”
He held his breath, unable or unwilling to even believe the hope that had imploded inside. Bishop’s heart was beating hard and fast, evidenced by the bleeting of the machine he was connected to in some way. A fact that his angel with the big, baby browns seemed to pick up on. “In plain English, Bish? They’re gonna knock you out and then sink a tube with a camera down your throat. Dr. Levin here thinks you have ulcers. Ulcers are just a fancy word for open sores, but to us regular people, makes us think of something to do with o
ur stomachs, right?”
Bishop could both feel and hear how her explanation helped to relax him and he nodded to signify he heard her. But the hope that was detonating within him seemed to push out any sort of understanding.
“He thinks that you have open sores not only in your stomach, but in your esophagus and your duodenum as well, which is just the fancy medical terms for the pipes that lead both into and out of your belly. It would explain your pain as well as the blood in both your stools and your vomit.”
Bishop stared up at her beautiful face almost afraid to breathe, to hope that what she was saying was true. “No shit, Stell? I ain’t dying?”
“Not at all, big guy,” she breathed holding his gaze. “That sort of stuff we can fix in no time.”
He blinked, trying to clear the water in his eyes. “Real and true?”
“Would I lie to you, Bishop? As Trey’s favorite aunt and former Hellion princess, would I, could I ever tell you something that wasn’t truthful?”
He closed his eyes and felt one watery track snake its way across his temple as he muttered a soft, “no.” The nuclear cloud within him blazed almost searing his corneas.
“Okay, then,” she whispered, squeezing his hand before dropping a sweet kiss to his forehead. “So are we good to go, on getting you better?”
“Absolutely,” he breathed even though he was afraid to open his eyes, fearful that the doc would yell, ‘just kidding’ and burst the bubble of hope which had erupted inside him.
A bubble that was trying to contain a future which also included a thirteen year old boy from Casper.
“Let’s figure out what’s wrong with me,” he finally said into the static silence that had taken over his room, trying and failing to keep his volume, his goddamn anticipation of a motherfucking future from his pitch.
A fucking future!
“Yeah, let’s do that, big guy.”
And as soon as both Stella and the doc had cleared his doorway, leaving him to work through their summations and explanations, Bishop let loose.
Checkmate With Bishop: A Hellions MC Novel Page 11