The clubhouse door opened and I heard a cacophony of male voices as the men came back in, my eyes zinging to the dark-haired scamp in a small vest that read, ‘Property of Dare’. “Day!” the toddler yelled as he raced through all the bodies and I watched as Dare scooped his boy up and sat him on a hip, their two dark heads coming together as Dare whispered something in his son’s ear. Since the very moment Chaz could speak, he’d always called his father ‘Day’…not dad, papa or even daddy. But just ‘Day’.
“It’s your freaking turn to watch him, cowboy!” I heard Ryley yell from next to my shoulder. As Dare’s head came up at the sound of his wife’s voice, I saw him nod and smile slowly.
“Shit! Swear to god this next one better be a girl!” she muttered on a much quieter note. My eyes came back to see she was running a hand over her flat stomach that was currently covered in distressed brown leathers that had lacing instead of a zipper as their fastening.
“You’re pregnant again?” I asked out of the side of my mouth. I didn’t want to give away the game if she and Dare hadn’t done any sort of public announcement.
Ryley nodded and shifted her beautiful aqua eyes to mine. “Yeah. Either that or I’ve had one motherfucking case of the three-month flu.” She shrugged. “Actually, the timing is pretty damn good since Chaz just turned two and is finally able to aim his little pisser into the toilet instead of hitting the floor.”
“Congratulations, honey,” I offered with a smile.
“Better you than me,” I heard Reese call from Ryley’s other side. “Brand is still waging an all out campaign for another but I’m sticking to my guns. Two is enough!”
I couldn’t help laughing as my eyes sought out her twins, Nicholas and Aaron, who were then using Brand’s big body as some kind of jungle gym. A move that I was sure was a regular occurrence for the president of HMC – Billings by the way he and his boys were laughing.
Ryley’s head shifted from her family to Reese’s boys. “How old are they now?”
“Two and a freaking half of terrible, dual trouble.” Reese’s voice sounded frustrated but I remembered J.R. at that age and couldn’t blame her. Not if she was having to maintain her sanity in having two rambunctious boys going through that stage at the same time!
“Just wrap your knees around an aspirin but never forget to take your BC shot,” Ryley offered with a rueful smirk. “He’ll just bend you over the sink, rendering the damn aspirin useless.”
“Are you speaking from experience, Rye?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely, Reesie!”
The laughter that rolled up and out of me was completely unrestrained and was loud enough for Stan’s eyes to come to me. He was involved in some kind of deep discussion with Mel and Huff, but I watched as he excused himself and threaded his way to me as my two friends wandered back to the kitchen. “Having fun, mama?”
I tucked myself against Stan’s side, feeling his arm loop around my back. “I am.”
His eyes moved from mine and I saw him looking around the big room, his gaze sticking on the poster-sized pictures I’d had made of J.R. Ones that started when our boy was six months old and continued until ending at the picture Stan had taken at the beginning of summer. It showed J.R. sitting casually in one of our chairs on our deck, feet to railing, laughing as he brought a can of cola to his mouth.
A perfect picture that had captured the perfect essence of our young man in his mid-teens. A time when he was closer to being a man than a young boy. A child that was full of confidence and verve, which I told myself was because of the love he’d been showered with every day of his life.
The picture also nabbed a slight glimpse of the last of the casts J.R. wore after his most recent surgery. One that the ortho-specialist had said would help give him full range of motion in his wrist. It had been a long three years for our guy in healing the damage done on that fateful day but he’d gotten through it. Gone through the physical therapy and the successive surgeries with very little complaint. But I guess he, like Stan and I, knew the consequences could’ve been a lot, lot worse than the injuries he’d received.
“You think he’ll like this?” I leaned my head into Stan’s neck, somehow knowing he would be able to hear me better in that position. “I mean, I know I went a little overboard and all…”
Stan squeezed me closer and dipped his chin. “He’ll love it. Might be embarrassed about all the attention but since Stacia will be hanging off him, he won’t rightly be thinking straight.” He pulled back a little and stared into my eyes where I saw a smile beginning. “She’s got him practically swinging from his own dick with that teasing-thing she’s working.”
I pressed my lips together. “I don’t want to know.”
“C’mon, babe. You gotta know that our boy and that little…”
My fingers went to my ears. “Shut it, Stan. I don’t want to hear about it.”
Feeling more than hearing Stan laugh, caused a one-side grin to crease my face and I softened my stance, cuddling up closer to my man and wrapping both my arms around him. “He doesn’t need to know about mine and I sure as shit don’t want to know about his.”
“You talking about sex lives, Dory?”
Luckily, I was saved from replying as the clubhouse door again opened and I saw J.R. enter to the yells of the crowd of party-goers. My man-boy’s cheeks took on a rosy hue and he ducked his head as he begin to move through the crowd.
“Christ, but we made a glorious bastard!” Stan mumbled and I could hear the deep, deep emotion in his voice.
“We absolutely did, honey,” I shot back with a sniff, a lone tear trailing down my face at the sight of our almost grownup son. “We honestly did.”
*.*.*.*.*
Bishop did his normal nightly routine, a slow roam through the house as he made sure every window was closed, every door locked and the kick-ass, top of the line security system was engaged. It had been a long day and longer night since he and Dory as well as most of the Hellion council and the Honeys had set the clubhouse to rights. But they didn’t have much of a fucking choice since the next morning was Hellion church, one that would include the Billings brothers that had come in for the party.
And what a party it’d been! Oh sure, not like the old days. Not like back in the fucking day when a Hellion party degenerated into some kind of sex-fest. But it still had been fun. Especially after all the little ones were around the back, safely asleep under Julie’s eagle-eyed charge. Although Bishop’d seen more than one of his brothers bring a baby-monitor up to his ear to check on the doings of room one.
He couldn’t fault them for it though, knowing how close an eye he’d kept on J.R. and the other teenagers throughout the blow-out. There had been the usual tries to sneak booze out from behind the bar as well as more than a few attempts for couples to wander away in order to find a few quiet moments in the dark of the equipment shed. But nothing that he and his crew hadn’t done in their earlier years.
Although why the kids needed to find privacy when they danced like that out in public didn’t make a damn bit of fucking sense! Christ! The one basic step that each of the young couples had performed, no matter what the song, was of grinding their crotches together. Fuck! Bishop had seen a lot of shit in his life but to parody the sex act at that age and in front of adults? Honest to Christ, he’d had to turn his eyes away, only to catch Huff’s. The two bad-assed bikers both just shook their heads at the teenaged doings before turning back to the grill.
It was at the end though when things had gotten to be a bit more than Bishop had counted on. When J.R. had pulled his parents away from the group in order to thank them for the “hellacious party and kick-ass wheels”. The sincerity of both his son’s words and shining face had brought a lump to Bishop’s throat but when he started to swallow, he found his wet eyes wanted overflow, so he’d coughed instead.
“You guys are the best,” J.R. had announced before throwing his arms around them both, pulling the other two members of their family into a
group hug. “No kid has it better.”
“Thanks, baby,” Bishop had heard Dory whisper but he hadn’t made a sound. Hadn’t been able to, not without giving himself away. Even just the memory of that moment brought back that same feeling of fullness, of not being able to take a deep enough breath in order to release the tension in his chest.
As J.R. left to return to both his girl and the party, Bishop pulled Dory flush against him, holding her tight to his chest. “No one has it better,” he murmured before dropping his head to touch his mouth to hers.
“Yep, that’s what he said,” she mumbled back with a wide smile and shining eyes.
“No, babe. I meant me,” he corrected. “No one has it fucking better than me.”
Her smile grew even bigger even as the arms around his waist squeezed. “I think you got it wrong, honey.”
He blinked and shook his head in the negative. He’d spoken the truth as he saw it.
“No one has it better than us, Stan.”
Bishop abso-fucking-lutely couldn’t disagree.
With his round of nightly chores completed, Bishop walked barefoot down the long hallway that led to the master bedroom, only pausing by J.R.’s door and pressing his ear to the panel. Seeming content with what he had or hadn’t heard, Bishop moved on.
He walked into his room, his eyes immediately going to the sleeping form of his wife.
Turning out the light and slipping under the covers, he tucked himself behind her, looping an arm over her waist.
Bishop let out a contented sigh as he closed his eyes knowing whatever dream happened that night couldn’t rival the dream he was already living.
#.#.#.#.#
Dedication
Since Checkmate With Bishop is the last of the Hellion Motorcycle Club Series, I’m going to skip the usual dedications…the ones that include my kids and my guy. The ones that praise Laura, my editor and Brandi, my cover designer. They all know that they’re valued, appreciated and that I couldn’t do what I do without them.
Truthfully, this book is dedicated to Jennifer Guffey, the reader who took the time to email me. Her request, which came after she finished Hiding in Plain Sight, was to ask me to write a series based on the Hellions. At first the idea made me laugh out loud.
Me?
Write about bikers?
But the idea took hold and I gave it a go. And as soon as I started The Possibility of Trey, I fell in love. Fell head over heels with the entire Hellion Council: Brand, Trey, Silo, Dare, Huff and Bishop as well as Mel, the young recruit. And maybe because I was so enamored with them, you found yourself loving them too. At least that’s what your emails describe, the ones that lift my spirits and help to turn me back to my keyboard time and time again. Please accept my sincerest thanks. Your interest and readership mean the world to me.
Smiling and waving,
J.A. Hornbuckle
Phoenix, AZ
3/4/15
Author Bio – J.A. Hornbuckle
Aren’t we all curious about the person who wrote the story we read? I know I am.
Here’s what I know about myself:
--I love red wine (although I’ve been known to enjoy a Fireball shot or two)
--Live music gives me tingles no matter what style (…well, opera isn’t really my thing!)
--Muscled, tatted, long-haired men are my own personal kryptonite.
--I can’t deal with the cold which is why I live in Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Of course that’s just the tip of the ice-berg when it comes to this lady!
At first meeting me people often think I’m somber and a little stand-offish. I’m really not. It’s a case of my outsides not matching my insides. Because there’s a freaking party in my head almost twenty-four/seven.
I’m old enough to know better but still young enough to do it anyway (…the BEST part of aging is that you know the CONSEQUENCES of your actions and weigh the outcome of resulting punishment accordingly!)
I love writing, especially romances but only where the ‘man’ portion is a part of the ro-man-ce word.
And…I believe, have complete faith, that there are happily-ever-afters. I hope you do too.
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.jahornbuckle.com *be sure to sign up for my newsletter*
Twitter: @JAHornbuckle
GoodReads: J A Hornbuckle
Other Books by J.A. Hornbuckle
The Grantham Series
**Pole Dance (Jake and Caitlin)
**Human Hieroglyphix 1 (Dex and Leila)
**Tap Dance (Marianne and Ram)
**Human Hieroglyphix II (Crys and Gabe)
**Bewitchments 1 (Trevor and Zoe)
**A Grantham Christmas (compilation)
**Last Dance (Paul Adler) (coming in 2015)
**Human Hieroglyphix III (Benny and Vicky) (coming in 2015)
**Bewitchments 2 (Niko and Samantha) (coming in 2015)
Stand Alones
**Everybody Falls
**Hiding in Plain Sight (prequel to the Hellions Motorcycle Club)
Hellions Motorcycle Club Series
**The Possibility of Trey
**Reinventing Mel
**Taking a Dare
**A Civilian for Silo
**Checkmate with Bishop
Mate Search Series (Sci-Fi Romance)
**Rykhan (full length book based on Love Without Boundaries Novella)(to be published 4/2015)
Checkmate With Bishop: A Hellions MC Novel Page 31