Bishop

BISHOP Copyright © 2023 by L. Ann. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Cover design by A.T. Cover Designs Interior Formatting by Crow Fiction Designs Editing by Teresa Smith Blurb by Tami Thomasson ASIN: B0B2PLZW3W L.Ann Online www.lannauthor.com Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 Chapter 62 Chapter 63 Chapter 64 Chapter 65 Chapter 66 Chapter 67 Chapter 68 Chapter 69 Chapter 70 Chapter 71 Chapter 72 Chapter 73 Chapter 74 Chapter 75 Chapter 76 Chapter 77 Chapter 78 AUTHOR NOTE OTHER BOOKS BY L. ANN OTHER BOOKS BY L. ANN MIDNIGHT PACK MIDNIGHT TOUCH MIDNIGHT TEMPTATION MIDNIGHT TORMENT MIDNIGHT HUNT MIDNIGHT FURY MIDNIGHT PACK FULL SERIES BOXSET (ebook only - includes the short story “Midnight Link”) FORGOTTEN LEGACY TATTOOED MEMORIES STRAWBERRY DELIGHT - SHORT STORY STRAWBERRY LIPSTICK - SHORT STORY SHATTERED EXPECTATIONS GUARDED ADDICTION EXQUISITE SCARS BROKEN HALO NEGLECTED CONSEQUENCES BLACK ROSARY FRACTURED ANGEL CHAMBERS BROTHERS ROOK BISHOP CHURCHILL BRADLEY ACADEMY DARE TO BREAK DARE TO TAKE DARE TO FALL DARE TO LIVE There are chance meetings with strangers That interest us from the first moment Before a word is spoken. Fyodor Dostoevsky Dedication Special thanks must go to my Alpha readers, without whom this book would probably have taken a lot longer! As always, thank you to all my readers who indulge my need to explore all the shiny what if’s my mind points out to me. Be Aware Bishop contains talk of domestic violence.. Chapter 1 Bishop Drip … splash … drip … splash … My eyes focused on the water as it formed small-tear-shaped beads on the ceiling. They stretched down, detached, and fell, hitting the floor with quiet slaps of water against cement. After each tiny ball exploded, my eyes lifted and sought out the next. Drip … splash … drip … splash … The noise was enough to drive a person insane, which I’m certain was the point. The man seated on the other side of the table hadn’t said a word in thirty minutes. His head was bowed as he thumbed through the folder in front of him, occasionally grunting and glancing over at me. I said nothing. I recognized what he was doing. It was a ploy, a means to get me to speak, to break the silence, and offer up the information he was looking for. Drip … splash … drip … splash … Beneath the table the fingers on my left hand twitched, the only outward show of irritation I allowed myself. My time was being wasted, purposely, and I didn’t like it. I also didn’t like how the hair was standing to attention on the back of my neck. Or the way my instincts whispered that I needed to be aware, be ready. Something about this entire situation was a little … off. I swallowed a laugh. Off? Had I become so immune to the hazards of my life that being dragged out of my hotel room at gunpoint in the middle of the night and locked in a room with someone claiming to be FBI was only a little off? “Something funny?” The man seated opposite broke the silence and glared across the table at me. I lifted my hand and held my thumb and finger an inch apart. “Little bit.” “Care to enlighten me?” He dropped the papers he’d been reading to the table, and I caught a quick glimpse of a photograph before he tucked it away inside a folder. The face was unrecognizable to me. I had a photographic memory. If I’d met the woman in the image, I would have remembered her. “Not really.” I checked the time on my watch. “I have somewhere to be. Can we speed this up?” “I don’t think you understand how much trouble you’re in right now, Mr. Chambers.” He leaned back in his chair and looked at me. “Enlighten me.” I threw his own words back at him. “Do you know why you’re here?” “I’d have to be a talented mind reader to answer that since I was on my way to bed when you broke into my room and insisted I come with you.” “We know you were hired to make Eden Marshall disappear.” “Is that so?” He flipped open the folder, took out the photograph and slid it across to me. I glanced down at it but didn’t bother picking it up. “Am I supposed to recognize that woman?” I feigned disinterest and boredom. “I hate to disappoint you, and I don’t know who’s been telling you otherwise, but I’ve never seen her before.” “To be clear, you’re saying you’ve never met Eden Marshall or taken money to build her a new life.” “Never met her, never spoken to her, never taken money from her.” “Yet we have eyewitnesses who say they saw her outside your hotel room earlier this evening.” I snorted. “I find that very unlikely.” That wasn’t how