Love Never-Ending Read Online Free Page A

Mountains
     
    Bishop opened his eyes to the oppressive black terror of a
sealed tomb. After the first crushing seconds a low groan next to him yanked
him back to reality. He wasn’t certain of what woke him but abruptly, he was
wide awake. “What is it?”
    “I don’t know but something’s not right. I woke up a couple
of minutes ago and I’ve been lying here, trying to figure out what’s bothering
me.” Trav’s eyes flickered around their space. He sniffed carefully. “I smell
roses.”
    “Roses? In December?”
    “And the air is warmer back here. I can feel a drift of warm
air on my face. See if you can locate the source.
    Bishop unwrapped his blanket and found the flashlight. “If
there’s a way out, we can get you some help,” he began.
    “Bish. I’m not worried about getting out of here. If Dance
is gone, there isn’t much left for me.” He sighed quietly. “I shouldn’t have
dragged you into it. I think I went a little crazy for a while. Take the violin
and guitar in case Dancer shows up, okay?”
    Bishop frowned down at him. “Tell you what. The instruments
only go if you go. So if you want Dancer to have them, you’d better give them
to him yourself. Now I’m going to find our phantom roses.”
    Bishop wondered what it would take to shake his friend out
of his rock-hard composure and then he remembered the day he had stood with
Trav and Dance at their parents’ and brother’s funeral. That day he knew that
the murders of their parents and brother had changed them forever in
fundamental ways. The anchors they counted on to keep them grounded were gone.
    Bishop straightened up and groaned. He had no way to know
how much time had passed since Trav had finally traveled a little too far down
the road to insanity and abducted him from his own bed in the middle of the
night. Hours might have passed or even days, though he suspected that he would
be a lot hungrier if it had been days. Bish rubbed his flat belly at the
thought of food. That was another reason to find Dancer’s damn tunnel. Half a
dozen apples and a box of granola bars wouldn’t hold them for long. Trav had
been on the run for so long, he probably didn’t remember what a real meal was
like. It was one of the drawbacks of trying to retire from the assassin
business…your clients tended to resist the notion of an unemployed assassin.
When your sole client was a Federal agency headed by Fremont Llewellyn, then
not only was retirement discouraged, it wasn’t even an option.
    The reaction when Trav and his brother Dancer indicated they
were ready to get out of the business of permanently eliminating the
government’s enemies, wasn’t just “no”—it was an emphatic “Hell no!”
Unfortunately, Trav and Dancer chose not to accept that answer. The combined
price on their heads was enough to keep the bounty hunters from several
countries hot on their trails, so Bishop wasn’t banking on rescue. Somebody had
tracked them to the cave and sealed it shut with explosives. It was just pure
dumb bad luck that Trav was standing too close to the entrance when the
explosion rocked the cave.
    All the people who would give a damn were either dead or had
disappeared. Loss and betrayal weren’t new concepts for Bishop. His father was
a manipulator and betrayer who made Judas look like a wannabe. In the past few
months Bishop had spent a great deal of time untangling all the clues and hints
that surrounded the hideous murders of Trav’s parents. And he was nearly
certain that they all led back to one person—his father, Fremont Llewellyn. In
his heart, he didn’t want to believe his father was capable of the murder of
innocents but the evidence was adding up. In the back of his mind, he even
reluctantly entertained the idea that Free had engineered the abductions of his
brothers and sister-in law.
    For years he had marked time in his own life before and after his brother Baron and his new wife Jade were abducted from their
wedding reception.