Finders Keepers (Syndicate Book 1) Read online

  There was something in the corner that caught my eye. A pattern on a pillow that looked familiar. Wracking my brain, trying to place it, it suddenly hit me. It was just like the cushions on the lounge chairs by Jensen’s pool. Was that a coincidence? I took another look around the room as a whole, trying to gauge the size of the structure. Could we be in the basement of the guesthouse on Jensen’s property? If I screamed would one of the guards hear me? I knew once Jensen realized I was missing, he would check the house, but would he think to check the guesthouse?

  I heard footsteps as Rosario entered the room wielding a huge kitchen knife, and my adrenaline surged. “Wh- what are you doing?” I tried to scoot my chair backward in a bid to get away from her, though it was useless.

  “My Luis died slowly. Painfully. So will you,” she said, the pain at the loss of her son and her hatred for Jensen oozing from her every pore.

  “Rosario, please don’t do this. I know you hate Jensen, but what have I ever done? Why do you want to hurt me?”

  “Shut up! You’re nothing but a whore! You forget. I was there that night. The night you took all three of those men. You’re disgusting!” she ranted.

  She was there. She cleaned me up after Jensen, Aleksander, and Rafael…. I shook my head. “No, Rosario. It’s not what you think. I didn’t do that. Not willfully. That was something that was done to me. I was a victim, too.” I tried to appeal to her. Tried to get her to empathize with me.

  “Lies!” she screamed, raising the knife above her head and bringing it down into my shoulder.

  I screamed in pain as the knife tore through the flesh between my shoulder and my collarbone. A little too close to my neck. She ripped the knife back out and raised it above her head again, this time bringing it down into my thigh. I screamed again. If she hit my femoral artery, I was fucked. I’d bleed out in minutes. Tears were flowing freely down my face, as I began to beg. “Please, Rosario….”

  She only raised the knife once more. This time, when she brought it down, I threw all my weight to one side, tipping the chair over. I hit the tiled floor with a thud just as the door behind Rosario burst open. I watched in both relief and horror as Jensen put a bullet in Rosario’s head.

  “Pixie,” he croaked, his face awash with grief.

  “You found me,” I rasped.

  “Yes, I found you. I will always find you.”

  Someone cut my bindings and Jensen scooped me up. Just like the last time he rescued me, I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck and sobbed.

  Chapter 19

  Charlotte

  Almost four hours later, I left the hospital with plenty of stitches and a prescription for pain medication. The nurse tried to wheel me out in a wheelchair, but Jensen insisted on carrying me everywhere. Other than putting his foot down with the hospital staff, he was pretty quiet.

  Once we were home, he carried me upstairs and placed me into bed.

  “This is becoming a nasty habit of ours, isn’t it?” I tried to joke, but Jensen didn’t even acknowledge that I had spoken let alone react to my horrific attempt at ill-timed humor. “Too soon?”

  Once I was tucked in, he turned to leave.

  “You’re not going to stay with me? Just for a little while?” I said despondently.

  “Rest,” was all he said as he shut the door behind him and left me all alone.

  Jensen

  I was both relieved and furious. And if I was completely honest, I was hurt. Stepping out into the hall, I left Charlotte alone in our bed. Shutting the door, I took a deep breath and rubbed my dry, aching eyes. I would deal with Charlotte later. Right now, I had work to do.

  I had left Michael to dispose of Paul, so he was no longer a threat. Rosario was obviously not going to be an issue any longer. But I had other enemies. Several that I knew off, and likely more still that I didn’t.

  I strode down the stairs and into my office. I made a call to Raoul and gave him instructions to assemble a team of his best men. Then I called Aleksander and Rafael and asked them to spare a few men each.

  My first order of business was to assemble a strike team. My second order of business was to review all my business dealings, both legitimate and illegitimate, and make a list of anyone who could possibly want to hurt me. My third order of business was to find all those people and take them out. I would kill them before they could get to Charlotte. They would not hurt her. They would not hurt us.

  Charlotte

  I laid awake, alone, in our bed. It was now around noon. Jensen had put me into bed at roughly eight o’clock that morning and he had not come to bed at all. I should be sleeping. I was exhausted. But I couldn’t sleep without him. I needed that sense of security I found in his arms. Not being able to sleep, I dragged myself out of bed and downstairs to raid the fridge.

  On my way to the kitchen, I passed Jensen’s office, and inside, passed out in the chair behind his desk, was Jensen. I grabbed a throw from the den and tiptoed back into the office so as not to wake him. He didn’t wake as I covered him up.

  I fixed myself a giant bowl of Greek yogurt with blueberries and raspberries, then I added an English Muffin with Sarah’s homemade orange marmalade. It was carb overload, and I didn’t even care. After eating, every bite, I might add, I cleaned up the mess and headed outside to the pool. The sun was shining, and I could use the vitamin D.

  I was staring off into space thinking about how crazy my life had become over the past couple of months. Kidnapped twice, raped, nearly raped, blackmailed, stabbed, fell in love. Fuck. I just admitted that, didn’t I? I fell in love with Jensen. A loud crash and shouting roused me from my musings.

  “Where is she?!” I heard shouted. “You were supposed to keep her safe!”

  Shit, that was Chace! I limped back into the house and straight for the sound of the commotion. “Chace!” I threw myself into his arms, even though it jarred my shoulder and hurt like a son of a bitch. “You’re okay!”

  “Of course I’m okay. How the hell are you? Holy fuck, Char, what happened?” Chace demanded noticing my injuries. “Adriano called. Said you were worried about me. Did you go and get yourself into trouble?”

  “That’s what I’d like to know,” came Jensen’s low voice.

  I pulled away from Chace and looked back and forth between the two most important men in my life. “I, uh, I heard a rumor that you were in danger. I just wanted to warn you,” I said softly.

  “I was fine, Char. I was never in any danger. Or, no more than usual, anyway,” Chace smirked.

  “Why don’t we all sit. I’d like to hear the full story,” Jensen said coolly.

  I tried to read his expression, but he was giving me nothing. There was no warmth in him, just cool detachment.

  “Uh, okay,” I agreed as we all made ourselves comfortable in the den.

  I told them about how Paul approached me with the ‘gossip’ that Chace was in danger, and how I knew Jensen would never let me go off on my own, so I did what I felt I had to do in order to protect my brother. The ‘gossip’ was obviously just a ruse to get me alone, unguarded, and I fell for it.

  “That was really fuckin’ stupid, Char,” Chace said.

  I jerked my head back. “Excuse me? I thought you were in trouble! I thought you needed me!”

  “I love you, Char, you are, hands down, the best sister in the entire universe, and I appreciate that you wanted to help, but you put yourself in danger in the process. You can’t be doing shit like that,” he lectured me.

  I sputtered. “What? Are you fucking kidding me right now?” I stood up quickly, wincing when I jolted my injured leg. “We have always, always worked as a team, Chace. That doesn’t suddenly change because you decide you want to go rogue. I’m still your sister. I’m still your partner.”

  “Not anymore, Char,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m sorry. But you’ve got Jensen now to take care of you. You don’t have to take care of me anymore.”

  I felt the tears well up and rolled my eyes. “Too fuck
ing bad, Chace Benson, because I will always look out for you. Whether you want me to or not!” I ran out of the room as fast as my injury would allow before I became a bawling mess in front of the both of them.

  “Char…” I heard Chace call my name.

  Jensen

  “Let her go,” I instructed. “I need to talk to you in private, anyway.”

  “What? Why?” Chace asked.

  “Because I need you to know something. I love your sister. And the fact that she keeps getting into these dangerous situations because of me, does not sit well with me. I have a lot of enemies, and that’s my fault. I want you to know I’m doing something about it,” I explained. Though I didn’t really owe him or anyone an explanation, he mattered to Charlotte, and I would put his mind at east just so she wouldn’t worry.

  “And what, exactly, are you doing about it?”

  “I’m killing them all,” I said succinctly.

  Chace looked at me for a moment, nodded, and said, “Good.”

  Chapter 20

  Charlotte

  I sat on the edge of the pool, kicking my feet in the water when a large glass of iced tea appeared in front of me. I looked up to find Sarah staring at me with a small smile.

  “You’ve got to stop doing this to me, chica. I can only take so much,” she said.

  I smiled back. “It’s not like I go and get hurt on purpose, Sarah.”

  “Si, I know,” she agreed softly. “If I had thought she was a danger to you, I would-”

  “No,” I cut her off. “Don’t do that, Sarah. This was not your fault. Rosario was obviously a deeply troubled woman.”

  “She was my co-worker. I saw her nearly every day,” she said shaking her head.

  “Sometimes we can’t see the things that people want to hide. Don’t take on that guilt. No one else saw it, either.”

  Sarah had become my best friend in the time I had been here. Chace and I had always been close, but it was different having another girl around to talk to, to share things with. We sat there together at the edge of the pool and just basked in each other’s presence for a few moments.

  “Where’s Jason?” I asked, suddenly realizing that I hadn’t seen him or several of the other guards I was used to seeing around the property. There were guards there, sure, but most of the familiar faces were missing.

  “I’m not sure,” she said. “I’ve noticed that many of the men were missing, though.”

  “Yeah, me too. That’s odd,” I mused.

  “Sarah,” Jensen said, startling us. “Could you give us a moment, please?”

  “Of course, Mr. Holm,” Sarah said as she stood up to leave.

  “Where’s Chace?” I asked, looking around him.

  “Helping himself to my best Scotch, I imagine,” Jensen mumbled. “You should be resting.”

  I shrugged. “I am. I mean, it’s not like sitting here enjoying a glass of iced tea is particularly strenuous.”

  He sighed and rolled his eyes, and that just set me off. As I struggled to get to my feet, I shot my mouth off.

  “You know, I don’t get you. I’m sorry that I had to go protect my brother without telling you, and I’m sorry I went and got myself kidnapped. Again. And I’m sorry that you had to come rescue me. Again. But if I’m such a Goddamn nuisance to have to deal with, then I’ll just get out of your hair!” I yelled as I started to stomp away, again, not feeling so great on my injured leg.

  “Stop,” came the low command.

  “No!” I yelled back as I kept walking.

  “Charlotte,” he warned.

  Charlotte. He only called me Charlotte when he was being serious about something. And he hadn’t called me ‘pixie’ since he rescued me. And I was starting to recognize that that was a significant change in our relationship.

  I spun back around. “Why are you being so cold, Jensen?! Forcing me to sleep without you after what I went through? Actually, I take that back, because I didn’t sleep at all. I couldn’t sleep without you, and YOU LEFT ME!” I screamed at him. Then I watched his eyes go from cold to burning in their intensity.

  “I left you? I left you? YOU LEFT ME!” he roared as he swept up one of the lounge chairs and hurled it into the pool in a fit of rage. “Do you know what it was like for me? To find out that you were gone? To realize that you left of your own volition after you looked me in the eye and promised me that you’d never leave?!” He shook his head in disbelief.

  I had hurt him. I was so worried about Chace that I never really considered what Jensen might have been going through. He trusted me. I made a promise, and I broke my word. “I’m sorry,” I said softly.

  He bit his bottom lip in frustration and shook his head. “You didn’t hesitate to gut me, did you, Charlotte?”

  The pain in his voice was killing me, and I couldn’t bear to hear him call me Charlotte again. “Please, Jensen. Please forgive me. I’m so sorry.” I sniffled. “I know… I know what I did was reckless and selfish. I just…,” I let my words drop off. I didn’t know what else I could say to make things better. “Tell me what I can do to fix this,” I pleaded.

  “I don’t know. I just don’t know,” he whispered.

  I nodded. It was all I could do. “I’m actually feeling tired, so I’m going to go lie down,” I said.

  Jensen didn’t answer as I walked away.

  Chapter 21

  Charlotte

  That night I went to bed on my left side, since both of my injuries were on my right. I had tossed and turned for what seemed like hours before I finally started to doze off, only to be awakened by Jensen climbing into bed. He wrapped himself around me, careful not to jostle me too much, and began planting soft kisses on my neck.

  “Jensen?” I whispered.

  “Yes, pixie?” he responded and I relaxed back into his body. It was all I needed to hear.

  Jensen slid his hand up under the tank top I had worn to bed and cradled one breast in his palm. He stroked his thumb over my nipple until it hardened for him. I rolled so I was on my back and cradled his face in my hands.

  “I love you, Jensen,” I said, my voice strong and sure.

  “I love you too, pixie. So fucking much,” he said, his voice raw.

  He slowly and gently stripped me bare and we made love for the first time. Every touch, every kiss, every whisper conveyed every bit of love and devotion we had for each other. Each time we joined together was a promise. I knew I couldn’t live without this complicated man. This man who ruled a criminal empire. This man who would kill for me. Who had killed for me.

  Our lovemaking was beyond beautiful. It was perfection. It was divine. And that’s why I was devastated when I awoke in the morning to find him gone.

  Jensen

  I had to leave her. I had to find those that would harm her and put them down. Yes, I would kill for her. Hell, I’d burn down the world for her. I would even die for her.

  Chapter 22

  Charlotte

  Jensen had been gone for seven weeks. Technically, it had been six weeks and four days, but it’s not like I was keeping track. Okay, I was totally keeping track. I spent most of that time with Chace or Sarah. I hated to be alone. The more time I spent alone, the more my heart broke, and Chace and Sarah were good distractions. My stitches had come out over a month ago, and I was given a clean bill of health. I took advantage of being able to swim again, and did so on a daily basis until I was too exhausted to do anything but fall into a dreamless sleep each night.

  He didn’t call. I tried calling him, but it always went straight to voicemail. There seemed to be extra guards on the property, but most of them were new faces. I think Sarah was more bothered by Jason being gone than she let on. Chace seemed to know something about the situation, but he refused to tell us anything other than “Jensen had some shit to take care of,” which is alpha male speak for “Now don’t you worry your pretty little head, missy. The menfolk have this handled.”

  The three of us were in the den considering having a mov
ie marathon, but none of us could agree on what to watch. A commotion at the front door halted our deliberation, and we all raced out to see what all the ruckus was. Some of the guards were racing down to the front gate, so we followed. One of the guards at the gate had a hand splayed firmly on the upper chest of a woman, holding her at arm’s length.