Choices Read online

  Liz Schulte

  Published by 4 Corners Press at Amazon

  Copyright 2012 Liz Schulte

  Discover other titles by Liz Schulte at Amazon.com

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgements

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty one

  Twenty two

  Twenty three

  Twenty four

  Twenty five

  Twenty six

  Twenty seven

  Twenty eight

  Twenty nine

  Thirty

  Thirty one

  Thirty two

  Thirty three

  Thirty four

  Thirty five

  About the author

  Book 3 of the Guardian Series

  Praise for Liz Schulte’s Secrets

  - Olivia and Holden are the couple that you love to see fight and make up. The fire between the two of them makes the book a page turner alone. Throw in the obstacles (I don't want to give anything away!) that they're up against, and the book consumes you. I CANNOT wait to see what Choices (Book #2) brings for our beloved couple, and to find out what their fates will hold.

  - This book is a page turner. The story is vivid and the characters and story are brought to life off the page.

  - This was an emotional and mysterious story that got me hooked early on and as the story progressed it just got better and better. I felt like it was different from other paranormal books I've read but in a positive sense.

  - Schulte did a fab job of keeping the story moving, I fell completely in love/lust? with Holden (who wouldn't?) and Olivia is a strong female character who I think women can relate to -- so much coming at her that's confusing and scary, yet she seems to figure out much of it and still stay strong...eventually.

  The ending -- oooh, Liz. You leave us wanting so much more. The mark of an excellent author.

  - I immediately fell in love with the characters in this book. The author does an amazing job of making the reader empathize and even root for the most terrible people.

  - Liz Schulte is quickly becoming my favorite author. She will soon be sharing shelf space with Anne Rice and Kim Harrison and I have very limited shelf space. Forget Twilight, forget the Hunger Games; this is the new series to follow and fall in love with.

  - This was one of those books that I couldn't put down and read deep into the night. We get to hear both Liv's and Holden's versions of what is going on and OH HOLDEN! Ultimate bad boy but he has incredible depth to him.

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank my family, friends, and fans for supporting me and reading my work—there would literally be no reason for me to do this if you didn't. A special thanks to my mom who has enough enthusiasm for ten publicists. My best friend Kim who always lets me bounce ideas off of her and asks me the right questions at the right time. Mandie Stevens, who has taught me about promotions and whose love of my characters keeps me giddy. Cait Lavender, who might be my soul mate. Kristin Beaird, who threatened to drive to my house and stand over me until I finished the series after she read Choices. And lastly to M.d. Christie and all of my partners at 4 Corners Press for being a constant source of inspiration.

  One

  “Olivia,” I gasped, sitting up in bed.

  I felt her for just a moment, could have sworn I felt her caress against my mind. My eyes darted around my new apartment cautiously; she wasn’t here.

  Of course I didn’t see her, she's dead. She's dead, get a grip.

  I collapsed back onto my new bed. I’d been doing well. It took three years to go from thinking about her every second of everyday to only thinking of her when I was trying to fall asleep. Progress. Bedtime, early mornings—those were the only time I allowed myself the luxury of Olivia. She wasn’t coming back. I accepted it. She was gone for good and by my own hands no less.

  My brain knew I needed to let her go. It was completely on board with operation elimination. My heart—who would’ve thought I had one— would give the rest of my life just to feel her light up my mind for one more minute. I closed my eyes against the newest regret. My traitorous heart wouldn’t leave me alone. What did I have to do to make it shut up? I sure as hell couldn't bring her back. All I had left was the job. I took a deep breath and filed the pain away to use later.

  I got out of bed, unable to stay still any longer. One of the two girls in my bed moved around as if she was waking up. “Shhhh” I touched her forehead until she settled down. I was in no mood to speak with Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dumb, I had a meeting. I kicked their garments closer to the bed as I made my way to the bathroom. The lamp was knocked over and the covers lay in a twisted heap on the floor. I didn’t even look at them. This used to be fun.

  “I will beat this,” I said to myself as I got in the shower, but memories were already scratching at the surface. It was easier to forget her and what I’d done in Chicago. Nothing reminded me of her here; the only place she could haunt me was in my head. And the more I embraced the jinni, the less Olivia could torture me there. Soon I could be rid of her completely and back to my empty pain free existence. Slightly more twisted and dead to the world around, but at least my mind would be back in the game.

  I finished my shower, pulled on a pair of jeans and a black shirt, and grabbed my keys slamming the apartment door shut behind me.

  “Be a machine,” I muttered. “A machine.” It was a good reminder—and an effective one. I was a machine where work was concerned. Recruiting more new members than ever before, causing a wake of chaos and destruction in the lives of all of those who crossed my path, and I felt wonderfully disconnected every single time. With every new sucker a little piece of Olivia slipped through the cracks and away from me—or so I kept trying to convince myself anyway.

  Shaking off the doubts trying to fog from my mind, I cleared my head for the more immediate issue at hand: my meeting with Danica, the regional commander of my territory. I had no idea what she wanted. We’d never met in all the years I was a jinni, but then again, we’d never been in the same city ‘til now. Ultimately, I wasn’t overly concerned. If they had any idea of all the things I’d done when Olivia was alive, they’d have killed me long ago. I was an exemplary jinni now. Hell, I thought, maybe they’re going to give me an award.

  Danica set up the meeting on the south side of Chicago in one of the seedier neighborhoods past Hyde Park. The smell of sweat and bodily fluids assaulted me as I walked into some dank strip club—nothing but class here. I found Danica in a back room with a private dancer and a couple other jinn. She was slender and petite with long glossy black hair, small dark eyes, and plump lips smothered in cherry red lipstick. Her corset and skin tight leather pants were black and her four inch spiked heels were red; she looked like a tiny Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Rocky #1 glanced at me when I walked through the door, obviously unconcerned with my presence. Danica continued stroking Rocky #2’s leg as I stood to the side watching the freak show unfold. The stripper danced in a complete daze. The room filled with a heady stupor that seemed to affect nearly everyone in this den of iniquity, including the two lesser jinn companions Danica kept.

  My annoyance grew as she made me wait through more nonsense. She began making out with the two Rockys and the stripper looked like she was about to fall over from exhaustion, but continued her increasingly less than provocative dance. I ha
d better things to do than watch the lame spectacle Danica was putting on as a demonstration of her power. I tried to be cool, knowing this was a test of some sort. I eyed the foul sofa, but didn’t care to sit on it. I stepped out of the room and snatched a flimsy wooden chair from a nearby table. Plopping it down in what had become my spot in the room, I sat and waited for her to grow bored with her tedious games. However, she continued wasting my time showing no signs of giving up on the horizon, so I pulled out my cell phone and began my own game. Got to love the 21st century.

  As I was about to reach the 30th level of Tetris, her sultry voice broke into my concentration. “You’re welcome to sit on the couch, Holden dear.”

  “I’m fine here. Whenever you’re ready, let me know,” I said barely glancing in her direction. I could see her pouting, but I pretended I only saw my game. I hated women like that.

  “You’re completely unaffected by my powers?” she rasped and waved her hand. The stripper and the two Rockys scurried out of the room.

  The bright colored shapes I was so carefully organizing fell too fast and piled up beyond my control. Game over. I put the phone back in my pocket. “You’ve given me a bit of a headache.”

  “You seem to have come out of nowhere. How old are you? 150? 200? Why is it that you’ve only now drawn my attention? Your power should have enticed notice much sooner than this.”

  “I don’t make a spectacle of myself,” I told her flatly, making no effort to hide my disgust at the squalor she surrounded herself with.

  Her laughter filled the air. “I do.”

  “That’s evident.”

  The laughter disappeared as quickly as it started. “You do not approve?”

  “I don’t care what you do. Just don’t waste my time.” She was a typical oversexed, power hungry jinni who couldn’t see the big picture. The inability to put off short-term pleasure for long-term gain was the downfall of our entire race, or at least why we could never gain any real ground.

  “I’m so sorry I wasted your precious time,” Danica mocked as she strutted toward me, then stroked the back of her fingernails against my cheek until they came to my neck where she used them to draw blood. Before she could pull her hand away, I caught it and raised it to my mouth. I sucked my blood from her fingers. More games. With my blood she could possibly make her powers work on me, or, at the very least, track me a whole lot easier. I tossed her hand to the side when I was sure all of my blood had been removed. The scratch on my neck had already healed.

  She smiled lazily. “That was fun,” she purred, pressing her body against mine.

  “What do you want?”

  “So much, Holden, so much.”

  “Great, let’s get started.”

  “Are you always business first?”

  I stared at her, letting the full extent of my boredom register on my face until she looked away. Nothing about being around her was pleasure.

  “An uptight jinni. Never thought I’d see the day,” she muttered.

  I stood up and moved my chair back to the wall. “Give me a call when you’re in the mood to have this meeting. I have other business to attend.”

  “Wait,” she said when I reached the doorway. Her voice was normal now, no longer purring or raspy. I looked back at her. “We’ll have the meeting now.”

  I gave her a single nod and waited for her to begin.

  “How would you feel about becoming the commander of the North American region?”

  “That’s your job.”

  “Well, apparently it’s yours now. Management, in light of recent events and recent deaths, has chosen you to take over this region. Imagine my surprise when a little nobody undercut me and took my position.”

  Killing Augustus, my jinn superior up until a few years ago, must have bumped me to next in line. I had no idea I was so close in seniority, but probably still wouldn’t have done it, had he not threatened Olivia.

  “Is this going to be a problem?” I asked her. It wasn’t like I wanted or asked for the damn promotion, but it wasn’t a gig one could turn down. You do as you are told— she knew that. . Why me anyway? I wasn’t a leader. I could barely tolerate people, let alone jinn, and I didn’t even know where to begin with running an entire territory. Basically, the promotion meant one thing for me: I was screwed.

  “Oh, you’re going to have plenty of problems, the least of which is me. I know how this game works, Holden. It’s only a matter of time before I get my territory back. They’re testing you, throwing you into the big leagues. How long do you think you can survive before you’re eaten alive?”

  “Perhaps I should just kill you now while I have the opportunity.”

  “Aw, Holden, my pet, I’m just trying to help.”

  “I’ll manage on my own.”

  “I’d hate for anything to happen to this pretty, pretty face.”

  I brushed her annoying hands away once more. “When do I start?”

  She looked away and frowned. “You already have. I fly out tomorrow.” She tossed a set of keys to me. “These are the keys to this building and offices. I’ll leave the combination for the safe somewhere special.”

  I rolled my eyes and turned to leave.

  “Don’t be a stranger,” she called out behind me with a cackle.

  Figures they’d punish me for being too good of an employee. I checked my watch. I was late. I thought I had plenty of time to meet Danica and make my meeting with Philip Pemberton, but I hadn’t anticipated this meeting lasting over four hours. I grabbed a cab and headed north. A full hour after I should’ve met my soon to be newest recruit, I walked into the bar to get tonight’s episode of Let’s Make A Deal underway. Immediately I sensed the change in Philip; I could practically smell it on him. Pain in the ass guardians had been there.

  “Phil, are you ready?” I said, taking a seat next to him at the bar.

  “I don’t know if it’s a good idea.” Christ, we’d been through this part already.

  “It’s not a good idea to avenge and bring justice to your family? Or did they mean so little to you?”

  “Maybe I should forgive—”

  “Forgive the man who ran a stop light and destroyed your life?”

  “Well… I don’t know.”

  “If it were me, Phil, I’d do everything in my power to make him pay. I’d see to it that he took his last breath knowing what he did to me. He would die knowing he deserved it.”

  “But I'll destroy my life.”

  “Oh, so you’re worried about yourself? I see.”

  “No, but…”

  I clenched my fists. This wasn’t working. The guardian’s ideas had started to take root. I needed to dig deeper, hit Phil with something a bit more personal.

  “But what? Think of Annie, so bright and cheerful. The way she lit up your life and made you glad each and every day that she chose you. When she loved you above all others, you were the luckiest man in the world.”

  “How … how do you know that? You’ve never met Annie.”

  “I know, Phil, because I too have loved and lost. The only light in my life was ripped away from me.”

  Phil let out a shuddery sigh, and I was regaining lost ground. I let a sad smile soften my face. “Our time with the ones we love is always too short, but for someone to make that time even shorter, to steal what little time we do have…” I let my sentence trail off.

  “Did you make the person who took her away pay?”

  “I make him pay. Every. Single. Day.” I felt disgusted with myself. This was a new low even for me, using what Olivia and I had to hook a mark, but the words I spoke were the truth. I did make myself pay for what I had done—probably why I couldn’t let her memory go. If I didn’t hold onto it, how could I properly punish myself?

  “Do you feel better?”

  Better, what’s better? “I feel justified.”

  Philip pressed his head into his hands as I indicated for the bartender to pour him another drink. I could see doubt in the path the guardi
an had led him to trickle into his mind. He was nearly mine again.

  “What about little Colin and Megan? Their lives cut so short; they barely had a chance to live. Don’t you owe it to them? Hell, Phil, don’t you owe it to yourself?”

  “Please, stop.” Tears streamed down Phil’s weak face.

  “I'll stop anytime you want, Phil. I'm just trying to help you obtain the means to right this incredible wrong.”

  “But murder?”

  I leaned in close and whispered in his ear. “It's no more than he took from you.” I saw anger once again solidify behind his eyes and his weepy forgiveness take the backseat to the more tangible emotion.

  “How do we do this?”

  “Come with me, I have someone for you to meet.”

  He nodded and satisfaction filled me, even as a little piece of my heart slipped away.

  Two

  I strolled around the grounds of the Villa Borghese amongst the statues and fountains I loved. The gentle buzz of the city just outside vibrated in my ears. It was good to be home, but the peace was short lived. My former trainee, Ruth, stopped by to discuss her most recent assignment with me. She prattled on, but my mind was far away from her.

  Why was it so hard to lose Olivia? The Jinni was devastated, but he was in love with her. I wasn’t! I wanted him to kill her—I asked for it—because I knew it was the best way—the only way—for her to get to us. However, when I came into her apartment and saw how the cards fell, I no longer felt sure. Maybe I was wrong.

  “Quintus, are you listening to me?”

  “Of course I am,” I lied. My mind was consumed, as it was so often these days, with whether or not Olivia would come back and just how far my mistakes would reverberate through the universe. Every action had a reaction, and I hadn’t seen the last of this. The only thing I knew for certain was the jinni needed to be kept as far away from her as possible because she had no self-control around him.

  “So what do you think?”

  “I think—you know what’s best in your heart.”