The Golden Locket (Unbreakable Trilogy, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

more money than sense.
Mea
culpa
. Now. Shall we go back to the reason I took it?’ Pierre turned slowly from the window. ‘It was far more than a missed phone message that drove me away. This lovely girl will run a mile now she’s heard about your sick habits. As for me, I’ve changed beyond recognition since that night. I’m not that naïve, trusting young lad any more. Christ, I’ve even developed some pretty sick habits of my own! But where this is your fault, Gustav, is that everything I’d held dear about you, admired all my life, looked up to, was ripped away in that one hideous, graphic moment. Like someone smashing a mirror. No excuses. You were my big brother, for God’s sake! Oh, I wasn’t entirely ignorant. I was getting increasingly bad vibes from the goings on in the house. But you should have made certain that I would never see anything damaging – let alone
you
indulging in it as well!’
    ‘And you should know, Pierre, that far from me being shocked and disgusted, Gustav’s sick habits are old news,’ I declared into the bitter silence, my voice louder than I meant it to be. ‘Seen it. Done it. Got the whip. Supplied the weapon of choice, in fact.’
    ‘So soon the sado-masochism?’ Pierre flashed back. ‘In a couple of months he’s got you addicted, too?’
    Gustav snagged his hand through his hair and glanced sharply at me. I smiled faintly back at him. Still Pierre studied us, every nuance. What was it? Jealousy of our silent communication? The pinching memory of their old closeness?
    What were they like before their affection was shut off like a gas pipe? What impression did they make, the cool older brother and his young, eager sidekick hunting as a pair, ploughing their orphaned way in the world? These handsome men, their exotic black hair, tall, athletic bodies, demonic attraction radiating out of them. I really wanted to know.
    Polly’s eyes were huge with questions, too. I longed to take her by the hand, leave the brothers to it and run off to one of our childhood hideouts. But we weren’t kids camping out on a windy Devon beach any more. We were involved in this fight between our men, whether we liked it or not.
    ‘Leave Serena alone!’ spluttered Gustav. ‘This girl probably knows more about me than you do! I’ve told her about my past. But no, she didn’t know the details of the night I lost you, because I forbade anyone to mention it and I hoped, stupidly, that I’d never have to relive it.’ Gustav finally snapped out of his reverie and stepped towards the window. ‘I’ve explained, Pierre, that I hadn’t a clue you were arriving home from university. I was desperate to extricate myself from the marriage, what was going on, everything, because I realised it was only a matter of time before you witnessed something really bad. But Margot wouldn’t have it. She clung on with her fingernails. I had always sworn that hell would freeze over before I let her anywhere near you, so that was her lever, her enduring threat. She swore in return that if I made her leave she would take you with her.’
    For once Gustav had misjudged his timing and left it too late. Pierre suddenly barged up beside him, clamped his arm around Gustav’s shoulders and pulled him roughly against him in a parody of an embrace.
    ‘So you failed, yet again, to protect me. You were busted.’
    ‘For God’s sake, Pierre! What do you mean, “yet again”?’ Polly jumped forwards and slapped at him. ‘He’s trying to hold out an olive branch, you dickhead!’
    Pierre winced as her hand caught his free arm and he pushed her off. ‘We were fine and dandy until Margot came along, and then Gustav changed. He was her lapdog. Worm. Slave. I was fourteen, listening every night to them banging each other’s brains out. Too much information? And when Margot was mistress of the house, I kept bumping into her creepy friends on the stairs when they came to the house for their perverted parlour games. The best