The Golden Locket (Unbreakable Trilogy, Book 2) Read Free Page B

tension that I hadn’t seen for weeks now. ‘What the hell has been going on?’
    I opened my mouth like a fish, closed it again. Kept my grip on his arm. He tried to shake me off, but I put my hand up to his face and turned it towards me, gripped his jaw in my fingers so I could feel the scrape of his teeth, see my own fingerprints going into his skin. The same gesture he uses to calm me down.
    ‘Look at me, Gustav, and stop treating me like a jerk.’ I kept my voice deadly calm. ‘Nothing has been going on. I met Pierre on Halloween night. Just that once. I didn’t know he was your brother. I didn’t even know his surname. Only that he was Polly’s new boyfriend and she’d met him through her work in New York. They are both in the entertainment industry. Polly’s a fashion and personal stylist for magazine shoots. Pierre supplies wardrobe for film and theatre. He was throwing a Halloween party to launch his costume business in London.’
    Gustav continued to stare at me. The veneer of anger was fading slightly but I couldn’t be sure he was hearing me. I could see something else, confusion, fear, flickering behind his eyes. I put my finger on his mouth and pressed it hard.
    ‘Go on,’ he muttered hoarsely.
    ‘That first night you and I met, we went to the Dukes Hotel bar, remember, and we had those Martinis. I was already hoping something would happen between us, but then I got that text from my cousin Polly saying she was over from New York and inviting me to a party, and I had to leave you. Turns out the party was Pierre’s Halloween launch party. It was full of beautiful people in amazing clothes and masks, but I couldn’t get into the spirit of it, I couldn’t get you out of my head, I just wanted to be with you, Gustav. Even though we’d only just met, I wanted to get back to you somehow or at least speak to you. I was in a terrible rush to leave the party but I reckoned you would no longer be sitting in that bar so Pierre’s driver took me home and that’s when I lost your card. That’s why I couldn’t ring you.’ I was gabbling now, aware that everyone was watching me.
    ‘I was frantic, you had my cameras because I’d left them behind at the Dukes Hotel bar and in all the excitement I hoped you had them, but everything turned out fine because just when I was giving up hope of ever seeing you or my cameras again you phoned my mobile the next morning. Thanks to technology, you said. You’d put my number into your contacts so you obviously wanted to see me again, too. Oh, God, I wish I’d persuaded you to come with me to the party now.’
    ‘Then all this drama could have been dealt with weeks ago. But how would that have played out, do you suppose?’ murmured Pierre from behind me. His voice was very quiet, very low, as if he was feeling his way in the dark. ‘Can you imagine the mushroom cloud going up over Aldwych if my beloved brother had sauntered unannounced into my London launch?’
    ‘We were all in masks!’ remarked Polly, finding her voice again and twisting her fingers in their sparkly fingerless mittens. Her elfin face with the ice-blonde crop and aquamarine eyes looked lost in the swathes of her purple suede and silver fur Afghan coat. ‘You might not have known it was him.’
    ‘I’d know my own brother! Gustav Levi is unmistakable, no matter how elaborate the disguise might be. He was always the one making the dramatic entrance, often with the sexiest woman on his arm.’ Pierre glanced pointedly at me then lifted his hands as if belatedly greeting Gustav. ‘But it’s a good thing he didn’t come that night, because neither of us likes surprises. We like to be prepared. And I’ve the advantage, Gustav. I’ve had time to mull over everything. Seeing that business card was a shock, but it was a kick up the butt, too. Did I want to pick up the phone and call you, put an end to these years of silence? I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t ready. In fact I nearly flew back to New