Golden Binds

1

“I’m going to sneak into the castle, meet Prince Charming, and live happily ever after.”

She looked down at Roger, only managing to keep a straight face for a few seconds before snorting with laughter.

“Yeah, you’re right. With my luck, it’s more likely I’ll be breaking into Frankenstein’s house of horrors, meeting my psycho stalker, and dying a horrible, nasty death.”

Roger’s whiskers twitched.

“You’re not talking me out of this,” she told the rat, who she considered her only friend. “I’m still going to do it. I’ve wanted to know what’s behind those walls for years.”

Gigi Reynolds stared up at the castle. Dark. Imposing. Enormous. The walls were gray brick, the roof, gray slate, and the surrounding area was devoid of any greenery until you reached the forest beyond, where she lay hidden. It wasn’t really the thing of fairytales. And yet she’d been obsessed by the castle and the people who lived in it for years.

The Bjorn brothers.

Funny name. Strange people. Rumors had circled in Oldstown about them for years. They were reclusive. Rich. How did they get food? What did they look like? Didn’t they ever get lonely? And just how old were they?

“Ancient. Maybe they’re dead. Maybe that’s why no one’s seen them in years. Their bodies are entombed in there. Just imagine it. They’ve been dead for years, and that place has just been sitting there, prime for the taking. It could be filled with gold or treasure.”

And perhaps she could help herself to a little bit of that gold. Just enough to fund her freedom.

Roger squeaked.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. How did all those signs and boobytraps get there if they’re dead. Maybe they only died recently. Come on, they must be old. And if they’re dead, they’re not going to miss a few jewels and gold, right?”

Was it stealing if the people who owned it were deceased? Okay, so Gigi knew her morals weren’t those of an upstanding citizen, but she lived in Oldstown, which had the dubious pleasure of being the country’s most corrupt city. It was a hotspot for crime and violence and gangs.

She should know. Her brother headed the nastiest gang in the city. Hence the reason she needed freedom.

Her brother loved her in his own way, but he was built differently than other people. She didn’t know if he was born that way or if he’d buried his emotions out of necessity. Kind of hard to rule a gang of thugs, rapists, and murderers and then turn around and give your little sister a hug.

She snorted.

Yeah, that wasn’t ever going to happen.

That wasn’t to say he wasn’t protective of her—to the point of being smothering. She had no freedom. If she hadn’t found her mother’s diary and discovered the secret of the tunnels that lay under the huge wall that surrounded her brother’s criminal dynasty, she would never have been able to leave that dubious source of safety.

She’d been exploring those tunnels for years. Finding different exits out into the city and the forest beyond. The biggest jackpot had been discovering the one that came out close to the Bjorn castle. These woods were filled with traps and warnings to stay away. There had to be a reason they guarded their privacy so closely. And she wanted to know what it was.

“Today’s the day. We’re going in.”

Roger squeaked and took several steps back, burying himself under the shrubbery.

“Come on, you’re not letting me go in on my own, are you?”

All she could see were his nose and whiskers.

“You’re a big wimp, you know that? You’re supposed to be my backup. My partner in crime.”

He didn’t move. She sighed. “Fine. Stay here. I’m not sharing any of the gold anyway.”

Okay, so he probably wasn’t much interested in the gold, seeing as he was a rat, but she was feeling some hesitation about her plan. It had seemed so easy when she’d come up with it in the safety of her bedroom. Sneak up to the castle. Climb the wall. Pick the lock on the door. Walk on in and steal some gold. Done.

Simple, right?

As her brother liked to say, the simple plans were the best. Get too elaborate and you usually ended up having to shoot someone.

Of course, he always smiled after he said that. Which led her to think he didn’t think shooting someone was too much of a hardship. Like she’d said, Carlin was wired differently than most people.

Sometimes he terrified her. Other times he pissed her off. But she always loved him. Damn that was kind of screwed up.

“All right then. Stay here. I’

ll be back in a couple of hours—with the gold.”

She needed a new life. One away from Oldstown and the constant danger she lived in. Just a simple life. House by the lake, swimming pool, spa, and a cabana boy with rippling abs.

Was that too much to ask for?

Not that she’d know what to do with the cabana boy. She wasn’t exactly experienced. At anything. There wasn’t a man brave enough or stupid enough to try and touch Carlin Blake’s baby sister. She was twenty-two years old and she’d never even been kissed.

Shaking off those depressing thoughts—she could worry over the sad state of her non-existent love life later, Gigi moved silently towards the castle. And her freedom.

* * *

Garret Bjorn was bored out of his mind.