Page 56 of Glitter Rose
He smiles, the expression never reaching his eyes. “That’s how you greet your only living relative? I expected at least a hug.”
Movement draws my attention to the door. Two men flank it—strangers in tactical gear, weapons holstered but visible. One has short dark hair and a camera hanging around his neck. The other is broad-shouldered with a neck like a tree trunk, his face fixed in a permanent scowl beneath close-cropped hair, making me clutch the sheets harder.
No sign of Knox. No sign of struggle. No blood. Just these intruders and the ghost of my brother.
Did he leave? Walk out while I slept? After everything we shared last night—after I gave him everything—he disappeared?
Or did they hurt him? Take him? Kill him?
“Where’s—” If Knox got away, I don’t want to give him up. If these men have him, showing I care would only make things worse.
“Why so sad, little sister?” Gabriel steps away from the dresser, closer to the bed. “Not happy to see your brother?”
I shrink against the headboard, as if those few extra inches might protect me.
If Knox had gone for a supply run, he would have told me. Left a note. Something. There’s no reason to leave the safety of the penthouse unless…
Unless he was leaving for good.
Or… Did I imagine him?
Was I that lonely?
“Come on, sis. We haven’t talked in forever.” He perches on my bed, too close, invading my space like he always has. “I missed you.”
“Fuck you.” I scoot back. “How did you get in here?”
“Father gave me keys to your apartment years ago.” He shrugs. “Never thought they’d be useful, but here we are.”
“Why—I’d like you to go.” I glare at the two men standing guard. “Now.”
He tilts his head as if thinking about it. “I don’t think so. You see, Mike and Alex here were searching the area for watches of all things,” he shoots them a withering look. The smaller one with the camera shifts uncomfortably while the human mountain remains impassive. “Then they spotted a brunette girl on the street with fucking glitter on her face, just strolling by zombies. They thought they were imagining things. But I, I thought, surely it couldn’t be my dear sister. Had to see for myself.”
Ice spreads through my chest. Knox’s words from last night echo in my head: “Your brother is hunting us. Capturing people for his experiments.”
“They must have seen wrong,” I say.
“Did you?” Gabriel faces his two bodyguards. “Alex?”
The man with the camera, Alex, nods. “It was her. She was… walking right past those deadheads like they couldn’t see her.”
Gabriel’s fingers dig into my mattress. “And then you lost her.”
“We tried following, but—” Alex’s voice falters under Gabriel’s stare.
“But what? A girl wearing glitter was too difficult to track? In the apocalypse?” He turns to me with those cold eyes. The last time he looked at me like that, I was fourteen and he’d caught me trying to leave the penthouse against Dad’s orders. “Strange coincidence, isn’t it?”
I had become so used to being invisible to the dead that I forgot I was still visible to the living. I messed up. “Blind zombies.”
Mike snorts from his position by the door.
“Always the comedian. But we both know it’s not that. It’s genetics. It’s Father’s work.” Gabriel reaches out to brush my cheek. “Right?”
I recoil from his touch, my skin crawling where his fingers grazed. “Don’t touch me.”
“Paris, Paris.” He stands, straightening his suit jacket. “Father’s greatest success, living under my nose this entire time. I’ve been looking for you for so long.”
Bullshit. Pure bullshit.
