He didn’t move, trying to remember what had happened so he could determine whether or not this was a dream. The years had been hard on him, and the memories were difficult to dwell on, but most of them consisted of him lying in bed. He could remember nothing happening that would have brought him here, but he was certain this was real. Mainly because his head was pounding in a way that reminded him of a hangover, something he hadn’t experienced in decades, and because his bladder was begging for relief.
Angus sat, pushing himself up slowly to be sure his body could handle it. He remembered clearly those first few days after he woke from his coma. He’d been weak, and the first time he’d tried to stand he had almost fallen on his ass.
His legs when he stood now, however, didn’t feel any more unsteady than they had the last time he’d stood. He wasn’t sure how long ago that had been, but the fact that his legs held him up meant not much time had passed.
The house—or apartment, he wasn’t sure which—was silent. He stepped out of the room and paused so he could look around, admiring the pristine kitchen, dining room, and living area beyond that. To his right, visible through a cracked door, was another bedroom.
He spotted two other doors on the other side of the room and headed that way, knowing that he wouldn’t be able hold off on using the toilet for much longer. He hit the jackpot with the first door he opened, but once he had relieved his bladder ,he wasn’t sure what to do with himself.
He was standing in the middle of the room looking around when a door behind him opened. He turned, ready to put up a fight even though it was obvious from his surroundings that these people meant him no harm, but the determination melted away the second he set eyes on the teenage girl in front of him.
She looked like her mother. She had been ten the last time he’d seen her, a skinny child who hadn’t seen the light of day in years, but she was a woman now. Eighteen. She was taller than he’d expected her to be, and thin. Her skin was flawless except for the scars in the crook of her arms, and her cheeks were glowing and healthy. She’d colored her hair pink and even though it was a shock to him at first, it seemed to suit her.
Of all the changes, and there were many, the biggest one was the light in her eyes. She’d been happy when she was with him, but her expression had always been filled with loneliness. She’d been a prisoner and had known it, and the look in her eyes had haunted both his dreams and his waking hours. Now, however, his daughter’s gray eyes sparkled with life.
“Daddy,” she said, taking a couple steps toward him. A smile spread across her face. “How are you feeling?”
“This ain’t real,” he said. It couldn’t be real, because if it was that would mean he was free, and Angus James had given up on the idea of freedom eight years ago.
“It is.” She walked closer, but slowly. Hesitantly. She didn’t look afraid, though, it was almost like she’d been warned to give him time to adjust. “Helen got you out. She injected you with the same drug that I was injected with, and they thought you were dead. We saved you.”
Angus shook his head, but he was starting to think it was true. He had dreamt about his daughter almost every night since they’d taken her away in a body bag, but never once had she looked any different than the ten-year-old he’d last seen, and he knew that he never could have imagined the beautiful girl standing in front of him. He wasn’t that creative.
“It’s you?” he asked, his voice catching in his throat. “You’re real?”
“I’m real.”
She closed the distance between them and found her way into his arms. She was bigger than she’d been the last time he’d held her, but still familiar. Her smell was the same, her body heat as well, and she still sighed when she snuggled her face against his neck.
“I missed you,” she whispered. “I’ve thought about you every day. I never stopped hoping we’d be able to save you.”
“I never thought I’d see you again,” he said against the top of her head. “Never thought I’d make it out of there alive.”
“Helen did her best.” His daughter pulled back so she could look up at him. “Getting you out was a lot harder than getting me out. Star didn’t take Jane’s betrayal lightly.”
“Your mom,” Angus said, wanting to set the record straight so she would know who Jane had been.
“No.” His daughter shook her head. “Helen is my mother, Jane was… I don’t know what she was. I know you loved her and I forgive her for what she did to us, but I don’t know what she was to me.”
All of Angus’s dreams about having a happy family with his daughter and the woman he’d loved melted away. They never could have come true, but it hurt to know that his daughter wouldn’t accept Jane as her real mother. Understandable, but painful still.
The door on the other side of the room opened once again and Angus looked up just as Helen and a man walked in.
“Sorry to interrupt,” the man said, smiling to reveal a gap in his mouth where his two front teeth used to be.
Helen stopped next to the dining room table and pulled one of the chairs out. She motioned toward it, her gaze on Angus. “I want to make sure you’re okay. Jane made that drug and it worked on Glitter, but who the hell knows what kind of side effects come with it.”
“Glitter?” Angus asked as he obediently sank into the chair.
“That’s my name now,” his daughter said, smiling sheepishly. “I was ten when I picked it and I know it’s kind of stupid, but I can’t bring myself to change it now.”
“Glitter,” he repeated the word slowly like he was rolling it around in his mouth.
It sounded like a stripper’s name, which got him thinking about Vivian and all the shit he’d given her back when they first met. He’d really hated her back then. Hated that she had stolen his brother’s attention. Hated that she’d changed Axl. Now, though, the idea of his daughter having a name that reminded him of Vivian felt good. Right even.
“I like it,” he said finally.
Glitter beamed as she took the chair next to him.
He didn’t take his eyes off his daughter as Helen checked him over, taking his blood pressure and checking his pulse, listening to his heart and checking his reflexes. It felt so unreal to be sitting there, staring into his little girl’s gray eyes and knowing that they were both safe. Finally.
“Tell me ‘bout yourself,” he said to his daughter once Helen had given him the all clear.
And she did. She told him about waking up in the same bed that he had, about seeing Helen and knowing that she didn’t ever have to go back again. The first few years had been rough, but in a good way. She’d learned to read and write, things she’d missed out on growing up in a prison cell, and had worked on healing, both inside and out. For a couple years they’d only let her go out at night, afraid that someone might recognize her, but she’d been happy because she had her mother back, and Dragon had taken on the job as a father figure.
“But not my father,” Glitter said, putting her hand on Angus’s. “I never forgot who my father was.”
Angus blinked away the tears. “But you go out now?”
“I do. Not a lot because I live and work here, but enough that I feel free.”
Free. The word felt so unreal to Angus that he found it impossible to hold his tears back. They slid down his cheeks and Glitter moved closer. She wrapped her arms around him and held him as he cried, releasing twenty years of anger and pain and loneliness. Trying so hard to accept that he was safe now and that things would get better. That he could get better.
“I wanna see my brother.” He pulled away from his daughter, but he didn’t let her go.
The man who called himself Dragon frowned. “We need to be careful.”
“I gotta,” Angus insisted. “I gotta see him. See all of ‘em.”
“Angus—” Helen scooted closer and placed her hand on his knee. “We know how important it is that you see your family, but there are complications.”
“What kinda compl
ications?” Angus asked.
“Meg, your niece, she’s friends with Jackson Star.”
Jackson Star. The name sent a chill shooting through Angus. He was dangerous, so much more dangerous than his father. Angus had lived with evil for twenty years, so he knew what it looked like, and what he saw in that boy’s eyes would rival the devil.
“You gotta get her away from him.”
But Megan and Jackson weren’t the only problem and Angus knew it. Now that he was free, Axl was in danger. Star and his asshole son had lost their little pet and they’d want a replacement. They’d want Axl.
“Shit. You gotta get me in touch with Axl.” Angus got to his feet, the sudden urge to run out of the room and track his brother down so he could warn him was overwhelming, only he had no idea where he was right now or where Axl even lived. “We gotta go. Now.”
“We will.” Dragon stood so he could look Angus in the eye. “I promise. We will make it happen.”
“You gotta make it happen now,” Angus hissed. He took one step and the room swayed, and he was forced to grab the back of a chair so he didn’t fall down.
His daughter—Glitter—was at his side in a second. “Are you okay?”
“Sit,” Helen urged. “Take it easy.”
Angus shook his head. “You ain’t listenin’ to me. We gotta get to Axl now.”
This time, Dragon seemed to sense the urgency in his voice. “Why?”
Angus met his gaze. “Because he’s immune too.”
Silence covered the room. Helen shook her head and her gaze met Dragon’s. Angus could tell that they’d had no idea, and he wondered why Jane had never thought to tell Helen. Why had it never occurred to them that Axl should be warned before they dragged Angus out of the CDC? He should have been alerted to the danger that was coming, taken somewhere safe so he didn’t get snatched up. But they prepared nothing, and now Axl was a sitting duck. Angus had no doubt that Star would have put his plans in motion the second he thought his test subject had died, which meant they were running out of time. And there always existed the possibility that they were too late.
“How long have I been out?” he asked, looking between them.
“Close to eleven hours,” Helen replied. “You slept a lot longer than Glitter did.”
Angus sank into a chair. “Then he’s gone. No way Star hasn’t done something already.”
He looked up, hoping to see some sign that he was wrong, but Dragon and Helen’s eyes reflected the same hopelessness that Angus felt inside.
“We didn’t know,” Dragon said. “We would have planned things differently. We would have done something.”
“I’m sorry,” Helen said.
Angus was sorry too. So sorry that he found himself wishing he were back inside the CDC so Axl could be free.
Axl
He’d been working the wall when he got the message from Jackson. It was the most cryptic thing he’d ever seen and there wasn’t a damn thing about it that hadn’t made him uneasy, but he had known that he couldn’t ignore it. Jackson Star might have been a slimy little prick, but he had a lot of power in the settlement and the last thing Axl wanted to do was get on the Stars’ bad side.
So he’d headed to the CDC after work as requested, flipping the words over and over in his mind the whole way there like he might be able to figure out what was coming if he just read between the lines.
Axl-
I know you’ve never been a fan of mine, but there’s something very important concerning your daughter that I need to discuss with you. Please come and see me at the CDC at your earliest convenience.
-Jackson Star
Megan and the little prick had been teetering on the brink of a relationship for years, and Axl was almost positive the note had something to do with that, although he hoped not. So many times when she was younger he’d wanted to forbid her from spending time with Jackson, but he’d held back. Mainly because Vivian had convinced him it would only push Megan into the creep’s arms. He supposed his wife had been right about that, but it hadn’t made seeing her with the guy any easier.
Things had gotten better when she’d met Colton, though, and Axl was positive that if his daughter’s boyfriend hadn’t been killed they would still be together. Megan’s attachment to Jackson had been stronger than ever afterward, something that had always felt a little too convenient for Axl’s taste.
By the time he reached the CDC, he’d pretty much convinced himself that Jackson was about to ask permission to marry his daughter—something he would never give. Internally, Axl was seething. He knew there was something wrong with Jackson Star and he couldn’t figure out why Megan was so blind to it.
When he arrived at the CDC, he asked for directions to Jackson’s office and was told to wait. Less than fifteen minutes later a guard he’d never seen before emerged from the back, gun on hip and in full display.
“Follow me,” the man said, unsmiling.
Axl did as he was told, and to his shock he was led deep into the CDC. Through halls he’d never visited and doors that had to be opened with codes. The man in front of him never said a word or even glanced his way, and the further they went, the more Axl found himself wondering if this visit had anything to do with Megan at all. He also couldn’t help thinking that he shouldn’t have come.
Of course, by that point it was too late. Axl had just decided that he definitely should have ignored the note and gone home when his armed escort stopped at a closed door and rapped his knuckles against it. Axl shifted just enough that he was able to unlatch his own gun without being conspicuous. This was exactly why he’d become an enforcer. Because he didn’t trust the people in charge as far as he could throw them.
“Come in,” Jackson called from the other side of the door.
The armed guard turned the knob and pushed the door open, motioning for Axl to step inside. He hated the idea of putting his back to this man, but he didn’t have a choice. He was so deep in the CDC that there was nowhere to run.
He stepped through the door.
“Axl.” Jackson stood when he entered. “Thank you for coming.” He stepped around the desk with a smile on his face that was so big it looked grotesque, and held out his hand.
Axl’s stomach rolled as he stared at the outstretched hand. He had no desire to shake it, but he wasn’t sure if he should make the man in front of him angry. He was young, but dangerous, and provoking him might not be the best idea.
He must have taken too long to decide, because Jackson dropped his hand to his side. “I get it.” His smile changed, morphing into something smaller but more genuine, and the evilness behind it didn’t escape Axl.
“You wanted to talk to me ‘bout Megan?” he asked, anxious to get to the point so he could get out of there.
Jackson blinked, trying to look startled but falling short. “Meg?” he said, then shook his head. “I’m sorry, I should have been more clear. This isn’t about Meg. This is about Margot.”
“What ‘bout her?” Axl growled, the sudden mention of his dead daughter’s name bringing memories and feelings to the surface that he’d tried a long time ago to suppress.
“She’s here.”
The words slammed into him.
“No.” Axl shook his head and took a step back. For just a moment, he felt like he was going to fall. “She ain’t. She’s dead.”
Jackson’s smile widened. “She’s alive. That’s what I wanted to tell you. I was only a kid when they took her and I just recently discovered who she was, so of course I wanted to make sure she was reunited with her family.” He took a step toward the door. “I can take you to her right now if you want.”
Axl couldn’t breathe well enough to ask any questions and he followed automatically when Jackson left the office and started walking. The other man’s smile now looked to Axl like a reflection in a funhouse mirror, distorted and twisted, and deep down he knew that following Jackson was most likely going to lead to his demise, but he couldn’t stop what he was doin
g. Couldn’t turn and walk away when his daughter, his little Margot, might be alive after all this time.
Nine years. That’s how long it had been since he’d seen her. The day she died he’d nearly died too, and if it hadn’t been for Vivian and Megan, he probably would have.
Believing for all these years that Margot had been killed by zombies had been bad enough, but it was nothing compared to what he felt as he followed Jackson even deeper into the belly of the CDC. What had his daughter been subject to over the last nine years? Had she suffered? Had they taken care of her? Was Jackson telling the truth? There were too many questions for Axl to grab on to even one, and he wasn’t positive that he wanted to know the answers to any of them.
The guard followed them, sticking close to Axl as they walked. They didn’t talk and Jackson didn’t look back at him until he stopped in front of a closed door. He glanced over his shoulder, that same twisted grin lighting up his face, and Axl’s stomach dropped so low he felt like it had been pulled down to hell.
Jackson typed a code into the keypad and a little green light next to the buttons lit up. The door clicked and a second later it was pulled open. Axl stepped through when Jackson motioned for him to go ahead.
The hall was white and impeccable, the florescent lights on the ceiling so bright that they seemed like spotlights. Windows and doors lined both sides of the hall, with keypads mounted next to them. The odor of bleach was so powerful that it made Axl’s eyes water, but it wasn’t strong enough to completely mask the scent of death.
“This way,” Jackson said, passing Axl and heading down the hall.
He followed, keeping pace with the younger man even though each step brought a deep sense of doom to him. He peered through the windows they passed, into rooms of horror where half-decayed creatures stared back at him. Each sight was worse than the last, not because they grew more and more grotesque, but because they became more and more human.
“Here,” Jackson said when he’d stopped next to a window. “Your daughter.”
Twisted World Series Box Set | Books 1-3 & Novella Page 69