24. Zira
ZIRA
Harris.
How is this possible? How is he here?
Every beat of my heart hurts like a blade is carving through my chest and for a moment, I can’t breathe as I stare up into the laughter-filled, cold eyes of Harris.
Harris.
Not Peter.
“N-No,” I choke out. “This can’t be—”
I lunge past him and crash over the trash bag on the floor to the other man leaning against the doorframe. He doesn’t put up a fight when I grab the bottom of the mask and rip it from his face. Green eyes stare back at me as long black hair spills out from underneath.
A stranger.
Not Peter.
That means…
Oh, God, that means…
“This is Adam, by the way,” Harris remarks. “Since you didn’t know who he was. Did you never care to ask or did you simply forget because you’re so fucking self-absorbed, Zirconia? It’s all about you and what you want and what you can do and what you think. You, you, you!”
I can’t breathe.
I can’t!
My chest tightens tenfold and despite my parted lips, no air gets past the back of my throat.
Harris is here.
He’s here.
And Peter’s not.
Pain cuts through my gut and hot bile starts crawling up my throat. I stumble away from Adam and make it to the threadbare couch just in time for the bile to reach my tongue. Retching over the couch, Harris’ groan of disgust reaches my ears.
“I think she’s finally worked it out. Have you?
God, what a fucking drama show. In case it wasn’t obvious, Peter and I swapped masks.
Surprisingly easy to persuade him because he always thought my mask was cooler.
I just wanted to be in one of the unassuming masks in case the cops came looking, and if he took the heat?
” Harris raises both hands and laughs. “More fool him, I guess.”
Bile chokes me, tangling with my desperately weak gasps for air. A pit’s opening up inside me and my stomach plummets out of my ass when I lift my head and glare at him, tears clinging to my eyelashes.
“You swapped masks?” I croak. “You fucking coward! You let him take that mask because you didn’t want the heat?”
“Duh!” Harris rolls his eyes. “Pretty fucking obvious, don’t you think? Why would I keep wearing the most obvious one when I could pawn it off on someone as dumb as your brother?”
“Don’t!” I snap, curling both my hands into fists as the rawness in my throat sweeps down through my body. It’s like I’m being carved up on the inside until there’s nothing left.
“Oh, that’s right.” Harris touches one finger to his chin. “You just told me I’m dead. But I’m here, so does that mean… your brother is dead?”
A cold dread washes over my shoulders as Harris closes in on me.
“You killed your own brother?” His bark of laughter is followed by a scoff from Adam in the background. “That’s fucking comedy gold, oh, my God.” He brings both hands to his chest. “Did you kill him thinking he was me?”
That night flashes back into my mind like a strike of lightning. Harris— no, Peter’s panic with the gun, him yelling at me and that moment on the edge of the cliff where he was ready to shoot me. He was going to kill me.
My own brother.
It makes no sense.
“No,” I croak out. “I didn’t kill him, I didn’t.”
“I’d be sad, really,” Harris continues lazily, walking until he’s right in front of me. “But you see, Peter and I were going to be rich. Blindingly so. And with him gone, then I guess that fortune is all mine now, so really, doll, you did me a favor.”
“Uh, excuse me,” Adam pipes up from the doorway. “What about me?”
Through large tears, Harris blurs as he taps himself on the forehead.
“Oh, right. What an Idiot I am.” He jerks a gun out from the back of his jeans and aims at Adam, who has no time to react before he’s shot in the head.
I scream in fright at the gunshot, and horror grips me by the throat as Adam falls forward flat on his face, dead.
Then Harris turns the gun on me. “One little problem, though, right? I have half the diamonds and Peter had half the diamonds, but if Peter is dead, that means you have them.” He pouts, talking to me like a child.
I tremble, unable to control myself, and stare in shock at Adam’s body until the cold barrel of the gun touches under my chin.
A flinch jolts through me and I’m forced to lift my gaze as Harris brings my head up.
Swallowing hurts. Breathing hurts. Fog is sweeping through my mind and muddling all my thoughts with only one bright pinpoint in the center.
Peter is dead.
“Where are the diamonds?”
I can’t think. Silence greets me as Harris’s question echoes in my mind because I’m trapped in that night. The night we ran at Harris’s command. The night my brother tried to kill me and Bradley saved me by killing him instead.
He murdered my brother.
Is this my punishment for shooting Bradley?
Did I do this?
“Zirconia!” Harris nudges my chin again with the barrel of his gun. “What did you do with the diamonds? Are they still in the car?”
I nod absently, not fully processing what he’s asking. “You’re wrong,” I choke out, clinging to the anger that cuts through my numbness. “Peter would never betray me. He would… he’d split those diamonds with me, he would have. I know he would have. I know it!”
Harris stares at me, then he bursts out into loud, humorless laughter.
“God, you’re so fucking gullible! He told me you were a riot, but I guess I just didn’t believe someone could be so dedicated that they'd lose all sense.” He lifts the gun and taps the barrel against my forehead, making me flinch hard with every touch.
“You’re wrong.” Each blink sends a fresh stream of tears down my cheeks, but I barely feel them. It’s all far too much.
“Peter was working with me, you stupid fucking bitch! The mysterious fourth person who went ahead that night to set up the safe house or whatever he told you? They never fucking existed. We just lied about it so you wouldn’t care that Peter had a mask.
He was with us the entire time! Imagine!
” He raises his arms and spins away from me.
“You were working so fucking hard to save your brother and never noticed that he was working with us the whole time.” Glee sweeps across Harris’s face and he kicks Adam’s corpse on the way past. “He was even the one who went with you to kill that fucking hostage. Nice shot, by the way.”
No.
It can’t be. Everything I did was for him. Everything I’ve done my whole life has been to raise and protect him. There’s no way he would do this, no way he would have watched me suffer like that, surely?
“You lie,” I spit at him, and my breath wobbles with a soft sob. “You’re lying b-because he’s not here to defend himself!”
Harris snorts. “Sure, cunt. You thought your fucking angelic nature could save him, but guess what? Peter’s cut from the same scummy cloth—” He’s cut off by a shrill burst of music from the top pocket of his shirt.
Retrieving his phone, he tucks it against his ear while keeping the gun on me.
He answers the phone in short grunts and ‘mmhmms’ and then hangs up, his brow low.
“Listen to me, Zirconia, because I’m only going to say this to you once.
” He walks toward me, filling my space until the very air I breathe is stained with his stink.
“The only reason I haven’t killed you is because of those diamonds.
I want them and you’re going to bring them to me, understand?
And if you don’t? Then I’m going to kill every single person who has ever even graced your life.
Your workmates? Your neighbors? The cute guy at the grocery store?
Yeah, I saw him. All of them. I will kill all of them until you bring those diamonds to me. ”
My jaw works back and forward as I fight to find my voice, but it remains silent and lost until Harris grabs my jaw with his hand and tugs my head forward.
“And don’t fuck with me, you hear me? Those cars have GPS, but I want you to bring those diamonds to me. Crawl back to me and maybe you’ll be rewarded. It’s not like your brother has any fucking claim on them, does he?”
Before I can reply, Harris leans forward and covers my mouth with his.
My stomach recoils in a wave that sends cold shivers down my arms and legs, but his grip on my jaw is too tight and painful for me to pull my head away.
I slam my hands into his chest and push him away with all my strength, but the kiss doesn’t end until he wants it to.
Only then does he step back with a smirk.
“Wait for my call. I’ll send you an address. Be seeing you, brother-killer.”
With that, he’s gone, leaving me to the dark hovel he called home for however many nights since he fled.
Adam remains dead on the floor near the door, but the way his hair reflects the light makes it look like he’s just lying on the floor taking a nap.
I can’t move.
Rooted to the spot with my hands curled into painful fists, my lips throb with the ghost of Harris’s mouth and my burning throat contracts painfully. Finally, the brain fog lifts, but it’s replaced by so much noise as I process everything that’s happened.
And my tears continue to fall.
Peter is dead.
My own brother. After he tried to kill me. He lied to me for months. All the stress, all the pain and tears and trauma I went through to save him from a man who apparently didn’t even kidnap him. It’s so absurd that it can’t be true. It just can’t be.
Not Peter.
My Peter.
I gasp and cold air seeps into my lungs, numbing my racing heart. Just as the weight of it hits like a truck, the clack of the doorlatch drags me out of my trance.
Did he forget something?
Heavy footsteps move up the hallway and as soon as Harris appears in the doorway, I snatch up the dusty lamp from the side table and launch it with all my strength at Harris.
It crashes against him and splinters, then shatters to the floor as the figure winces and grunts.
“Zira?”
That voice…
Not Harris.
“B-Bradley?”