Page 142 of Locked in Wonderland

“Such as?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes.”

He pushed his jeans down his legs and stepped free of them, leaving only a pair of black briefs that did little to disguise the erection already straining against the fabric. “What difference does it make?” He gestured toward me. “Take your clothes off.”

“Not yet.”

He turned to face me, hands on his hips.

I kept my eyes fixed on his face, refusing to be drawn into the temptation of looking elsewhere. It took immense willpower, but I managed it.

He sighed. “Perhaps I did it to prevent myself from ever being tempted back. Maybe living in the real world reminded me what life is supposed to look like. Maybe my hatred for Kellan grew until seeing him behind bars became something that consumed me. Maybe I knew you’d see the headlines, put two and two together, and come running.”

I snorted.

His mouth curved. “Maybe I thought karma would eventually catch up with me if I did nothing. Maybe I simply liked the challenge. One man against an entire organization has a certain appeal.” He paused. “Or...”

The single word hung between us.

“Maybe I discovered there were plans to eliminate me.”

That sounded far more plausible. Probably with a sprinkling of all the other reasons thrown in.

“A them or me situation, if you will.”

I nodded slowly. “That wasn’t very bright of them considering everything you knew.”

“It wasn’t.” His smirk returned. “Now take your clothes off.”

“What about now?” I asked. “Are you still in danger?”

Rather than answer, he started toward me with a glint in his eye. I took evasive action, keeping a chair between us. “Just answer the question. Then I’ll strip. What can Queenie and Henry actually do from prison?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Their egos are far too big to accept defeat that easily, but I’m not especially worried. They’d have to catch me first.”

“And when they get out?”

He lunged.

Laughing, I darted around the chair before beginning to peel off my clothes as a compromise, throwing each discarded item at him as I went.

He batted my T-shirt away as it hit him square in the face. “That’ll be decades from now. I’ll worry about it if and when it happens.”

“What about Kellan?”

“Given his temperament, it would surprise me if he lasts more than a year inside.”

The thought made me smile. “How do you think he’ll die?”

Nico arched an eyebrow. “Death as foreplay. That’s a new one.”

“Only where Kellan’s concerned. Can you blame me? He was planning to keep me as a pet. He’d have beaten me, raped me, and eventually had me killed.”

“I think,” Nico said, beginning another slow circuit of the chair, “that he’ll struggle with letting go of his superior attitude.” He smiled, though there wasn’t much warmth in it. “Prison, or rather the people in it, will want to correct that attitude.”

He took another step.