Page 64 of Locked in Wonderland

Nico shook his head. “We’ve barely scratched the surface. There’s a lot more you need to know.”

“Like what?”

His phone vibrated with a message. He glanced at the screen and muttered a curse under his breath, already moving toward the door. “I mean it when I say stay here. You’ve already gotten yourself into enough trouble.”

“If what you say is true,” I said, “most of that trouble was you.”

He stopped with his hand on the doorknob. “If?” His eyebrows rose. “You don’t believe me?”

I shrugged. What exactly did he expect?

He reached into his pocket, pulled out the USB drive, and tossed it toward me. “Watch this.”

I snatched it out of the air and examined it. “Sure. I’ll just plug it straight into my brain.”

The corner of Nico’s mouth twitched.

So he liked a bit of sass. That was interesting.

“There’s a laptop in the living room,” he said. “No password required. You do, however, need a password for the internet.”

“Which you’re not going to give me?”

“Correct.”

For a moment, he simply stood there looking at me. There was an intensity in those blue eyes that I didn’t want to examine too closely. “I’ll see you soon.”

He was gone before I could decide whether I wanted to answer, or what I might have said if I had.

Chapter Twenty

I stared at the door for at least a minute before concluding that Nico really had gone. When I tested the handle, it opened, proving he hadn’t locked me in.

I studied the silent, empty corridor for a few moments before retreating inside and letting the door close behind me. Without Nico there, the place felt bigger. As though he’d filled up all the empty spaces, and without him, it was nothing but rooms.

Exploration came first.

The apartment consisted of the bedroom and the mirror room—which I’d already seen. Seen and been fucked in, my subconscious helpfully supplied. Beyond those were a small kitchen, a more spacious living room, and a bathroom.

I started with a shower. The water was refreshingly hot, and the selection of toiletries was surprisingly extensive for a place not lived in.

Afterward, I dressed in my own clothes. Were they really my clothes if I’d gotten them from Donovan? I decided as I cooked myself breakfast that wearing them for a full day gave me ownership rights.

I ate far more than I actually needed. Given how dangerous eating and drinking in Wonderland kept proving to be, loading up on food whenever the opportunity presented itself seemed like a sensible strategy.

All the while, I kept staring at the tiny USB drive.

Logic dictated that Nico wouldn’t have handed it over if it contained anything that contradicted his version of events. Which meant there was absolutely no reason to watch it.

So why couldn’t I stop looking at it?

By the time I finally slotted it into the laptop—which, just as Nico had promised, didn’t require a password—I’d convinced myself it was purely to check he wasn’t calling my bluff.

The video opened on an empty view of the office. I didn’t have to wait long before the door opened and I walked in alongside Zane and Zeke. I didn’t much like my expression. It reeked of naivety.

I hit fast-forward, eager to skip past the handcuffs and blindfold and get to the part that actually mattered. By the time the door opened again to admit the extra person, my palms were sweaty and blood roared in my ears.

I slowed the playback to normal speed.