The Hatter and The Hare (Hacking Wonderland Book 2)

by Allyson Lindt

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Blake crept up the ramp to the balcony, keeping his back to the wall and watching ahead and behind him at the same time, as much as one man was able.

  A movement on the lower end of the ramp caught his attention, and he spun as Queen and Reagan moved into view. He raised his pistol at the same time Queen did, but something behind him creaked. Leather, followed by a metal snap.

  Blake spun back toward the noise, to see Jabberwock aim at him. Fuck.

  Queen pressed her gun into Reagan’s temple. “I’m guessing the two of you are fucking. Tell me, Blake. The entire time you were together, you never taught your sweet Alice to watch her six?”

  Blake clenched his jaw and tightened his grip on his weapon. Could he hit Queen before she pulled the trigger? Hell, he didn’t even know if he could get his arm up that fast.

  Jabberwock paced. The scene was too familiar to six months ago. Blake feeling like someone had forgotten to let him in on the joke, and not seeing a lot of options for escape.

  “Injured arm, aiming with your left, could you still hit me before I hit you?” Jabberwock studied Blake. His gun remained in its familiar shoulder holster. Jabberwock reached for it, and Blake twitched his finger.

  “Nuh-uh.” Jabberwock held his hands in the air. “Not yet.”

  Reagan whimpered.

  “Don’t,” Queen barked. “There’s no love lost between you and me, and unlike the two of them, I won’t hesitate to drop you.”

  Fuck, fuckity fuck fuck. Blake would never forgive himself if he got Reagan killed.

  Jabberwock laughed. “Fuck. I love this woman. Not the same way I love you, Alice, but there’s a great deal of professional respect there. This afternoon, I set the rules, and they’re simple. Blake has one bullet. If he shoots me, Alice dies. Queen isn’t big on torture, so she’s going to pull the trigger immediately.

  “If Blake shoots her first, Reagan lives. I kill Blake, and her reaction dictates how much longer she continues to live. I’m not stupid. I already know the hero is going to sacrifice himself to save the girl. Since he’s fucked either way... What’ll it be, Blake? Kill me and watch Reagan die, or take the coward’s way out and get yourself killed before she shows the rest of us she was only using you?”

  If there was a chance of Reagan escaping, Blake was going to take it. That meant figuring out how he could shoot Queen. Even as recently as a week ago, Blake would have questioned where Reagan’s loyalty lay after a speak like that from Jabberwock. He didn’t doubt now. She wouldn’t side with the psychopath, but she would do what it took to save herself.

  That was Blake’s only option. He just didn’t know how to distract Queen long enough to shoot her.

  She drew back the hammer on her pistol, and his concern grew.

  The entire time Blake had known Queen, regardless of what she called herself, he’d never seen her cock the hammer on her gun before she fired. Was this her way of proving Jabberwock’s point?

  In a blink, she raised her gun in his direction. He twitched to counter and return fire, but he was slow with his left arm. The gunshot exploded, ringing in his ears.

  If he could still hear, and think, she didn’t shoot him. Warning shot? Where was the mocking from Jabberwock?

  Queen let go of Reagan, and Blake risked a glance over his shoulder. Jabberwock’s body lay on the round, dark red oozing from the hole in his head.

  Blake dropped the Glock with one bullet, pulled Jabberwock’s from its holster, and shot the body twice in the chest and once more in the head.

  “Feel better?” Queen asked.

  Blake aimed at her. She raised her hands, letting her trigger-guard hang from her forefinger.

  “What the fuck was that?” he asked.

  “Exactly what it looks like.” Queen handed her sidearm to Reagan and took another step back.

  Reagan set the weapon on the ground.

  Blake was pretty sure the pain in his shoulder was making him hallucinate.

  “It’s over. You can walk away. Actually leave. No games. No I’ll look for you in six months,” Queen said.

  Blake blinked and shook his head, to clear out the bizarre fantasy. He pinched himself then looked at her. “You’re still here. Not a dream after all.”

  Queen rolled her eyes. “You’ve never been funny.”

  “What am I missing?” Blake was so tired of mind games.

  “She’s Cheshire Cat,” Reagan said.

  “Actually, I’m Lisa. Please—God—don’t call me by another of those stupid names.” She reached behind her.

  Blake evened off the gun again. “Careful.”

  Lisa presented an envelope. “It’s not loaded.” She rifled through it and plucked out a photograph. “This is mine. The rest is yours.” She handed it to Reagan.

  “Thank you.” Reagan took the offering. “For this. For that.” She nodded at Jabberwock. “I don’t suppose... Do you have the password I need for the decryption key?”

  “You mean the one Alex left for me? I’ll let you keep the data, but hear me out first.”

  “I don’t understand why we’re hearing anything. Why are we standing here, talking like old friends?” Blake asked.

  “I trust her.” Reagan made it sound obvious.

  “Why?”

  “I’m a little naive sometimes.” Reagan shrugged, a smile playing on her face. “But she’s seen a lot. Alex trusted her. Alex loved her.”

  “Alex died for me. And I’m so sorry that, in doing so, he set you on this path.” Lisa looked at Reagan. The stony mask was gone, replaced with the same exhaustion that dragged through Blake.

  He was still missing something. “I’m sorry. Bad guy’s dead, right? So, no more looking glass? No more fucking with our heads.”

  Lisa rubbed her arms and pulled her coat more tightly around her. “I have no idea how you two aren’t shivering your asses off. I’ve been playing the long game, waiting for this day. I cleared you five years ago, when Sawyer—him”—she nodded at Jabberwock—“needed someone new to replace White Rabbit. I made sure your NSA records vanished, because you had potential.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he killed Alex. Tortured. Destroyed. Obliterated. That was another one of his games. You had the ability to take him down, if I nudged you right. You were so close, and then you had to go and fuck his latest obsession, and it all crumbled. He closed ranks. Until you and Reagan brought things back on track. Thank you, by the way, for turning disaster into another distraction.”

  “You’re welcome?” That was the correct response, wasn’t it? He should be asking more questions or something, but he was using the last of his energy to fend off the pain and cold.

  “The doors are locked from the outside,” Reagan said. “Unless you have a magic switch?”

  “Sort of.” Lisa pulled her phone from her pocket, jabbed the screen a few times, then put it away again. “Ten—Trinity is her real name—is an old friend. She’s out there. Doors are open now. Take Blake someplace warmer before he collapses? Your car is outside. I drove it here.” She handed Reagan a familiar key ring. “The encryption key is kitten. Like it sounds. All lower case. It’s up to you what you do with the data, but Jabberwock doesn’t exist anymore, and in about twelve hours, Cheshire Cat won’t either. And the three of us... We’ll never see each other again.”

  Blake should do more. Say more. “That’s it?”

  “You’re still a fugitive. I can’t fix that if you stand here, chatting my ear off.”

  “You’re sure?” He couldn’t help his sarcasm. “You don’t have another magic switch in your phone?”

  Reagan walked to his side and took his hand. “Let’s go.”

  Her comfort with the situation didn’t stop him from glancing over his shoulder every other second, as they made their way downstairs and outside, but he noticed she did the same. They reached the car without further incident. Their coats were piled in the back seat. She handed him his and pulled hers on.

/>   “A little help?” It was silly to feel embarrassed to ask, after everything else that had transpired, but he was.

  Reagan assisted him in shrugging on the coat, taking extra care with his lame arm. The fabric was as icy as the air, but it started to warm the moment it was on.

  He leaned back against the car and wrapped his good arm around her waist. “That just happened? It’s over?” he asked.

  “As far as I can tell.”

  “Christ, that man was fucked up.” He didn’t have anything more profound to say about the situation.

  She leaned in, to brush her lips over his. “And gone. And we need to leave too.”

  He nodded and slid into the passenger seat, while she took point as driver.

  “Where to?” Reagan pulled onto the road. “I believe I was promised a plane to Fiji.”

  He remembered saying that. Out of everything that transpired since this morning, it was the one thing that sounded normal. “Get me a burner phone at the nearest convenience station, and Fiji it is.” He’d place a call to Ephraim, make good on his promise a few weeks late, and they’d go wait for their ride at the Logan airport. No reason to go back for their things. Nothing in the room was important.

  Reagan set her arm on the rest between them, and he grasped her hand. Her fingers warmed against his, and she spared him a tiny smile.

  He had no idea if they could put this behind them, but he was done pursuing it, and if she felt the same, maybe they had a chance to move on. He studied her profile in the fading light—fierce but still fragile, and the most stunning sight in his memory. He definitely hoped they could move on.

  Epilogue

  Reagan closed her eyes as a gust of ocean air swirled around her, tearing her hair from her face and leaving hints of salt on her skin. She tried to absorb it a piece at a time, but it all blurred together. She came out here most mornings, to do a half-assed form of meditation. Mostly, it was standing on the beach and losing herself in the crash of the surf and the rustle of the palm-tree leaves.

  Blake wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed along her shoulder. “See anything interesting?”

  “Absolutely nothing.” She looked at the crystal-blue water, licking up the sand but not quite reaching her toes.

  “Hmm...” He slid a finger under the string holding up her bikini top. “Sounds stunning.”

  “It is. More amazing than any poet would ever lead you to believe nothing could be.” It had been almost a year since the incident at the high school. The dreams that woke her up in a cold sweat, where she swore the walls were closing in and the only thing she heard was Jabberwock’s voice, had faded. They only came every few weeks now.

  She traced her fingers over the familiar inlay of the silver locket that rested at the base of her throat. The necklace didn’t hold photos of her or Blake—they avoided having their pictures taken. Nestled inside was the silicon-encased micro SD card with the layout of Sawyer Brolin’s financial holdings. Several of which had mysteriously vanished or were sold to another holding company in the last eleven months.

  Reagan and Blake had evidence that Lisa was transferring all of Sawyer’s dealings to be under a new pseudonym, but Reagan hadn’t pushed to find out more than that. So far, there was no reason to.

  “Breakfast is ready when you are,” Blake said.

  It was one of the thousands of things Reagan discovered about him once they had time to talk—the man was a wicked cook. Which was good. She’d spent more time learning to hack than to boil water, so her best contribution to food was ordering pizza online. “I could be persuaded to eat.”

  He turned her to face him. “Persuaded?” He tangled his fingers in her hair and crushed his mouth to hers. The intensity of the kiss stole her breath and mingled with the peace in her head rather than disrupting it.

  When he broke away, she let a shy grin slip out. In a previous life, she would have felt obligated to flirt after a gesture like that. Come back with something like, Am I breakfast? With Blake, that need to pretend was gone.

  This was right. Some days life was still terrifying, but on those days, everything startled her. Most of the time, things with Blake were good. More than she ever dared hope for.

  He tangled his fingers in hers and tugged her toward their cottage. As they approached, she caught a reflection of herself in the glass. Her hair was growing out red again. It was at about her ears now, leaving an odd stripe of blonde at the bottom. Dye it to match never felt like a priority.

  They stepped inside, and a sparkle caught her attention. She turned toward the living room, and saw the small rubber plant they kept in the corner was strung with lights. A few boxes sat next to the pot, wrapped in bright paper. “What did you do?” she asked.

  “Merry Christmas.”

  “It’s only Halloween,” she pointed out.

  “I know, but we missed Thanksgiving and Christmas last year, because mental and physical agony, and now that we’re getting better at this living life thing...” He brushed past her, grabbed one of the smaller boxes, and handed it to her. “Short version is, I couldn’t wait. I’m also not the kind of poet who can make nothing sound any more tempting than you did outside, so... open it?”

  Her voice jammed in her throat, as she tore off the shiny red wrapper to expose a black velvet box. She opened it and gasped at the sight of a thin silver bracelet with Reagan etched on it. She still introduced herself as Alice, but he always called her by her real name, when they were alone. “It’s beautiful.”

  He dragged a thumb across her cheek, smudging wetness over her skin. “I didn’t think I’d get tears out of you.”

  “Well you did.” She shook her head and pulled away, to draw the back of her hand over her face. She didn’t know if either of them would ever stop looking over their shoulder. They’d be keeping a loose eye on Lisa Haynes or whoever replaced her for the rest of their lives. But if Reagan had Blake, the rest would fall into place somehow.

  THE END

  If you enjoyed Hacking Wonderland, watch for Lisa’s story, coming in 2018

  Also by Allyson Lindt

  3d20

  3d20 Box Set (Books 1-3)

  Hacking Wonderland

  The Hatter and The Hare

  Love Equation Box Sets

  The Love Equation Box Set #1 (Books 1-3)

  The Love Equation Box Set #2 (Books 4-6)

  Love Hack

  Breaching His Defenses

  Sheltering His Desire

  Securing Her Surrender

  Love Hack Box Set

  Love Hashtagged

  The #5Star Affair

  Too Goode to be True

  Graphically Novel

  Ridden Hard

  Hard Flip

  Hard Pack

  Riding the Wave

  Drive Me Wild

  Romance Shots

  Unconventional Fling

  He Said, She Said

  The Love Equation

  The Rival and The Billionaire

  The Geeks and The Socialite

  The Second Chance and The Auctioneer

  The Virgin and The Kingpin

  The Nerds and the CEO

  The Boyfriends and the Matchmaker

  Version 2.0

  Denial of Interest

  Standalone

  Paranormal and Loving it!

  Toeing the Line

  Room for Love: A Roommates Contemporary Romance Box Set

  Watch for more at Allyson Lindt’s site.

  About the Author

  USA Today Bestselling Author Allyson Lindt is a full-time geek and a fuller-time contemporary romance author. She likes her stories with sweet geekiness and heavy spice, because cubicle dwellers need love too. She loves a sexy happily-ever-after and helping deserving cubicle dwellers find their futures together.

  Read more at Allyson Lindt’s site.

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  Allyson Lindt, The Hatter and The Hare (Hacking Wonderland Book 2)