Reagan Through the Looking Glass (Hacking Wonderland, #1)

by Allyson Lindt

  “If you’re running, I’m going with you,” he said.

  Yes. Okay. Let’s go now. We can ditch your friends, can’t we? “Why?”

  “Because I’m sick of this game. Playing both sides... I can’t do that again, and I can’t go back to field work or a desk job, especially the kind of shit detail they’ll give me if I lose you. But that’s all secondary. I care about you. It’s been a long time since anything meant more than going through the motions.”

  She didn’t know what to do with the confession. It wasn’t as though he’d said he loved her. She didn’t even think he was holding something like that back, though it might become love if they stuck together.

  What if this is a trap? Their way of finding out what I’m really up to? Then she was done. If this was how they got their information, she couldn’t play or second-guess anymore. Every step of the way from here on out would be risk filled. This was another one of those instances.

  “Yes,” she said.

  He cupped her face between his palms and kissed her hard. A thread of desperation lay underneath, intertwining with security. She dug her fingers into his chest and kissed back, memorizing the moment. The way two days of beard scuffed her chin. The cotton under her fingertips. His scent, clean and spicy, and the tick of the clock on the wall, dancing with the traffic outside.

  She shifted her position to get a better angle, and he grew hard underneath her. He slid one hand to the back of her neck. His calloused fingers on her sensitive skin sent tingles dancing over her. She wanted this moment to last forever. It was safe here. She knew the rules. She liked the other player.

  When they broke apart, her lips were tender and swollen. He traced a finger over the bottom one. Affection shone in his eyes in the low light.

  “I was top of my graduating class, you know.” His words barely reached her ears.

  “Oh yeah?”

  He nodded. “And I’ve seen your IQ scores. Your entrance exams.”

  “I feel like you’re about to make a point, and this isn’t as random and un-sexy a tangent as it sounds.”

  “I am, in fact.” He tangled his fingers with hers. “We’re about to do something really stupid, for two people who are supposed to be smart.”

  She shook her head. “We already did the stupid stuff. Now, we make the best of it.”

  “Did you know, if you pay the desk clerk the right amount of money, you can get a key to any adjoining room in this place? I bet you did.” Hare’s voice shattered the mood and spilled ice over her. “Sorry. Bad timing on my part?”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “You two make an adorable couple.” Hare’s tone was conversational and friendly. “I’m a little hurt, though, Reagan. I was hoping you and I had that spark. I thought we had something.”

  She felt Blake’s muscles shift and tense, as is he were ready to strike. He adjusted himself, sliding one hand between them, and to his holster. It must be killing him to have his back to Hare.

  She gritted her teeth and tried to ignore the bit of her that had liked what she had with Hare. Physical. Simple. Intense. If she’d been nudged a little further over the edge, it wouldn’t have taken much for him to persuade her to side with him rather than Blake. Persuade was a horrible word to use, but Hare never gave her real choices. He did a marvelous job of painting her into a corner and making his preference appear to be the only attractive way out.

  “Nothing?” Hare raised his brows. “No witty comeback or stammering cry of disbelief?”

  “If you’re going to be all cliché-super-villain, I refuse to ask, how did you find us?” Reagan said.

  Hare shrugged. “I’ll tell you anyway. For Hatter’s benefit, so he doesn’t make the same mistake again. He used his knowledge and contacts at this place to hook you up. Once I knew you were still in town, I had a list within a few hours of his local contacts as Hatter. You, Reagan, tipped your hand about where you were. Ten saw him leave the same police station you were being held in. Bam. Someone followed you here, told me which room you were in, and I alakazam, here I am.”

  He pulled his gun from its holster with a single fluid motion. “Stand up. The two of you make me nervous.”

  Reagan’s hammering heart sped up as he pointed the pistol at them. As Blake helped her shift off his lap, he drew his sidearm. As they stood, he pointed it at Hare.

  “Hmm... Did you realize that was just a Glock in his pocket?” Hare asked. “I don’t like two-to-one odds, but I don’t think they’re balanced the way Hatter expects.” He pointed his pistol at Reagan. “I have it on good authority you haven’t shared Jabberwock’s secret.”

  She couldn’t keep her hands from shaking, as she looked down the barrel of the gun. “I haven’t. I’m keeping his as well.” She nodded at Blake.

  Blake shifted his posture, arm going rigid.

  “Uh-uh,” Hare chided him and pulled back the hammer on his gun, gaze never leaving Reagan. “I know you’re good, Blake—better than me—I saw your files from the Marines before we erased your past. If you finger twitches, I won’t wait to see if you pull the trigger, I’ll shoot her.”

  Reagan swallowed. Hare was nuts enough he’d make good on the threat just for kicks. “We’re talking. We’re good. We all have secrets, remember?”

  “Why did you keep mine?” Hare asked.

  “They’re not my secrets to share.”

  Hare raised his brows. “How altruistic of you. Then it’s not because you hope to use one or both as a bargaining chip.”

  Her gut sank. “Maybe.”

  “You’re clever.” Hare smirked. “You could have been my White Queen, you know.”

  “No thanks.” Reagan shook her head. “I’d hate to break the no other royalty in the court rule.”

  “Are we doing something or having a tea party?” Blake asked.

  Hare’s grin grew. “You remember how this game is played. That makes me happy. I’m tempted to gut you right now, for lying to me. I gave Reagan’s brother a good death. Quick. Dignified. But what I’d like to do to you...”

  “Enough.” Reagan wanted this over with. She’d had a ticking clock over her head for too long. Regardless of the outcome here, she wanted to move on. “I’m bargaining, remember?”

  Hare nodded. “With my secret, yes. I don’t like that. Let’s shift the playing field. You tell me Hatter’s secret and him mine, and I’ll tell you one he’s kept from you.”

  She glanced at Blake. “I know his secrets.” Doubt crept into her voice.

  “I doubt that.” Hare never relaxed his aim at her.

  Of course there were things she didn’t know about Blake. She expected that. Could she sit through Hare reciting a list of Hatter’s kills? The deals he’d done? She’d have to find out either way. She’d rather know now, than later. “All right. Sharing time. Who goes first?”

  “Eenie... meenie... minie...” Hare chanted. “Oh. I’ll tell Hatter my secret. Sound good?”

  “Alice?” Blake looked at her.

  Hare snorted. “I’m not even touching that one.”

  “Fine,” Reagan said. This thing was crumbling. It barely resembled her plan. She was supposed to say she’d keep Hare’s secret, in exchange for him letting them walk. That he could come after her the moment she told someone. Now that she thought through it, it was the most delusional idea she’d come up with in the last few weeks, and that was saying a lot.

  Hare mimed tipping an invisible hat, never lowering his gaze or gun. “I’m Jabberwock. Pleased to meet you.”

  “No.” Blake clenched his jaw. “What were you really going to tell me?”

  She cringed at his hurt and disbelief. “That’s it. Hare is Jabberwock. I’m sorry I kept it to myself. If the people you work for knew, I’d be fucked.”

  Telling Blake’s employers what she knew meant things like witness protection and always hiding from whoever Jabberwock left behind—if he was even convicted. They’d searched for years and had no idea he hid right under their noses. The Fed
s couldn’t keep her safe.

  Which was why she gambled on Jabberwock. If he could hide himself, he could hide her. Or kill her, but that was a possibility either way. This gave her better odds.

  “There’s witness protection. A new life. Starting over.” Blake ticked off on his fingers.

  “Which we’re doing anyway?” She couldn’t keep the desperation from her voice.

  He frowned.

  “Who does he work for?” Hare interrupted. “That’s his secret, am I right? The one you have for me?”

  Blake glared at him. “I’m NSA. I’m working with Homeland Security. It’s a collaborative effort.”

  Hare’s eyes grew wide. “Wow. I have multiple agencies on my tail. Why do you people care about me?”

  “You’ve committed acts of cyber terrorism.” Blake hesitated. “Well, not committed, but you’re tied to them. Conspiracy.”

  How were their arms not aching by now? It was a ridiculous thought, but the whole situation was surreal.

  Hare looked at her again. “Here’s the thing about me. About us. The thing Hatter probably didn’t tell you. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I’m a facilitator. Nothing more. If someone needs something, they come to me, and I put them in touch with the person who has it. It’s rare for me to pull the trigger.”

  “I’m glad Alex was the exception.” She let the hurt ooze into her words. “I’m not discussing with you the morality of being a middle man, versus doing the work yourself.”

  “That’s okay.” Hare waved his gun erratically. It was more fear-inducing than him keeping it level. “Your secret about Hatter isn’t very good. Especially not compared to what he got to learn, so I’ll tell you what I know about him instead.”

  Reagan looked at Blake. It couldn’t be any worse than her hiding Jabberwock’s identity. You sure about that? “I’m listening.”

  Blake’s scowl deepened.

  “That night in Vegas?” Hare said. “Blake wasn’t there to keep you safe. I had no idea where you were, and he knew that. I didn’t care what you were doing with Wayne Dickinson, because you and he weren’t a threat. I kept loose tabs on you, for Alex, but you were background noise.”

  “Bullshit.” Blake spat the word. “You rearranged everything to grab her when Wayne died.”

  “Wrong.” Hare made a buzzing noise, and Reagan jumped. “I rearranged everything to nab you, Blake. I went to Dr. Dickinson’s funeral to check on White Rabbit’s little sister. Maybe buy her lunch, meet the girl her brother adored, and see if she could give me any information about why someone would off her instructor. Your people shot at her.”

  Reagan’s stomach lurched. She knew the gunman was a Fed. Blake told her that. But at the time, she’d glossed over the news in favor of more pressing matters.

  “So you just happened to be at the right place, at the right time?” A sneer cut through Blake’s voice.

  “Yup,” Hare said. “Luckily for her.”

  Pieces clicked in Reagan’s head, and she swallowed back the nausea. She looked at Blake. “Your people killed Wayne. You weren’t in Las Vegas to keep me safe. You were there to make sure I didn’t change my mind about going home early.”

  Blake clenched his jaw.

  The lack of denial was enough confirmation for her. “I was going to tell you about Jabberwock. Did you ever plan to bring this up about Wayne?”

  “Of course. We haven’t had a lot of time to talk.”

  Reagan looked at Hare. She’d deal with that later. Once she and Blake were gone. If I go with him. Which she would. “Great. Swell. Shiny. Everyone knows everything about everyone else. Do I still get to bargain?”

  “You don’t have any chips left,” Hare said.

  “I didn’t tell anyone else. Only Blake knows, and he’s not going back to work.” Reagan dug through her thoughts, burrowing behind every corner to find a new solution.

  “Well, no. He’s not. Not if the two of you are dead.” Hare leveled his gun at her.

  That was it. Reagan grasped, desperate for something. “There’s no game in that.”

  Hare raised his brows. “What makes you think I care?”

  “Because I spent time around you. You dropped hints about your identity. You twisted things around, to see what I’d do next. You didn’t want me to figure out who you were so you could prove I was a clever girl. You did it for the game.” That glimmer of madness he radiated would also have an impact on his decision.

  “Maybe a little.” Hare’s smirk returned. “What’s this new game of yours?”

  “Let us walk out of here.” Reagan needed this to work. More than anything ever. “Give us a head start. Take us off federal radar and make us vanish digitally.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a very fun game.” Hare furrowed his brow.

  She held up her hand. “I’m not done. When a week is up, come after us.”

  Hare seemed to consider this. “That gives you enough time to hide far far away. Drop off the face of the planet. To grow old and happy together.”

  “No.” Reagan corrected him. “That is—of course we’ll hide. We’d be stupid not to. But I’m going to dismantle your organization a piece at a time. Take it apart until your epic Wonderland is burned and twisted and crumbling around you. While you try to stop me.”

  “What?” Blake raised his voice. “That’s not the plan. Why don’t I shoot him?”

  Hare tsked. “Reagan will tell you. It’s her proposal.”

  “Well?” Blake glanced at her, before returning his attention to Hare.

  “Everyone in Wonderland knows who we are. I’d prefer to only have one target on my back. The appeal to Hare in erasing us from public records is the Feds don’t step on his toes. If we kill him and run, everyone chases us. If we kill him and go the legal route, there’s that whole issue of keeping us safe again. I trust me more than the people Blake works for.”

  “We were going to run anyway,” Blake argued.

  Reagan agreed. “Maybe I’m being paranoid. Looking for shadows where there aren’t any. Can’t possibly think what in my recent experience could cause that.” She let the sarcasm drip from her words. “But we weren’t going to piss off someone like Dormouse first.”

  “I wish I had a good counter for that,” Blake said.

  Hare chuckled and tossed her a pair of car keys. “There’s a white Accord in E4. When you leave the room, take the east stairwell. No one will see you. If you exit through the parking garage heading south, you’re clear for at least a few blocks. As long as no one recognizes you, you’re clear a lot longer than that.”

  “And you’re just going to let us walk?” Blake asked.

  Hare holstered his gun and held up his hands. “That’s what we discussed. You’ll need to learn to pay attention.”

  Blake leveled his pistol at Hare again. Reagan pushed his arms down. “We need to go,” she said. “

  He looked at Hare one last time, then holstered his weapon. When he headed into the adjoining room, he bumped Hare’s shoulder hard enough to jar him.

  Hare didn’t flinch.

  Blake returned a moment later and handed Regan a button-down shirt and a baseball cap. “Pull your hair up,” he said.

  “Why do you have things like this in there?” she asked as she stripped off her T-shirt and tugged on the button-down, ignoring Hare’s smirk and appraising gaze. She wrapped her hair up and tucked it under the hat, then pulled the brim low.

  “In case one of our guys wants a change of appearance when he follows you.” Blake changed into a T-shirt and jeans and another hat. He grasped Reagan’s hand and tugged her toward the door.

  “See you in a week, Alice,” Hare called as they left.

  Blake and Reagan followed Hare’s instructions. The car was where he said. She let Blake drive and kept an eye on the mirrors. Neither of them said much beyond navigation checks. When they were about an hour outside the city, he stopped at an ATM and withdrew the maximum cash limit from a series of credit cards.

&
nbsp; “Aren’t you worried about being traced?” she asked.

  He put half the cash in his wallet, handed her the rest, and pulled back onto the freeway. “It doesn’t matter. We’re not staying here.”

  “What’s this for?” She couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice.

  “Just in case.”

  “This is a lot of money to trust me with.”

  “But that’s the thing. I do trust you. The last seven years of my life are gone. I have to put my faith in someone, in order to survive, and we’re in this together.”

  “But... what about what I kept from you?” She thought about Wayne. How she’d blamed Jabberwock all this time. How she had no idea about the truth, partly because she’d been blind to other options.

  “About Jabberwock being Hare? I know why you did it. I get it.” He squeezed her hand. “You had valid reasons.”

  “Yeah.” The problem was, she didn’t feel the same about what he’d kept from her.

  He glanced at her. “Are you all right?”

  “Better than in a long time.” The doubt she felt was a product of shock. Once she had a chance to process all this information, she’d be okay. Blake had a point—she had to trust someone.

  “Why did they kill Wayne?” She couldn’t let this drop after all. It was such a key thing. At the center of this whole mess, and the one answer she didn’t have.

  Blake sighed. In the passing streetlamps, he looked as tired as she felt. “He became a threat. His paranoia hit the point where they—my superiors, I didn’t make decisions like that—felt he needed to go.”

  “Wow.” Reagan dragged out a shaky breath. She didn’t know how to process that. Apparently pulling the trigger was simple no matter which side someone was on. It made her decision to walk away from it all feel that much more right. “And me? I saw you at the funeral.”