Chapter 26 #2
What is it about him? I don’t know. I haven’t let myself look at the question directly, the same way you don’t focus on something blindingly bright.
I’ve told myself that I was just keeping things close to the vest as I try to figure him out myself.
But if this meeting has taught me anything, that’s not the case.
I’m not strategizing. I’m protecting him. A stranger.
Which means on some level I trust him.
How the heck did this happen? I don’t trust anyone, erecting walls inside my mind that I’ve sealed myself and everyone I love behind. And yet, somehow, in the span of three days, a masked stranger in a top hat has gotten further past that wall than anyone else has in six months. Maybe ever.
I don’t know what to do with that.
What is it about him, Alice?
“I don’t know,” I confess finally, the only honest thing I’ve said all night.
He regards me a little longer, like he’s deciding whether that answer is interesting or simply insufficient. I can almost hear him repeat it again, quite, quite curious.
Then he taps his tablet, turning it on again.
“Unfortunately, not only are you endangering my people with your lack of investigatory skills, curiosity also doesn’t pay the bills.”
My stomach drops. “Mr. Castle—”
“Since you’ve been neglecting your assignment, I’ll put someone else on Hatter.” He says it the way I’d rearrange my two teacups back on my boat. “I have a client for you starting tomorrow night. One you’ll be entertaining in the Smoke and Mirrors Room.”
I frown. “The Smoke and Mirrors Room?” I scan the mental map I’ve built of this place over the past month. “I only know of the Mirrors Room, but I thought we didn’t use that one because of the…” I drift off as understanding makes me freeze. “…bad ventilation.”
“I see you’re finally catching on.” His lips quirk up in a smug smile.
My throat dries and I shake my head. “No. I don’t want to.”
“Well, The Rabbit Hole is an at-will place of employment.” He lets implication hang in the air.
“I’m sure a replacement could handle it.
One way or another, I will get information.
” He leans back in his chair and folds his hands over his middle.
“The room is designed to ensure answers. The amount of Smoke that gets pumped in is…” he sucks his teeth.
“Overwhelming. It’s effects unavoidable.
It’s why I rarely let dancers entertain inside, even when they ask for it.
Either they enjoy it too much and don’t get the job done, or the room has a way of loosening everyone’s tongue. Not just the clients’.”
Tick. Tick. Tick.
He tilts his head. “You wouldn’t happen to have any secrets to guard, would you, Alice?” His ice-blue eyes find mine and stay there. “The kind that might slip out in a room like that?”
I hold his gaze, trying to figure out what I can possibly say without revealing yet another card I’ve been trying to hold close to the vest. But I’m finally understanding just how much I’ve given him already tonight.
Every hesitation, every half-truth, every microsecond of the wrong expression, each one a card turned face-up on his table.
He knows the hand I’m holding, and the cards I’ve been dealt.
Somehow he can sense why I need Wander Isle.
The Rabbit Hole is the only place I’ve felt like I could do something about the situation my family is in against the Furys.
I’ve kept secrets out of Castle’s hands, I’ve been able to plant lies in susceptible clients’ ears, I’ve learned that my family is still safe out there.
If I leave now, all that will be gone, and I’ll be running in the dark again.
The grandfather clock ticks, and my chest thuds.
“Please,” I whisper. “Please, I don’t want to go in there. I…” I swallow and reach for the other truth. “I don’t want to drug someone without their consent.”
Not like I was.
He almost has the decency to look apologetic. But in the end he just shakes his head. “If you want to stay here, you don’t have a choice.”
The softness in his eyes hardens completely.
“I may seem nice, Alice.” His voice turns cold, the way the temperature drops before a storm sweeps through. “But I don’t run a charity. Information rules in my economy. Pay up or pay the price.”
Then he picks up the tablet and brings the screen back to life before turning it around to show a photograph of the masked man playing Blackjack in this very office. My stomach turns over.
Castle slides the tablet across the desk toward me.
“Here’s your assignment.”
Bile rises in my throat.
“Smoke and Mirrors Room at midnight tomorrow night.” He taps the photo once. “He specifically requested someone special.” His eyes meet mine over the tablet. “Do you feel special yet, Alice?”
The godforsaken grandfather clock strikes one, the single bell making me jump and landing hard in my chest.
I stare at the photograph of the man with the overly hungry gaze and dead eyes. Then I look back up at the man who wants me to drug and manipulate his own friend to teach me a lesson too.
And what’s funny is, I did feel special. I thought I was good at reading people, good at this job.
But for the first time since I got to Wander Isle—since I told myself I was safe here among the masks and secrets, that Alice was untouchable—for the first time I think I might actually be in over my head.