Chapter Twenty-seven
Nico made coffee before he started talking. Although I got the distinct impression it was more for my benefit than his. I sat at the kitchen table, staring into my mug while he moved around the apartment with infuriating calm.
Eventually, he sat opposite me. “Victor’s a collector.”
I looked up. “A collector of what?”
“People.”
The word landed heavily between us.
“It’s his job to identify viable targets and lure them back here.”
“And that’s what I was?” I asked quietly. “A target?”
Nico nodded.
The answer added salt to what was already a gaping wound. “So what? He just goes around seducing people?”
“Not necessarily.” Nico took a sip of coffee. “He uses whatever approach he thinks will be the most effective.”
My stomach lurched.
“For you that was making you fall for him.”
A faint pounding started up in my temples.
For a second, I had the ridiculous urge to put my hands over my ears and refuse to listen to another word.
Nico had warned me I wouldn’t like the truth.
He’d been right. The truth made me look stupid and na?ve.
It also turned me into a victim, and nobody liked to think of themselves in those terms. Nobody with self-esteem, anyway. “I believed everything he said.”
“He’s very good at what he does.”
That wasn’t remotely comforting.
“He has a ninety percent success rate.”
Finding out he was Employee of the Month didn’t help. “Is he the only collector?”
“No.”
“How many are there?”
“It varies depending on Wonderland’s needs. There are currently four. Two men. Two women.”
“Makes sense.” I barked out a laugh at my apparent acceptance of something that didn’t feel remotely real.
Nico sat in silence while I went back to staring into my coffee, allowing me time to process.
I thought back. Trying to find the cracks.
Trying to identify the clues I’d missed.
The moment I’d become prey. “But I approached him.”
“Did you?” Nico raised an eyebrow. “Or did he arrange himself prettily where you had little choice but to stumble across him?”
The memory surfaced immediately. Warren right in my path and smiling. Waiting for me. “Yeah,” I muttered. “That.”
I rubbed my eyes. Everything had become warped. It was the same memories, but an entirely different story. “And the police couldn’t find him because he used a fake name.”
Nico laughed. “Try again.”
My fingers curled into fists. “They knew.”
Nico waited, his expression unreadable.
“They knew the whole thing was fake.”
Nico nodded. “It’s difficult to make people disappear if law enforcement asks questions.”
The realization hit like a punch to the gut. “They’re paid off.”
“Generously.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“It is what it is.”
I hated that answer. Mostly because of how matter-of-fact he was about something that basically equated to human trafficking.
“It’s been happening for years,” he continued. “The system works because everyone gets a cut.”
A well-oiled machine. One that had swallowed me whole.
I turned my head toward the window, picturing the Wonderland that lay beyond these walls.
A place of lights, music, and laughter. A playground.
As long as you didn’t look too closely, or happen to be on the wrong side.
Those who came here of their own accord were fine.
Well, usually. As long as they didn’t cross paths with the Harts like that poor guy in the nightclub.
“Hence Warren’s apartment,” I said. Nico didn’t interrupt my line of thought. “The repairs. The replacement tenant. Everything reset in a few hours. I assume she was in on it?”
“Probably.”
“You don’t know?”
“It’s not my department.”
“Take a guess.”
“I assume she lived there before Victor moved in. They probably moved her temporarily. Not much use being a spider if you don’t have a web.”
I laughed. Humorlessly. “And I was the fly.”
The slight arch of Nico’s eyebrow said If the cap fits.
Needing to stand, I went over to the window.
Everything suddenly made sense. The outfit.
The constant attention. The drink I couldn’t afford.
The betting chips I couldn’t pay for. The auction.
The tattoo. The watch. Every strange interaction.
Every warning sign. Every piece clicked neatly into place.
“That’s why Carter called me a plaything. ”
Nico stayed silent.
“That’s the reason they lured me here. Nothing but a commodity to be used and abused.”
“I did what I could to help.”
I whipped around to face him. “Yeah, let’s revisit that, shall we? What did you do?”
Nico’s expression didn’t change, but his grip on the mug tightened slightly. “For a start, I told you not to come here.”
I was already shaking my head before he got halfway through his sentence. “Don’t give me that crap. You gave me a vague, fortune-cookie-like warning and expected me to understand what you were getting at. You could have told me the truth.”
“You wouldn’t have believed me.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
I jabbed an accusing finger at him. “You could’ve shown me the watch was a tracker.”
Silence.
“You said you always knew where I was. Show me the app. Show me the proof.”
Nico looked away.
That told me everything. “Scared I’ll realize how many—I made mocking quotes with my fingers—playthings are currently active in Wonderland?”
“Fifteen.”
The answer came so fast that I almost missed it. “What?”
“Fifteen. Eight men. Seven women.”
The casual way he said it made my skin crawl.
“And yes, it was sixteen before I destroyed your tracker.”
I stared at him. “And you know that, even though it’s not your department?”
“Yes.”
I rubbed my forehead. “What exactly do you do?”
“I oversee operations.”
“Meaning?”
“I make sure everything runs smoothly.”
“And where do I fit into all this?”
“You don’t. You were an anomaly. I should never have shown any interest in you.
I shouldn’t have warned you not to come here.
I shouldn’t have had you tattooed with a raven instead of a flamingo.
That’s what we call them, by the way, flamingos.
Not playthings. I shouldn’t have left money for you in the hope you wouldn’t keep getting yourself into debt. ”
“Money after sex,” I muttered. “You turned me into a prostitute.”
“That wasn’t my intention.” He crossed his arms over his chest and stared me down. “I should have left you alone.”
“I love you too,” I said acidly. “Sorry I’ve made things so difficult for you.”
Nico laughed. “You don’t know the half of it.”
Probably not, and with exhaustion weighing me down, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. “Well, after tomorrow you won’t need to worry about me.”
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“Because I’m getting out of here.”
His fingers tapped lightly on the table. “Are you?”
I nodded. “I’ve got nothing to stay here for now. Warren isn’t… Well, he’s not Warren.” Saying it still hurt. “He’s a dick called Victor. Everything I thought I felt for him was fake, based on nothing but lies.” The words were enough to choke on, but I forced them out.
“You think you can just walk out of here?”
“Yes.”
“You can’t. You’re the property of Wonderland.”
“I thought I was your property now,” I shot back. “You bought me, right? So, therefore, you just need to let me go. Besides, I thought you were some sort of bigwig around here.”
“Not really.”
“People talk about you like you are.” It came out accusatory.
Mainly because he wasn’t saying what I needed him to say, which was that I could go home whenever I wanted to.
Away from this place and all the weird people who lived in it, and where the only rules were the ones stacked against me.
I was doing my best not to think about the fact that from the tattoo Dodo had shown me, he too had started off as a flamingo, and he was still here.
It was presumably where all the unfortunates had come from.
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” Nico said, sounding almost weary.
“And what am I supposed to do until then?”
“Sleep.”
“Where?”
He shrugged. “Anywhere you want.”
I jerked my head toward the door. “And what if I want to leave? Are you going to stop me?”
“I wouldn’t recommend leaving.”
“Not an answer.”
Nico considered the question. Then sighed. “I don’t know.”
“What does that mean?”
“I guess it means we’ll both find out if you try it.”
The temptation to call his bluff and walk straight out the door was overwhelming.
But I was exhausted. And what if Nico didn’t stop me?
I’d proved time and time again that only bad things happened to me out there.
At least in here, I only had Nico to contend with.
I headed for the bedroom without another word, Nico saying nothing.