Page 26 of Midnight’s Captive (Stroke of Midnight #2)

Ash stared at the door. What the fuck had just happened?

He couldn’t get the image of Taryn, pale and shaking, out of his head.

Something he’d done had frightened her like a baby hacker hitting their first firewall.

Things had been going great until he’d crossed the room to her desk.

Had he invaded her space? Was it because he’d set her on the desk? Something had triggered her. Ash realized how little he knew about the mysterious Jack beyond how she’d inherited the title and the bar.

When he’d been here during his hacking days, the Jack had been an asshole who ran the place with an iron fist. Big, tough, and mean, he’d maintained his reputation through violence and cruelty.

If she’d lived here, under those conditions... It was a damn good thing the bastard was dead. Rage burned a fire in Ash’s belly and he pressed his hand against the doorjamb.

Ash had spent his life protecting his sister from assholes who thought that women were easy game. No one deserved to be taken advantage of, abused, or worse. And yet, he had a bad feeling that was exactly what had happened to Taryn.

“You coming or going?”

He turned toward the bartender. Should he say something? Taryn obviously had wanted him gone, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t want a friendly face. Still, he was loath to expose her weakness to anyone else. “Just leaving. We’re, uh, finished with our meeting.”

Her eyes widened. She looked him up and down. “Finished already? That’s too bad.” She smirked.

“It wasn’t like that,” Ash protested, even though it totally was like that until the moment she’d pushed him away.

The bartender didn’t say anything, just gave him an appraising look.

“Something upset her.” He’d gotten the sense that the bartender was someone the Jack trusted.

In an instant, she turned from smirking at the guy in the hall to ballbuster. He was at least six inches taller than her, but that didn’t stop her from getting in his face.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing, I swear!” As far as he knew, that was the truth. “Look—it’s Dani, right?”

She nodded.

“Whatever upset her, Dani, I think it had to do with the room. Her office. If I’d been the cause, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have left that room alive.”

“True,” she said, after a long pause while she processed his words. “Unless you killed her first.” She looked him up and down, searching for bloodstains or other proof of his guilt.

He raised his hands in surrender and stood still. He didn’t need another woman mad at him.

“I know who you are. I will find you if anything happened to her.”

“Fair enough.” He stepped away from the door and Dani circled around him.

She knocked softly on it. Whatever response she got was too quiet for him to hear, but it must have been permission to enter. Before she slipped into the office, she gave him one last glare. The door closed behind her with a thud.

Ash shoved his hands into his pockets and took a deep breath. He needed to remember why he was doing this. Hope needed to be his priority. Not Taryn, no matter how hot the heat between them was.