Page 40 of Midnight’s Captive (Stroke of Midnight #2)

Taryn was standing behind the bar when the front door burst open and slammed against the wall with a bang. Conversations stopped and everyone looked toward the entrance. Her bouncers immediately surged forward to block the threat. She really hoped it wasn’t Giselle’s pimp again.

She continued pulling the beer in her hand, but her attention never strayed far from activity at the front of the bar.

“I don’t fucking care. I have to see her. Now.”

Ash.

She caught Dylan’s eye and nodded.

The guard stepped out of the way and Ash raced toward her. Her heart lightened. When he hadn’t come back to the bar when she’d sent the message, she’d been sure that whatever was between them was over.

As he stormed across the room, Taryn realized he wasn’t smiling.

“What did you do?”

She didn’t know what he was accusing her of.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She set the beer on the counter in case she was tempted to throw it at him.

“Bullshit!”

When he neared, the look on his face was thunderous and for the first time, Taryn shivered in fear.

“Why did you give her to him?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she repeated.

“He has my sister!” The pure anguish in his voice broke her heart.

“Who has Hope?” she asked again, trying to catch up.

“Like you don’t know!” His cheeks were ruddy and his eyes were wide. His expression alternated between fear and rage. The fear broke her heart. The rage, well, that scared her.

But she was a big girl and knew how to protect herself. “Ash, I really don’t know what you’re talking about. Calm down and tell me what’s going on. Dani, I need you.” Taryn didn’t yell but pitched her voice high enough to be heard over the noise in the bar.

Dani appeared at Taryn’s elbow a few seconds later. “What’s up?”

“I need you to cover the bar for me.” Taryn jerked her head to indicate Ash standing on the other side.

“Okay.” Dani stared at Ash. She must have sensed his anger because she straightened and stepped between them. “Do you want me to call security?”

“Thanks, Dani, but we’re okay.” She mouthed I promise to Dani then turned to Ash. “Let’s go to the office,” Taryn said, knowing he would follow her.

His accusations had stopped—for now—but tension radiated off him in waves. Her fight or flight instincts screamed that there was a pissed-off male behind her and she should run.

Fuck that. This was her bar. She wouldn’t back down from a fight. Even with him.

She ignored him until she was in her chair with the barrier of the desk between them. Her power and the persona of the Jack were strongest here. “What’s going on?”

She took a moment to study him. Perched on the edge of the visitor’s chair, every muscle in his body was tight and he trembled with emotion. He looked ready to spring over her desk at any moment.

She swallowed. Hard.

“How could you do that to Hope?”

His accusation slapped her in the face. She clenched her hands and fought to keep her expression from betraying her pain. “I haven’t done anything to Hope. You haven’t told me where to take her once we get her out of the hospital.” Her confusion was real, but she kept her tone calm.

“He told me! He said the plan to spring her from the hospital came from you.”

Taryn froze as she processed his words. “Back up.” She needed the facts, and she needed them without his emotional overload. “ He who?”

Ash ignored her question.

“Hope isn’t in the hospital?”

“No, she’s out. Portia told me, but?—”

Taryn raised her hand to stop him. He glared but stopped talking. Instead, he shot to his feet and paced the small office.

“Answer my question. He who?”

Ash practically exploded. “Just admit you had something to do with her disappearance!”

Part of her wanted to wrap her arms around him and hold him tight. The other part wanted to punch him in the throat for speaking to her this way.

She kept her voice low and calm, like she did when she spoke to one of the girls fresh from the street. The ones so wounded that they couldn’t quite believe they were free. “No. I’m not involved. The pieces are in place for this week.”

“Why didn’t you get her out sooner?”

She sighed. Taryn felt for him, she did, but goddamn, pick an accusation and stick with it.

Crossing her arms, she leaned back in her chair. “Your sister is in a coma.” She chose her words carefully. Otherwise, she was likely to jump his shit the way he was doing to her. “I can’t just whisk her from her hospital room and hide her in a hotel. You know how much care she requires.” The list her sources had provided had been both extensive and expensive.

Apparently, being in a coma wasn’t cheap.

“You said ‘he.’ Do you know who has her?”

“Caspar has her.”

Taryn whistled. She’d heard of Caspar. He was like the hell lord of the hacker underground. You didn’t cross him without consequences. What the hell had Ash done? “How do you know Caspar has her?”

Ash whipped his gaze up to meet hers. His emotional turmoil turned his gray eyes into a storm. “He told me.”

“He told you,” she repeated, as she struggled to process that piece of information. She’d known working with him against the Tremaine Corporation would be a problem, but this... This was next level. She’d never realized the depths Ash ran in. “Why would Caspar take your sister?”

“It doesn’t matter.” His voice was sharp. “Why did you give her to him?”

“I didn’t do that. I wouldn’t do that. To you or to Hope.” Taryn was getting damn tired of defending herself.

“Then why did he say he’d gotten his plan from you?”

The accusation took her breath away, but she refused to let him know. “How did Caspar get her out?” It wasn’t idle curiosity. If Taryn knew how Caspar had done it, she could compare it to her own plan.

“I spoke with one of the nurses on my way here,” he admitted. “The hospital had already informed Portia that Hope was missing. The nurse told me what she knew. I might be able to access the videos later.”

As Ash repeated what the nurse had told him, Taryn felt sick to her stomach. It was almost exactly the same plan she and Dani had created.

Her ire drained away and her shoulders slumped. “That’s...” she paused. “That’s my plan.”

Ash didn’t explode as she’d expected. He stared at her, the hurt in his eyes ripping her to shreds. “Why? Why would you give her to him?”

“It wasn’t me.” How did she make him believe her? “It’s my plan, but Caspar didn’t get it from me.” The words hung in the air between them. The implications...

The situation pointed in a direction that she didn’t want to believe. One that made her sick just considering it.

“If you didn’t do it...”

Taryn was glad his anger had cleared enough to get his brain working again.

Her stomach churned. “I have a mole.”

“Fuck!” His fists clenched and his jaw tightened. His anger was as visceral as hers. “Did you know?”

“That I had a mole? Of course not!” How the fuck could he ask her that? She rubbed her temples. It might explain a few things. Dammit. “Did you ever get the system here set up to detect Giselle’s pimp?”

“What the fuck does that have to do with getting my sister back?”

Taryn took a deep breath, intentionally not reacting to his tone. Anyone else and they’d be done. “Yes or no?”

“No,” he growled. “I needed you to set some parameters and we got distracted.” His wild gesture at the room informed her about the distraction.

“Well, shit.” Apparently neither of them had upheld their side of the bargain and here they were. “What does Caspar want in exchange for Hope?”

“Access to the Tremaine system.”

Taryn whistled. That was a hefty price. “Does Portia know?”

Ash shoved his hands into his hair but didn’t stop pacing. “Yeah, I was in her office when he called.”

This situation just got worse and worse. She sagged back into her chair. “So, you have Caspar coming for you on one side and I’m assuming Tremaine Security on the other?”

He nodded.

“Anything else I should know about?”

“You’re awfully fucking calm for someone who has a mole.”

Ha! If only he knew. She may have looked calm on the outside, but on the inside, she alternated between wanting to punch something and wanting to puke. How had it come to this? And how could she get out of it?

“One of us needs a cool head.” What a joke. “Sit down.”

He growled and paced again.

“Sit. Down. We need a plan and I can’t think with you pacing like that.”

“Your last plan didn’t work out so well, did it?” he snapped but dropped back into the chair.

The air between them pulsed with dark emotions that threatened to cloud her thinking. And she needed a clear head if she was going to get them out of this. The stakes hadn’t been so high since she’d found the last Jack on the floor after a massive heart attack. The decision she’d made then had gotten her the bar. The decision she made now would help her keep it.

“When is Caspar supposed to contact you again?”

Ash sighed. “All he told me was soon.”

“Fuck.” She was quiet a moment, her mind churning. “You think he’ll call?”

Ash shrugged. His shoulders were so tense they barely moved. The urge to comfort him was strong, though he’d probably shrug her off. She shoved the discomfort and doubt away, compartmentalizing them for now. There’d be time to lick her wounds later. Right now, Hope—and Ash—needed her clearheaded.

“I have a plan,” Taryn said. “But you need to be all in.”

He stared at her, his expression closed. “Depends on the plan.”

She shook her head. “In or out? Do you still trust me?” Her breath caught and held while she waited for his answer.

Finally, a stiff nod.

“Out loud.” She wanted no misunderstanding later.

His lips pinched, but he agreed. “Yes, I’m in. As long as it doesn’t put Hope in more danger.”

Taryn didn’t think that was possible but wasn’t going to poke the angry big brother. “It won’t.”

She took a deep breath, well aware she was about to commit to the craziest plan she’d ever conceived. “Can you scramble your phone so Caspar can’t trace you?”

Ash stared at her. “What the hell are you thinking?”

He’d find out soon enough. “Can you?”

A sharp nod.

“Right now?”

He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Yes, if I can use your system.”

Taryn pushed back from her desk and stood. She gestured to her chair. “It’s all yours.”

She swore he mumbled something under his breath.

He took her chair and within seconds his fingers flew over her keyboard with the expertise of a pianist. Taryn knew he was a skilled hacker, but this was beyond her wildest imaginings.

She watched the master at work. He must have been amazing before they took away his port. He could wreak havoc. And did, she realized, based on the trouble that had rained down on Tremaine Corporation a few months ago.

With a man like that at her side... they could do amazing things for the street girls. But she’d blown her chance at that.

“Done.”

“You’re sure?” Enough trouble had come her way lately.

“Yes. The signal will bounce around a bit. It’ll look like I’m still in town but not here.” He paused as if he were considering saying something else. “I also erased any information that might tell people that I’ve been coming here.” He sounded sad about that.

The thought made her sad too. Would she ever see him again after she freed Hope?