Page 46 of Midnight’s Captive (Stroke of Midnight #2)

Ash’s phone vibrated. He groped for it, encountering a warm body curled into his side. What the hell?

His eyes popped open. This wasn’t his room. He didn’t have a couch. Especially not one this comfortable. He shifted and felt the soft warmth all along his front. He looked down and nearly jumped off the couch.

Which would be a really fucking stupid idea. He was curled around Taryn’s sleeping form, his arm around her waist, her head resting on his biceps. It felt... right.

The memory of Taryn falling asleep on his lap came back to him. He hadn’t wanted to disturb her, so he’d sat there until he’d apparently dozed off too.

His phone buzzed again. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the luxury of not disturbing her this time. He ducked his head close to hers and whispered, “Taryn, time to wake up.”

Ash knew the moment she woke. Her body stiffened against him. Just as quickly, she relaxed again. “I didn’t expect this,” she said quietly.

“Neither did I. And I really wish I didn’t have to disturb this perfect moment, but someone’s calling. I have to get it—it might be Caspar.”

She scrambled to sitting and he immediately missed the press of her body against his. He followed her upright and dug into his pocket for his phone. The caller ID was blank.

“This is it,” he said. He answered in audio-only mode. “Yeah?”

“Your manners need some work.” Caspar’s voice wasn’t distorted this time.

Asshole. “I didn’t realize you were calling about etiquette lessons.”

“Oh, Ash. Did they take away your sense of humor when they took your port?”

His hand started to reach for his neck before he stopped. “Where’s my sister?”

After an annoyed silence, Caspar tsked. “Not even a please?”

Ash said nothing. He wasn’t sure how long he could hold on to his temper.

“Fine. You want your sister? Do exactly as I say.”

“Proof of life first.” Ash forced the words out. He hated using his baby sister as leverage. Taryn squeezed his hand. “If anything has happened to her, you’re mine.”

“You can’t catch me, boy. But I anticipated this. Turn your video on. I’ll show you.”

Ash shook his head even though Caspar couldn’t see him. “You don’t need to see me. Send the video, I’ll see it just fine.”

For long seconds, nothing happened. Then the phone screen filled with an image of Hope in a hospital bed. Ash held the phone in front of him, his fingers curled tightly around the comm. Taryn leaned close, peering at the screen.

Familiar beeps and whirs told him the equipment was active. His heart hurt, the way it did every time he saw her small, still figure. Hope had overflowed with energy and passion.

It was nearly impossible to take his focus off his sister, but Ash needed clues to her location.

It definitely wasn’t her hospital room. Instead of gleaming white walls, grim beige ones surrounded the bed. The equipment was older, but he recognized the machines as the same types Hope had had at the Tremaine hospital. That was good. He hoped she was getting the care she needed.

The screen cut to black. “There, you’ve seen her,” Caspar said gleefully.

“Bring it back.” Pain surged through Ash.

“You wanted proof of life. I gave it to you.”

Ash clenched his jaw. When he got his hands on Caspar... “You proved you have her, but that video could have been taken at any time. Show me the monitor with the current date and time to prove she’s still alive.”

The screen flickered back on, zoomed to an extreme closeup of the monitor. Ash confirmed that it was now and watched the lines and listened to the rhythm of the beeps. After five years of visits, he knew most of them by heart. He closed his eyes and focused.

Beep, beep. Beep, beep . Nothing unusual.

“Thank you.” He had to play the game, even if he didn’t know all the rules.

When he opened his eyes, the screen was black once again. Although it nearly killed him, Ash knew that he wouldn’t get anything more from Caspar until he did what the other hacker wanted.

“What do you want?”

“I told you. I want into the Tremaine system.”

“How do you expect me to get you that?” He gripped Taryn’s hand hard.

He hated the thought of betraying Portia, but he had to save his sister. If only there was a way to do both.

Caspar tsked again. “You’re a hacker, Fēnix. Hack.”

“No shit, Caspar. I can get in just fine. How do I let you in? Where will you be waiting? How do I contact you? Are we supposed to do this side by side like partners?” Sarcasm coated Ash’s voice. He was trying to get a rise out of Caspar. Maybe the other man would make a mistake.

After a short silence, Caspar spoke again. “Valid points. I’m sending you a piece of code. Use this to let me know you’re in. At that precise moment, no sooner. Don’t try to snoop around and ping it. It’s alarmed quite heavily.”

Ash’s phone pinged and he stared at the file. He wouldn’t know for sure what it did until he opened it, but odds were good he could use the packet to track Caspar. His warning was almost enough to stop Ash from trying. Almost.

Ash had too much on the line to ignore such a valuable lead. There had to be a way around Caspar’s security. He just had to find it. Find his location, find his chair. Hopefully Hope would be in the same place.

“You have twenty-four hours to get me into the Tremaine system. After that, well, let’s just say it becomes a lot more expensive to care for a comatose person.”

Ash’s stomach dropped. “How long will you need inside?”

“However long it takes.”

God, how had he ever found this asshole worthy of emulating? Today, Caspar reminded Ash of a petulant child. “Give me a way to contact you inside the network.”

The corporate network wasn’t a physical space, but it did have dimensions and a structure. With the right directions, you could maneuver easily through the space. But finding another person, especially one trying to stay hidden, was more difficult.

Caspar sent Ash a tiny piece of code. To the average user, it didn’t look like much and it certainly wouldn’t tell a non-hacker anything. But Ash had worked with Caspar and was used to things like this.

Like the first code, he segregated it from his main comm system as soon as he received it. Ash wouldn’t put it past Caspar to send a virus.

“I’ll let you know when I’m in and ready to receive visitors. It will be a small window of opportunity, so be ready,” Ash said.

“I was born ready.” Caspar’s reply sounded like a cut-rate superhero.

“Who’s watching my sister while you’re under?”

“Lots of people,” he said. “Your twenty-four hours have already started.” With that threat, Caspar hung up.

“Fuck!”

For a second, Ash considered warning the Tremaine Corporation that they would be under attack. He might have considered it a few days ago, based on his growing friendship with Portia Tremaine. Even that had been put at risk with Hope’s abduction.

No, calling the company wasn’t in the cards. Hacking them was.

He was right back where he’d started five years ago. Ash hoped he didn’t screw up the same way.

“Well, he seems delightful,” Taryn said, startling a laugh out of him.

“That’s one word for it.” The rest of them weren’t nearly as nice.

“What do you think? Do you know where Hope is?” she asked.

Ash shook his head. “I think he’s got a camera feed on her. When he said lots of people are watching her, I think that’s true. I think he set up a stream so members of the hacker collective can keep an eye on her.”

“That was the sense I got, too. Can you hack into the feed?” She shifted on the couch so she sat perpendicular to him, one bare foot on the ground. But she never let go of his hand.

“I don’t know.” He leaned against the couch back. “Probably. But would that harm Hope?”

She raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“I think it’s a trap. He’ll be watching for any attempts to hack that feed. Waiting for it. He warned me about doing any kind of trace on the code he sent me. I have to assume he’s covered any and all electronic access points.”

“That’s it? You’re giving up?” Her disappointed tone hit him deep inside.

“No.” His denial was vehement. “I have an idea how to work around the code problem, but Hope is a different story. She’s in a room somewhere. I couldn’t see any distinguishing features in the room.”

“Did you record it?”

“I did.” He called up the recording.

“Give me a minute.” She released his hand and popped up from the sofa. Curious what she was doing, he nevertheless enjoyed the view.

She returned a moment later with a notepad. “Play it again.” She leaned close and he wrapped an arm around her so they could both view the tiny screen.

Taryn listened to the call and watched the video. Then she watched the video again. She bit her lip and stared at the device. She watched a third time. “Can you put the video up on that?” She pointed to the wall-mounted screen tucked into a corner.

“Sure.” A few quick swipes and Hope’s room appeared onscreen.

Taryn got up and stood right in front of him. “Zoom in on the equipment.”

“What are you looking for?” he asked. Watching her work was fascinating, even though he had no idea what she was doing.

“Brands, models. We can use that information to identify where they’re holding her.”

“I don’t have time to track all this stuff down. Even if I did, it would take me forever. We don’t have time for this.”

“Did I ask you to track anything?” Taryn asked.

“No.”

“Exactly.” She pinned him with a look. “I have someone who can look into it for me.”

They worked together in near silence. She scribbled notes and pointed at parts of the screen and he captured the best-quality images he could.

Taryn was amazing. She pointed out details that he hadn’t noticed.

“Okay, I think that’s all of them,” she said several minutes later. “Send them to me and I’ll get someone on it.”

That done, they stared at each other.

“Are you going to give Caspar what he wants?” she asked quietly.

Ash came to stand beside her. He stared at the frozen image of Hope in the hospital bed. “I don’t want to. I hate the idea of Caspar getting what he wants.”

“Can you warn them?”

He bumped his shoulder against hers. “I could. But I don’t think I should.” He blew out an exasperated breath. “I know Tremaine’s weaknesses. I can probably get in with no one noticing. The question is, do I let Caspar in and try to trap him? Or ignore his request.”

She slipped her arm around his waist. “I think you have to plan to let him in. At least until I can get to Hope.”

“We have less than a day,” he reminded her. Taryn had proven herself to be extremely capable, but could she work miracles?

“The sooner I know she’s safe, the sooner I can get on with making Caspar pay for taking her.”

“We’ll figure it out, Ash.”

“I hope so.” He rested his forehead against her temple. “I should have focused on getting us out of there sooner. Instead, I took the easy route and let the company hold on to her instead.”

She placed her hand on his arm. “No one blames you for that. Taking care of a comatose patient is difficult. I’ve never done it, but the list of supplies we’ll need is astounding.”

“There might be a cure.” He still had a hard time saying the words out loud.

“For brain burn?”

Ash nodded. “It’s in one of the files I hacked.”

“Why doesn’t anyone know about it?” Brown eyes wide, she stared up at him.

“Because the Tremaine Corporation hasn’t released it.”

Her jaw dropped. He knew the feeling.

“How did you find it?”

“I’ve learned as much about the company—and its secrets—as I could. I wanted to find something I could use as leverage to free us.”

“Did you?”

He laughed. It wasn’t a cheerful sound. “Never the right thing. I thought I had it last month, but that went... badly.”

“Dizzie and the bombing.” It wasn’t a question.

He nodded.

“Why didn’t you use the cure on your sister?”

“I’m not a doctor. I didn’t want to cause her any more harm.” He smiled ruefully. “Plus, I couldn’t understand most of the information.”

Her answering smile was gentle. “What are you going to do about the cure once we’ve got Hope?”

He liked the sound of we . “Find someone who can help?” He really didn’t know. For so long, his plans never extended past getting free of the Tremaine Corporation.

“And then?”

Ash’s shoulders sagged. He didn’t know if he’d even survive the next couple days. “If I beat Caspar, there’s still the Tremaine Corporation to worry about.” Portia would never forgive him for what he was about to do. “I have no idea. Stay away from any whiff of the corporations, I guess.”

“There are opportunities outside the corporations.” She may have been trying for neutral, but there was something in her voice that sounded an awful lot like hope.

Did she mean what he thought she meant? “Not if you’re on the run.”

She didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Fair enough.”