Page 50 of Midnight’s Captive (Stroke of Midnight #2)

Her cyberarm wrapped around his waist, Taryn helped Ash down the final step into the hacker’s room. His head and neck ached and he could have sworn he’d already sweated through the borrowed sweatshirt Taryn had provided.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” she asked.

Ash had explained his worry that Caspar would keep coming and his fear that he and Hope would bring trouble to Taryn and the bar. She’d tried to argue that they had time. That Caspar might not have even noticed that Hope was gone yet.

Ultimately, though, it was his decision.

“Let’s get you over to the chair.” Slow baby steps brought them to the hacker chair in the center of the room. The chair wasn’t far, but each step felt like a mile. The throbbing in his neck was worse than any hangover or post-surf crash he’d ever had. Worse even than the pain of getting it installed in the first place.

When they reached the chair, Taryn guided him in a little dance that ended with him eventually sitting. As soon as his ass hit the cushion, she released him. Leather—real leather—embraced him.

“What do you need me to do?” she asked.

“Um...” Was this a bad plan?

He fiddled with the arm rests, making minute adjustments until they felt right. “Would you help me adjust the head rest?”

“Sure.” She moved slowly, sliding the head rest close to the back of his head, carefully avoiding the port area.

“What next?”

His head and neck weren’t even touching the back of the chair, but he knew it was there. Knew that the port that would connect him to the system was there, too.

Inches away.

It was the closest he’d been to porting into the network in years.

All he needed to do was align the newly freed port with the plug on the chair. It was that easy.

Just a head butt away.

So why was he hesitating?

“Everything okay?”

Taryn had obviously picked up on his delay.

“Fine.” An automatic response. Ash wasn’t fine.

He was afraid of a fucking chair.

For five years he’d had an excuse for not surfing the network. That excuse was gone. A golden opportunity was staring him in the face and he was terrified.

What if something went wrong? What if he’d forgotten how to do this? What if he got brain burn like Hope?

He loved his sister, but the thought of losing himself in the system was more terrifying than the thought of losing her.

What if he got stuck in the network?

“Is that what you’re worried about?”

Ash turned his head slowly because it still throbbed like a son of a bitch. Had he said that out loud?

Ash nodded, even though the movement made him queasy.

Taryn’s hand brushed his forehead, shifting hair away from his skin. Then she trailed her fingers down his face until she cupped his chin, her fingers resting on his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into the comfort of her touch.

“You’ll be fine,” she said.

Ash wanted to believe her. He really did.

“Tell me how I can help. I’ve never done this before.” She stepped back and gestured to the chair.

“It’s pretty straightforward,” Ash said, struggling to sound confident. “That pin slips into the port.”

She grimaced.

“I know, but it’s not as bad as it seems.” If only he could make himself believe that.

“Do you need me to help push your head onto the spike?”

The gruesome image startled a laugh out of him. “No, I can do it. It’s easy—just slip tab A into slot B .”

Holy shit. He’d never considered how sexual the whole damn thing was until just now. When he couldn’t do anything about it.

“I’ve never done it with a head wound.” Ash changed the subject, before he needed to adjust his pants.

“Not even when you first got it?”

Instead of nodding, he twisted his body so he could see her. “I wasn’t allowed to port in until it was fully healed. I didn’t know what I was missing, so there was no rush.”

Now he knew what he was missing, so the anticipation was almost worse than the actual experience.

“I don’t think I can watch,” Taryn said and turned away.

He reached up with his right hand and felt for the spike. As his fingers slid over the thin metal spear, another thought occurred. “Hey, you got anything to sterilize this?”

Taryn turned around, her face pale.

“You mean...” She paused and her hands fluttered, a move he never expected from the usually calm and collected Jack. “You mean, that thing?”

She’d cut him open without blinking, but this bothered her?

“The thing that goes in my brain? Yeah. I don’t know where it’s been.”

“Uh, yeah.” She paled further and sprinted across the room. Sounds of retching echoed back to him from the bathroom.

She returned not long after, holding a spray bottle out to him.

“This is the best I have here. Let me know if you want me to get something from the main bar.”

“That’s fine. I trust you.”

She blinked several times, her eyes wide like an owl’s.

“Oh. Okay.”

When she didn’t say anything else, he added, “Would you spray it down for me?”

“Um, sure.”

Ash leaned forward, causing little ripples of pain to flow through him. This was such a bad idea.

Taryn moved closer. Her shoulder brushed his.

He gave into the urge to lean into her.

She turned her head and smiled. Just for a second. Then her expression turned serious and she focused on her task. Behind him, he heard the release of the spray and caught the flutter of a cloth as she wiped the spike down. “Done. What’s it feel like when you’re in there? Are you in there? What do you call it?”

He thought for a moment. How to explain the network to someone who’d never experienced it? “I think it’s different for everyone,” he finally said. “For me, it’s like you’re racing in the fastest car. Speed and strategy and competitiveness.”

Ash dropped his voice. “Hope used to say it was like swimming through the stars.”

Taryn gasped. “That’s so beautiful.”

“The data flows look like bits of light. The more data, the bigger they are.” He hesitated. When he spoke again, his voice was thick with loss. “I always wonder if she’s lost in there, swimming among the stars.”

“Oh, Ash. I’m so sorry.” She wiped away a tear, then leaned closer and peered at his neck. She swallowed hard but didn’t back away this time. “Are you sure you can do this? It looks like it will hurt.”

“I don’t have a choice.” He already knew it would hurt. The constant throbbing in his neck was evidence of that.

She blew out a breath. “How can I help?”

“You’ve done everything you can. Now it’s my turn. I’ll contact Caspar and hopefully I’ll be able to lead him into a Tremaine trap.”

“You want me to leave you here alone?” She sounded horrified.

“Is the room secure?”

“Yes.”

“Then there’s really nothing you can do here.” Ash hoped he was good enough to beat Caspar. He wasn’t sure if he could. He plugged his phone into the system to activate Caspar’s code and prayed he had the skill and the stamina to best him.