“Where are we going?”
“To solve your problem,” she said.
Sure, that wasn’t mysterious at all.
Finally, Taryn stopped in front of a steel door. He nearly ran into her because he was too busy studying his surroundings.
His explorations of Tremaine headquarters had proven that interesting secrets hid behind mysterious closed doors. “What is this place?”
Taryn didn’t answer right away. She looked past him, checking for a tail.
“Part of the old Jack’s business.” With that cryptic statement, she pressed her hand to a panel next to the door.
The door opened with a creak. She glanced around again and ushered him into the dark doorway. “Quick!”
The door closed behind them with an ominous slam. Darkness surrounded them along with a slightly musty smell.
“Um, should I be concerned?” The Jack had a reputation for dirty dealings, but Ash had begun to believe that this Jack—that Taryn—was different. Had he read her wrong?
“All will be revealed,” she intoned. Her laugh echoed in the darkness.
He sucked in a breath. That simple sound sparked a flood of complex emotions. Joy, hope, curiosity.
Her footsteps moved away from him. Then, suddenly, the room flooded with light.
He blinked rapidly, letting his eyes adjust. He was standing in a small hallway.
Taryn stood in another doorway, her hand on what he assumed was a control box. “C’mon.” She waved him closer, then stepped aside.
“Holy shit.” His mouth dropped open when he got his first glimpse of the room and its contents.
A chair sat in the center of the room, surrounded by walls lined with monitors. It looked like a combination of the setup at his warehouse and the cybersecurity battle room.
“Is this...” His words trailed off. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
“A hacking setup? Yeah. It belonged to the Jack before the last Jack. I think the one before me tinkered a bit. Or made a few updates, at least, but I wasn’t allowed down here often.” She shuddered.
Ash looked away from the chair and studied her profile. “He was a bastard, wasn’t he?”
“You have no idea,” she said quietly after a long pause.
The words hung between them, hinting at secrets that Ash longed to explore. Instead, he asked, “Is it active?”
Taryn shrugged. “It’s got power.” She gestured to a panel of switches on the wall. “I’ve never used it, so I don’t know how well it works.”
“Is it registered?”
Her laugh filled the room, chasing away the hint of melancholy. “You think the Jack has a registered system?”
Yeah, that was a stupid question. The Jack had always skated the edge of legality. “True. Wired in?”
She shrugged again. “I don’t think the signal can be traced, but that’s not my area of expertise. Will it work to fulfill my request?”
“You want me to use this?” Ash blurted. The words sounded harsh and ungrateful, but from the moment they’d left her office, he’d never expected Taryn to help him help her.
“Is that a problem?” Her voice was hard, flat and he knew he’d offended her.
He hurried to reassure her. “No, not at all. I was just surprised. Can I check it out?”
