“Where is she?” Her voice was cold. Quiet.
Whatever was going on, Portia was well and truly pissed. This was the Ice Queen, a woman he didn’t want to cross. But he was telling the truth—he had no idea what she was talking about. “Who?” he asked again.
Her lips curled in a sneer. “Your sister.”
His heart stopped and Ash swayed. “What?”
That was all he managed. Focusing on whatever Portia said next was impossible. He couldn’t hear anything over the pounding of his heart. “My sister is missing?” he forced out.
Hope was free? Really?
“How did you do it?”
As reality set in, he realized that part of him had never expected Taryn to pull it off. And after their last fight, he hadn’t been sure that she would.
He’d asked her to go up against the Tremaine Corporation and she’d done it.She’d fucking done it!
“I don’t know. I didn’t do it.”
He owed Taryn an apology. No, not just an apology. He owed her everything.
Was that why Taryn had reached out? He’d gotten the message yesterday but had still felt too off-balance from their fight to return to the bar.
Ash grabbed the back of a chair, then lowered into it. Portia’s glare had no effect. Hope wasfree.
“I think you’re lying, Mr. Cutter.” Portia crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at him, her head angled as she studied him. “Yet I also believe your reaction is genuine. That’s a problem.”
“And you don’t like problems.” He had plenty of experience with her dislike of problems.
Her smile belonged on a piranha.
“I didn’t do it,” he repeated. “I don’t know where she is.”
Taryn hadn’t shared any details of her plan. Ash had never anticipated that the secrecy would bother him—she’d never even told him where she would be hiding Hope until they left the city.
The left side of his chest throbbed and he rubbed his hand over it. How was it possible to feel such joy and such loss at the same time?
Ash should be bouncing up and down with glee. They were so close to freedom. His heart broke because Taryn wouldn’t be joining him on the next leg of their journey, wherever that was.
He stared at Portia and she stared back. Her blue eyes gave nothing away. Finally, she dismissed the guards and circled back to her desk.
Déjà vu washed over him. The last time he’d sat in this position, his life had been turned upside down. Now it was happening again.
“What am I supposed to do with you now?” There was nothing vindictive in her voice. Only curiosity and maybe... disappointment?
He shrugged. “Whatever you want, I guess.” Suddenly, it didn’t matter what Portia had planned for him. Hope was free. Taryn could get her the help she needed, as long as he could get her the funds to support Hope.
Ash had always imagined that when his time at the Tremaine Corporation was up, he’d go out fighting. He hadn’t expected this... acceptance.
That felt like giving up and Ash had sworn that he would never stop fighting. A tiny flame flickered to life inside him.
“I still haven’t uncovered how Leopold got the information to make his move.”
It was a long shot, trying to bargain with the task she’d assigned him. It was all he had left, though. Everything—everyone—important to him was safe outside this building.
“Twenty-four hours.”
Relief rushed through him, but it was immediately countered by a touch of panic driven by the extremely short time frame.
