Midnight’s Queen (Stroke of Midnight #3)

Chapter 35

Portia’s eyes fluttered closed and she had to blink twice to open them. She couldn’t fall asleep, not yet. She had to stay awake until she was sure Aleks was going to be okay.

Her heart had nearly stopped when his eyes had rolled back into his head and he’d passed out. He was lucky he was sitting on the couch, because otherwise she was sure he would have crumpled to the floor.

She’d tried to rouse him by calling his name and when that didn’t work, she’d slapped his cheeks. Just a little. The only things that kept her from utter panic were his strong pulse and regular breathing. Those were also the things that kept her from calling Tremaine Medical Services. She had no idea how either of them would explain his presence in her apartment.

Pushing and dragging, she’d managed to lay him full-length on the couch and then had sat on the couch with his head on her lap. That had been hours ago. Long hours spent hoping he would wake up. How much longer should she give it?

“Stay awake, Portia,” she said when her eyelids drooped again. She was so tired. “C’mon, Aleks, please wake up.” Checking his pulse with one hand, she smoothed back his hair with the other. Her leg had fallen asleep hours ago, but she didn’t want to leave him alone in an unfamiliar place. And she couldn’t move him on her own.

“Please wake up,” she whispered again. It had become a mantra of sorts as she sat here in the dark with him.

“I’m... awake,” he croaked suddenly.

“Oh my god, finally!” Her hands patted his cheeks, his forehead, his chest. “Do you know where you are? Do you know who you are?”

“I’m Aleks. You’re Portia. And I’m...” His eyes blinked open slowly. “I’m staring at your ceiling?”

“You’re all right!” Tears welled in her eyes. “I was so scared. You collapsed so suddenly. I was terrified.”

“It was a headache.” He reached for her hand where it rested on his chest and curled his fingers around hers. “It’s my glitch.”

“Your glitch?”

“That’s what I call it,” he said. “When my brain gets overloaded, sometimes it jumps from headache to off switch.”

“But you’re okay now?”

“Yeah, I should be.” He dropped her hand and placed one of his on the back of the couch and other on the cushion by his side. Using that leverage, he pulled himself up to a sitting position.

She kept one hand on his back between his shoulder blades in case he needed a little help. He didn’t.

“Still okay?” she asked as he shifted until he was seated by her side. Pins and needles rushed into her newly freed leg and she gasped.

“What’s the matter?”

She gave him a weak smile. “My leg was asleep. It’s waking up now.”

“That’s kind of how my brain feels,” he said with a laugh.

“Really?” She couldn’t imagine that tingling sensation in her brain.

“No, not really. But I’m usually a bit slower right at the start.”

Portia tucked her hands between her thighs. “Do you need anything? Is your headache gone?”

“I’m fine, Portia.” He bumped his shoulder against hers. “How long was I out?”

“A few hours.” She gestured to the curtain she’d opened last night. “It’s not nearly as dark anymore.”

They contemplated the early morning in silence.

“I’ve never understood the appeal of augmentations,” Portia admitted. She kept her gaze focused straight ahead, not quite comfortable sharing something that deeply personal. She’d thought about it—the same way people contemplated tattoos or piercings—but there had never been anything that she thought would make her better than she already was.

That part she kept to herself.

“What if you were injured?”

Portia sucked in a surprised breath. Tears blurred her vision and she wiped them away violently.

“I’m sorry, Portia. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No, I’m the one who brought it up.” She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her shins. “If it could have saved Tommy, of course I would have done it. At the hospital after the bombing, I begged. I pleaded. I would have done anything to save him. But there was nothing they could do.”

His arm wrapped around her shoulders and he pulled her close. Getting comforted by this man could become addictive. “For me? I guess, maybe? I’m not against it.” She couldn’t put it into words, so she shrugged.

“Why did you want it?” she asked. Wait, was that rude? “Sorry. That’s a super personal question. You don’t need to answer it.”

His sigh filled the air around them. “I wanted to belong. The super-soldier program seemed like the perfect opportunity. A tight-knit group of people who knew exactly what you were going through. That dream ended when the chip malfunctioned.”

Resting her head on his shoulder, she said, “Can I ask—why didn’t they take it out?”

His laugh carried an edge of bitterness. “The implant surgery was dangerous enough. According to the implant team, the risks of removing it were too great.”

That right there seemed like a good argument for not getting one, but she wasn’t going to insult his choices by saying so. Instead, she said, “I hope you sued the company that designed the implant. You should at least get some money for your troubles.”

Aleks dropped his arm. Portia twisted to look at him. He was staring at her with the strangest look on his face. “Really? You think I should have sued?”

“Of course! Companies shouldn’t be able to sell harmful products.” That was one of the many, many reasons she was so pissed about finding out Vyne came from her company.

He smiled sadly and shook his head. “No, no lawsuit.”

Portia growled, she was so offended on his behalf. “That makes me so mad! Who was it? Maybe it’s not too late.”

There was no humor in his laugh this time. “It was a Tremaine product, Portia. Your company caused my glitch.”

His words hit like a punch. She couldn’t speak. Could barely catch her breath. She tried to process what he said, but the words just didn’t make any sense.

“No.” She shook her head, denial the first emotion she was able to access. “No, that can't be right. Our products help people. They don’t do that.”

She waited for him to take it back. To admit that it was a joke, one made in very bad taste.

That didn’t happen. He looked at her with a mix of pity and disappointment.

“You're lying.” She didn’t mean it. But to believe him meant... Well, it meant another giant problem for her to deal with. She pushed up off the couch and started to pace.

“I’m not. It was Tremaine model SSB-2103-12.” His voice was quiet, almost gentle as her world blew to smithereens. Again.

“We don’t sell defective products. It’s a fluke. Maybe even a knockoff. Did they buy it on the black market?” This couldn’t be happening.

His expression shuttered. “Your company isn’t infallible, Portia. Look at this mess with Vyne.”

Portia stopped mid-pace. She opened her mouth to argue... but he was right. Thanks to her father—and potentially every family member before him—the Tremaine Corporation had skeletons in a lot of closets.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”

Aleks pushed off the couch and stepped in front of her. “I was mad for a long time. Mad at the Solveigs. Mad at the implant. Mad at the Tremaine Corporation. Mad at life in general.” He sighed. “But signing up for the program was my decision and I’ve accepted that. So, it’s not your fault. Yes, it’s a Tremaine product,” he said when she started to argue, “but you aren’t personally responsible for it.”

She started to protest again and he laid a gentle finger against her lips. “Did you design the product?”

She shook her head. Her lips brushed against his fingers.

“Did you build it with your own two hands?”

Holding his gaze, she shook her head again.

“Would you have sold it if you had known there was an issue?”

She shook her head vehemently. Grabbing his wrist, she pulled his hand away from her mouth. “No, never.”

“Then it’s not your fault.”

Although she couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt—her family had caused him harm!—she slowly nodded. She wanted to rush back to the office and discover more about it, but she also didn’t want to leave him when he’d made himself so vulnerable.

Using the wrist she’d captured as leverage, she pulled him back to the couch. She sat on one end and tugged him down with her. “What did your family think when you signed up for the program?”

He jerked back. That obviously wasn’t what he’d been expecting her to ask.

“All my life I’d intended to go into the Solveig Consortium’s security service,” he finally said. “My father was a military man. My grandfather, too, back when they were national forces, not corporate.”

Portia nodded. She knew all about familial expectations. “Did you want the implant?” She wanted to understand why he’d accepted it.

Shoulders stiff, he shrugged. “It was supposed to make me stronger. Increase my reflexes. Make me a better soldier.” Aleks tugged his hand free. He was withdrawing into himself and she couldn’t do anything to stop it. “Why wouldn’t I want that?”

“It was assigned to 30 percent of the new recruits, all tested for compatibility when we signed up. There shouldn’t have been any problems.” His voice caught on shouldn’t . “The implant sent me into seizures just hours after the surgery.”

“Oh, Aleks, that must have been terrifying.” Her heart ached at the thought of him hurt because of her family.

“At first, the doctors thought the seizures were a fluke, but they happened a few more times over the next several days. Then, suddenly, they stopped.”

“And you’ve never had them again?” What would she have done if he’d had a seizure last night?

“Headaches are the only side effects now. The only physical side effects,” he corrected. “According to the implant’s documentation, the increased reflexes should have been obvious after a week. The doctors and my command had designed tests to put our new skills through their paces. I failed every single one. Man, I got my ass kicked.” He laughed.

Portia didn’t understand how he could find humor in something like that. “Did the increased reflexes ever develop?” She’d seen him in action taking down the drone. Surely, they must have.

“Not to the level promised,” he said after a long moment.

“So, you’re just... normal?” She couldn’t think of a better way to phrase it.

“Normal? Even if I knew what the fuck that was, I wouldn’t say that.” He stared at her. “Whatever the implant did to my brain, it’s definitely not normal. It rewired it somehow. I make connections faster.”

Portia laughed. “So, you’re what, like a genius now?”

“Does that matter?” He sounded genuinely curious.

“Not at all. I don’t like you for your brain.” Her cheeks flamed as she realized how that sounded. “Or not just for your brain.” Ohmygod , Portia, could you sound more idiotic? “I like you, as you are. The whole package.” Dammit!

His smile was the first genuine one she’d seen since he admitted to his headache last night. “No, it didn’t make me smarter. I put things together faster, make connections easier. I don’t know any other way to describe it.”

Portia studied him. If the Tremaine Corporation had caused his implant problem, could they fix it?

“Deciding if I’m a freak?” There was an unpleasant undercurrent in his question. One she wasn’t sure if it was directed at her or at himself.

“No. Just admiring how strong and how resilient you are.” It wasn’t a lie. She reached out and ran a hand over his biceps. Then, using the element of surprise, she pushed him backward and crawled into his lap.

Her lips caught his surprised “oof” and his arms wrapped around her waist.