Echo of Roses (Echoes in Time #1) -Paula Quinn Page 0,1
and waited. There was no answer. “Closed.”
“Not entirely if they want to meet with me.” Kes frowned. So much for resting. Now she was going to have to travel to West Seventy-third because she was probably being sued by someone. Talk about raining on her parade.
“What happens if I’m being sued and I don’t go?” she asked.
Jack and Lilith started typing on their phones.
“This information only applies to not showing up to court,” Jack told her.
“Right,” Lilith agreed. “What you have is just a letter requesting your presence. That doesn’t mean you’re being sued.”
“What else can it mean?” Kes asked them and rose from the sofa. “I’m not going. I’ll call tomorrow and find out what they want before I see them.”
“If you go today, I can go with,” Jack told her.
Jack was such a dear friend. Kes could always count on him. Kim and Lilith said it was because he was interested in her. Poor Jack. She wasn’t attracted to him in the least. She tried to be. But she didn’t want to risk their friendship.
She went to the far left corner of the loft where her bed was and fell into it.
Her phone rang. She reached into the pocket of her robe for it. She didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?” Why did she pick it up? She wasn’t even thinking about picking it up.
“Ms. Lancaster?”
She sat up. British accent. She had relatives in England, but she didn’t recognize this man’s voice. Her stomach tightened into a knot. “Yes.”
“Mr. Green here from ISOAP.”
“How did you get my number?”
“I understand my correspondence was vague. Set your mind at rest.” Rest. “This meeting is in regard to an inheritance. That is all I can say over the wire. Can I expect you?”
An inheritance? What? “An inheritance from whom?”
“As I have already stated, Ms. Lancaster. I am not liberty to say on the phone. Bring a friend if you are wary.”
“I…”
“Can I expect you?”
She sighed. “Sure. I’ll be there in an hour—with a friend. Or two.”
She hung up then called her dad.
“Hi, Dad.”
“Hey, Kiddo, what’s up?” came his dear, familiar voice.
She told him about the letter that had just arrived. She didn’t tell him about Mr. Green calling her. She didn’t want to worry him. Should she be worried? “Do you know anything about me getting an inheritance?”
He didn’t know. He took down the name of the company and promised to see what he could find out.
She also didn’t tell him she was going there and on Sunday. He would have a fit. But she felt in her bones that she should go.
“We still meeting at Martino’s at seven for dinner?”
“Of course, Daddy. I wouldn’t miss it.”
Great. See you tonight, Kes. Love you.”
“Love you, too,” she told him and hung up.
She bit her lower lip and called out to Jack and the others that she was going and asked them if they would come with her.
They agreed, which meant it took two hours instead of one.
They finally made it into a large Uber and traveled uptown to West Seventy-third.
They arrived at a four-story building built in what appeared to Kes in the early twentieth century. The inside was decorated in art-nouveau style.
They were met in the lobby by a ruggedly handsome guy who had Kim and Lilith nodding before he asked anything. He brought them to the beautiful elevator built outside the walls in a cage-like design. Its steel gates were intricately woven in soft, curved lines.
When they reached the third floor, the handsome escort asked that her friends wait outside a set of thick, polished wooded doors. Jack, of course, insisted on going in with her, but hunky guy promised he could go inside in a moment or two.
“She is going to be asked a few personal questions. She might not answer truthfully if you are there. What has been left for her is very valuable. We need to guarantee that we are giving it to the correct person. You understand. Have a seat. There is no cell service in the building. If you would like to make a call, please leave the building.”
Kes thought this guy wouldn’t be out chopping down trees, but surprisingly in a courthouse somewhere deciding someone’s fate.
He leaned forward and opened the door then stepped inside after her.
The office was nice. Too nice for Kes in her slim jeans, graphic T and Adidas sneakers.
She wore barely any make-up and her dark, chestnut hair was loose and wind tossed past her shoulders. She patted it. She couldn’t