Page 70 of Dragon Tempted

“Are you sure you want to go in person rather than call the facility?” John asked.

“I don’t think they’ll tell me anything over the phone. If we have any chance of getting information, it needs to be face-to-face.” Sienna turned to the window, effectively cutting off conversation.

After forty-five minutes of awkward silence, they arrived at the facility, and Ryan parked before twisting around to face her.

“Have you both already decided who’ll be going into the facility with me and who’ll stand guard outside?” Sienna couldn’t get herself to look at John. Ryan’s face barely changed. If he wasn’t her best friend, she probably wouldn’t have seen the slight flare of his eyes. Busted!

“John will go in with you,” Ryan answered, without trying to deny they had planned this.

She reached for the door, and John placed his hand on her arm. “Wait. Come out my side.”

Ryan looked around the lot before nodding. John opened the door and held out his hand to her as she slid across the seat. She hesitated for a moment before placing her hand in his and pulling the straps of her bag with her other hand onto her shoulder. His warm hand dropped away too quickly for her taste as they headed to the building.

John attempted to open the door, but it was locked. A voice came through a communication panel next to the door. “Can I help you?”

Sienna took a step closer. “Yes. I wanted to speak to you about your vaults. I’m trying to find out if my mother had a vault here.”

“We don’t normally release that type of information without authorization. Can I have your mother’s name?”

“Nora Simonson.”

“And you are?”

“Sienna Simonson.”

“Hold on for a moment, please.”

Sienna looked back at Ryan, who was standing next to the SUV watching the parking lot. She nodded at him so that he didn’t come over as well. She didn’t need two bodyguards hovering around her. This whole situation was strange enough as it was.

She jerked when a buzzer sounded and a green light showed above the door handle. “Please come in.”

John opened the door and walked inside, holding it open for her once he had taken in the surroundings. She stepped into a nondescript waiting area with a couple of chairs. Against the wall was a high counter with a man standing behind it. She walked over to him, John at her side.

“Can I please see some identification?” the man asked.

Sienna pulled out her license and showed it to the man. He examined it for a good minute, including checking the 3-D embedded emblem carefully. “Thank you, Ms. Simonson. My name is Charles. I can now confirm for you that your mother, Nora, did have a vault with us.”

Sienna heart skipped. “She did? What happened to it when she passed away?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to mislead you that it was past tense. We still have the vault. Your mother set it up with us as an inheritance box.”

Sienna’s chest tightened. “And what is that exactly?”

“People can buy boxes and pay for them for years in advance. If they are set up as inheritance boxes, they’re provided to the designated recipient at the time of death or at a specified time in the future.” He typed on the laptop in front of him. “In the case of your mother, she stated that you were the beneficiary and we should contact you on your thirtieth birthday or if you came to retrieve it prior to that, we were also authorized to give it to you.”

The explanation made Sienna lightheaded. John stepped closer and placed his hand on the crook of her elbow as if he knew she needed support. His look of understanding helped her wobbly legs as much as his hand did.

She reached into her bag and took out the keys, gripping them tightly. “We need these, right?”

Charles smiled. “Yes. I can take you back now if you’d like?”

“Just a moment.” She typed a quick text to Ryan letting him know about the box and that they would be a while. Then Charles handed her a form that she had to sign acknowledging that she was receiving the inheritance box.

“If you would like to keep the articles in the box here once you’ve seen them, we can reassign the box to you as the owner.”

Sienna nodded and he clicked on a button that released the door in the far wall and it opened slowly. They walked through it and followed him down the hall to a large vault room with walls lined with boxes.

Charles walked around it and checked the numbers on the far wall and then pointed to box 1815. “Here you go.”