Chapter 24 #2
Sienna smiled. “Nope. He’s digging online as we speak.” She clicked on the two-digit extension for his office, and he answered after four rings. That was actually a good answering time for him. He was known to take multiple calls to pull his attention away from his computer.
“What?” Jonas grumbled.
“Dial back the attitude, my friend. I have another riddle for you. Come meet me in the kitchen. Bring Skippy.” She hung up. “Let’s move over to the table so that we have room.”
By the time they got situated, Jonas came into the room carrying a bright orange laptop, and Ryan followed in behind him.
“Ryan is Skippy?” John asked.
Sienna chuckled. “Nope. I call Jonas’s laptop Skippy. He treats it like it’s a person. He even had a special cover made for it so that he could find it in the dark.”
Jonas shook his head. “Very funny. And you couldn’t come up with a better name than Skippy?”
“Oh, I could have. But I knew the name Skippy would irritate you.”
Jonas set his laptop down and started typing. Another thing he did. Always multitasking even during meetings. “What are you calling me for in the middle of the night? We haven’t found anything yet regarding the sentry symbol, if that’s what you want to know.”
Sienna mouthed, We, before wagging her eyebrows at Ryan.
Ryan gave her the look of death and sat down next to John. “What’s up?”
Sienna held out the two keys. “I searched the jewelry box my mother left me. There aren’t any pieces of jewelry with the symbol, but I found these in a hidden compartment.”
“They look like safe deposit keys,” John added. “But Sienna pointed out that a bank wouldn’t give you both keys.”
Jonas started typing on his laptop again.
“You’re right. I can do some research to see if I can figure out where these keys belong.
But it might be a long shot, especially if it was under your mother’s name.
” He typed some more. “I’m also going to see what happens in Tennessee to unclaimed bank boxes.
After this much time, whatever was in the box may have been surrendered to the state. ”
“The keys could be for a private vault,” Ryan said.
Jonas turned to him. “Why do you think that?”
Ryan held up his phone. “I searched on why someone would have two identical safe deposit keys, and it mentions here that private vault facilities offer an alternative to boxes at banks. Many of these facilities give the customer both keys as added security.”
“That could be something for us to check,” Jonas reluctantly admitted. “I can look into facilities.”
Ryan smiled. “Yeah, I just searched on private vaults in the Nashville area, and there is only one.”
Jonas gave Ryan a long look, and Sienna shushed Veronica, who was giggling at the scene. Jonas wasn’t flustered very often.
Sienna set the keys on the table. “Excellent work. Jonas, can you do some more digging just in case Ryan’s quick search didn’t give us everything?”
“Sure. Let me get a pic of the keys.”
“I’ve got it for you,” Ryan said before taking a picture with his phone. Jonas frowned.
“Do you both want some tea?” Sienna asked, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. “Something soothing perhaps?”
Jonas shook his head before standing. “No. I’ll start digging into this for you while I’m also running searches for the sentry symbol.” He headed toward the door and then stopped. “Are you coming, Ryan?”
Ryan’s eyes widened at the invitation. “Yep. Right behind you.”
Jonas walked out, and Sienna did a dance before Ryan thwacked her on the head and left the kitchen.
“What was that about?” John asked.
“Jonas is very smart and isn’t used to having many people keep up with him, let alone figure something out before him.
For him to invite Ryan back with him is a big deal.
” She stood and walked over to the tall pantry cabinet and opened it.
“I’m done with the tea. How about something harder?
Marilyn has a whole stash of bottles in here for cooking. ”
She pulled out a bottle of bourbon and poured some into her empty teacup. John held out his cup, and she gave him some as well. “Here’s to finding out what these keys belong to.” They clicked cups together, and she took a sip, the warmth of the bourbon traveling down her throat.
Sienna put the jewelry back in the box. She ran her fingers over the opal necklace and took another sip.
“That necklace would look good on you,” John said.
Her heart sped up. “My mother wore it all the time. It makes me think of her.”
“Then why not wear it? Unless thinking about her causes you pain.”
“It doesn’t on most days.”
He nodded. “On the days it does, you can leave it in the box.”
She blinked back tears. “I could do that.”
“Would you like me to help you put it on?”
She swallowed before nodding. He lifted the necklace gingerly and held it out. Sienna turned her back to him, and he dangled the necklace over her, the cool metal hitting her sternum at the same time his warmth surrounded her. She pulled her hair out of the way, and he secured the clasp.
She rested her fingers over it before turning around in his arms.
“It looks good,” he said, backing away from her.
A calm settled over her as the pads of her fingers ran over the oval pendant. A sense of completeness. Of coming into her own.
Veronica called out a quiet, Woot, woot, cheering her on.
And now she had an additional cheerleader on her side. She just never thought it would be a four-hundred-year-old Grumposaurus. Although he was slowly breaking out of his self-imposed hermit persona. And she liked who she saw.
She took a step forward and looked up into his eyes. “Thank you.”
He swallowed. “For what?”
“For supporting me.” Veronica squealed in her ears as she went up on her tiptoes and leaned forward to kiss him. He rested his hands on her shoulders and stopped her ascent.
Sienna’s heart expanded like a balloon as he bent closer...
And kissed her on the forehead before stepping back. “You should get some sleep.”
Her heart deflated with a squeaky hiss and landed like a limp noodle at the bottom of her chest.
For once, Veronica had nothing to say.