VERSUS (Second Chances 2)

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I answer immediately when I realize it’s Kurt’s assistant calling.

“Ms. Conrad? Is that you?” she asks before I say a word.

“It’s me,” I answer with a smile. “How are you, Mrs. Burton?”

I don’t know her first name. I’m not sure Kurt does either. He told me that he’s called her Mrs. Burton since he hired her more than ten years ago.

“Stressed.” She lets out an exaggerated sigh. “The attorney representing Mrs. Alcester is looking for you. He came down here shortly before noon. I told him you were out of the office. He waited around for more than thirty minutes. He’s called three times since he left.”

I’m not entirely surprised, although I didn’t expect Dylan to make an in-person appearance at my office. “I see.”

“He’s persistent.” She emphasizes the last syllable. “I told him I couldn’t give out your cell number without your permission, regardless of how urgent he thinks the matter is.”

“I appreciate you not sharing my number.” I start down the sidewalk in the direction of Noelle’s apartment building.

“Of course,” she says curtly. “He said he had something to give you. I told him you were in a meeting and I wasn’t sure when you’d be back to the office. I didn’t know if you’d return at three or four or…”

“I won’t be back today,” I say in a rush. “I have another meeting.”

“You do?” Her tone shifts from frustration to curiosity. “I have your schedule in front of me and I don’t see anything.”

“This is Buffalo business. I have a Skype meeting in fifteen minutes with my team back home to go over our open cases.”

I resist the temptation to remind her that I told her about it this morning.

“I’ll be taking that out of the office.” I slow my pace. “If Mr. Colt calls again, tell him he can leave the item with you.”

I glance down at my bare wrist.

I didn’t realize that I left my watch at Dylan’s apartment until I was getting ready for court this morning. I’d ducked out of his place after he fell asleep.

“I did suggest that.” I can hear the smile in her voice. “He told me that he couldn’t do that. He wants to hand whatever it is directly to you.”

Dylan has always been aggravatingly persistent.

“If he calls again tell him that it’s not an urgent matter and I’ll see him in court next week.”

“You sound as if you know what he wants to give you.”

I know a lure when I hear one. Mrs. Burton is looking for some inside information. I’m not going to tell her that I left my watch in Dylan’s apartment after I had sex with him.

“Please relay the message to him,” I say as I wait to cross the street. “I’ll be back in the office tomorrow. I’ll see you then?”

“I’ll be here bright and early.”

Ending the call, I tap my shoe against the sidewalk as I wait for the light to change.

I expected New York to be an exciting break from my boring life in Buffalo. The city has already delivered that in spades.

Chapter 7

Dylan

“Wait just a fucking minute, Colt.” Barrett Adler, my oldest and most annoying friend, spits those words out with a laugh. “Let me get this straight. You want me to drop everything so I can go home and search for a yearbook from high school?”

Glancing at my phone, I scrub my hand over the back of my neck. “I need it. Just do it.”