“Ah, here you are. Good. I am so glad you could all come. Please, come in, come in, and welcome. We have a lot of ground to cover and not enough time, I’m afraid.”
Abraham stepped out of the elevator and leaned his arm across the door, holding it open.
“I don’t believe we’ve met officially,” I said offering my hand. “I’m Matilda Case. Pleased to meet you.”
Neds hissed in a breath, and Abraham coughed to cover a laugh.
Oscar just smiled wider. “Wonderful to meet you, Matilda,” he said. “Just wonderful.” He took my hand in one of his and then placed his other one over the top of mine.
His hands were warm and smooth, and very human.
“My name is Oscar. Oscar Gray, head of House Gray.”
Top man of House Gray. Ultimate manager of humans as resources.
Humans like my brother, like Neds.
But not me. Even so, I was a little starstruck and nervous. This man was one of the eleven most powerful people in the world. People I’d spent my life avoiding at all cost. Oscar Gray turned and strolled into the luxuriously appointed place, his hands clasped together in front of him. “Would you like some tea? Abraham, could you call for refreshments, please?”
The clean, quiet, and beautifully lit room showed sparks of colored art and tasteful gray furnishings amid the soft gray carpet and soothing gray walls.
“You don’t have to bother,” I said.
“It’s no bother. I enjoy company, and you are my guests. Please make yourselves comfortable.”
Okay. This wasn’t what I’d been expecting out of one of the most powerful people in the world. Kindness to strangers? Seemed a bit below his pay grade.
I wanted to like him for that, but no matter how much the Neds argued otherwise, I really didn’t fall into trust with every stranger who sashayed through my life. I needed Oscar Gray to do some things for me, and I knew he wanted something in exchange.
Probably me and my life.
Abraham strode across the room and exited the door on the far left.
I strolled over to the huge curve of windows that fanned out to look over the city.
The elevator hadn’t taken us down, or maybe it had, but we had also gone way, way up. We were on top of a skyscraper looking over one of the original old cities: Chicago.
I’d been surrounded by familiar horizons for all my life. The spread of buildings and tubes and roads and aircraft and lights out there in the not-quite-dark was dizzying.
It was also the highest off the ground I’d been without getting pine needles in my hair.
“Do please have a seat, Mr. Harris,” Oscar Gray said.
I turned. Neds finally shook out of his shock and stepped into the room.
He was moving like the whole place was made of holy eggshells.
The man had nerves made of cast iron. It might have been funny to see him so rattled, but, then, nothing about my life was funny right now.
“Thank you kindly for your offer,” Right Ned said with formality I’d never heard out of him, “but I don’t believe I belong here, Your Eminence.”
Eminence?I shot him a look, but he was not joking. Not one bit.
Oscar opened his hand toward the couch. “Nonsense. Please. Relax and have a seat. Are you hungry? I could have food brought up.”
“No, thank you, sir,” Right Ned said. “I’m fine.”
“Good. Good. Although the cookies are not to be missed.”
