Page 106 of Heist

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Patrick stared at the image on his screen. What the fuck was he supposed to make of this? The pumpkin diamond was staring him the face and it appeared to be sitting in his lab in New York City. How the hell had it gotten there?

He knew Austin was waiting on him to call her back, but he had been paralyzed with fear for the past three hours or so. He was in his office at Eastman Enterprises where he had spent most of the evening catching up on work until he got the unknown text message.

Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to dial Austin’s number.

“Patrick,” she answered groggily. “I was worried.”

“Hey, baby girl. I’m sorry to wake you. We have a problem.”

He heard her shifting around as she said, “I’m awake now. What’s going on?”

“I got a text from an unknown number. It included a photo of the pumpkin diamond.”

Austin sucked in a breath. “Holy shit.”

“That’s not the problem though. The picture appears to have been taken inside my lab in New York.”

“Jesus. What time is it? We need to come up with a game plan before the police or the prosecution get ahold of this.”

It’s three in the morning your time, just after midnight here.”

“When did you get the text?”

He winced but answered. “About eight-thirty my time, so eleven-thirty for you.”

“So why are you just now calling me? I got home at eleven-fifteen,” she said after a long moment of silence.

Patrick cleared his throat. “Honest truth?”

“I fucking hope so,” she bit out.

He deserved that. “I’m terrified,” he admitted. “I wasn’t sure what to do with the picture. I tried calling the number, but it didn’t go anywhere real.”

Austin swore. “I still have court in the morning. There’s nothing we can do but finding the diamond on your property is not going to look good for you, though the text you got could help if I can find a computer expert to work with us to trace it. Let me make some phone calls and figure out what to do about this. Maybe talk to Jax and see if he can bring Lance in. Jesus, this is a mess.”

Patrick stood and stared out the window of the spacious office. “Baby girl,” he murmured. “Slow down. I’m sorry I waited so long to call you.”

Austin sighed. “It’s not OK, but I’ll get over it. We’re going to stick with our plan to meet in Colorado for now. We’ll come up with a game plan there. Talk to Jax.”

“I will. I’m sorry, Austin,” he said again.

When Patrick ended the call, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had harmed their relationship by not calling her sooner. He laid on the couch in his office and tossed and turned until it was considered reasonable to call Jax Fischer in Texas.

“It’s five in the damn morning,” the cowboy drawled.

“It’s only three here,” Patrick said. “I’ve got a bit of a problem and could use your advice. Austin asked me to call you.”

“Give me five minutes to wipe the cobwebs out of my eyes,” he muttered. “I’ll call you back.”

Patrick stood and paced as he waited for Jax to return his call.

“Talk to me,” he said five minutes later, sounding much more alert.

“Someone sent me a picture of one of the diamonds that went missing in the heist. I don’t know who sent it and all attempts to contact the number have failed.”

“Shit man. What does Austin say?”

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