Page 110 of Heist

“Hi. You seem tense.”

She let her shoulders sag as she rested her head against his shoulder. “It’s been a long day,” she murmured.

"That’s why we’re going to get back to Solitaire and take a nap,” he said, kissing her hair as he nudged her toward the car.

When they were in the backseat of the black SUV, Austin let her head fall against the dark leather headrest and closed her eyes. Sometime later, she woke as they began the ascent to the top of the road where Solitaire sat.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. “Didn’t mean to fall asleep on you. I needed to talk to you,” she said as she rubbed her eyes and hoped she hadn’t drooled on him.

He gave her a tender smile. “You needed the sleep. I dozed off too. We can talk inside.”

The SUV pulled up in front of the club and Patrick helped Austin from the car. As they stepped through the doors, a familiar voice called out from the conference room. “That you, Patrick?”

Jax Fischer stuck his head out the door and waved at Austin as they came into the lobby.

“Lance find anything?” Patrick asked, setting Austin’s suitcase on the ground.

Jax shook his head. “Not yet and he put his headphones on so I can’t even talk to him while he works.”

Austin struggled not to smirk at the man’s thick drawl.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“Jax has Lance trying to figure out where the text message came from.”

Austin nodded. “Ah. Speaking of the text message, the D.A. called me while I was on the plane. They want to offer you another plea deal and say you only…”

Patrick pressed a finger to her lips. “Shhh. We’ll talk about it later. We’re going to go upstairs and leave Lance and Jax to their work. You,” he said pointedly, “are going to forget about work for a little while.”

Austin sighed. It was important that she pass the information along but supposed it could wait a few hours. “Yes, Sir,” she murmured against the finger still pressed to her lips. When he moved his hand to cup her cheek, she nuzzled into his palm.

“I do have to take a call from Victoria when it comes in,” she said.

“That’s fine. Upstairs with you, baby girl.”

In Patrick’s suite, she hurried out of her clothes, hoping he would want to play but he was serious about the nap. “We’ve got a few hours until the party. Let’s get some rest,” he said as he pulled the blankets back.

They had both been up most of the night, and sleep didn’t take long to overtake them. Austin fell asleep praying for Lance to find something useful.

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