Page 115 of Heist

Chapter Thirty-One

“Master Patrick, are you in there?” Patrick sat up at the sound of Cassie’s voice. Zipping his pants, he stood and moved to the alcove entrance.

“This better be a damn emergency, Cassie,” he said pulling the curtain back far enough to poke his head out.

The girl winced. “I’m really sorry. Master Lance and Jax asked me to find you and Austin. They said it’s important.”

“Tell them we’ll meet them in the conference room in ten minutes,” he said, dragging a hand through his hair.

When he turned, Austin was already standing. He wanted to scold her, hold on to a bit of the dominance he wielded over her, but he knew their scene was done and they had to face the whatever was out there. Lance and Jax wouldn’t have asked Cassie to break the cardinal rule of not interrupting play time at the club if it weren’t urgent.

He tossed her the dress he’d laid on the table and pulled on his t-shirt.

“You, OK?” he asked when they were dressed.

“I’m good. Sorry we always seem to be getting interrupted,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“The fact that they interrupted us is what has me worried,” he said dryly. “Let’s go see what they want.”

He clutched her hand in his and together they walked through the dungeon and bar and made their way to the conference room. There, Lance and Jax were hunched over a laptop, talking in quiet tones.

“Sorry to ruin you’re fun, but you needed to see this,” Jax said. Lance shoved an empty rolling chair away from the table and motioned for Patrick to sit. Tension formed between his shoulder blades as he sat and looked at Lance’s screen.

“What am I looking at?”

Lance tapped the screen and the photo Patrick had been sent. “I was able to trace the phone this was sent from. It’s an unregistered device so I have no way of knowing who sent it, but I was able to get into it and see some of the other activity. You’re not the only one who got this photo. It was also sent to a district attorney’s e-mail. If I had to guess it’s the one trying your case.”

“Fuck,” Austin swore. “Is what you’re doing legal? If it’s not, I need to leave.” She was standing behind Patrick with a hand on his shoulder. He reached up and squeezed her hand.

“I’m not breaking any laws but anything I find is unlikely to be admissible in court.”

“Understood,” Austin said.

“So why did I need to see this right now?”

Lance swiped a finger across his screen and a photo of another diamond slid onto the screen. “These were also on the phone. I’m assuming they’re the rest of the diamonds taken,” he said as he continued flipping through pictures.

Patrick leaned into the screen to examine each of the photos. “Wait, go back,” he said.

Lance switched directions and returned to a previous photo. “What do you see?”

“I’m not sure, but something about the background is familiar. Can you tell when the photo was taken?”

“It will take a sec, but I can probably dig up the metadata,” Lance said.

“OK, do it,” Patrick said.

“I’m digging into your father some more,” Jax said when Lance pulled the laptop closer and hunkered down to type. “He’s only had a handful of visitors since he was locked up, but it seems fairly clear to me that he’s still trying to keep his connections to the diamond business which doesn’t make sense since he’s selling the company.”

Patrick shrugged. “That honestly doesn’t surprise me. Did you find anything to prove he’s trying to frame me?”

“Not yet, I’m digging through the visitor list and investigating each person, but it’s going to take some time.”

“I’m not sure how much time we have, Jax. The prosecutor is offering Patrick a plea deal, but the offer is only good for a few days. That tells me they have something big they intend to present at trial.”

Patrick turned his attention to Austin. “I hope you told them to shove it.”

She rolled her eyes. “I told them I wanted to see what they had. That was my call with Victoria earlier. The judge is aware of the plea deal on the table and is requiring that we be allowed to examine the evidence and witness list before we make a decision.”

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