Page 119 of Heist

Chapter Thirty-Three

“I’ll be back Monday afternoon, so I’m going to need you to take the hearing for Mr. Sutton. You filed the motion, you know what to expect. Familiarize yourself with the case because I might be taking a step back from this one.”

“Is everything OK, Miss Yates? You sound tense.”

Austin closed her eyes and tried to relax her shoulders. It was four on Saturday afternoon, and Lance and the others had convinced her to stick out the weekend at Solitaire. Now she was trying to lose herself in work, but everything led back to Patrick since he made up a third of the clients she currently had.

Sending Victoria to the hearing on Monday morning was a cowardly move, but Dakota had assured her that Patrick deserved it and more. There had been talk of castration, but she’d tuned it out at some point.

Eli stuck his head in the office door. “How’s it going in here?”

Austin shrugged. “As good as can be expected. Have you heard anything else from Patrick?”

He shook his head. “Sorry. He’ll come around.”

“Are you going to let him back on the board when he does? He loves this place.”

Eli sat across the desk from her and gave her a kind smile. “He’ll have to answer to the rest of the board but I’m sure they’ll take him back with open arms and a lot of ribbing. Have you thought about our offer to put you on the board?”

“I don’t know. I think I need to get through all of this first. I want to say yes but with things ending between Patrick and I, I think I need a break.”

Eli stood again, “Fair enough. I just wanted to come tell you that the set-up team is here if you want to distract yourself and help them out. Thank you for staying the weekend. You’re family to us, I hope you know that.”

Austin smiled. “Thanks, Eli. I’ll be along to help in just a bit.”

When Eli was gone, Austin took a few minutes to close her eyes and breathe deeply. In the lobby, Simon, one of the long-time house subs was directing a crew of people, some paid staff, and some house subs to different jobs.

“Hey, Simon, what do you need me to do,” she said when he was finished with the rest of the group.

“Austin, what a lovely surprise. We missed you at shut-down last night. Why don’t you go help Mitch set the bar up?”

She gave him a friendly salute and headed toward the bar. An hour later, she was lost in wiping down tables and arranging napkin holders when she heard Mitch holler at her from behind the bar.

“Hey, Austin, Jax wants to talk to you.”

She turned and tucked the rag into the back pocket of her jeans and smiled at the tall cowboy.

“Is Patrick around?” he asked.

Austin’s face fell. He didn’t know.

“Did that bastard not come back last night?”

Austin gave him a shrug. “He’s back in California, having a rough time.”

“I hope you kick him in the balls the next time you see him.”

Austin chuckled. “It’s crossed my mind. What did you want to talk to us about?”

“Tim Reyes.”

Austin quirked an eyebrow up and looked around. The small crew working in the bar wasn’t paying attention to them, so she pointed to a table in the corner and together they sat.

“What about him?” she asked when they were settled.

“His daughter isn’t in the hospital. In fact, she’s not even in the country. She is in a special treatment program in Canada. She apparently got accepted about two months ago.”

Austin twisted the bracelet on her wrist. “What does that have to do with anything?”

---