Page 125 of Heist

“Jax? Where are you calling from? I thought I had your number saved in here.”

“Austin’s office phone. Mine is tied up on a video call with Lance. Now if your curiosity is satisfied, maybe you can answer my question.”

Was Austin listening? His heartbeat sped up as he thought of her working in her office.

“I don’t know him well at all, really. I did pretty intense background check on him, but that’s it. What are you doing in Austin’s office?”

“Trying to keep your sorry ass out of prison,” he said. “I think Tim Reyes is involved. How did he come to work for you?”

Patrick thought back. “Grant Sterling recommended I hire him. Do you think Grant’s involved?”

Jax grunted. “Unknown. Someone is pulling the strings though. Either blackmail or bribery. If they were struggling to pay medical bills, they aren’t anymore and now his daughter is in some Canadian special treatment program for her rare genetic disease. Lance was able to get me a set of court documents. This all started about the same time the prosecution in your father’s case was hammering out details of the plea deal.”

Patrick paced the living room, keenly aware that Holly was on the edge of her seat, straining to hear the details of his phone call.

“What do you need from me?” he asked.

“Access to any communication devices Tim might have used in your labs. Computers he e-mailed from, company cell phones, anything like that. You own it so you have the legal authority to grant us access to it.”

“Consider it granted. Do I need to give you passwords or does Lance want to show off?”

“As much as Lance would like to show off, for it to be all legal like in a courtroom, we’ll want the passwords.”

Patrick chuckled, feeling some of the weight lift from his shoulders for the first time in days. “I’ll send everything in just a few minutes. I might have to call Lydia for some of it. I don’t know everything.”

Jax thanked him and said they were getting back to work. When he ended the call, he took a deep breath and turned to face Holly.

“Be careful with Grant Sterling, please.”

Her eyes grew wide. “After the night at Hunter’s club things have been pretty cool between us but do you really think he’s involved?”

He shrugged. “I truly don’t know. My money is still on dad, but Grant was close to him, they could be working together.”

Holly shuddered. “I thought all of this would be behind us with his trial.”

Patrick pulled her into a hug. “Me too. I’m sorry for all the trouble it’s causing. We’re going to get through it though.”

“Thank fucking god,” Holly said, pulling away from him. “I was getting tired of your doom and gloom outlook.”

He gave her a mock glare, but she was right, he’d been pretty pessimistic about everything. They decided against the movie and Holly showed him to a guest suite.

“We’re all the way at the other end of the house so you’ll have to text if you need me,” she said with a giggle.

When he was alone, he contemplated how he wanted to approach talking to Austin. Had he completely ruined things forever? He fucking hoped not. He would fight tooth and nail to get her back.

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