Page 14 of Heist

As he stepped out of the car, he pulled his phone from his pocket. It showed a missed call from Grant Sterling an hour earlier. Why was he calling?

Doing the math for the time difference, he figured it wasn’t too late to call him back and raised the phone to his ear.

“Patrick, thanks for calling me back.”

“No problem. What can I do for you?”

“I wondered if I could borrow Tim Reyes for a few days. Part of your father’s settlement agreement is donating his rare diamond collection to the Natural History Museum in New York and we just finalized an agreement with the museum for the transfer.”

Patrick pressed the up button for the elevator and ran a hand through his hair. “OK. So, what does this have to do with Tim Reyes?”

“I want someone on hand who knows the diamond collection to verify that all the diamonds are real. A museum curator will be on hand to verify them as well, but we basically want double verification from both sides.”

The elevator doors slid open and Patrick stepped in. “I don’t mind sending Tim to New York. I’m opening a new lab there anyway. He can help with that.”

“Great. You wouldn’t want to be part of the unveiling, would you?”

Patrick had no desire to be part of it, but Grant kept talking.

“It might help with your press problem. If you make a statement about why you stormed out. You could even talk about being glad that your father doesn’t have the diamonds anymore.”

Patrick clenched his fist in frustration as the elevator reached his floor. “You make a fair point. I’ll think about it. Maybe Holly can come with me.”

“Holly would be fabulous. Just maybe not Elijah. He had more animosity towards Nicholas than you. We want to keep the unveiling positive.”

Patrick just scowled even though Grant couldn’t see him. “I’ll talk to her then. Just e-mail me the details and I’ll make arrangements for Tim to join you.”

“Great, thank you, Patrick.”

He stepped into his suite and set the phone on the wireless charger.

Now that he had some sense of what made Austin tick, he could pack his toy bag for tomorrow night with her in mind. Just in case she agreed to a scene with him. He was certain he would have the chance to ask, since the rest of the board was convinced, he would be a good match for her.

When he crawled into bed, he let his thoughts drift to their kiss. Did she come to thoughts of him before she went to sleep? Was she still playing with herself? Christ, he was hard as a fucking rock. Going to sleep was going to prove difficult.

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