Page 34 of Heist

“Excellent. I don’t want to interrupt your day, but a meeting when you’re free to discuss how things are going here would be great. I’ll be here through Wednesday.”

“I’ll have my assistant set something up. Please feel free to borrow any of the interns if you need an assistant of your own while you’re in town.”

“Lydia would kill me if I cheated on her with another assistant,” Patrick said with a wink.

“Oh, I do love that woman,” Angela said with a grin. “How is David doing?”

“Very well. His treatment is done, but he’ll remain under close supervision for the remainder of his wife’s studies. She’ll graduate in about six months and then you’ll have your old boss back.”

They had reached David’s office while they were talking, so Patrick stepped inside and let Angela get back to work. As she turned to leave, he asked, “Are there always this many people here on Sunday?”

She nodded. “Most of them just really like their jobs. We also let them take half days on Mondays or Tuesdays if they put in hours on Sundays. A lot choose to so they can get personal errands done during business hours. It’s something we’ve been tinkering with and it really seems to be improving productivity.”

Patrick gave her a thumbs up. “I look forward to seeing the numbers when we talk.”

When Angela was gone, Patrick settled in to work. The moment he connected with Lydia, she was already controlling his printer and sending things for him to sign or approve. Soon he was lost in the work. It was repetitive and boring, but he never minded doing it. Knowing he was working on something he’d helped build made it easier.

Eastman Enterprises wasn’t his, but he’d joined forces with David and Elijah to build the lab produced diamond brand from the ground up. When he first left home and took his trust fund with him, he used the money to invest and built an impressive portfolio of business partners. Each person or company he invested in had one thing in common. In one way or another, they were competitors of his father.

Now that his father was theoretically paying for his crimes, he didn’t have the need for revenge on his brain so strongly. He’d grown to love working with David, and even when he came back to the helm of the company, he would gladly take the passenger seat and be his right-hand man again. His father may be out of the diamond game, but there were still plenty of unethical diamond dealers out there and taking them down by making mined diamonds less desirable was something he would focus on.

At lunch time, his phone lit up. It was Holly.

“Hey sis. What are you doing on Tuesday?”

“I’m coming to New York to be at the diamond unveiling with you.”

Patrick growled. “I told Grant I would ask.”

“He’s always been a little impatient. We really need to find him a girlfriend.”

Patrick wrinkled his nose. “That’s your department. His love life is absolutely none of my concern.”

Holly laughed. “Well, now you don’t have to ask me. I’ll be there Tuesday. Elijah’s not happy about it but he’ll live.”

Patrick chuckled. “I’m sure he’ll manage just fine. Let me know when you get here. We’ll have drinks with Austin.”

“Ooh. How are things with you two?”

“Nope. Nope. Nope. Go away, Holls. Not talking about my sex life with you.”

She giggled. “So, you have a sex life with her. That’s really all I needed to know. Love you!” She ended the call without another word and Patrick just stared at the phone. Her friendship with Dakota and some of the other bratty subs at Solitaire was corrupting his sister and turn her into a brat herself.

At least it would keep Elijah on his toes.

A text lit up his screen and he smiled as he read it.

All done for now. Court at nine in the morning. What’s for lunch?

He hit the green call icon and lifted the phone to his ear. She answered halfway through the second ring.

“I’d love to eat you for lunch. Where are you?”

“In the back of a cab on the way to my office. Where are you?”

“I’m at Eastman Enterprises. You should tell the driver to come here.”

“I’ve been there before when I did some work for David. It’s only a few blocks from my office. I can be there soon. I just need to drop some things off at my office.”

---