Page 87 of Mafia Love

“I’m not joking. Listen, we might have been able to get a reduction of Luc’s sentence.”

My mouth dropped, and I sucked in a sharp breath. “What? How? Really?”

Sinclaire held up his hands. “Don’t get your hopes up too high. We don’t know if it panned out yet. But let’s just say Judge Montpelier has been a really bad boy and we found out some stuff.”

“Yeah, some pretty bad stuff.” Max smirked.

“What? What stuff? You have to tell me.”

“I’m afraid that’s as much as we can say. We found out some stuff and handed it to Claudius, and Roose will be issuing a statement on behalf of our police department, showing how Luc helped capture Demarco and dismantled that whole drug ring. It will help. There’s also the fact that he took down Victor, who is actually on the nation’s most wanted list. It’s all in his good books.”

“Oh my gosh.” My hands flew up to my cheeks. “You guys, I can’t believe you did all that for me.”

“Like we said, we’ll always be there for you.” Max stood, signaling that it was time to go. “I’m going to get our bags in the car. Gives you two a chance to talk without me.”

He looked from me to Sinclaire and smiled. I stood up and gave him a hug.

“I’ll call you when we land.”

“You better.” He left, and Sinclaire stood up. He brought his hands together and looked slightly nervous.

“I’ll miss you. I’ll miss you a lot.” He nodded.

“I’ll miss you too, Sinclaire.” I gazed openly at him, at the man whom I probably should have been with but wasn’t. There were so many good things about him, but I figured it out. More than the fact that I was in love with Luc and not him. I think it was because we were more than that.

“It was hard when I first went to LA. Hard lying to everyone I met. Hard lying to you. I was someone else. I always thought I was closer to Max than you, but I was wrong. It was you. I hated lying. I’m sorry, and I’m sorry it didn’t work for us.” I felt I should explain that because it really affected him.

“Don’t be. Don’t be sorry. I acted like a real ass for a long time, but I was jealous. I came to the conclusion that I’d rather have you in my life as a friend than not have you at all.”

“I’d rather have you as a friend too, but please don’t think I never valued you, or didn’t care.”

“I never thought that, Amelia. Not once.” He brushed his finger lightly across my jaw. “So, what now? You aren’t a cop.”

“I’m not a cop.” I’d handed in my resignation a few days ago.

“You should have been a dancer. I always thought you moved like one.”

“People said I walked like a cop.”

“No, I saw beneath it all. I saw that there was more to you than what met the eye, but hey, I still get to find out. I’ll come back in a few weeks.”

“Really?” That surprised me.

“Yeah. I thought we could go see a basketball game or something. That’s me being a friend.” His smile brightened.

“I know.”

“Come here.”

I threw my arms around him and gave him a hug, one that lingered.

Max came back in, and Sinclaire released me.

He planted a light kiss on my forehead and moved to join him.

“Catch you later, boss lady.”

I blew a kiss at them both.