The guy opposite me was just staring at the wall.
When I came in yesterday, he’d looked at me like he recognized me but said nothing. Not a damn thing.
I didn’t care.
What I cared about now was the uncertainty of this situation I’d found myself in.
My dear friend Victor had dealt his last blow. The last thing he could do to screw with me.
He’d gotten to one of our contacts in the feds and threatened his family if he didn’t leak info on some of the rackets I’d run over the past year.
The guy had leaked, and about an hour after we’d arrived at the hospital with Amelia, I got taken away. Handcuffed and led away out in the open like the criminal I was.
They’d been looking for me.
The ironic thing was, I’d taken off my jacket and given it to Claudius just before the doctors took me away to examine my arm. The jacket had the diamonds in the inside pocket.
Dad and Claudius had tried to intervene when the cops came, trying to talk them away, but it was useless. They couldn’t do anything. No one could.
Now, I was here awaiting something I didn’t know what, and no one—friend nor family—was allowed to see me.
I looked up as the guard approached the cell door. Behind him was Sinclaire.
God, why?
He was the last person I wanted to see right now.
This had to be the classic case of kicking a man while he was already down.
“You got fifteen minutes,” the guard told Sinclaire.
He came in and sat on the chair opposite me.
“What are you doing here?” The void inside me didn’t have the strength to be an asshole to him.
“How you holding up?” He asked to my surprise.
“Doesn’t matter.” Physically, I was functional. They’d tended to the wound on my arm back at the hospital. Mentally… I couldn’t really speak for my mental state right now. “Why are you here, Sinclaire? You’re the last person I expected to come see me. You here to gloat? To tell me how you’re better than me? That Amelia can do better with you than me? You know what? Save it. You’re right. She can, and she should be with you.”
He started laughing and straightened. “Amelia loves you, Luc. I’m jealous of you for that, but she’s my friend, and more than that. She’s like family, close to me like that, and I’m not here to gloat or tell you shit you don’t need to hear.”
“I’m behind bars. You know what the sentencing for racketeering is? A max of twenty years.Twenty years.” I shook my head.
“I’ll see what I can do. Whatever it is. I came to find out one thing first. Make sure you answer this wisely.”
“What is it?”
“Back at the prison, I watched you crawl on the roof, and damn, those panels weren’t safe at all. Most were missing. But you did it without thinking of yourself. It was then that I realized you must really love her. You looked like you would do anything for her. I came here to hear it for myself. Do you love her?”
I had to sit up straighter. I couldn’t believe his question, but I’d give him my answer.
“I love her more than life itself. I love her enough to do anything for her, and enough to ask you to take care of her and to make sure she’s happy. Make sure she gets her dream back and doesn’t slip away in the shadows.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
“That all?” I narrowed my gaze at him.
“Yeah.” He stood up and signaled for the guard to open the door.
