SAFEHOUSE

I roll my eyes, grinning at his silliness. He is going to do what he is going to do. Têtu comme un mulet, as Marie says.

Julien slips in behind me, somehow fitting himself between my back and the lounge chair. He pulls me up against him, his hands tight across my abdomen as he leans in to kiss my cheek. I smile contently as he does.

It’s hard to believe that a year had passed, and harder to believe that I could be out here in public without a worry on my mind.

For that, I could thank the good old boys at the FBI.

This whole trip was a bit of a celebration for us. A way to put the past to bed. The attack on Julien’s estate had been the puzzle piece the Feds needed. The man who’d killed Angelo Verdicci had seized power over all of the families, but he was so secretive nobody knew who he was or what he looked like.

I was the only one who knew his face.

He’d come to take care of a loose end. With me out of the picture, the entire case against the Five Families would have fallen apart. You need evidence of collusion and top-down management to press racketeering.

With the boss dead, the police had cause to search his palatial home. They foun

d everything they needed. Names, numbers, drugs, they had everything they needed to crack the whole system. The families fell apart from the top down, resulting in the biggest crime family war since the sixties… Anyone left standing was dead or in prison.

In the end, nobody cared who I was or what I’d seen. I didn’t even have to testify.

It was over. Nobody wanted me dead, nobody even knew who I was.

And Julien had taken things one step further.

I smiled at our son, looking out over the waters surrounding Réunion island. We had moved to this little French paradise not long after the baby was born. It was Julien’s idea. We would start our new life here, far from the troubles we left behind.

Julien’s family was heavily invested in the island. Subsidiaries from his family’s companies ran everything from the water treatment facilities to the airport. It gave us some semblance of security during the trial. Anyone who wished to do us harm would have to come in by air or sea, and Julien would have known about it long before they arrived…

Such measures weren’t necessary anymore, but I’d fallen in love with the place… And with Julien’s decision to give up corporate life to spend more time with his family, we had no reason to go home.

This was our home now.

And we’d brought a few people with us.

Gervaise had been given a villa of his own here on the island, but he still invited us over for incredible dinners… There were rumors he might even start up a restaurant of his own just off the beach… And Julien was helping to fund it.

And of course… There was Marie…

She was heartbroken after what had happened to her husband, and in the aftermath, we bonded more than I ever knew we could. She threw her love into my son… Her “little Alain”. In many ways, she became the mother I no longer had. She wasn’t cleaning rooms anymore. Julien had set her up with a pension that would make an accountant blush, and we lived the way I always imagined we would… As a family.

“I love you, Mr. Malveaux,” I whisper to Julien as our son plays in the sand.

“I love you too.”

No running. No hiding. No worrying.

We were safe and sound.

I was complete.

Dear reader… I just wanted to thank you for being so supportive of an independent author! As a small token of thanks, I’ve decided to include a free bonus with this book. Turn the page and enjoy one of my other sexy stories… What Happens in Vegas!

I hope you love it…

Mia

What Happens In Vegas (BWWM Billionaire Steamy Romance)

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