Until now. Sam had gone as far as he possibly could to get her back to her siblings, and with Alan deep in conversation with the necessary bureaus, she’d never been closer.

Three hours into the drive, Alan finally made the right call and as he hung the phone up, he gently rested his hand on Alex’s knee. It had taken some considerable sway, and Alan had leveraged his current standing among the senior members of his department, but he’d pulled the required strings.

Doors had been opened.

Joel and Nattie were coming home.

Alex felt her hands shake as he told her the news, and at the next service stop, they switched seats. Sam, well rested, took the wheel, affording Alan and Alex some time in the back of the Range Rover. Half an hour later, and Sam glanced into the rear-view mirror to see them both asleep, with Alex cuddled into Alan’s hulking frame.

A smile curled across his lips. Whether it would develop further once he’d headed home, Sam wasn’t sure. But he certainly approved.

As the miles passed and the hours ticked by, they rode through Virginia and after passing through Richmond, cruising up the I-95. On the approach to Washington D.C, they whizzed past The Marsh Motel in Fredericksburg, and Sam wondered if Tammy had made it far enough away from her abusive partner.

Sam hoped she had. He’d done as much as he could to give her every chance.

A few hours later, they were passing through Philadelphia, with Alan and Sam in a deep discussion about the likelihood of Wyatt and the Riders reining in their drug business. Alan was hopeful, but with his career aspirations possibly elsewhere, he was unlikely to ever know. Sam was less enthused, noting that men who acquire money and power don’t tend to be willing to let it go.

With no opposition from the DEA or Vasquez, Wyatt had complete control. He was level-headed, but he was still a cold and calculating criminal.

But he’d saved Alex’s life.

For that, Sam would be eternally grateful.

As they approached New York, Alan made another phone call, directing Sam to a government building on the outskirts of Brooklyn. They crossed over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and carried on down through Sunset Park until Alan directed them to the New York City Administration for Children’s Services in Crown Heights.

As they made their way through the building, Sam noticed Alex shaking, and he clasped her hand to keep her calm. Alan approached the desk, spoke authoritatively with the senior member of staff, and then disappeared with them into the offices behind. Alex watched on anxiously from the waiting room.

The door opened on the other side of the corridor.