He’d slept for fifteen hours and he felt a twinge of guilt that his tiredness had delayed his reacquaintance with Alex. Even though she had no idea he was on his way, Sam still felt late, and he stuffed his worn clothes into his rucksack, dropped the key to the room on the bed, and stepped outside into the sunshine. The afternoon greeted him with a warm hug, and he carried his jacket and rucksack in his hand, the sleeve of his T-shirt wrapped tightly around his bicep. As he opened the passenger door of the car, he heard the click of a lighter behind him.

‘Room for one more?’

Sam spun to see Tammy sat on the bumper of her car, gently pulling the lighter away from her face and allowing a plume of smoke to dance gently into oblivion. She was sitting forward, her knotted hair draped over her face, obscuring her face. Sam looked around for her partner and then chuckled.

‘Trust me, you wouldn’t want to go where I’m going.’

‘You could be going to hell and it would be a better place than this.’

Sam took a step towards her, but she recoiled slightly, refusing to look at him. The sleeve of her jumper drooped, and Sam could see the fresh bruising and a few cuts on her arm.

‘Tammy,’ he said softly. ‘Look at me.’

She took another puff on her cigarette and then slowly turned to face him. Sam felt his heart drop. One of her eyes was swollen shut, the skin a terrifying shade of purple. Her lips were slashed with two cuts and there was a darkening of the skin around her nose.

Judging from the attack, the man was clearly out of control and Sam drew his lips together in anger and stared towards the door. He couldn’t just walk away.

‘Before you say anything, I can’t just leave.’ Tammy spat with anger. ‘He’ll just follow me.’

Sam shook his head and returned to his car. After a quick rummage through his rucksack, he returned to her and held out his hand. Her eyes widened in shock.

‘Take this,’ Sam said, his fingers offering the roll of dollars. ‘It’s five hundred dollars. Take your car, disappear and find your way to somewhere where you can be happy.’

Tammy looked up at Sam, her good eye watering. She stood up, glancing back with fear at the room.

‘But he’ll…’

‘You got the keys to this car?’ Sam asked. She nodded. ‘Then get in and get gone. It doesn’t have to be this way.’

Sam placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and then his eyes locked on the door of her room. As he started to walk towards the door, Tammy stared at the keys and then called out.

‘What are you going to do?’