With the sun shining behind her, Alex was dressed in shorts and a vest top, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail which poked through the back of her cap. Her face smiled with genuine happiness to see Sam but was quickly replaced with concern at the state of his injuries.

Injuries he didn’t have when she’d seen him the night before.

‘Hi, Sam.’ She spoke. ‘You look like shit.’

‘Thanks. I feel worse.’

‘Will this help?’

In her hand, she held a cardboard carrier, with two coffees lodged in it. In her other hand, she held a folded paper bag. The smell emanating from it promised Sam a tasty breakfast. Sam nodded and smiled.

Despite their fractured departure months ago in Naples, the love and friendship they’d forged still existed. Alex handed him the coffee and Sam took a swig, enjoying the hot caffeine as it rushed down his throat and awoke his senses.

He looked and felt like shit.

But he’d been through worse.

After an awkward few moments of silence, Sam looked at Alex.

‘I think you need to tell me what the hell you’ve got yourself into.’

Alex nodded, turned on the heel of her trainers, and began to walk away, looking back at Sam for him to follow. Sam took another swig of his coffee, stretched his shoulder out, and stepped out of the motel and followed her across the parking lot, hoping to finally get some answers.

Chapter Twelve

Two Months Earlier…

‘God damn you, Sam!’

Alex slammed the palm of her hand against the steering wheel of the Alpha Romeo 4C Spider as she sped down the motorway, away from the industrial park. As the rain crashed down around the red sports car, she could hear the wailing of sirens behind her. Although they echoed through the night sky, she knew they weren’t for her.

They would be swarming around the wreckage Sam had left behind.

The car wreck.

Matt’s dead body.

But as the tears raced down her cheeks, they weren’t in mourning. The man, masquerading as a race organiser named Matteo, had been sent to kill Sam. Alex was just collateral damage, and Sam had saved her. As she had for him a few months before.

They had kept each other alive.

Forged a bond.

Become family.

In a world that had done nothing but push her down, Alex had finally found someone to help her up. Despite the initial attraction between the two of them, Alex had come to treat Sam like an older brother. He’d risked his life to save his former mentor and pulled her out of a war zone. It had seen him nearly executed on the streets of Rome, but Alex had intervened, steering a car into the masked assassin and fleeing with Sam’s body.

She got him patched up.

Back on his feet.