The plan had been for her to make enough money to keep them going while Sam tried to get in touch with an old friend who would help them out. From what she knew, Sam had a contact who could forge them the required identifications to get to the States and who could help locate her siblings.

But now she was on her own.

The tears continued to flow, not just in mourning for her potential reunion being scuppered, but for Sam.

He was heading back to fight Wallace.

To take on Blackridge.

It would kill him.

As long as they were together, her life was in danger. She understood that, with the recent shoot-out with Matt and his crew all the evidence Sam needed to take the fight to them. It’s what caused her heart to break. Despite the pain and turmoil Sam had been through, of which he’d tentatively divulged during their three months together, he was still fighting for others.

He was a good man.

But as she drove into the night, she knew her dreams of getting her siblings back were as aimless as her destination. Alex drove through the night, and as the rain softened and the sun rose, she could feel her eyelids starting to fall. She’d arrived in the city of Bari, and after weaving through the narrow backstreets, she pulled onto a side road, locked the doors, and shut her eyes.

She awoke a few hours later as the city sprang to life, the morning rush hour erupting like a thunderclap. With her passport and a few Euros in her pocket, she took a long look in the mirror and thought of her sister and her brother.

Nattie and Joel.

With their mother’s relentless drug addiction, there was no chance they would still be at home. Whisked off into care, she prayed that they at least had each other.

She’d promised them she’d be back.

It was that promise that made her choice for her.

Despite the criminal record, and her gap filled recollection of the past few months, Alex walked into the American Embassy of Bari and asked for help. She gave a brief explanation of how she became effectively marooned in Italy and begged them to take her home.

They agreed, but she knew whatever was waiting for her in the Bronx wouldn’t be a welcome home banner.

She was right.

Despite being interviewed by a few friendly government officials, it was a week later that the price of her return was set. At first, she thought the senior agent who’d visited her was there to help her find her siblings, but they were very quickly dangled in front of her.

The man never gave his name.

They never did.