Shady government officials making shady deals in darkened corners of the offices. The task was simple enough. She needed to ask for a job in the High Five bar, a recently opened biker bar in Laconia. He told her it wouldn’t be a problem, and that she was to treat it like any other job.

All he asked in return was for her to feed him information, as the gang who ran it was being investigated by the DEA.

If she complied, then he would make the necessary calls and have her reunited with her siblings.

It was an easy ask, but after a few weeks, one of the senior members of the gang, Sykes, stayed for a week and demanded she relocate to The Pit. Seemingly impressed with her work, and with a clear infatuation with her, Alex turned it down.

But then the goalposts shifted.

The agent changed the deal.

Apparently, it would only be for a few weeks, as they were so close to finally nailing the Riders to the cross. With her inside the headquarters, it would give them the final strands of information they needed to bring them down.

And then it would be over.

Nattie and Joel would be home.

Her record would be expunged.

Desperation made her take the drive to South Carolina, where an eager Sykes showed her the ropes under the sceptical and terrifying eye of Wyatt. Rumours of an impending war with another drug lord circulated the bar frequently, and Alex absorbed as much as she could before relaying it back.

They were close.

Very close.

She knew she was playing a dangerous game, but she had done most of her life. Over the weeks since she’d left Sam, she’d kept her eyes on the news. She read about Wallace’s death, how Sam had murdered him in cold blood. That Sam had been sentenced to life in prison. It had crushed her, knowing a good man had done the right thing but would pay for it with his freedom.

A selfish gut punch was that he would never keep his promise.

It birthed a determination in Alex to see this mission through, to play the game and get her family back.

All she had to do was keep out of Wyatt’s suspicions, which she seemingly had done.

Up until Sam strode into The Pit and changed the game completely.

* * *

‘Jesus,’ Sam said, stepping forward towards the railing that boxed in Alex’s balcony. Her story had been as gruelling as he had imagined and, heartbreakingly, had ended the same way as the last one.

With a government agent using her desperation as a tool to control her.