Chapter 4 - THE BOUNTY HUNTER
Despite their frozen assets, Arthur Sterling had powerful, dangerous friends. He called in a favor and hired Marcus Vance, an underground "fixer" and ex-military tracker, to find me and bring Leo back.
I knew they wouldn't stop easily, which is why I lived like a ghost. I paid for everything in cash. I used a fake name, "Elena," and took a job working remotely as a freelance graphic designer using a heavily encrypted VPN.
But I made one mistake.
Leo developed a severe ear infection. In a moment of panic, I took him to a local pediatric clinic in Florence. The receptionist required a passport for medical records. I hesitated, but my son was crying in pain. I handed over his real passport.
It only took forty-eight hours for Marcus Vance to ping the international medical database.
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I was walking through the local market, buying fresh tomatoes and bread, when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I glanced at the reflection in a bakery window. A tall, broad-shouldered American man in a dark jacket was weaving through the crowd, his eyes locked dead on me.
My blood ran cold. He had found us.
