Page 121 of Shadowing You

“I’ll need to start buying them by the case.”

“Please, don’t.”

“When you finish that, I have a treat for you.”

“Am I a toddler who needs to be bribed to eat her breakfast?”

“Maybe.” He opened the sack enough for her to peer inside. “Is it working?”

The sugary confection at the bottom of the bag had her mouth watering. “Is that a donut?”

“It’s yours if you finish your protein bar.”

She made a face that had him chuckling.

She sipped the water. It didn’t soothe her throat, but she was thirsty enough to take a second sip.

He set two small white pills in the little tray on the console between them. “Take these after you eat. Not on an empty stomach. I don’t want you to get sick.”

“I am a nurse. I know how medicine works.”

He stretched his legs. “Just let me take care of you.”

As if he’d done anything but take care of her for days. The bar tasted like cardboard with a faint suggestion of chocolate. She couldn’t remember when she’d eaten last. She should be hungry, but every swallow was painful. She gave up and held it out to him. “The donut will be softer.”

“Mm. A likely story.” But he traded the bar for the donut—plain glazed, her favorite. She took a bite, and though it hurt to swallow, it went down easier than the crunchy bar. And not just because it tasted better.

After managing a few bites and swallowing the tablets, she angled to face both men. “What were you two talking about?”

“We were going over your evidence.” Ethan glanced at his father. “Apparently, he doesn’t sleep.”

Gavin leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees. “There’s a lot of information here, Mei Lin. It was brave of you to collect it. Ethan told me how you kept it hidden. That was really impressive.”

“Or foolish,” she suggested.

“Some things are worth taking risks for.”

Ethan might not agree, but he didn’t argue, just lifted her hand and kissed it gently.

“The problem,” Gavin continued, “is that it’s old—2018 to early 2020. If we can find these women and question them, they could validate your suspicions. But that’s not going to be easy. It’s not like these networks are keeping careful records about their victims. Even if we can find them, it won’t tell us what he’s been up to in the past six years.”

“So it was all for nothing?”

The older man’s eyebrows rose. “I didn’t say that.” He tapped the laptop screen. “Lu Feng was building something and getting rich in the process. People don’t walk away from that kind of money. Once it starts pouring in, they just get greedier—and cleverer. They get better at hiding it.” Gavin’s lips tipped up at the corners. “He’s good, but I know people who are better, and they’re digging into every one of the names you listed—victims and those you thought might be accomplices. They’re also looking at hospitals he’s connected to, charities, foundations—anyone he sent money to, anyone who sent money to him. If he’s still working, we’ll find his fingerprints.”

Mei Lin slid the donut back into the bag and wiped her sugary fingertips on a napkin. “What if you don’t?”

“We will. It’s just going to take time.”

She must have looked less than convinced because Ethan squeezed her hand. “Now that you’re out of China, we have time.”

“The good news is that this information should be enough for the Party to take him into custody, especially considering he’s been acting as a champion fighting human trafficking. He’s an embarrassment, and they’ll want him silenced. They don’t have the same pesky habeas corpus rules in China that we have in the US.”

Ethan’s mouth tipped a little. “Mei Lin has firsthand knowledge of their criminal justice system.”

His words and the deadpan tone surprised a chuckle out of her.

Gavin’s grin faded when a phone on his tray vibrated. He looked at the screen. “This should be news.” He pushed to his feet and wandered toward the back of the cabin as he answered.