Page 152 of Shadowing You

The ATV jerked, throwing a fan of dirt and mud, and passed close enough that Ethan caught the rider’s face. He was looking around, eyes wide and terrified.

Young and Caucasian. Not Lu Feng.

Two more engines bounced toward him.

Ethan had known the pistol wouldn’t be enough. Didn’t matter. He just needed to slow them down.

He fired at the first machine again and hit the engine. Smoke rose, and it rolled to a stop.

Ethan aimed for the second rider, just coming around a bend. His bullet hit the windshield and cracked it. He fired again, but the guy kept moving, passing too far ahead.

Ethan aimed at the third and sent two bullets whizzing toward the ATV. He missed, and the second time the slide lock opened, the trigger went mushy.

He was out of ammo.

Keep going, sweetheart. Don’t think about me. Keep going.

One machine was stopped. Two continued out of sight, and more were coming.

Ethan scrambled down the other side of the rise and plunged into the forest.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

The gunshots had stopped.

The machines had not.

Mei Lin tried to run, but between the mushy ground and the thick underbrush, she wasn’t moving fast enough. She’d abandoned the snowmobile and kept to the woods that surrounded a meadow that would’ve left her too exposed.

They would guess where she’d gone. They would find her.

She looked at the phone screen. She was at the red dot. What was she supposed to find here? There were no roads, no trails, no buildings. Nothing but trees and trees and trees.

Where was the help Asher had promised?

On the far side of the meadow, the land was a little tamer, as if someone had cleared paths. It made jogging easier.

It would make riding four-wheelers easier too. They would find her.

Where was Ethan? Was he alive? Did they have him?

Ahead were more trees—and to the right, and to the left. There was nothing but forest, everywhere.

She had no idea where to go.

And then, a woman stepped out from behind a clump of trees and waved.

Mei Lin blinked. Was she real, or an apparition conjured by desperation?

But the woman was there, tall with a pale blond ponytail beneath a black toque.

Mei Lin stopped.

The woman lifted both hands, palms open, and pressed a finger to her own lips. She approached slowly. “Mei Lin?”

“Ethan is…” Mei Lin tried to keep the tears out of her voice. “He’s back there.”

The blonde pressed her lips together, gazing through the forest behind Mei Lin. “I heard gunshots. Was that him?”