Page 155 of Shadowing You

“Ah, I know she is smart. I did not give her enough credit before.” Lu Feng’s words carried no malice, just fact. “But she thinks she is…” He seemed to search for a word. “She believes she is important, that she can save people. A woman like that does not leave a husband to die.”

A hero.

That was the word Lu Feng couldn’t think of, and he was right.

Ethan’s wife was a hero.

“She will not leave you,” Lu said. “She will stay close, try to rescue you. And we will kill her.”

“You’re wrong.” Please, be wrong.

For once, sweetheart, don’t be brave.

Lu Feng looked so certain.

Please. Ethan squeezed his eyes shut. Please.

CHAPTER FORTY

The ATVs had gone silent not long after Alyssa had flagged Mei Lin down. The world was quiet now, just the occasional bird shaking the branches.

Mei Lin crouched beside Callan, a tangle of leafless twigs blocking them from view.

Somebody was coming. If not for Callan, she’d have been standing in the open, but he’d heard something and pulled her to safety.

She wanted to look, but she didn’t dare.

Callan had a pistol in his hand, gaze aimed over her head. A moment passed, and then his shoulders relaxed.

Alyssa stepped into view.

Callan waved her close. “News?”

“They’re close. I marked the trees so they can find us.” She crouched beside Mei Lin. “You okay?”

“We will find Ethan now?” She looked from Alyssa to Callan. “We must save him.”

“We’re working on it.” He checked his phone screen, then looked over her at Alyssa, shaking his head.

“Something is wrong?” Mei Lin kept her voice low. It was a dumb question. Everything was wrong.

“I can’t reach Asher.” Callan looked back at her. “There’s been no word since he sent these coordinates.”

“Oh. It’s because…” She took the phone out of her pocket. “This is his.”

Callan tapped a text on his phone, and the one she held lit up. He relaxed. “Good. That’s good.”

“But he has no way to contact us. We don’t know if he’s okay.”

“We’ll assume he is until we hear differently.”

Mei Lin didn’t like the uncertainty—the assuming of things with no evidence. She added Asher to her prayers.

“What are we doing?” She looked from Callan to Alyssa and back. “We have to do something.”

“We’re waiting.” Callan pocketed Asher’s phone. “How many men did you see?”

“At least eight. There might have been more, but Asher said he would draw some toward him. He was on a snowmobile, like us. Faster in the snow, but then it struggled.”