Page 164 of Shadowing You

There. A few feet to his left, where Kyle had dragged the dead man into the brush, metal glinted, half-buried in the wet leaves.

The men started moving, following Lu’s orders.

But Lu sat back down on the rock, facing Ethan.

Ethan would wait. He’d slump in defeat and look like a beaten man, which took no acting at all, and when he had his chance, he’d grab that knife.

It wasn’t much, but maybe he could make a difference.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

A shout carried across the meadow. A man’s voice, the voice too far away and too broken by trees for Mei Lin to hear. But it didn’t sound like English.

Then something snapped behind them, too close, and Summer swiveled toward the sound. “What was that?” Her voice stayed low as she touched her ear. “Talk to me. Anyone. What just happened?”

Mei Lin pressed against the cold hill. She was tired of this hiding place. She wanted to move. To stretch. To find Ethan.

No one answered Summer’s question.

Then Alyssa said, “I’m moving in.”

“No.” Callan. “Hold your position.”

“Callan—”

“Stay where you are, Alyssa. We need you to direct them when they get here.”

The voices in her ear had been talking about this elusive group of people who were coming. Maybe help was close.

Also, Callan was protecting the woman he loved, along with Summer and Mei Lin.

“I’ll check it out.” Summer spoke to the people listening on comms.

“Don’t take any risks.” That was a different voice, volume lower than the others. “None.”

“Copy.” She dropped to a crouch beside Mei Lin. “Stay here. Do not leave this spot, no matter what.” She gripped Mei Lin’s shoulder. “Okay?”

Mei Lin nodded, and Summer stalked into the brush, keeping low and quiet, moving toward the place the noise had come from.

She was a warrior. They were all warriors, fighting Mei Lin’s battles.

While she hid in the bushes.

The shouting began again.

She couldn’t make out the words, only the rise and fall of them, the cadence. It was Mandarin.

That same new voice came through the earpiece. “Translate.” It must be Grant, Summer’s husband. He repeated the words being shouted, the tones flattened, the syllables clumsy in a mouth that had no idea what it was saying.

It was enough.

Show yourself, or your husband dies.

“Tell me what they’re…?” Grant stopped. “They’re moving. Something’s happening. Everybody hold. Hold.”

“You see him?” Mei Lin asked, her pitch too high. “You see Ethan? You are protecting him?”

“I had eyes on him.” A pause. “What did the guy say?”