Page 174 of Shadowing You

Mei Lin looked up at him. “You saved his life.” She didn’t normally hug practical strangers, but she couldn’t help herself. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his middle. “I never thanked you. I owe you…everything.” She stepped away, a little embarrassed, wiping her eyes.

“You could’ve done it without me, but I’m glad I was there.” He looked over her head and frowned. “You should be sitting.”

“Probably.” Ethan braced himself against the sofa. “It’s Daniel, right?”

“Yes, and this is Camilla.”

Camilla shook Ethan’s hand, then took Mei Lin’s. “How are you?”

“So good, because my husband is.”

Daniel stepped forward to shake Ethan’s hand. “Your wife risked her life to get to you.”

Ethan gave her a look she read as half proud, half frustrated. “That sounds about right. She’s braver than I want her to be.”

Daniel was nodding. “I get that. I think, like the rest of the Wright men, you married up.”

Ethan swallowed a laugh before it could cost him. “You’re not wrong.”

She scanned the faces. They were all familiar, and not just from the hospital. “You were all there? In the woods?”

“We got there late,” Sam said. “Grant, Asher, and Callan had it under control.”

“And Alyssa and Summer,” Mei Lin said gently.

“Who could forget them?” Michael asked. “Alyssa was giving us orders like a general, and Summer…”

“She was trying to keep me from being stupid,” Mei Lin said, “but she got distracted, and I had to see.” She looked at her husband, who’d survived only because God had chosen to step in. “I wasn’t going to answer him, but they were beating you. I just wanted them to stop.”

Grant, built broader than the rest, stepped in from the kitchen. He must have arrived while she and Ethan slept. He gave her a brief side hug. “I would never have put you in danger, but when you called out across the meadow, they all shifted to try to find you, which helped us locate them. That’s why we were able to take them out.”

“And you might have saved his life.” Daniel turned to Ethan. “Not sure how much more your body could’ve taken.”

Grant’s look turned stern. “But next time, do what you’re told.”

“Why do you all keep saying ‘next time’?” She turned in the circle of them. “There will not be another time.”

The men laughed, though she didn’t understand what was funny.

“They get into more trouble than normal people,” Leila told her.

“Extraordinary.” Michael nodded as if that settled it. “Like I said.”

“You keep telling yourself that.” Daniel nodded toward the living room. “Let’s sit before Ethan collapses.”

“I’m fine.” But he settled on the sofa again, and Mei Lin perched beside him while the rest found seats on armchairs and dining room chairs they pulled in from the other room.

Sam and Eliza brought in drinks and more snacks, then joined the circle.

Michael had chosen the loveseat adjacent to the couch, Leila tucked beside him. He leaned forward. “I figured you’d want to know what we’ve learned.”

“Very much.” Mei Lin took Ethan’s hand, bracing herself.

“Gavin already told me how they found us,” Ethan said. “Real estate records.”

Michael nodded. “Gavin’s name is on your birth certificate. Once Lu’s people realized you’d had help getting out of China, they went looking for someone in your past who could give it. Gavin fit.”

“And the people Dr. Lu stole from their families and sold?” Mei Lin held herself very still, almost afraid to hear the answer. “Will they be found?”