Page 71 of Shadowing You

Lord, help!

The driver’s door was open, the driver gone. Ethan half-threw, half-set Mei Lin into the back seat and turned to help Han.

“Get in!” Michael shouted in his ear. “Go!”

“But Han⁠—”

“I’ll take care of him. Go!”

Ethan scrambled into the driver’s seat. The driver had run, but at least he’d left the keys. Ethan started the engine and hit the gas.

He checked the rearview mirror. Han was face-down, a guard hovering over him.

The other guards watched Ethan and Mei Lin’s retreat, but nobody was running for a vehicle.

Ethan turned the corner of the hospital, wheels squealing, and headed for the four-lane road they’d come in on, driving as fast as possible, considering the traffic. “Mei Lin, are you hurt?”

“No, no. I’m all right, just…”

In his ear, Michael said, “Are you two safe?”

“We’re moving, but what about Han?” Ethan hated that the other man had been caught. “How can you take care of him?”

“He’ll claim he was hired security, just doing his job. It should be all right.”

“Should be? You said⁠—”

“If you hadn’t left, all three of you would be in custody. I’ll do everything I can for Han. Right now, you need to focus on taking care of yourself and Mei Lin. Are you being followed?”

He checked the rearview again, but how could he differentiate between afternoon traffic and hospital guards and cops? “I don’t think so.”

But sirens in the distance told him this wasn’t even close to over.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

While Ethan sped away from the hospital, Mei Lin climbed over the console, dropped into the passenger seat, and clicked on her seatbelt.

Ethan glanced at her. “You okay?”

“Of course.” No need to tell him how her legs felt like limp noodles. No need to tell him how she’d burned every ounce of energy running through the hospital. He was worried enough already.

“Michael,” Ethan said. “Where are we going?”

“I’m getting an address.” Michael must’ve connected all three of them because she heard his answer in her ear. “Hold on.”

He went silent, and Ethan’s jaw tightened a little more with every second that ticked by. He looked in the rearview mirror enough that she twisted to look out the back window. “Nobody is following us.”

“Yet,” Ethan said. “Michael⁠—”

“I got you a place.” Michael’s voice came in both their ears. “Sending the address.”

Ethan dug his phone from his jacket and handed it to her. She thumbed it open, pulled up the map, and recognized the street.

“Take a right at the second light.”

She watched the storefronts slide past. She’d walked this stretch on her way to the market, thinking how different this life was from the one she would live with Ethan in America. She’d had so much hope.

Please, don’t let them find us. Get us out of Fuyin.