Page 109 of Shadowing You

She wanted to make him see reason. But her brother was as stubborn as a sick donkey, and he seemed farther from God than he’d ever been.

She didn’t have the energy to argue with him.

Pastor Su cleared his throat. “Dr. Lu is the co-chair of the Global Initiative Against Human Exploitation. He’s supposed to be protecting people from trafficking.”

“The Party trusts him,” Renshu said, “which is how I know you’re wrong.”

“You think the state can’t make mistakes? It’s not God, even if it pretends to be. Your Party can’t be trusted.”

“You’re the one who can’t be trusted.” Renshu’s words filled her stomach like poison. “You were in prison, and now you’re out. Did you escape? Is that why they’re hunting you?”

“Are you going to turn me in, brother?”

His eyes widened in shock, then softened, and she saw a flash of the boy he used to be—the boy who’d loved her and played with her and protected her.

He grunted and faced forward, arms crossed.

Pastor Su’s eyes caught hers in the rearview mirror. “We will take you safety. Nobody is getting turned in today.”

She reached over the bench seat and squeezed the older man’s shoulder. “Thank you for being here.”

Ethan tugged her toward him and wrapped his arm around her. Though he couldn’t have understood their argument, he must have picked up on the anger in the words she and Renshu had traded. He whispered, “You okay?”

“Some things don’t change.”

“Mm.” He seemed to consider that. “Our God is a God of miracles, sweetheart. There’s no heart He can’t reach.”

Her husband was right, even if Renshu felt unreachable.

“Eat, drink, and sleep.” Pastor Su had switched to English. “We move you to a boat tonight. Then a hard ride to Seoul. You need rest.”

Ethan leaned forward. “What happens in Seoul?”

“Someone has a plan,” the pastor said. “You will be safe.”

After they finished the food and water, she curled against Ethan’s side.

He kissed her forehead. “Rest, sweetheart.”

She would have preferred to speak with her brother, but the boy she’d known had been gone for a long time. Her throat was aching, and sleep was coming for her. Rather than fight it, she closed her eyes.

Don’t let us get caught on the road. Or in Weihai. Or on the boat.

So many things could go wrong.

Hours later, Mei Lin checked the zippered pocket of her jacket. The evidence was still there.

“Did you think it was going to run away?” Ethan’s smile was tight.

“It would be tragic to lose it after everything we went through to get it.” She pushed it into Ethan’s backpack and secured the clips.

She’d slept off and on, but she didn’t feel rested at all. If anything, she felt more exhausted than she had before she’d climbed into the truck nine hours before.

Pastor Su killed the headlights a quarter mile from the dock and eased the pickup the last stretch in the dark. The engine still rumbled, but she hoped not loudly enough to be heard.

Cold air that tasted of salt slid through Renshu’s open window. Mei Lin could see the massive shipping port to the east, where containers were stacked like buildings and dwarfed by cranes.

The fishing pier was closer and older, a collection of worn structures surrounded by a chain-link fence.