Page 3 of Shadowing You

He said he’d help. His voice had been…confused. But she’d heard hope, hadn’t she? And longing?

Or had she heard what she’d wanted to hear?

The man who’d pledged to love her until death hadn’t come for her. Maybe he hadn’t known where to look.

But six years was a long time to search. Surely, in six years, he could’ve tracked her down.

Out the window, the fields ran flat to the horizon, offering no hiding places. The sooner she left Asia, the better.

Right now, she needed a phone charger, money, and a train ticket that would get her out of China before Lu Feng caught up with her. She had a handful of yuan and a passport and a nearly useless phone and maybe, possibly a way of escape.

It was more than she’d had when she’d woken up that morning.

She was out of prison, but she wasn’t safe yet.

CHAPTER TWO

Ethan Wright chose a seat at the window in the nearly empty gate. A businessman three rows down was asleep with his mouth open, and a young woman near the agent’s desk was watching something on her laptop with her headphones on. A few other people were scattered throughout the area, but not many. The flight wouldn’t start boarding for another half hour.

His phone dinged, and he winced at the name displayed on his screen.

I’ll be praying. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do.

He’d told Holly he had a family emergency—which was true, but not even close to the whole truth. If he’d had any idea Mei Lin was still alive…

Movement in his periphery caught his attention.

And there was Gavin, stepping into the gate area carrying two white cups. He settled into the seat beside Ethan.

“You didn’t have to come.” Ethan wasn’t used to his father showing up for him. He must’ve flown to New York from Portland or Boston, possibly landed at LaGuardia, then taken a taxi across town to JFK. He would’ve had to have bought a ticket to get through security. He’d done all that, just to be here.

Always, just when Ethan was ready to give up on this relationship—the word barely applied—Gavin pulled something like this.

“I wanted to look you in the eye.”

Ethan shoved his phone in his pocket and shifted so his father could do just that. “I’m not changing my mind.”

“So you said.” Gavin set one of the cups on the armrest between them.

“Thanks.” Tasting the coffee, Ethan was surprised to find that Gavin had remembered how he took it.

“Seven hundred million cameras,” Gavin said finally. “That’s the current estimate. One for every two citizens.”

“You mentioned that.” On the phone the day before, Gavin had given Ethan a laundry list of reasons why he absolutely should not go to China. “To be clear, I’m flying to Hong Kong.” Which was technically China, but not really. He didn’t understand the relationship the city had with the rest of the country, but it was different. It was a safe place, a gateway between the free world and the communist country addicted to surveillance.

“To be clear,” Gavin said, “plans change. Things go wrong.”

The casual way he said it, as if it were a foregone conclusion that Mei Lin wouldn’t show, had the coffee souring.

She would reach Hong Kong. She’d meet him there.

“Figure you’ll just wear a mask?” Gavin said. “Won’t help—they can identify you by your gait. Nobody keeps track of people the way China does.”

“They have no reason to track me or suspect me of anything. It’s not like I’m an enemy of the Chinese government.”

“China is not like anywhere you’ve been before.”

“It’s like China.” Shooting a glare at the man beside him, Ethan couldn’t help the irritation bleeding into his voice. “I’ve been there before.”