Chapter 2
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.”
Gavin continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “If they decide you’re a threat, they’ll take you into custody. I’ll do my best to get you out, but there are no guarantees.”
“I understand.”
“Mei Lin has a clean ID, a valid passport, and a train ticket. She should have no trouble getting herself out.”
“Great. Then I’ll meet her in Hong Kong.”
“But—”
“Which is it, Gavin?” Ethan shifted so he could see his father’s face. “Is she safe, or isn’t she? You have contacts. What are they telling you?”
“Not enough. I don’t like it.”
“I’m not abandoning my wife to deal with…whatever she’s dealing with.”
Even though, apparently, Ethan had done just that. But he hadn’t known. He’d believed her parents, and they’d believed the information they’d been given.
“Going in won’t help,” Gavin said. “You’ll just get yourself arrested. You have no way—”
“How far would you go?” He worked to keep his voice even. “For Evelyn? Or Delaney? Or any of your daughters? How far would you go to protect them?”
“I’d do anything,” Gavin said. “For every member of my family.” He held Ethan’s eye contact, and Ethan didn’t miss the careful way he’d worded his answer, as if to include him.
It would take a lot more than words for Ethan to buy that.
“Putting yourself in danger isn’t the same as helping. Sometimes, the most useful thing you can do is stay where you’re safe and can coordinate—”
“I don’t have the contacts you have. There’s nothing I can do from here. If I want to get her out, I have to do it myself.”
“You know I’ll do everything I can.”
Ethan looked forward again. People were filling the seats around him while gate agents worked at their stations. “Did you learn anything else?”
Gavin sighed. “Her ID was scanned yesterday for the first time since October—”
“Wait. October? I thought—”
“—of 2020,” Gavin finished. “She took a bus to Zhengzhou.”
“Any idea where she’s staying?”
“Nope.”
Had Mei Lin gone to a hotel? She’d picked up the money he’d wired her almost twelve hours earlier, and he’d wired enough to pay for any hotel in the country, plus meals and whatever else she might need or want.
Maybe she’d been trying to stay off the radar.
Had she paid cash for a safe place to sleep? Or found a friend?
Or had she sat up all night, avoiding…whatever it was that had her frightened?
His prayers for her safety repeated like a song he couldn’t get out of his head.
“Wherever she’s been for the last six years,” Gavin said, “there’s no official record of it. She had no housing, no job. My contact has two theories. The first is the most likely, that she went somewhere off the radar, a village far from any town, and she stayed there.”
“Why would she do that?”
Gavin shrugged.
Ethan tried to imagine it—Mei Lin running and hiding. Even if she were afraid, she’d have reached out to him. She’d have told him something. “We were married. She was biding time until her visa came through. She wanted to come.”
“Okay.”
Ethan pretended not to hear the doubt in his reply. “What’s the second theory?”
“Someone powerful wanted her to cease to exist.”
That wasn’t a better option. Ethan half wished Mei Lin had just run away. But he’d heard fear in her voice. Where had she been? Why would anyone target her?
So many questions. Zero answers.
He checked the text thread he’d glanced at every few minutes since her call. After wiring the money the day before, he’d bought her a ticket on the high-speed rail. He’d messaged the ticket info and wire transfer number.
A few hours later, she’d replied with a thumbs-up.
He’d never been so happy to see that little graphic in his life. He’d texted back.
I’ll meet you in Hong Kong.
She didn’t reply. Still hadn’t.
Maybe her phone was dead. Or maybe she wanted to conserve the battery.
“I’m coming with you,” Gavin said. “I have contacts on the ground. I know how to move.”
“No.”
“Don’t be stubborn. I can be more useful there than—”
“No.” Ethan shifted to face him. “I appreciate the offer, I do.” But he needed to focus on Mei Lin, not on his awkward relationship with the man who’d fathered him. “If I need help, I’ll contact you.”
“You’re as stubborn as your mother.”
“Thank you.”
Gavin failed to hide a small smile. “Fine. You’ll let me know if you need anything.”
“I will.” He sipped the coffee, scanning the growing crowd. “How’s the family? Everyone…okay?”
They both knew what he meant. It’d been a couple months since Gavin’s daughters had interrupted Ethan and Gavin’s lunch in Virginia.
Delaney had been curious—a little suspicious—when she’d caught them sitting together, her father and a local doctor who should have had nothing more in common with the ex-CIA agent than a prevalent last name.
It was the youngest, Kenzie, who’d figured it out. He could still hear her voice.
“Alyssa, Brooklynn, Cici, Delaney…Ethan.”
To his credit, Gavin had apparently confessed to his wife because when she’d arrived, she hadn’t been shocked. In fact, she’d given Gavin the go-ahead to confess.
Maybe Gavin had wanted to tell his daughters the truth, or maybe he just hadn’t been able to come up with a suitable lie quickly enough.
“I’d like you to meet Dr. Ethan Wright…my son.”
Ethan could still hear the cadence of his father’s words, still see the shock and horror on his half sisters’ faces.
“They’re dealing with it.” Gavin kept his face carefully blank. “Some better than others.”
Ethan wanted to ask more questions. He wanted to know how Delaney, the only one he’d known before that terrible day, was handling the revelation. She and Noah had married—that much he knew. He hoped finding out her father had an illegitimate son hadn’t put too much of a pall on the festivities.
He didn’t ask. Delaney wasn’t his business. None of his sisters were, even if he had spent years thinking about them, fantasizing that he could be part of their family.
He was done with that.
He had his own family to find.
Gavin reached into his pocket and came out with his business card. On the back, he’d jotted down a name—Michael—along with a phone number. “In case you can’t reach me. Michael’s my nephew… Your cousin. He’s still at the Agency and can help with resources on the ground.”
“They know about me?”
“Everyone knows about you. Michael offered to help.”
“Why?”
Gavin looked at him, his lip twitching up. “Everyone’s pretty ticked at me.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Son, none of this is your fault. None of it, and they know that.” He faced forward again. “You need help, and you’re family.”
He wasn’t family. He was nothing more than the result of his parents’ poor judgment.
He stood to pull out his wallet and add the card to it. Also, to hide his reaction.
He hadn’t slept since Mei Lin’s call. He was running on adrenaline and hope. And fear.
Those were his excuses for the emotion. “Thank you.”
Gavin stood, and they both stared out the window at the tarmac. The last time they’d seen each other, Gavin had been so focused on his daughters and their reaction to his bombshell that he hadn’t noticed when Ethan had skulked away without a word.
Not that they’d ever been much for hugging, but this felt more awkward than usual.
“She’s worth the risk?” In the window’s reflection, Ethan saw Gavin shake his head. “Sorry. Stupid question.”
“She’s my wife. She’s worth any risk.”
“I’ll do everything I can to help.” He laid a hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “Reach out if you need me, and… You owe me nothing but…” He swallowed. “Let me know when you’re safe.”
“I will.”
Gavin squeezed his shoulder and held on for a long beat before he walked away.
When he was out of sight, Ethan stared at the plane that would take him to Mei Lin. He needed to put Gavin and his mess out of his mind.
Ethan had his own family to build. To do that, he had to find his wife.