Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
A shout carried across the meadow. A man’s voice, the voice too far away and too broken by trees for Mei Lin to hear. But it didn’t sound like English.
Then something snapped behind them, too close, and Summer swiveled toward the sound. “What was that?” Her voice stayed low as she touched her ear. “Talk to me. Anyone. What just happened?”
Mei Lin pressed against the cold hill. She was tired of this hiding place. She wanted to move. To stretch. To find Ethan.
No one answered Summer’s question.
Then Alyssa said, “I’m moving in.”
“No.” Callan. “Hold your position.”
“Callan—”
“Stay where you are, Alyssa. We need you to direct them when they get here.”
The voices in her ear had been talking about this elusive group of people who were coming. Maybe help was close.
Also, Callan was protecting the woman he loved, along with Summer and Mei Lin.
“I’ll check it out.” Summer spoke to the people listening on comms.
“Don’t take any risks.” That was a different voice, volume lower than the others. “None.”
“Copy.” She dropped to a crouch beside Mei Lin. “Stay here. Do not leave this spot, no matter what.” She gripped Mei Lin’s shoulder. “Okay?”
Mei Lin nodded, and Summer stalked into the brush, keeping low and quiet, moving toward the place the noise had come from.
She was a warrior. They were all warriors, fighting Mei Lin’s battles.
While she hid in the bushes.
The shouting began again.
She couldn’t make out the words, only the rise and fall of them, the cadence. It was Mandarin.
That same new voice came through the earpiece. “Translate.” It must be Grant, Summer’s husband. He repeated the words being shouted, the tones flattened, the syllables clumsy in a mouth that had no idea what it was saying.
It was enough.
Show yourself, or your husband dies.
“Tell me what they’re…?” Grant stopped. “They’re moving. Something’s happening. Everybody hold. Hold.”
“You see him?” Mei Lin asked, her pitch too high. “You see Ethan? You are protecting him?”
“I had eyes on him.” A pause. “What did the guy say?”
“You put eyes on him again, and I will tell you.”
“Mei Lin.” That was Alyssa. “Tell us what he said.”
She crept around the edge of the hill and peered through the branches toward the gray meadow.
If she told these Wrights what the man had said, they would tell her to stay where she was. Or they would come back and fold her deeper into the trees. They would tell her to wait because the witness had to live.
But what about Ethan?
He’d sacrificed himself for her. In the hours since he’d jumped off the snowmobile, she’d turned his decision over, always coming up with the same thing—he was in danger, perhaps hurt or worse—because of her.
This was more proof that she’d cost too much.
She could still hear the words her grandmother had snapped at her when she was a child, telling her she wasn’t worth the trouble. She’d believed that about herself for as long as she could remember, had done the sums a thousand ways in her mind and had never once come out ahead.
But Ethan had never done the sums. He hadn’t crossed an ocean because she was a debt he owed or a problem he was obligated to fix. He hadn’t slid off the snowmobile because he was a fool.
He’d done it because he loved her.
And love didn’t weigh a person to decide whether she was worth the cost. It simply gave everything it had.
It wasn’t about what she was worth or he was worth. Love was worth the sacrifice.
Which meant she wasn’t going to cower here while he put his life on the line.
If she stepped near the meadow—not into the open, but close. And if she shouted so they knew she was there, then maybe they’d look for her. And maybe Grant would have a chance to save Ethan.
Maybe.
She wouldn’t let them see her. She would just peek.
“Grant.” She breathed his name into the comm. “Save my husband.”
“Stay where you are.” His voice was hard now, as if he could control her feet with his voice. “Summer, are you with her? Is anyone with her?” When nobody answered, he changed tactics. “Listen to me, Mei Lin.” His voice was soothing. “We have more people coming. They’re almost here. Right, Alyssa?”
“Pulling in now,” she said. “Mei Lin, give us ten minutes.”
Ten minutes was an eternity. Ethan might be dead in ten minutes.
“There are men looking for you,” Grant said. “If you show yourself, you will die. And so will Ethan.”
“But you will save him.”
The man was still shouting in Chinese, and as she crept closer, she could hear him better. It was Lu Feng, she was almost sure of it. He was counting down.
These people, this whole family, had helped her and Ethan escape from China. And they’d put themselves on the line today to protect them.
Asher was out there somewhere. Nobody knew where he was. Perhaps he’d already died for her.
Father, You see them all. You see me. And You see Ethan. What should I do?
She didn’t get an answer. She got courage.
She kept moving through the woods.
She could listen to the voices in her ear telling her to go back to the hill and hide.
Or she could listen to the voice in her heart telling her to find her husband.
She crept forward. When she saw Ethan, she would know what to do.
The meadow was right there, through the trees, an open space separated from darkness and shadows, and she walked toward it.