Outlaw

“It’s the last thing Shen Yu said to Lisa. In Mandarin, it can mean if, or it can mean…”

“Key,” Margaret answered for him.

“We’re missing something here. Let me give Punky a call, and I’ll get back to you.”

A low, ominous growl rumbled from deep within Cher. Margaret looked down at the normally calm cur and saw her hackles raised. “I’m going to harden our position here and fortify the entrance. Make sure you call before you reach the gate.”

Jax paused before responding. “What’s going on, Margaret?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I just have a bad feeling.”

“Hang on. I’m on my way.”

“Hurry.”

* * *

Tan Lily rolled to her other side and looked through the window at the hills in the distance. Under normal circumstances, it might have been a view she could have enjoyed while on vacation.

But these were anything but normal circumstances.

Even if she ignored for a moment that she was at a CIA safe house instead of in her lab at UCSD where she was supposed to be, she had too many thoughts running through her head to enjoy something as simple as the Southern California scenery. Chief among them was her husband’s involvement with the CIA. Contrary to what she had told Jax and the female NCIS special agent, she had only suspected as much. Learning that he had been spying for the Americans erased any chance she would ever see him again.

What was he thinking?

The knock at her door jolted her from her anxiety-induced introspection, and she craned her neck to see it crack open. The woman who ran the safe house entered with her dog heeling beside her.

“We need to go,” Margaret said.

She didn’t seem nervous or excited, but Tan Lily could tell by the tone in her voice she was serious. She sat up and turned to the Security Protective Officer, letting her hair fall haphazardly across her shoulders.

“Where?”

Margaret walked across the room and closed the drapes to hide the view outside. “To a safe place,” she replied. “We’ve been compromised.”

Tan Lily kicked her feet off the bed and set them onto the scraped hardwood floors, but she felt dizzy as she considered what that meant. Compromised?

“I thought this was a safe place,” she said with obvious frustration.

Margaret shot her a sideways glance, and Tan Lily could tell she wasn’t thrilled with the situation either. Their reasons might have been different, but she knew that being openly obstinate wouldn’t help her cause.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Cher walked closer and sniffed her hand.

Margaret nodded in acceptance. “It’s okay. You’ve been through a lot. Do you want to wake Shen Li, or should I?”

Hearing her daughter’s name ignited a fire inside her. It was barely a flicker but enough to remind her that the situation was bigger than her and her own desires — there was a seven-year-old little girl sleeping in the bed next to her. She would do what needed to be done, but nothing absolved her from her duties as a mother.

“I’ll do it.”

Over her shoulder, she heard Margaret speaking into a radio. “Road One, we’re preparing to move, over.”

Tan Lily ignored the sound of static and gently brushed Shen Li’s cheek to wake her. Her daughter’s eyelids fluttered as she struggled to release the dreams holding her firmly in place, but Tan Lily persisted and gently whispered in her ear, “Wake up, Shen Li. Wake up, my precious.”

Shen Li’s eyes struggled to open, still in dreamland and not seeing her mother leaning over her. Tan Lily continued stroking her cheek and whispered softly to her daughter, persistent in pulling her back into the real world.

“Come now, little one,” Tan Lily said. “We need to go.”

She scooped her daughter off the bed and lifted her in her arms, turning her so that Shen Li’s head rested on her shoulder, and her legs wrapped around her waist. She turned and made eye contact with Margaret, who nodded and gestured for her to leave the room.

Two of Margaret’s men stood at either end of the hall, wearing body armor and carrying rifles at the low ready. Despite what she had been through and seen in the last day, seeing them armed for war sent a shiver down her spine and filled her with dread for what was to come.

The radio over her shoulder squawked again. “You’re clear. Proceed as planned.”

“Copy,” Margaret replied.

She carried her daughter down the stairs, Shen Li’s face nuzzled against her neck as she followed the Security Protective Officer across the living room’s hardwood floors to the front door. Margaret paused to peer through the sidelight before opening the door and stepping through. Two pickup trucks idled in the circular drive with their rear doors open.

Tan Lily felt a strong hand rest on her upper back with its fingers wrapped loosely around her neck, applying gentle pressure to guide her to the truck. The grip wasn’t oppressive or controlling. It comforted her as she carried her daughter to the Ford Raptor at the rear, placed her daughter on the seat, and climbed in after her. Cher bounded up into the cab and sat on the floorboard at her feet.