Sitting on the edge of the bed, with her heart in her throat, Ashley was twisting her brain into knots trying to come up with a way to get out of this. The Xings were standing between her and the door—Bao with a face like thunder, Chen looking slightly less murderous. They weren’t exactly big people—Bao had a roundness to her, but Chen was short and narrow. Individually, she probably could’ve broken past, but not through two of them together.

She didn’t know what weapons they had on them—if any—or how they planned to deal with her. She couldn’t even remember why she’d come up here in the first place.

If only she’d listened to Preston and left the whole mystery alone. It wasn’t her place to snoop, and now she was about to face the consequences of her incessant curiosity.

Chen was the first to speak, making Ashley startle out of her desperate thoughts.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “She doesn’t mean to be so—”

Bao scoffed. “Don’t apologize for me.”

“You’re scaring the girl.”

Rolling her eyes, Bao looked at Ashley, studying her face for a moment. Then she sighed and crossed her arms, some of the thunder draining from her expression. “I said you can get clothes from the suitcase,” she said. “I didn’t say you can dig around and find things that don’t concern you.”

So Ashley was right, this is what this was all about—the fact that Ashley had found the murder weapon. She didn’t know how Bao realized she’d seen it, except perhaps to assume she’d jostled it out of position somehow—and neither did she think the accusation was fair, because who invited someone to look into their bag and not expect them to see the contents?

“The rope…”

“That rope is none of your business,” Bao snapped, and Ashley saw something in her eyes—was that embarrassment? It was almost as if Bao hadn’t considered that Ashley might see the rope, only realizing when it was too late.

For a pair of killers, that was surprisingly sloppy thinking.

She coughed and said, “It is, when there’s someone in this building who was strangled to death.”

It made Bao glare. “I knew you’ve been doing your little investigation,” she said, waving a finger at her, taking a step forward. “Why don’t you leave it to the police, hmm?”

Fear spiked in Ashley’s chest at each of Bao’s advancing steps, and she raised her hands, recoiling on the bed. “Stay back.”

Freezing, staring at her, Bao blinked. “I’m not going to hurt you, silly girl,” she said after a pause, retreating back to her husband’s side. “I need you to get us out of here. Before the police comes.”

Numbly, Ashley said, “You want me to…help you escape?” disbelief making her forget her fear for a moment.

“Yes.”

The relief that they weren’t actually planning to kill her washed through her like a tidal wave, but she couldn’t allow herself to relax, not when they were asking the impossible of her—she didn’t know how her refusal would make them react, and she braced herself for the worst.

“I’m sorry but I can’t do that,” she said tightly, and then, pushing the words out rapidly as she got to her feet: “Preston will be back any second—”

Chen lifted a hand, gesturing for calm. “We’re really not trying to upset you,” he said evenly. “Please sit down.” When she didn’t move but continued to stand there stiffly, preparing to defend herself, Chen’s expression softened to one of vulnerability. “Please,” he said quietly. Ashley looked at Bao, at the mirrored expression on her face, and realization hit her: they weren’t here to hurt her. They were here because they were scared.

She sat cautiously, watching husband and wife exchange a look, and then they moved to sit beside each other on the couch near the bed, and Chen smiled brokenly and opened his mouth to speak, words coming small and stilted.

“I am here…not entirely legally.”

“What do you mean?” Ashley asked.

“My husband,” Bao said, “he was a very successful editorial cartoonist in China. But he…”

“I had some private work, political, anti-government…”

Bao lowered her eyes. “They found it, and he spent so much time in prison. Too many years,” she added on little more than a whisper, palpable pain radiating from her. She put her hand on Chen’s thigh, and he covered it with his own. “I thought I would never see him again…”

Ashley couldn’t imagine how difficult that must’ve been, knowing you’d seen the person you loved for the last time, having to continue a lifetime without them. She gave a sympathetic smile.

“He escaped to South Korea,” Bao continued, “then arranged travel to America under false documents. I was waiting for him here. He always said he would find me.” They looked at each other, eyes glowing, love pouring from them. She was hard as nails while he carried himself quietly and with a touch of shyness, two people at complete opposite ends of the personality scale, but the love they had for each other was clear as day, and Ashley’s heartstrings twanged for them.

“She had other propositions,” Chen added, mouth lifting in a proud sort of smirk, “offers of a comfortable life. But she waited for me.”

Staring into her husband’s eyes for a moment or two longer, Bao turned back to Ashley and drew in a breath. “You call it soul mates in English,” Bao said suddenly, and for some reason she couldn’t identify, the words hit Ashley in the gut.

“We made our lives here,” Chen said. “I got very lucky in my work and managed to build a fortune, but I’d give it all up right now if it meant never having to be apart from my wife again.” He paused, then added in a sharper voice: “The police cannot question us.”

There was no doubt in his tone: he would ensure that didn’t happen, no matter what he had to do. Ashley feared for them, at what they might be driven to if backed into a corner.

“If they find out who he really is, how he escaped…” Bao said. Her words grew thick and then trailed off, and with a spike of surprise, Ashley saw moisture glisten in her eyes. “They were going to hang him one day,” she said. “But my brother, so loyal… He got a job as a prison guard, and he helped Chen escape one day before the execution. Stole the rope they meant to use and freed him. My brother was killed for helping to free my husband, and I keep that piece of rope to remind me every day of his sacrifice. Of how the world bent and twisted to bring us back together.” She grasped her husband’s hand tightly, brought it to her chest, and said fiercely, “We will never take our freedom for granted.”

It was an incredible story, the last thing she’d expected to hear when they first started to explain themselves, and Ashley’s mind was in a tailspin. She believed them—how could she not? Either they were the greatest actors the world had ever seen, or they were telling the truth—and Ashley could see the love there, the pain, the years of fearing for their own safety, the endless risk that Chen would be discovered. That they’d be torn from each other and forced to live apart, which for them it seemed was the worst possible punishment, surpassing even death.

They were desperate, caught up in something here that meant nothing to them, but could have a catastrophic impact on their lives.

“We’re here with false identities,” Chen said. “We cannot speak to the police.”

Of course they couldn’t. There was no way Ashley would let them risk that. Even if it meant breaking the law herself.

“I understand,” she said, wishing with all her might she could open a door in this moment and send them out, silent and free. But there was an ocean of snow blocking the roads right now, and they’d have to bide their time. Just for a little while. “It’s too dangerous out there now, but when it clears a bit…”

Relief passed over Bao’s face so powerfully that she looked broken with it, and Ashley felt the pain of her desperation right down to her bones. It made emotion well in her throat, thick and heavy.

She couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to have someone love her as fiercely as Bao loved her husband. It was enough to make her dizzy.

“Thank you,” Chen said, glowing with sincerity. “We are in your debt.”