Tangled Vines by Kay Bratt Page B

had been restored.
    She’d searched his tiny face so many times those first few months, trying to imagine if he looked like his maternal grandparents, the people she’d never known. But it didn’t matter—she finally had a connection to another human being in the world. They belonged to each other and no one could take that away. After all her months of worrying that she wouldn’t love him, that perhaps like her own parents she wouldn’t want her baby, she’d been relieved to find that instinctively she was a fiercely devoted mother, and that Jojo brought her a peace she had never known could exist. She just wished she could find a way to give back to him all that he had given her. She was trying. That was all she could do—just keep trying.
    Li Jin focused on the darkening sky out the window and reached up to wipe away the lone tear that traveled down her cheek. For nine years she had found a way to keep her son safe, most of the time even with a roof over his head. It hadn’t been easy as a young, single mother in a country that would hold your sins against you forever, but they’d survived. Without the help of anyone, she had raised an intelligent and compassionate little person.
    But she’d not done so well this time. She and her son were headed somewhere that her gut told her wasn’t a good place. Just how bad it would be—she didn’t know, but she’d soon find out.

    Li Jin woke when the door she leaned against was suddenly opened and she had to grab the seat in front of her to keep from toppling out of the car. She looked down and Jojo was still sleeping with his head on her lap. Erik waited impatiently from outside the car, hissing at her to get out.
    “What? Where are we?” she asked, trying to clear the fog from her mind. The sky around them was pitch-black, so she knew it was late.
    Erik pulled at her arm. “Leave Jojo sleeping—you and I have to make a little trip inside. We’ll be right back.”
    Li Jin struggled to wrench her arm from Erik. She wasn’t leaving Jojo anywhere, but especially not out here with Obi. She looked around and saw that they were parked behind a few taxis, at the curb in front of a strip of bars. Even though it was late, judging from the noise and carrying voices, the nightlife seemed to be in full swing. They’d obviously made it to Beijing, despite an accident on the highway that had caused them to spend two hours inching forward.
    Around them the music bellowed out of the buildings, creating a circus-like atmosphere. Li Jin looked behind them and saw an arch over the street with the words Sanlitun Road engraved across it. A few feet from their car, a trio of men staggered around, the two on the outside obviously trying to guide the middle one down the sidewalk. All of them looked drunk, but the guy in the middle was wasted. Farther down, Li Jin saw a few little street girls, holding flowers they’d try to sell to the bar patrons as they left for the night.
    “No, Erik. I can’t leave Jojo out here!” She jerked her arm away and Jojo stirred in his sleep. She didn’t trust Obi, especially when it came to her son.
    Erik bent down next to the car door and put his mouth close to her ear. He grabbed her upper arm and his fingers were like a vise. His hot breath sent a chill down her spine, and not in a good way.
    “Li Jin, I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. Jojo will be fine here with Obi. Now you either get out of the car quietly and you’ll be back before he opens his squinty little eyes, or I’ll pull you out and the little bastard will wake up and be scared shitless. Your choice.”
    He backed away from her and stood up, glaring down at her. Across his shoulder she saw he carried his familiar yellow Nike bag. It was bulging with something, and she felt sure it wasn’t just clothes. The glint in Erik’s eyes scared her and she shivered. This wasn’t the man she’d fallen in love with. This man—he was evil.
    Li Jin resisted the urge to rub away the