by Katy Lee
Her daed would frown at her for taking up a weapon. It wasn’t the Amish way, to fight, but it wasn’t too often Amish persons found themselves kidnapped, either. “Your will be done, Lord, but if that means You want me to fight back, I pray You will guide me and show me.”
And help Daed to understand and forgive me if I do.
She thought of Jack and how his family hadn’t offered him forgiveness when he did something he thought was right. It was so hard to know sometimes, in the heat of the moment, what the right thing was. Maybe if I escape, I can avoid it altogether.
Grace reached for the doorknob, but as she knew it would be, found it locked. She turned her body to gaze about the room. Without any windows, it must be in the basement, she believed—the fanciest basement she’d ever seen, but then it was a fancy house.
Grace put her hand on the wall behind her and made her way around the room, feeling for any sign of another exit. Every surface felt solid and impenetrable. She was about halfway around when the lock clicked again, and Grace dropped her hand to face the door, the fork in her palm and at the ready.
The door opened in and an older version of the man in the photograph stood in the doorway. He was also the man who yelled at her that day behind the stables. “Hello, Grace. We meet again,” he said with a slight smile. “Edmund Barone, in case you don’t remember.” He walked to the small table laden with the two full plates. “Please, join me. We have much to discuss.”
Grace didn’t move. “I’m not hungry. I just want to know why I’m here. Are you going to let me go?”
The man frowned. Then he pulled out a chair for her. “We will eat and talk. It’s been a long day, and I am hungry. Please, come sit. My cook made a lovely meal for you. She was happy to prepare it for you.”
“Me?” Grace pointed to herself. “How does she know me?”
“She doesn’t, but she knew your mother.”
Grace glanced to the photograph she’d left on the chair, then quickly back at the man. “I see you did, too,” she said warily.
He nodded. “Amelia was my sister.” He gestured around the room. “And this was her home.”
Grace swallowed hard. “I gathered that, but why am I here?”
“I thought it was time to formally meet my niece. When Amelia left to become Amish, our father made it known she was dead to us. Then I recently heard she really did die, and I was in shock. I guess in the back of my mind, I thought I had lots of time to make amends. But I was wrong. I was too late with my father, and I was too late with her.” He sighed, then lifted his chin. “Then I saw you back behind the barn. When you told me that your father was the horse trader for the Amish, I knew instantly who you were. You were Amelia’s daughter, and I had a second chance to make amends.”
“By kidnapping me? And hurting Leroy?”
“The men will be fine. I used a tranquilizer that we have for the horses. I’m sure they’re awake already, even if the other guy is locked up tight.” He smirked. “The little one is probably already home on the farm, but the big guy might have some nightmares after he wakes up and realizes he’s sleeping with the dead.”
“Big guy? Dead?” Grace asked in confusion. Then it became clear. “Do you mean Jack?” She stormed forward, her fork drawn and pointed at this man who was supposedly her onkel. “What did you do to him?”
Edmund didn’t flinch. Not one eyelash twitched at her violent demand. He didn’t even look at the fork, but only at her.
Heavy silence filled the room, then his nostrils flared before he said, “Sit.”
A sinking feeling filled Grace as she realized she had no choice but to follow orders. Her chest tightened at the thought of Jack being harmed. And what did this monster mean when he said Jack was sleeping with the dead?
She approached the chair and slowly sat down. “Please tell me he will be all right.”
Edmund sat in the other chair and lifted his napkin, spreading it across his lap. “I see you have feelings for him. This surprises me. Perhaps you would have come here willingly, after all.”
Grace barely heard anything after the word feelings. He thought she had feelings for Jack? “Why would you say such a thing?”
“I didn’t think you would agree to come to an Englisher’s home, but knowing that your Jack is actually English, I guess I was wrong. If you like him, maybe you would have.”
“How do you know Jack is an Englisher?” she asked.
“You told me at the hospital. I was pretending to be the orderly.”
“You had black hair.”
“A wig. Just like your Jack.”
So he knew. She had thought she was telling Leroy that Jack was an FBI agent, but really, she had been telling this man while he was kidnapping her. She’d given away Jack’s cover. “Why did you lock him up?”
“I needed some extra time.”
“For what?”
“To offer you a new home.”
“I don’t understand. I have a home. With my daed.”
“But you could have all this. You could be your own boss. Not just your own, but the only boss. You could care for the horses. You could buy your own racers, the best of the breeds. This could all be yours, just as it was supposed to be Amelia’s.”
Grace felt like she was back on the racing cart again, careening around corners at a breakneck speed. Every word Edmund said to her blurred by her in confusion. “You kidnapped me to give me a house?” Her voice squeaked at the absurdity of such a thing.
“Would you have come otherwise?”
“No.” She answered without a thought, because the question didn’t need any thinking on.
“Then I would do it again.” He picked up his fork and jabbed a tomato in his salad. “This is what you do with a fork, by the way.” He raised it to his mouth and started chewing slowly. “And before you discredit my offer, consider what a life as an Englisher could mean. You could have a relationship with your Jack. Just think about it.”
“What you’re saying is impossible. It would never be allowed. I’m Amish.”
“And Amelia was English before she chose to become Amish. She fell in love with the Amish horse trader’s son and married him. Anything’s possible.” Edmund shrugged. “Let’s eat. We’ll talk about how we can make this work after the meal.”
Grace breathed deeply and followed his command, but no matter how much she chewed, she thought for sure she would choke. Her throat swelled and wanted to reject anything she put into her mouth. Eating was not what she wanted right now.
She wanted answers.
She wanted to know if her father was safe.
And she wanted Jack.
Her stomach clenched at the thought. She couldn’t justify such a feeling. It was forbidden, but Edmund’s temptation hung in front of her and made her question the possibility.
Grace shook her head, clearing away the idea and the vision it created in her mind. “No.”
“No what? No to Jack, or no to all this?”
“No to both.” Grace stood up. She wished she could look down on this man, but her brace wouldn’t allow it. It was just as well, because it would have been wrong to show such anger.
She took a deep breath and said, “There’s a reason Mamm left here and never looked back, and it didn’t have anything to do with your father not allowing any contact. She loved being Amish, and she loved my daed. And I have to think of what she would want me to do if she were here, and that is to leave and never come back.”
Edmund placed his fork down and folded his arms in front of him on the table. A smile played on his lips. “You sound just like Amelia. Man, I miss her.” The smile flitted away. “I’m sorry things have come to this. It’s not how it was supposed to be, but have it your way. I will also have mine.”
Liam’s words came back to Grace. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.” But what did th
ose cryptic words mean?
“How are things supposed to be?” she dared to ask.
Edmund pursed his lips. “Well, first, my father should have left me this place. It was supposed to be me running the ranch, but instead he decided to snub me one last time and leave it to my sister.” A darkness filtered into his eyes as they stared straight at Grace. “The very sister who turned her back on us and our way of life for a farmhouse and cornfields. For some reason, Father thought she would make a better heir.”
“Mamm inherited all of this? D-did she know?” Grace could barely process the information. “She couldn’t have known.”
“She did. And she made the same mistake you’re making right now. She closed the door in the attorney’s face when he went to tell her. She closed the door on me.”
Grace’s throat closed at the snarled warning threading through Edmund’s voice. “We just want to live peacefully,” she explained.
He laughed in a sickly way and raised his hands. “And that’s all I want, too. But I can’t live out my days here. Not without your help.”
“Why me?”
“Because you’re Amelia’s next of kin. You now own this place and everything on the property.”
Dead silence hung in the room. Grace tried to swallow, but it felt like her neck brace tightened, preventing any air from passing. “Everything?” Her voice squeaked as she spoke, gazing down at her gold plate.
Edmund smirked. “Don’t get too excited. What you see in this room is the last of dear old Dad’s belongings worth anything. I’ve slowly been making things disappear since he died. I came home thinking it would all be mine. When I found out he made sure none of it would, I decided to take it all another way.”
Grace jumped to her feet, sending the chair backward to the floor, but it barely made a sound on the plush carpet. “The horses,” she blurted. The thefts became clear. “You’ve been stealing the thoroughbreds, and you’ve been framing my father for them. And me. You used us to swap out the horses for the ones we bought, then arranged to steal them from our barn later. Then you sold them illegally and took the money.”
Grace stepped away from the table, but stopped when she realized she couldn’t go anywhere. She was held captive by this manipulative thief. “It’s no wonder my mother left this place behind forever. Did you—” Grace halted abruptly, not asking the question that needed answering. Could she handle the truth?
“Did I kill her?” Edmund frowned.
Grace nodded.
“It was meant to be a warning to her to comply with my wishes. Her death was unfortunate, an accident, really. I’m not a killer. I only wanted her help and she refused.”
“Like you want mine now.” Grace’s voice dulled as this man’s twisted version of the truth came out. Whether or not Edmund Barone admitted his evil doings, he was a killer. Amelia Miller was dead because of him and his need for money. “You killed my mother.”
“You won’t ever prove any such thing. I wasn’t even there,” he said smugly, and took another bite of his salad as though he was discussing the weather.
Frustration had Grace clenching her fists at her sides. “Did you try to kill me, too?”
“You mean the horse trial accident? You weren’t meant to be racing that day.” He pointed to his neck. “Sorry you had to experience such a terror.”
Grace touched her brace as his words sank in. “Steven Byler was supposed to be racing Game Changer. What had he done?”
Edmund’s lip curled. “He put his nose where it didn’t belong and notified the FBI. Your big guy came calling. If I had known at the hospital who he was I would have made sure he really belonged in the morgue.”
Morgue? Nausea rolled through Grace. She needed to get out of here fast, to get to Jack. She needed Sheriff Maddox. He would know what to do. But for now, she had to figure a way out.
“What do you want from me?” she asked.
Edmund leaned back in his chair, and a slow smile spread across his face. “Maybe you’re smarter than your mother, after all.” He clapped his hands and stood up. “To the stable we go. You’re going to help me steal Game Changer.”
Grace scoffed. “People will notice her missing.”
“I’m burning the place to the ground. By the time they figure it out, I’ll be long gone. And unless you want to be, too, you’ll follow my orders.”
Edmund grabbed hold of Grace’s upper arm and led her down a hall and up a flight of stairs. If she thought the room she’d been in was ornate and fancy, she hadn’t seen anything yet. Though she feared what Edmund had planned for her, she couldn’t help but be awed by the splendor of the home. Most of the rooms he pushed her past were empty, but still, the house was magnificent. The idea that her mamm, who’d lived the perfect Amish life, came from such grandeur stupefied Grace at every turn. By the time they’d made it to the front hall, Grace questioned if she’d ever really known Amelia Miller.
Or Amelia Barone.
She stood in the center of a large empty room with a ceiling as high as her barn and gazed up at a glowing chandelier that hinted at a lifestyle not of this world.
“Don’t get too attached to the place,” Edmund said. “It won’t be yours for much longer.”
Grace dismissed his words. “I can’t be tempted by such worldly things. The plain life is all I want.”
“Then why aren’t you married? Most Amish I’ve heard of are married with children by the time they’re your age.”
Grace couldn’t discredit his observation. “I was needed at home. My daed needed my help with the horse trading. Do you have him? Is he safe? He’s all I care about. He needs me.”
Edmund studied her for a moment, then said, “I think I see now. You chose to put your life on hold to help your mentally ailing father do his job.” He opened the front door of the mansion and allowed her to view the sweeping landscape of Autumn Woods from high on the hill. Evening had arrived in this horrible day, but the day wasn’t over yet. “And now you’re going to help me.”
Grace inhaled sharply as he yanked her through the door. They stepped out onto a huge stone patio with large planters and a gabled covering. Comfortable furnishings beckoned passersby to sit for a while, but all Grace could think was how it was just a facade.
“It is a beautiful place,” Edmund said as he watched her. “I often wondered how Amelia could give it up. I contacted her once, about two years into her marriage, and asked her if she was ready to return to the good life.”
“Good life?” The term made Grace cringe.
Edmund laughed at her expression. “That’s the same look she gave me. She said she had chosen the good life, and Benjamin was her home now. Still, I think she struggled for a long time. She didn’t have you for years.”
Grace contemplated that as he practically dragged her down the long winding drive. She’d often wondered why her parents didn’t have her for nearly ten years after they married. She’d always assumed it wasn’t by choice, but perhaps her mamm had needed the time to accustom herself to her new way of life.
Her gut life.
Grace smiled, knowing Amelia had chosen a wonderful life for herself, but also for her child.
They walked the rest of the way in silence, until they reached the back of the stable, where they’d first met. Edmund opened the door and held it for her to enter before him.
She stepped inside, instantly met by the familiar sweet smell of the horses’ home. She heard the nicker and huff of one that detected their presence. A crunch of hay said the animal was moving up to meet them. Grace approached the stall and gave the horse her hand to nibble on.
“I don’t have anything for you, sorry,” she murmured, rubbing its head before stepping back.
“How many horses have you stolen?” Grace asked, without looking Edmund’s way. She wondered if he would be honest with her.
His ches
t puffed with pride, and he smiled smugly. “I’ve moved seven horses without the estate even realizing it. That was, until Steven alerted the FBI.” His smile turned menacing.
“So who was switching them with the horses we bid on?” Grace asked.
“Liam has been eager to help. Money talks.”
“He was the one who came to collect the thoroughbred at my home and shot at me?”
“He shot at your agent. Never at you. That was my stipulation. I needed you alive to help me right my father’s wrong.” Edmund moved down to the third stall, where the placard read Game Changer. His smile was back. “The prize of the whole stable.”
Grace couldn’t fathom this man’s selfishness. “You could have killed her in that racing accident.”
“Nah, I made sure she could run off unscathed,” Edmund said.
He opened the stall door and led the horse out. She bobbed her head at Grace and nickered.
Grace reached up and hugged her, pressing her face into the thoroughbred’s neck and scrunching her mane with her fingers. Game Changer really was a prize.
But she wasn’t the real prize.
Getting out of here alive would be. And Grace needed to do it quickly before she became the victim of another so-called accident.
Edmund went about saddling the horse. “You’ll ride her out. It won’t be long before she throws you. I had to get her used to the cart so I could pull off Steven’s accident that you took his place for.”
“The Amish don’t ride horses,” she tried to delay with a reason his idea wouldn’t work. “It would be highly suspect.”
“You’re a horse thief. I don’t think this infraction will really matter.” He dropped a step stool beside Game Changer. “Climb up. Now.”
Grace tried to breathe deeply, but barely filled her lungs. Once on Game Changer, she knew she was being sent on a wild chase she most likely would not survive. A glance back at Edmund showed him holding a long leather riding crop. He flicked it and the snap made Game Changer’s coat ripple when she twitched at the sound. The animal was ready to race.
