Safe Hearts (Amish Safe House, Book 3)

by Ruth Hartzler

  Harper moved toward the table and then sat in the chair across from Tryston, who had his wrists handcuffed behind his own chair. He slowly raised his head and looked at both of them. Kate felt an uneasiness welling up inside her stomach when she locked eyes with him for just a few moments. “Oh, it’s only you two? Mind if I go back to sleep?” he said, letting his head fall back to the table’s surface.

  “Cut the nonsense!” David shouted. “You sold out and betrayed your country, for what? To put some crime-lord’s money in your bank account? We were your friends, Glen. And then you tracked down one of your former colleagues and accepted a contract on her life? Why? That’s all we want to know. Why did you do it?”

  Kate pulled away from the wall and stood at full attention. She leaned her head forward, hoping to hear a response of some kind. Instead, Glen lifted his head back up and smiled. “Why? You stand there and ask me why? Like you don’t know?”

  Kate’s eyebrows furrowed as confusion set in. What did he mean? Did her boss know something about Glen’s motives that she didn’t?

  “Excuse me?” David replied, hitting the table with his fist. “What on earth are you talking about?” Kate could hear the rising anger in his voice.

  Then, Glen spoke, capturing her attention completely. “Remember that day we heard that Daxton would be arrested?”

  “Yes,” Harper said.

  Glen looked over at her and hissed. “Kate, do you remember that day?”

  Kate was bewildered. “Of course I do, but what does it have to do with this?”

  “Everything,” he said, anger flashing in his eyes. “Those lawyers we had to relocate ratted on Daxton, saying he’d be heading to the docks for a meeting with one of his fall guys. Ever since Daxton had gone under the radar and became a fugitive, a couple of the higher ups in the agency decided that catching him was more important than anything else in the world.”

  “Glen, you know sometimes we get orders so high up in the chain that nobody below the executive branch has any say in the matter, right? Either way, I still don’t quite understand the relevance to the case at hand. Why did you accept the contract on Kate?”

  Glen leaned back, lifting the chair from its front two legs. He rocked back and forth for a while as Kate stared at him. “Let’s get back to that case, first,” he insisted, clearing his throat before continuing. “My wife left me, and I had to pay lots of child support. It ruined me! I lost everything, but of all people, Victor Daxton offered to return what you stole from me.” Glen grinned, but the look in his eyes turned Kate’s stomach.

  “We didn’t steal anything from you,” she said.

  Glen laughed and then looked up at Kate. “We’re underpaid, Kate; you have no idea. You people are all such do-gooders. So, I decided to change the formula up a bit and work for good money; it’s what I’m worth.” He then looked at David with signs of anger all over his face, but he spoke in a calm tone. “You were next.”

  Kate gasped as Harper turned away from the suspect and looked at her. She could see the horror in his eyes. After a few moments, he turned back to Glen. “So, what exactly were you planning to do after you ended your contracts on both of us?”

  “Daxton paid me very well. He wanted every marshal involved in his arrest to be killed. I obliged; I figured it was worth the risk. Then, I could just build myself a new life somewhere tropical and warm.”

  “You’ll be somewhere warm, but it’s probably not all that tropical,” Harper replied.

  Kate stepped forward and approached the table. “Glen, you used to be a good guy: one who was hardworking, honest, and you loved his job more than anything. Why would you let Daxton take advantage of you?”

  He slumped down into the chair and sighed. “Just put me in a cage where I belong.”

  “Don’t worry about that. We plan to,” David said.

  Glen looked up and shook his head. “Just make sure Daxton doesn’t find out you caught me.”

  “He won’t,” Harper said. “As soon as I walk out of this station, I’m having him relocated to solitary permanently. He won’t be able to hear a single word from the outside world, let alone get any orders out to his subordinates.”

  Kate noticed a smile on her boss’ face as Glen dropped his head in defeat.

  Psalm 34: 7.

  The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them

  Chapter 13.

  Kate took a deep breath as she raised her hand to knock on Ryan’s front door. She didn’t know what the man was going to do, what he would say, or how he would react. She thought about what she would do if their roles were reversed. She would be mad. She would be hurt. But in her line of work, she would understand. He was a cop; maybe he would too.

  Her knuckles rapped against the wood of the front door and she took a step back and waited. She knew he was home; his police cruiser sat in the dusty driveway. Ryan’s house was small but nice, with a freshly mown yard and even a little garden that ran along the front of the front porch.

  The door opened and there he was. It was almost strange to see him in anything but his uniform. He wore black gym shorts and a gray tee shirt with the Pittsburgh Pirates logo on it, a yellow P. He was staring at her, and Kate realized he must be feeling the same way that she was. She wasn’t wearing Amish clothes now - the charade was over, and so she was wearing jeans and button up blouse. The prayer kapp was gone; her hair was loose, and swirled around her shoulders. She wore make up, not a lot, but enough to look a bit different.

  “It’s weird,” Ryan said finally.

  Kate bit her lip. “I know.” He didn’t seem angry with her, but she could not tell how he was feeling.

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  Kate nodded. “I came to do the talking.” He seemed tense, but that was to be expected.

  “Want to go for a walk?” he asked.

  Kate was surprised, and relieved. She had expected him to invite her in; that is, if he wanted to speak with her at all, but she quickly accepted and they stepped off the porch together.

  “There’s a little lake back here,” Ryan said, pointing toward the back of his property. There was a line of trees there, and Kate supposed the lake was past them. They walked toward the trees for some time in silence. Kate did not know where to begin, and she suspected that Ryan didn’t either.

  Finally Kate took a breath. She said she had come to talk after all. “I should explain,” she started, and Ryan nodded.

  Kate continued. “I was in danger; my life was in danger. You know by now, but I’m a U.S. Marshal; I work for WITSEC. Someone came after me, and my boss thought I should disappear for a while. He knew the folks I stayed with. They agreed to help me.”

  “So they knew you weren’t Amish?”

  Kate looked at Ryan. His shoulders were tense, and we tone was even, and there was no way she could guess how he was feeling. “On the bishop and his wife knew. Everyone else, though, the people I met, the others in the community, didn’t know.”

  “You lied to Amish people?”

  “I had to.”

  “So there was no accident, no amnesia.”

  “Right,” Kate said. They had reached the woods now, and were walking among the trees. Kate could see the woods did not stretch on for very long. She could see a clearing, could see a little lake with dark water moving slightly in the breeze.

  They were silent again until they got out of the woods, and walked to the edge of the lake. It wasn’t large, but it was big enough to have a small, hand built, wooden dock, with a silver and red canoe tied to the last post.

  “Want to go out on the water?” Ryan asked, and Kate nodded. He led her to the dock, held the boat steady with his foot as she climbed in. She couldn’t help but think that before he had found out about the truth he would have held her hand as she climbed in, but now he was content to let her manage on her own. He got in after her and untied the rope holding the boat still. They sat on aluminum benches facing one another and each too
k up an oar. They paddled out into the center of the lake and then let the window blow them this way and that as their conversation continued.

  “Why lie to me? I’m a cop. I could have helped you,” Ryan said, and Kate could tell he was hurt. His voice was quieter than she had ever heard it, and his eyes never once met hers. He glanced around as he spoke, intent on not looking at her.

  She knew how she felt about him, and she had known he was attracted to her, but she had been left to hope that he cared for her, the way she cared for him. He was hurt because he liked her. He cared for her. He was hurt because he knew that he could love her. He may already love her. Kate knew she already loved him, if she were being honest with herself.

  Another stretch of silence as Kate looked at Ryan and he turned his head to look toward the shore, where a growth of green grass sat, long and swaying, among a smattering of green and brown reeds.

  “I couldn’t tell anyone. It wasn’t safe,” Kate said, finally.

  Ryan snorted. “Oh, I could have been one of them? One of the people after you?”

  “It’s not like that and you know it,” Kate said, hurt by his words. “It’s to keep both of us safe. The less you know, the less likely someone uses you to get to me. No one knew. Just me, and my boss, and his friend, the bishop, and the bishop’s wife. That’s it. Just the people helping me.”

  “I just wish you would have told me,” Ryan said.

  “I couldn’t have. I couldn’t, not until I knew I was safe.”

  “You said you were thinking about leaving the Amish community. You weren’t even in it.”

  “I was playing a role,” Kate said, though as soon as the words were out of her mouth she regretted them.

  “That’s what it all was?” Ryan asked, picking up on her poor phrasing. “A role?”

  “No,” Kate said. “Not my feelings for you.”

  “So you do have feelings for me?” Ryan asked.

  “Yes.”

  “In your cabin, before..,” Ryan’s words trailed away, and then he did not speak again for a few moments. “We almost kissed,” he continued, “but then you told me to leave.”

  Kate nodded.

  “Why?”

  “I knew my time was short here; I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

  Ryan shook his head, and then for the first time in the boat, he looked at Kate. “So if I hadn’t been there, when you did all of that, fought that guy, what would you have done? When it was time to go, I mean. Would you have just left?”

  Kate sighed. She thought for a moment. That had been her plan, and she knew it. “Yes,” she said finally.

  “Well at least you aren’t lying now,” Ryan said, with a sarcastic laugh.

  “I wouldn’t have been able to stay gone, though! I would have had to come back, to tell you everything, to see you,” Kate said. She would have come back. She and Ryan did have something; Kate needed to tell him. “We have something here. We do; we both know it.”

  “How could I ever trust you though?” Ryan asked. “A good relationship is based on trust. Could we do that?”

  Kate shook her head sadly, as tears welled up in her eyes. “I was in danger. It wasn’t just some lie I was telling. I was going to be killed. Someone was going to kill me if they could. If they could find me. Listen, it’s what I do, in witness protection. I help people who are hiding. And they’re hiding, because if they don’t, someone will kill them. That’s what would have happened to me. If I wasn’t hiding, they would have killed me.”

  Something about it this time appeared to make Ryan realize. He looked at Kate, his eyes on hers. He began to nod, softly. “I know,” he said, in a voice so quiet it was almost a whisper. “I know. I’m being stupid; I’m sorry.”

  Kate smiled. She laughed, and cried, her eyes brimming with sharp, salty tears for a reason she couldn’t comprehend. Ryan’s own eyes shone with tears, though he must have fought them, as none fell.

  “I’m sorry,” Kate said again, in a small voice.

  “You don’t have to apologize,” Ryan said. “I’m sorry. I was being an idiot. I was hurt, but it was a stupid reason to be hurt.”

  Kate hurried to reassure him. “I would have come back. Truly.”

  Ryan smiled at her. “Well now you don’t have to come back; you’re here.”

  Kate smiled and nodded.

  “What are you going to do, though?” Ryan asked. “Where do you really live?”

  “Wyoming,” she said.

  Ryan whistled. “That’s a long ways away, isn’t it?”

  Kate nodded.

  “So what do we do?” Ryan asked.

  “I don’t know; I don’t know right now. I have to go back soon. I have a lot to get back in order; I’ve been gone a long time. I have a job.”

  “I do too,” Ryan said. “I understand.”

  “Let’s not worry about it, not today,” Kate said. “I’ve been worrying about a lot lately, and I don’t want to worry anymore.”

  “So how do you feel about marriage?’ Ryan asked.

  Kate jumped so much that she nearly fell overboard, and Ryan had to put out his hand to steady her.

  “Is this a proposal?” she asked shyly.

  Ryan smiled. “Not officially, because I don’t have the ring yet. And when I do have the ring, then I’ll have to go down on one knee and make a speech. So this is kind of an unofficial proposal.”

  Kate simply said, “Yes.”

  “Okay,” Ryan said, coming forward, leaving his bench to sit on Kate’s, next to her. He slid his arm around her, and she closed her eyes as she turned her head to his. He kissed her, their lips pressing together, and it was such a long time coming, and it was perfect. There was nothing beside them, at least for that kiss. The water was still, forgotten by them both; the uncomfortable bench beneath them was like sitting on a cloud. The bugs which buzzed up and down the shore were silent; the frogs’ croaking couldn’t be heard. Kate could sense nothing but Ryan, and his lips.

  Soon they were heading back to Ryan’s house, their pulses racing, their hands together, fingers entwined.

  “Would you like to get some lunch with me?” Ryan asked.

  “Yes,” Kate said with a smile. “Or we could just kiss some more.”

  Ryan laughed. “If we kiss too much I won’t have time to pack.”

  Kate was puzzled. “Don’t you mean I won’t have time to pack?” she asked.

  Ryan shook his head.

  “Where are you going?” Kate asked.

  “Well, Wyoming needs cops too, doesn’t it?”

  Kate stopped walking, her hand forcing him to stop, too. “You aren’t serious,” she said.

  “I am. If you are,” he answered.

  “I am.” Kate was serious. She and Ryan were in love. She was so serious that she too would move for him, but she mentioned that, he waved his hand.

  “You need to be there for your work, right? I can do mine anywhere. There are a lot of cops all over. You have to go to back to looking after people in WITSEC.”

  Kate couldn’t believe her luck. Just a day ago she was hidden, pretending to be Amish, worried about what life without the man with whom she had fallen in love would be like. And now here they were, the ruse up, planning a life together. It wasn’t often when everything came together so perfectly, and Kate knew that well enough to not let it go.

  Isaiah 41: 10.

  Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

  Chapter 14.

  After leaving Beth and Bill’s house, Kate got into her car and looked in the rear view mirror. She slid on her sunglasses to hide the tears that fought to escape her eyes. She started the car up and readied herself for the next stop. She was on her way to Beckie’s house next, for the weekly knitting circle meeting.

  When Kate pulled onto the property, she was apprehensive. She wanted to come clean about her ordeal and the reasoning behind why she
had to lie to everyone in order to protect not only herself, but them as well. She shut her car off and pulled the key from the ignition. Kate then stepped out of the vehicle and walked toward the front porch. She looked up at the sun as it shone down over the house, casting shadows before her. Kate sighed, hoping things would seem less ominous inside. She pulled off her glasses as she climbed the steps of the porch.

  She wasn’t sure what the women would think or say, but when she thought about how great it felt to feel like herself again, it filled her with the courage she needed to face them with the truth. Kate then looked down at her outfit and laughed aloud; it was the first time she was able to wear normal clothing in the Amish community. Would they even recognize her? She approached the door and knocked on it gently. After just a few seconds, it swung open to reveal a sea of happy faces. Beckie stood in the doorway and welcomed her in with open arms. “Katie! Please come in!”

  As she walked in, she caught glances of each of the women. They all wore smiles and were hard at work on their respective projects. Kate looked around at each of them, but when she locked eyes momentarily with Nancy, the circle’s chatterbox couldn’t help but speak up. “So, that’s what you really look like as an Englischer?”

  Kate was confused. She could tell that the women recognized her, but had they known she wasn’t really Amish? If so, how did they know? “What do you mean?” she asked, hoping to get a better understanding of what they knew and what they didn’t.

  “You didn’t think we knew you weren’t really Amish?” Esther said with a smile. “I’ve been telling them something was different about you for weeks!”

  “I could tell the moment I saw you trying to knit,” Nancy said, causing the others to laugh.

  Kate smiled, unable to fight the humor of the statement as well. Despite how hard she had tried to learn the craft, it just hadn’t worked out in her favor.

  “That’s true,” added Beckie. “No Amish women could ever be as hopeless at knitting as you seemed to be.” She laughed.

  “Ahem,” Maria said, clearing her throat and trying to grab everyone’s attention. Kate looked over at the tall, thin woman as she focused on the quilt she was knitting. “Do we really need to be discussing such things? Kate has clearly come to say her goodbyes. Can’t we just do that without focusing so much on her knitting skills?”