A Heart Made New (43 page)

“Who was that?” Mark panted for a second. Shock turned his skin ashen, making his freckles stand out across his upturned nose. He held on to the corral post with both hands, his knuckles white. “Why is someone shooting from our house?”

Shoulders hunched as if expecting another barrage of shots, Luke squatted in the grass next to the boy and put one big hand on his shoulder. “Are you hurt, little bruder?”

“I bit my lip when I threw myself down, but I’m all right.” He huddled close to David. “Danki, David. I got too scared to move.”

“You’re welcome.” David hadn’t thought much about it. Instinct had governed every move. He couldn’t leave a boy out there in the
open. Now that it was done, his entire body trembled. “Shots coming out of your own house would’ve scared anybody.”

“Next time leave rescues to the professionals. The ones with guns.” Sergeant Parker turned and peeked over the front end of his car. He looked down at David, frustration lining his face. “We could’ve fired back, given each other cover.”

“We don’t want you firing back.” David rolled up on his knees and planted both hands on the car’s warm metal. “That’s a house full of women and
kinner
. We’ll find a peaceful solution. He’s only one man.”

“You’ll not do anything. This is a police matter.” Sergeant Parker slapped a cell phone to his ear. “I’m calling for help. I can have the county sheriff here in about fifteen minutes. He’ll bring in half the state if we need them.”

Hunched down low, Josiah scurried after him. “Annie and Miriam and Emma are in there—”

“My fraa and the boys and the bobbelis,” Thomas broke in. “A houseful of women and kinner. How are you planning to get them out safely?”

“Logan McKee won’t hurt women and children.” Sergeant Parker ducked through the corral gate and started talking on the phone.

“Unless you back him into a corner.” Officer Bingham dabbed at the blood on his lip with an already soaked handkerchief. “He didn’t mind whaling on me.”

“I don’t think he’ll hurt them. He just wants to leave with Charisma and his children.” David pictured the man who’d robbed the bakery, terrorizing five women. “Let us talk to him.”

“He’s a desperate man.” Officer Bingham winced. His hand went to his bloody face. “Who knows what he’ll do? That’s why the boss is calling in the troops.”

David exchanged looks with Luke, Thomas, and Josiah. They had to be thinking the same thing. Troops. A shootout. Hostages in the middle. The Englischers would use force to get what they wanted.

“This is my home. I’ve been host to Charisma and her children for
almost two months.” Luke spoke softly, his tone persuasive. “Let me at least try.”

“He took a shot at your little brother there.” Officer Bingham shook his head. “We need a professional hostage negotiator and a SWAT team.”

David tilted his head toward Luke. He nodded. They edged away from the car, staying low, but moving fast until they reached the far side of the barn. Thomas and Josiah, Mark in tow, joined them seconds later.

“What do we do?” Josiah asked. “We can’t let them turn our house into a firing range.”

“If we could just talk to him.” The lines in his face deepened by concern, Thomas tugged at his beard with calloused fingers. “He’s here to get Charisma and his kinner. That’s all. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone.”

“They’ll never let him leave with the bobbelis,” Josiah said. “He’s broken their laws.”

“I understand that, but isn’t the safety of the women and children more important?” Luke gripped the fence railing. “Isn’t resolving this peacefully more important than their laws?”

“They don’t think Charisma and his bobbeli will be safe with him.” Josiah’s time among the Englisch made him the expert in the group, despite the fact that he was younger. “They shouldn’t be forced to go with him against their will either.”

“You think she doesn’t want to go with him?” Luke looked puzzled. “She stayed here all this time, waiting to see what would happen to him.”

David shook his head. “I don’t know. On that trip we took to Wakefield, I got the impression she was looking for a place to go. Her plan didn’t seem to include him.”

“Forget waiting for the sheriff.” Josiah whirled and started toward the house. “I’ll talk to him.”

Thomas shot after him. He grabbed his arm and jerked him to a stop. “It’s not our way to intervene in law enforcement.”

“I’m not waiting for a team of armed Englischers to go in there.” Josiah struggled to free himself, but Thomas had the strong grip of a man who toiled daily in the fields. “They’ll destroy our home.”

“Nobody wants that, but it’s in God’s hands now.”

David couldn’t let their wrangling waste any more precious time. He focused on Luke. “Let me try to talk to him, Luke. While you convince the officers to hold off. Let me try.”

Luke’s gaze meandered to the house in the distance. “We should wait for the sheriff.”

How could David explain the feeling that he was meant for this task? “Let me do this.”

Luke wrapped long fingers around his suspenders. He blew out air. “We should get the bishop and the deacons out here. See how they feel it should be handled.”

“There’s no time.”

“They might think we should not interfere.”

“Not interfere!” Josiah’s eyes blazed with emotion. “They’re going to interfere with guns. We only want to talk to a man who is in our house.”

Luke’s hands fisted. When he saw David eying them, he shook them lose. “I should speak with him. It’s my house. My fraa is expecting. She’s in there with my boys.”

“My fraa is in there too.” Thomas crossed his arms. “I should go.”

“I’m a better talker than either of you,” said David. No arguing with that. Luke and Thomas were two of the most taciturn people David had ever known. “I have no children to leave fatherless. I might not even be here much longer myself.”

Luke’s bleak gaze didn’t waver. At last, he breathed again. “Jah. If the bishop has a problem with our actions, I’ll take the reprimand.”

“We’ll all stand together on it.” David jerked his head toward the officers. “Keep them talking.”

Thomas and Luke edged toward the officers, both engrossed in a discussion with someone on the phone. David eased toward the buggies, the police car, and Charisma’s van, all parked on the other side of
the corral. If he could get beyond them, he could make his way along the row of trees that lined the road from the corral to the house. It was the most cover he could get.

After a minute or two, footsteps told him he was being followed. He glanced back. Josiah. “What are you doing?”

“Going with you.”

“No. I’ll not endanger another member of the Shirack family.”

Crouched low to the ground, Josiah closed the gap between them. “You endanger no one. I’m responsible for myself. I won’t stand by and let something happen to my best friend and the girl I…” He ducked his head and didn’t finish the thought.

The girl he loved. David understood that. He prayed God would see fit to bring Annie and her loved ones through this.
God, they’re in Your hands. Today was supposed to be a good day. Is it selfish to want more of those days?
“Stay behind me and keep quiet.”

“What’s the plan?”

“Only God knows. I’m following Him.”

Josiah nodded and breathed a soft
amen
.

Together they angled across the road and ducked behind the porch. Birds sang in an elm tree that shadowed the west side of the house. The sweet trilling sound made David think of long-ago picnics in the Shirack yard, making homemade ice cream and playing volleyball. Memories that soothed away the chilled fear that snaked its way up his arms.

Motioning for Josiah to stay out of sight, David edged around the side of the house. The back door stood open. He eased up to the screen door and glanced back. Josiah had his head stuck out so he could see what was happening. David shook his head.
Stay back.

Josiah glared and disappeared behind the wall.

No new options presented themselves. Drawing himself up to his full six feet, David knocked. Pure and simple. A double rap.

A gun appeared in the doorway. “I’ve got a gun and I’ll use it. Whoever’s out there, leave, before I hurt someone.”

“Logan, it’s David Plank.” Both hands in the air, David sidled in
front of the screen door. “My mother is Sadie, the woman who owns the bakery. I don’t have a gun. I don’t have anything at all. I just want to talk to you.”

“Get out of here!” Logan McKee trained the gun on David. It shook so hard David couldn’t tell if he was aiming for the head or his chest. It seemed unlikely he could hit anything with hands trembling like that, but the fear in his voice said he would likely try. “Do you have a death wish? I’ve got a bunch of hostages in here.”

No death wish. In fact, a desire to live that burned so intensely, David’s body shivered with it. “I know. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. The police are out there and they’re planning who knows what to bring this to an end.” David removed his hat and held it in both hands. “I wanted to see if we couldn’t end this peacefully.”

Logan shoved the screen door open. “Get in here.”

Stumbling on the second step in his haste, David managed to get in the door without a shot being fired.
Danki, God.

The first person he saw was Annie. She filled his vision. Whole. Safe. So far.

Again, danki, God.

Then she opened her mouth.

“David, why?” Her green eyes stood out against skin so pale it was almost transparent. “Why give him another hostage? Why you? You’re sick.”

Because you’re here,
he wanted to say, but he didn’t. With God’s provision, there would be time for that later. If not, she would come to understand with time. “I’m not so sick I couldn’t come here to talk with a man about his troubles. Where are the others?”

“In the living room.” Her voice held steady. “Logan didn’t want them to get shot if you were the police coming in the back door. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone and he knows they won’t try to escape.”

A polite kidnapper and perfect hostages. Plain women and children who would simply accept the situation as one only God could control. The idea chafed at David for a fleeting second, but then he nodded. “Thank God they’re all right.”

“They’re fine.” Annie nodded at him, her tone encouraging. “They’ll wait for us.”

Time to try to calm troubled waters. He edged forward so he stood between Annie and her captor. “You know your son was named for me and the man who is the head of this house, Luke Shirack. Luke has provided a home for Charisma and your children while you’ve been in jail.”

“I know that. I appreciate y’all taking them in. I don’t want to hurt nobody.” Logan’s gaze fluttered toward the door to the living room. He shifted his feet as if ready to run. “But I’m not going back to jail. I’m leaving here with my woman and my children.”

“I’m not your woman and I’m not going anywhere with you.” Charisma’s firm voice filtered through the door. Not looking the least bit surprised to see David, she stomped into the room, still talking. “Don’t be telling people lies.”

Don’t be aggravating him,
David wanted to tell her. Instead, he took a long breath. “You know, you’re a fortunate man, Logan.”

“Fortunate?” The man snorted. “What are you talking about?”

“You have a son. I’ll probably never have a son of my own, so I can only imagine how it must feel. I reckon you’d do anything for him. Anything.”

Annie made a tiny, fluttering sound like a bird with a hurt wing. He sought her gaze. Pain radiated from her beautiful green eyes. He tried to speak to her with his heart.
Wait for me. Wait for the whole story. Later.

She blinked. Tears rolled down both cheeks, but she didn’t speak.

Neither did Logan. David tried again. “I reckon that’s why you came here. To take care of him.”

“Yeah.” One syllable, soaked with defiance.

“But you’re a man, a father, and you know this isn’t what’s best for Luke David. You know you want to show him how real men act. Real men own up to their mistakes and they stand up and accept their punishment. They don’t take women and children as hostages.”

More silence. David took another step toward the door that led to the living room. “Let the women go. Take me instead. You can
negotiate a ride out of here with me as your hostage. Take the van. It’s parked right out front.”

“Charisma’s coming with me. And the babies.”

“Logan, there are men—police officers—in the front.” Emma’s voice carried from the living room. “I think they’re trying to talk to you. You better—”

A voice amplified in a bullhorn blasted the end of her sentence. Someone demanded that Logan turn himself in immediately.

Emma was trying to help Logan. Helping him run from the Englischers. Were all the women on his side? David didn’t have time to think about that. “Turn yourself in. It’s the only way to make sure your babies are safe.”

Logan jerked the gun toward the living room. “Get in there. Now.”

Praying that Josiah stayed hidden, David did as he was told. A quick glance told him Miriam, Leah, Emma, and the children were all there, all in one piece. Leah had her flock gathered around her like a mother hen confronting danger that threatened her chicks. Their gazes met. “Is everyone all right out there? Luke and Josiah? Mark?”