Safe Hearts (Amish Safe House, Book 3) (10 page)

Kate approached her buggy. When the
horse was hitched and ready to go, she climbed into the carriage
and grabbed the reins. With a quick crackle, the buggy jolted
forward until it was moving at a steady pace. She smiled and looked
back at Beth’s house as it shrank in the distance. She wondered if
that was going to be one of the last times she would ever see the
property again.

As she drove along the narrow lane,
Kate heard a strange, fluttering sound and looked up. She watched a
flock of birds as they flapped furiously above her head, moving in
the opposite direction of which she was traveling. She scrunched
her brows at the sight; it was almost like they were running from
something.

As the horse trotted steadily around
the bend down the dusty lane, a large, black object came slowly
into view. It was initially obstructed by trees, but when she
cleared the corner, the car became fully visible. Apprehension
gripped her, making it difficult for her to breathe. She leaned
closer for a better look at the vehicle, and gently pulled at the
reins to slow her horse.

Kate let out a shriek as the
tail-lights went dark, and the car slowly moved forward. As she got
closer, the black Ford pulled out onto the road and slowed to a
crawl. “Oh no!” she said, realizing that it was, in all likelihood,
Glen Tryston.

As panic overwhelmed her, Kate slumped
down into the buggy seat, even though she was still quite far away
from being visible to the driver of the car in front of her. She
pulled the cell phone from her hidden pocket and dialed her boss.
The horse continued trotting along as the ringing sounds in her ear
threatened to drive her mad. It went on incessantly until David
Harper’s voicemail answered the call.

She gazed out over the road. “David!”
Kate scanned her surroundings, hoping to find some way to identify
her location so she could tell her boss where she was. She looked
along the sides of the road as the buggy drew closer and closer to
the mysterious car that threatened to block her path. As searched
for a street name, a small, sign finally caught her attention. “I
think Glen was waiting for me to leave the house. I have a black
car in front of me on Bradley Lane. At first he was parked on the
grass, but he pulled out as I got closer, and now it looks like he
stopped.” She paused and watched in terror as the driver’s side
door swung open.

Kate ended the call in a panic and
slid the phone back into her pocket. She whipped her head about,
hoping to find a way to escape, but the road was far too narrow to
turn the buggy around in one go, and she knew that she would never
make it far on foot.

A man emerged from the car. He was
wearing a black suit, black gloves, and a pair of sunglasses. It
was Glen Tryston.

Kate figured that he might not
recognize. After all, she wore Amish clothing, had her hair up in a
bonnet, and not a single spec of makeup sat on her face. It was a
complete contrast to the way she used to look as a U.S. Marshal, so
she prayed that he wouldn’t recognize her.

The buggy was only a few yards away
when the man began walking toward her. Kate started to think about
various ways in which she could approach the impending
conversation, but with it happening so quickly, she knew that she
just had to improvise. “Hello there, are you lost? Do you need some
directions, sir?”

Glen walked up to the car and pulled
off his glasses, letting his eyes scan the buggy and its sole
passenger. He stood right by the doorway and looked at her
intently, but said nothing.

“
Sir? Do you need help with
something? Is your car having problems?”

A strange smile slowly cracked across
the man’s face as he stood completely still, never letting his eyes
fall from hers. “I’m exactly where I want to be right now,” he said
in an eerie tone. Kate looked back at him, as time seemed to slow.
Silence permeated the air for what felt like several minutes, but
then he spoke in a slow, raspy tone. “Hello, Kate.”

Fear gripped her without warning, but
before she could say anything to Glen, he lunged for her and pulled
her from the buggy. She swatted at his arms, knocking them away and
buying herself some time to get out of the buggy. Kate pushed her
way out, but as she hit the ground, she stumbled, falling to her
knees.

She quickly pulled herself up, but
when she turned around, she saw Glen standing there with a look of
satisfaction on his face. Next to his evil-looking grin was a gun;
he held it firmly in his hands, aiming it directly at her. “Let’s
go. Walk toward me,” he said. His voice sounded void of emotion,
and the tone of his words sent chills up her arms.

Horror engulfed Kate’s thinking
process as she stepped toward the gunman, causing everything in her
mind to sound like gibberish as she tried to sift through her own
thoughts. Then, she sensed movement out of the corner of her eyes
and glanced over in its direction. She squinted slightly to make
sure what she was seeing was real. Was that Ryan pulling up to
Glen’s car from the opposite direction? The realization quickly
erased her fears and filled her with strength and
courage.

With her renewed sense of bravery,
Kate cycled through a list of options in her mind, but since they
were few and far between, she immediately made a decision. She
walked slowly toward Glen as he continued calling out for her to
approach him. “Hurry up; we don’t have all day,” he said through a
satisfied smirk.

Kate clenched her teeth together and
walked onward. No matter how the events were about to unfold, she
knew the entire mess was going to end soon. One way or another,
this chapter of her story was about to reach its
conclusion.

“
Okay, now stop,” Glen
shouted. Kate ignored his orders and continued to close in on him.
She walked slowly, but made sure he knew that she had no intention
of stopping. “Kate, I will shoot you right here, right now. Don’t
make me!”

“
Even with a cop right
behind you?” she yelled.

Glen’s eyes enlarged as astonishment
wiped away the complacency from his face. As she had hoped, he
whipped his head around to look for the cop she had mentioned, but
Ryan was still trying to make his way toward the pair on foot. Glen
kept his gun trained on Kate as he looked over his shoulder, but
she made her move anyway.

Jumping forward with all the speed she
could muster, Kate lowered her right shoulder and rushed him,
hitting Glen right in the stomach as she brought her arms around
his torso and tackled him to the ground. She felt the gun hit her
back as it rolled out of his fingers and clanked to the ground
somewhere beyond them. The pain was moderate, but now she knew she
had the upper hand for sure.

The harsh impact had dizzied them
both, but Kate was able to regain her composure more quickly than
Glen. She pulled herself up and rolled him over, forcing his hands
together behind his back. She then knelt down on them, keeping his
hands pinned until Ryan got to them. “This is over, Glen. You
should never have turned your back on the Marshals.”

“
They turned their backs on
me long before I ever started working for Victor
Daxton.”

“
Whatever your excuses are,
they hold no weight,” Kate said. “You’re a disgrace to everything
and everyone you swore to protect.”

Glen squealed and mumbled nonsense
under his breath as he struggled to get free. Kate trembled as he
squirmed beneath her, trying to wrestle away his captor. She pushed
down even harder, and after a few moments, she heard the sound of
footsteps running toward her. When Kate looked up, she saw Ryan
approaching with his gun drawn and a look of astonishment on his
face.

“
Ryan, can I use your
handcuffs?”

Without saying a word, he slowly
reached down and pulled them from his utility belt. He looked up at
Kate and extended the cuffs to her. She could see so much emotion
in his eyes that it almost hurt her to keep eye contact with him.
She grabbed for the constraints and then looked back down at her
attacker. She clamped the cuffs around his wrists and stood up.
Then, with Ryan’s assistance, Kate pulled Glen Tryston to his feet.
He dropped his head forward and spat at the ground in
defiance.

Kate exchanged glances with Ryan, who
was clearly shocked. She assumed he was at a loss for words,
because his eyes were speaking much louder than his vocal chords
were. She yanked the bonnet from her hair and let it fall from her
hands.

Kate looked at Ryan. He looked down at
the ground briefly, but then gazed back up at her. He then motioned
toward his car, so she nodded. They walked the prisoner to his cop
car and placed him in the backseat. After Ryan shut the door, Glen
pressed his face against the window. A look of pure hatred and
anger covered his face as he stared at Kate. At the same time, Kate
heard the sound of tires on the road behind her. She turned around
to see David Harper running toward her. His unmarked cruiser sat on
the side of the road behind him with its door still
open.

He ran by Ryan and flashed his U.S.
Marshal’s badge, but ignored him in every other regard. “Thank
goodness you’re okay, Kate!” He exclaimed. “Did you get hurt at
all?”

Kate shook her head. “No, not really.
When I took him down, his gun hit my back and fell to the ground
somewhere, so we need to find it. Other than a possible bruise or
two, I think I got the better of him. Not to mention that Ryan
showed up just in time. I was able to use him as a
diversion.”

Harper smiled. “Good. I was so worried
when I heard your voicemail. Luckily, everything went in our
favor.”

Kate looked away; she wasn’t quite
sure she agreed with his sentiments.

David was still beaming. “It looks
like we finally caught the mole, and you’re safe, so I think this
has been a fairly successful day, has it not?”

Kate frowned. Glen had finally been
stopped, and she would no longer have to live in fear or hiding,
but something still didn’t feel right. Then, she looked back at
Ryan, who was still staring at her blankly, his face contorted with
shock and disbelief. She turned back to David Harper and sighed
before speaking. “You can say that the day was successful after I
talk to Ryan and let him know who I really am.”

He shot her a sympathetic look, but
his voice didn’t offer the same level of empathy. “Kate, there are
more important things to worry about than what a cop in a small
town thinks of you. You did a great thing today. Don’t let anything
diminish your accomplishment.”

Kate sighed. “Yes, sir,” she said in
defeat.

David Harper paced back and forth for
a minute or two before continuing. “We’ll need to interview Glen as
soon as possible. I’ll ask the officer to meet us back at the
station so we can question the prisoner. Let’s see if he’ll
talk.”

Psalm 91: 1 –
16.
He who dwells in the shelter of
the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say
to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the
deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under
his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and
buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow
that flies by day.

Chapter 12.

During the trip to the police station,
Kate’s mind was riddled with questions and concerns. Her thoughts
focused on nothing other than getting down to the bottom of the
pile of questions. Why, of all people, did Glen Tryston turn on his
colleagues and accept a contract to harm one of them? What could
possibly have been worth betraying everything he worked
for?

As the tree line subsided and the
police station came into view, Kate felt more like a law
enforcement official than she had in a long time. The one thing
that weighed heavily on her mind, however, was the tried and true
belief that no officers should be involved in investigating their
own cases. The conflict of interest and level of bias could prove
detrimental to any court proceedings, but Kate suspected that her
boss would not try to stop her from speaking to Glen. The problem
was that something inside her seemed to tense up whenever she
thought about what she was going to ask the suspect.

David Harper pulled into the parking
area behind the police station. “Looks like you’ve learned quite a
lot about the life out here, eh?” he said, nodding toward her Amish
clothes.

Kate laughed. “You wouldn’t believe
half of what I’ve learned since moving out here. I’ve met some of
the most amazing people you could ever be blessed to
know.”

Her boss chuckled and then made a
call. After speaking for a while, he motioned for Kate to follow
him. “I was just on the phone with your cop buddy. He said they
have Tryston waiting for us in Interrogation Room 1. You ready for
this?” Harper turned back to her and smiled.

“
Do you think it could hurt
our case if I go into the room for the interview?”

Harper shook his head. “No. There is
no way you are going to miss out on this. What he did is a federal
crime. He stole and accessed top secret files in order to take out
people we were sworn to protect. This case isn’t just about you,
Kate. It isn’t just about me, either. It’s about every single
marshal in the agency, their families, and every single citizen in
this country that could have been negatively affected by Glen’s
actions. Yes, you were most likely his final target, but that
sounds like the best reason to have you in there with
me.”