Amish Country Threats Read online

  She didn’t know how long she’d run before she came to a clearing. A haus she’d never seen loomed before her. She had a clear view of the back door and the side of the porch. Maybe she could knock on the door and ask for help.

  She stepped into the clearing and hurried toward the structure. The revving of an engine broke into the silence. Just past the haus, through the tangle of tree branches, she saw a maroon truck. Was it whoever had shot at her?

  Changing course, she bolted inside the nearest structure, a large barn. The odors of hay, manure and various animals assaulted her nostrils. Hunkering down, she leaned against the wall, her heart pounding like a jackhammer as she waited for whoever was following her to give up.

  Who could it be? And why would anyone shoot at her?

  Her mind flashed back to the night Jacob had died. He’d said the fire hadn’t been an accident. She’d shied away from what he’d meant, that someone had set their haus afire. Someone had tried to kill them all.

  And now he was coming after her.

  * * *

  Levi Burkholder should have offered to go with Jacob’s sister. She had been holding on to her composure by a thread. He’d seen the agony in her stormy blue eyes, the way her throat worked as she struggled to converse calmly. When she had told him that she was visiting her destroyed haus to look for something of her brother’s, he should have offered.

  Except, she didn’t seem to want his company. Her expression had closed the minute she’d said she was looking for something Jacob had told her about.

  Still. He should have offered.

  What a depressing morning. He’d attended far too many funerals, seen so many deaths, and he was heartsick. When the preacher ended the two-hour-long funeral ceremony today by stating Jacob’s name, date of birth and date of death, it had struck Levi again how fleeting life is. Jacob had been a young man, younger than Levi. Only twenty-four, with a wife and a boppli on the way. And a young sister, who’d been devastated by his loss.

  What would they do now?

  Levi pushed the thoughts of her out of his mind. Amish communities were known for coming together and lending a hand when necessary. They’d be fine.

  He clicked his tongue and touched the reins, maneuvering the buggy back into his barn, swiveling it back and forth to fit it into its narrow space. When it was settled into its proper place, he removed his gloves and set them on the shelf near the workbench. His left hand stung. A bee had climbed inside his glove and stung him. With his right hand, he used a flat blade to remove the stinger.

  He was so used to the prosthetic arm that had replaced his right arm that he didn’t have to think about how to make the fabricated fingers close around the blade.

  He didn’t mind his arm. It was a reminder that he was a survivor. In the most literal sense, having fought in Afghanistan. It was also a physical reminder to him of why he was thankful to be back in the Amish community he’d left when he was seventeen. Some days, though, he struggled just to fit back into the mold he’d thrown aside when he’d left. He’d been more than angry when he’d rejected the Amish life. He’d been betrayed. One of the elders had accused him of stealing. He hadn’t. Never in his life had he taken anything that wasn’t his. His mamm had listened. His daed, however, had believed the elder and had demanded Levi return the money and repent. They had often disagreed as Levi had grown up. This was the breaking point. The tenuous relationship unraveled, and Levi had left that night after a shouting match that burned a hole through his spirit.

  A lot had happened to him since that time. He’d been a soldier, trained as a sniper, and had done and seen things that had left him broken and scarred. So broken, he knew he would never be whole again, regardless of whether he still had his arm. In his darkest moments, he’d realized he needed to come home.

  That was several years ago.

  Mamm had started trying to talk him into courting the neighbor woman. Miriam Zook was a fine woman, a widow with two sweet kinder. Levi had nothing against her. They had talked before. She was an intelligent, pleasant woman.

  A woman who deserved more than he could give her. Levi had nothing to offer any woman. Afghanistan had left him with nightmares and flashbacks that he didn’t know if he’d ever get past. Even though he had enjoyed talking with the widow, his heart had remained cold inside his chest.

  A pair of dark blue eyes under a black bonnet swam before his eyes. He squeezed his eyes closed. Why was he thinking of someone he’d only just met? It was probably that he could identify with the sorrow in her eyes.

  More than just his body had been broken by the war.

  Sighing, Levi turned to enter his office.

  A shuffling noise in the front of the barn caught his attention. It wasn’t one of the cows his family owned. They were all out in the field and wouldn’t come in until time to milk later that afternoon. Nor was it the goats. They were in the other barn. His mare was pastured in the back quarter of the fields.

  Something was in his barn. Something that shouldn’t be. He had to walk past it to exit. And he needed to do it now before anyone else in the family came into the structure.

  Levi released the door latch and made his way to the front of the barn, instinctively stepping carefully and quietly as he’d been taught to do. The afternoon sun was no longer directly overhead but had started to shift to the west. It wouldn’t set for hours, but as it streamed in through the windows in the rear of the barn, it cast long shadows across the floor.

  Shadows that revealed that it was no animal trapped inside with him. It was a human.

  Briefly, his hand twitched, wishing for the gun he’d carried for so many years.

  Immediately he chastised himself. He was no longer a soldier. He’d been baptized into the Amish church. The Amish didn’t believe in using guns against another person, not even to protect oneself. Guns were for hunting.

  Clearing his mind, he focused on finding out who was hiding in his barn and why. He stepped closer.

  A sniffle came from just beyond the first stall.

  A sniffle?

  Some of the tension drained from his shoulders. No longer bothering to mute his steps, he strode to the front and pulled the gate back from the stall. Crouching down inside, huge blue eyes staring up at him from a pale face, prayer kapp covered by a black bonnet, was a young woman in an unadorned black mourning dress.

  A face he’d seen less than two hours ago.

  He saw the scratches and scrapes on her face and hands, some of them smeared with blood. Those hadn’t been there when he’d talked with her. Nor had she had such fear in her eyes. Something had gone very wrong since he’d last seen Jacob’s little sister.

  What had Jacob said his sister’s name was? Lucy? Nee. Lilah.

  “It’s Lilah, jah?” She bobbed her head once, her gaze fearful. He softened his tone. “Why are you hiding in my barn?”

  “I’m sorry,” she gulped out, so low he leaned forward to hear her better. “I had nowhere else to go.”

  Levi scratched the back of his neck. Well, the sun was still up. It wouldn’t take much to hitch up his mare. “Can I help you? Drive you back to the Hostetler haus?”

  “Nee!” She bounded to her feet at the suggestion.

  Panicked. That was the word for the look on her face. He hadn’t seen anyone that distraught since his soldier days.

  “Easy!” He lifted his hands. He was surprised that her gaze didn’t veer toward his hand. He’d seen her staring at it earlier. Instead, her blue gaze remained on his face. He put the reaction aside. There were more important things to deal with now. “I’m Levi. Levi Burkholder. I met you earlier, remember? Your brother was my farrier. Would you let me help you? You’re hurt.”

  He motioned to her scratches. Her hands rose to her face as if she hadn’t even realized.

  He continued to speak softly. “You don’t want me to take you
home? Won’t your family be missing you?”

  The terror in her blue eyes pierced the armor he’d built around his heart. He winced.

  “I can’t go home. Someone is after me. They shot at me.”

  His mouth dropped open. Now, that was unexpected. Hopefully she was mistaken. He took a step toward her. She cringed away from him.

  “Look, I won’t hurt you. You’re hurt, and you’re in my barn. Why don’t we go up to my haus? My mamm is home. She can tend to you. Maybe get you something to eat?”

  She eyed him for a moment longer before nodding.

  “Do you have a husband or any other family that I should notify?”

  To his surprise, she shook her head. Most women her age were married. Jacob hadn’t said she was married. He hadn’t said she wasn’t, either. All he’d said was his sister was the same age as his wife, Hannah. Levi kicked his curiosity aside. It was none of his business why she wasn’t married.

  When she stepped out of the stall, he saw that she was almost as tall as he was. Maybe three or four inches less than his own five foot eleven. The haunted expression on her face was too familiar. He’d seen it on soldiers in battle. It hurt him to look at her.

  Averting his eyes from her, he opened the door and gestured for her to precede him out of the barn.

  She hesitated for a moment, her huge eyes roaming his face. His face warmed under her gaze. He wasn’t used to people watching him so closely.

  He opened his mouth to try and convince her when the sound of a motor coming over the hill reached his ears. All the color drained from her face.

  She ducked back down inside the barn. “I can’t let him see me!”

  Levi poked his head out the door and watched a Jeep drive past. It was so covered in dirt and dust that he couldn’t honestly make out the color. It could have been blue, gray or even green for all he could tell.

  “Okay, look. The car is past. Let’s go into the haus. I’ll help you figure it out. Jah?”

  He held the door open and waited. Something had her scared. He remembered her saying that someone was after her. Levi had seen too many innocent people suffer from the hands of others. A little more than five years ago, Sophie Forster, the wife of his best friend and former military buddy from the Englisch world, Aiden Forster, had been on the run with her young sister. He had helped Aiden rescue the two women. To this day, he shook his head at the thought of anyone wanting to harm Sophie or her spunky little sister, Celine.

  He would not sit by and watch another innocent suffer.

  He trained his eyes on the shaking figure in front of him. She was terrified. And alone. He was honor bound to assist her. He might no longer be a soldier, but he would still honor the code ingrained in him.

  Slowly, she stood up straight and said, “Jacob told me the fire that had killed him wasn’t an accident.”

  Levi stared at her, the hair raised on the back of his neck. What had his friend gotten into?

  TWO

  Lilah didn’t know what to do. This was the second time she’d crossed paths with this man in less than two hours. It struck her as odd that she’d found his barn to hide in. And the fact that he claimed to have been her brother’s client? Jacob had mentioned a client named Levi. She couldn’t be certain this was the same Levi. It wasn’t an uncommon name, after all. And Jacob had never said his last name. If only she knew more about him. But she didn’t. Jacob hadn’t told her much about him. Her brother had always respected the privacy of other people. Especially his clients. She had gotten the feeling, though, that her brother had liked Levi.

  She hoped this was the right man.

  Her instincts told her she could trust him. She wasn’t feeling too kindly toward her instincts at the moment. They hadn’t prepared her for Hannah’s telling her to leave.

  Marvin King flashed through her mind. She flinched away from the memory of the young man who’d courted her last year. He’d courted her friend Ruth at the same time. Only later did she realize he’d been encouraging her affections while he was preparing to marry another. She’d lost her friend and her boyfriend the day she’d found out.

  Nee, she couldn’t trust her instincts where men were concerned.

  Briefly, she considered the man standing in front of her, waiting for her to decide. Something about Levi, maybe the way he carried himself, made her confident that he could handle whatever came his way. That didn’t mean, however, that she was comfortable explaining her situation to him. She didn’t want to put him in danger any more than she had wanted to put Hannah in danger. Despite her sister-in-law’s coldness, Lilah sympathized with her plight.

  She didn’t want to think about Hannah right now, nor did she want to talk to this stranger about being kicked out of her sister-in-law’s home. Hannah was grieving. She hoped that within a few days, the other woman would reconsider and welcome Lilah back.

  For now, though, Lilah was standing here, having been shot at and chased, with a man she’d never met before today who was asking her to trust him. Not likely.

  But what choice did she have? Did the person who’d shot at her know that she had been staying with Hannah’s family? It was possible. Anyone who knew their family would be aware that she had lived with Jacob and Hannah. It would make sense that she would go where her sister-in-law went. The fact that no one had showed up here waving a gun seemed to prove that the shooter didn’t realize she was at the Burkholder place. For now. Maybe she could take some time to get her feet back under her again.

  Her eyes met Levi’s. The strength and patience in their depths steadied her more than any words could have.

  “Please stay. Let us help you,” Levi said.

  Jacob had trusted him. She wouldn’t let down her guard completely, but she’d let him help.

  Deciding, she sucked in a deep breath to gain control of the emotions coursing through her before answering. She had to stay somewhere. It might be summer, but sometimes in Ohio the nights got cold. And she felt a storm coming.

  “I’ll stay for a bit. Maybe tonight, jah? I’m too tired to think clearly, and I have no place else to go.” Pushing away from the door, she moved closer to him. “I think my brother respected you.”

  A smile quirked his lips, then disappeared.

  “It was mutual.” He stepped back outside, motioning for her to wait, his hand down low. His eyes narrowed as they scanned the street, then the trees around them. There it was again. That posture that made her think of a soldier. “It’s clear. Let’s go.”

  Lilah hesitated only a second before following him out. She blinked against the sunlight. It boggled her mind that one of the darkest days of her life could be this bright and gorgeous outside. Her whole life had been turned upside down, yet the rest of the world kept moving.

  Turning to look at him, her eyes zeroed in on the yard over his shoulder. She blinked a second time, this time to check and make sure she was seeing correctly.

  “Is that a car?”

  Actually, there were two cars there. Now, it wasn’t odd seeing cars at Amish homes. She had a friend who received special education services from the local Intermediate Unit, a government funded facility that contracted with school districts to provide special education and training opportunities. Her friend had several therapists who visited her home each month. No, what was unusual was that both of these cars were obviously in the process of being worked on. One car was up on cinder blocks with all four wheels missing. The other one had an engine sitting beside it. The Amish didn’t own automobiles.

  “Jah.” Levi shrugged, but didn’t stop walking. “I don’t own them. I just fix them. I’m gut at fixing things.”

  “Isn’t that verboten?” She couldn’t imagine her bishop allowing anyone in their district to work on cars.

  “My bishop approved it. I’m allowed to work on cars and drive them in my dealings with Englisch.” He slanted his eyes
her way. “He knew that’s how I made my living when I was in the Englisch world. It was a trade I knew and did well, even with my arm.”

  She nodded. His bishop was more lenient than hers. She knew that rules could change from one district to another.

  He opened the back door of his haus and gestured for her to walk inside. She stepped into the large, airy kitchen, bright with natural light streaming in through the large windows. The center of the room was taken up by a large wooden table surrounded by six wooden chairs. There was a plain white cloth covering the table and no cushions on the seats.

  “Levi? Bist du das?” A thready feminine voice called from the next room.

  “Jah, Mamm. I’m home. I brought a—” He glanced at Lilah awkwardly. “Um, I have a friend with me.”

  A chair creaked in the other room. Levi jerked at the sound and strode to the door, waving for her to follow. “Nee, Mamm. Don’t get up. This is Lilah Schwartz.”

  Lilah found herself under keen scrutiny from a fragile-looking woman sitting in a chair, her fingers slightly gnarled and knuckles swollen. Fragile she might have been, but there was strength in that glance. She knew the woman hadn’t missed anything about her appearance.

  “Lilah, this my mother, Fannie Burkholder.”

  “Lilah.” The older woman pursed her lips and tilted her head. “I can’t remember you mentioning a friend named Lilah before.”

  “I have mentioned her brother, Jacob Schwartz.”

  The instant she heard the name, Fannie’s face softened. “Ach. I heard about the fire. Levi, you went to the funeral today, jah?”

  He nodded. “I did. Mamm, we—I mean, Lilah has a problem.”

  She saw his mother’s sparse eyebrows climb up her forehead. Curiosity sparked in her eyes. When she turned those brown eyes, so like her son’s, on Lilah, she fidgeted, her face flushing. How was she supposed to describe what was happening in her life? She hadn’t told Levi everything. Part of her worried that they would think she was making things up.