Amish Christmas Escape Read online

  The horror was sinking into her soul. It sounded like a mob hit. Suddenly, the secret meetings made sense. Her father’s business was a fraud. She’d had her doubts about it, but now she was sure. Something about his business had made his children targets. She didn’t know who she could trust, not anymore. If Bryce was involved—a man she’d known all her life—well...who else was?

  If Jo Anne had been a target, why had they let her linger? Now her beloved sister was gone, and her baby was in danger.

  Grief spread through Christy like spilled wine on a cotton tablecloth. Soon, she’d be saturated with it and unable to think. She had to stay in control. Ellie was her priority.

  The bedroom door closed. The men were gone. She needed to move.

  It took all her will, but she stayed where she was another five minutes before venturing out of the closet and Jo Anne’s room.

  Christie approached the bedroom door slowly, setting each foot down as if she was walking on a fragile glass. She couldn’t risk being heard. Placing her ear against the door, she listened, only opening it when she was sure there was no one in the hall.

  Rushing into her room, she filled a backpack with a few necessities. Her phone was on the nightstand near her bed. She grabbed it and opened the settings. Quickly, she deactivated the location settings so she wouldn’t have to worry about it pinging or alerting anyone to their whereabouts. She turned the phone off then shoved the device and a charger into the bag. She moved next door to Ellie’s room. They had to escape in her car, but eventually she’d need to ditch it. She packed a little more for Ellie than she’d packed for herself, but not more than they could carry.

  She’d taken long enough. Waking her daughter, Christy warned the child to stay quiet. Ellie’s lower lip started to push out in a pout.

  “We’re going on an adventure, honey. I need you to not say a word.”

  At the word adventure, her big hazel eyes lit up and she nodded vigorously.

  They snuck down the stairs and through the kitchen. Once outside, she loaded her daughter into her car. As she was backing out of the driveway, the side door to the house burst open and Bryce ran out, a huge man with a leather jacket and black beard beside him. She threw the car into Drive and gunned it as they yelled at her to stop.

  Bryce lifted his arm. He had a gun! She pushed down on the gas as he fired. The blast shocked her. The bullet thudded into the passenger-side door.

  Ellie screamed, but was uninjured.

  Christy had little doubt the police would be searching for her car. She didn’t know what story her father would tell them, but she knew she and Ellie were dead if they were returned to her father’s house. A sincere face with the same brown eyes as Ellie’s swam in her mind. Sam. She had to call Sam.

  * * *

  “Sam, you have a call.” Adele grinned up at him.

  Sam Burkholder half turned his body on the ladder and raised an eyebrow at his cousin. “I have a phone call?”

  Had he ever received a call before? As an Amish man, he’d grown up with no phone in his haus. The bed and breakfast his onkel ran had a phone, but only because it was a business that catered to Englischers.

  He narrowed his gaze at his cousin. Adele had just turned eighteen and was readying for baptism into the church. She had a sparkling personality and tended to be somewhat of a prankster. Other than his family, no one would know to call him here. He didn’t work at the Plain and Simple Bed and Breakfast. However, the roof had leaked earlier in the season and caused water damage that had needed to be repaired. Since his family owned a painting business, he was there on official business, prepping two of the upstairs rooms to be repainted. The job wasn’t on the calendar, which meant he was running late to meet his daed and brother Abram at their next appointment. He should have left an hour ago.

  He did not have time to play games with Adele today. “Jah, I am sure. I need to finish and move on. Take a message, will ya?”

  “It’s a maidel, Sam.”

  Her face was avid, burning with curiosity. Well, maybe she wasn’t pulling his leg. He frowned. Other than his mamm or Adele, what females would be calling him? And they wouldn’t call. He wasn’t courting anyone. Hadn’t for the past six years, although he could never tell his family the real reason why.

  If they knew the truth behind his reluctance to go to singings or to meet any women, his daed would be sore disappointed in him.

  He couldn’t be more disappointed than Sam was in himself. He’d never be taken in again, even if he knew he was free to marry.

  The problem was, he didn’t know if he were free. And he had no way of finding out.

  Aggravated, he shrugged. “Ack. I’m late. Adele, take a message. If it’s important, I’ll call back when I’m done.”

  She rolled her eyes and flounced off. Sam put the conversation from his mind and got back to his task. He had all but forgotten the incident until she returned ten minutes later. Her wide eyes and pale face told him something was wrong.

  “Adele?” He hurried off the ladder. What had happened? Was someone hurt? Or sick?

  She cleared her throat. “I gave her the message. She said she needed you to come and pick her up. I thought that was strange, and I tried to tell her you were busy. She said—she said—”

  He tamped down his impatience. It wasn’t often anything rattled Adele. “She said what?”

  She sucked in a deep breath and released the words in a rush. “She said, ‘Tell him his wife is calling.’”

  Sam stepped back, his head reeling. His wife? There was only one woman who’d say that.

  Looking around, he grabbed hold of Adele, pulled her onto the back porch and closed the door. No one could hear this conversation. “Tell me everything she said. Everything.”

  He hardly recognized that rasp as his voice.

  She blinked. “It’s true, then?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know.” He held up his hand before she could ask more. “It’s a complicated situation, and one I need you to keep quiet about for now. Please, tell me what she said.”

  “She said she was your wife. She took a bus to Shipshewana, Indiana, where you met, and asked around until someone gave her this number. She said somebody was trying to kill her.”

  Christy never exaggerated. He remembered her, how much she wanted to tell the exact truth about everything. If she said someone was trying to kill her, they were. “Did she say her name?”

  She shook her head. “She said she didn’t want anyone to know who she was because they were searching for her.”

  It took him five seconds to decide he’d go. Even if she hadn’t been in danger. He had six years of questions to ask her. Starting with, why’d she abandoned him? And why hadn’t she let him know she was alive all these years?

  “Okay. I need to find a driver. Shipshewana is a four-hour drive.” He glanced at his watch. It was a little past nine now. Maybe he could get there before dinnertime. “I mean what I said, Adele. No one can know about this. If I’m not back tonight, you can tell anyone who asks that I went to assist a friend. No mention of who she is.”

  “Sam...”

  He locked his gaze with hers. “I promise, I will explain everything to the family when I return home. But I don’t have the time now. If Christy is in trouble, I need to go fast.”

  He waited until he had her nod of agreement then prepared for the journey, his stomach in knots. He’d fallen hard for Christy when they’d met six years ago. So hard, he’d been tempted to leave his faith. He’d been carrying an emotional burden, one no one in his family had known about, and only Christy had seen behind his smile and calm demeanor.

  He’d thought he’d found his forever love. Then she’d gone and his heart had broken.

  Sam called around to find a driver. Finally, he found one. He had to wait nearly two hours for the driver to arrive, so it was almost six hours later when he stepped out of the car and asked the driver to wait for him. He wiped his hands on his trousers. Regardless of the snow and ice surrounding them, he was cold. He wasn’t sure he had the right place, but she’d said to come where they’d met. Buses lined the parking lot.

  Where to begin searching?

  He went inside and scoured the depot with his eyes. In the back, nearly hidden, a woman squatted next to the wall, a small girl beside her with her little arms crossed as a storm brewed on her face. She was about five seconds shy of a temper tantrum.

  Sam stared at the terrified woman in front of him. She was six years older than the last time he’d seen her, but he’d know her anywhere. Even with her head turned away, he’d memorized the curve of her jaw. Her face was slimmer, more mature, but he knew her.

  “Christy?”

  Her dark brown eyes shot to his when she heard her name, widening as she took in his appearance, from his heavy black boots, simple trousers and winter coat, to the hat pushed down on his head. She’d never seen him dressed in his Amish clothes. When they’d met, he’d been going through a defiant phase.

  “Sam?” Her voice trembled, although whether it was shock, fear or a combination of the two, he couldn’t say.

  “Mommy, I’m scared.”

  He glanced at the child snuggled up against her side. Then his eyes widened. The child looked exactly like his cousin Adele had when she was little. Right down to the huge hazel eyes gazing at him with suspicion.

  “Christy.” He never took his eyes from the munchkin as he addressed the woman. “Who is this?”

  “This is my daughter. Eleanor Samantha. I call her Ellie.”

  Samantha. Could be a coincidence. He didn’t believe in coincidences. Forcing his
stare away from the child, he read the truth in Christy’s face. Not only was the girl he’d loved back, but she’d also had his child and never told him.

  “I can explain,” she said, her words rushed in the awkward silence. “But I need your help. Someone murdered my sister last night, and they’re after us. If they find me, they’ll murder Ellie and me, too.”

  TWO

  Sam took a step back, mentally shaken by her revelation. Her sister had been murdered?

  “I never knew you had a sister.” He realized that he had known very little about the girl he’d loved enough six years ago to go through with a forbidden wedding ceremony. All he’d known was that she had a harsh, demanding father and a spoiled stepmother. He hadn’t even asked about her biological mother’s whereabouts. Had she died? Had Christy’s parents divorced? Why hadn’t he ever asked these questions? Had he really known her?

  “I know you didn’t,” she whispered. “There were many things we never told each other.”

  Jah, that was true. They’d been together for such a brief time. He’d told her some things about his family. Just not everything. He remembered literally running into her at the bus station when he traveled to Shipshewana during his rumspringa. Her vibrant personality and bright smile had attracted him from the moment they’d collided. Sam had taken a summer job in Shipshewana to put some space between himself and Sutter Springs. They’d been inseparable for two short months before they’d decided to get married.

  Sam had planned on bringing her home to meet his family, even though he was still at war with himself about his part in what had happened to his brother, who had left the Amish and become Englisch for a few years. Levi was back now, but he’d been through a lot.

  Levi had left after an argument with his father because someone had accused Levi of theft. How much of his brother’s suffering could have been averted had Sam done the right thing? Sam had never told his father, or Levi, that he’d known who the real thief was. He’d thought he was helping his best friend. In fact, he’d thought his best friend would come through for him and do the honorable thing. But he hadn’t.

  The little girl at Christy’s side began to fuss.

  Nee, he corrected himself. His daughter. While her hair was the same rich color of dark molasses as her mother’s, rather than light brown like his, the curls that fell to her shoulders were all his. Christy’s hair fell past her shoulders in a straight sheet without a single wave. Eleanor—or Ellie, as Christy had called her—also had his hazel eyes rather than Christy’s warm dark brown color.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” His throat constricted as he strove to control his emotions.

  She sighed. “I wanted to. Believe me. If I had thought it was safe, I would have.”

  Safe? “I don’t understand.”

  “I know you don’t. But now is not the time. Sam, I drove my car here. It’s sure to be recognized. Please. I don’t know if the police will believe my story, or if I’ll even have the chance to tell it.”

  The fear in her eyes decided him. He had made some bad decisions in his life, a handful concerning the woman in front of him. He should never have consented to that wedding ceremony, no matter how in love they were. Even though she’d expressed interest in joining the Amish church, he had known at the time it wasn’t the right thing to do. Wrong or not, however, they had married. And she’d raised his daughter herself. She claimed she had done it to protect him.

  Could he believe her? She’d abandoned him once, and she’d never told him why. He wanted to believe she was being up-front with him now, but he found it difficult to trust so easily. Not to mention the difficulties this would make for him at home.

  Well, he couldn’t take the chance. If they were in harm’s way, he had to act. It was his duty. And he’d never forgive himself if something happened to them.

  “Okay. I can wait for an explanation.” He dropped his gaze to Ellie. “She looks tired.”

  “And hungry.”

  Ellie nodded emphatically. “I’m hungry, Mommy. My tummy hurts, I’m so hungry.”

  He wanted to wipe the anguish from Christy’s face. Don’t be fooled, Sam. He’d never let himself fall into the trap of love again. People tended to abandon those they loved far too effortlessly. Nee, he was better off steering clear of that emotion.

  But he couldn’t ignore the sweet little maidel looking at him with such hopeful eyes.

  “There’s got to be a vending machine or a little restaurant around here.” He planted his hands on his hips as he looked around him. “Let’s see if we can find Ellie something to eat.”

  Ellie’s tiny hand slipped into his. “I’m hungry, mister.”

  He grinned down at her, his heart melting into a puddle. That didn’t take much, he scoffed silently as his eyes snagged Christy’s. How did they tell her who he was?

  “Honey, this man isn’t just ‘mister.’ He’s your daddy.”

  Daed. He bit back the correction. His daughter was being raised in the Englisch world. Whether he liked it or not, that wasn’t likely to change.

  Instead of the warm welcome he might have hoped for, Ellie drew back, her face blanking in an instant. Whatever reaction he’d expected, it hadn’t been that. The child appeared almost frightened of him.

  “He’s not like my daddy, Ellie.” Christy’s broken whisper reached his ears. “He’ll protect you and love you.”

  The little girl’s lower lip trembled. “Will he yell a lot?”

  “Nee.” It was time he entered this conversation. No child should be afraid of their father. “No, Ellie. I will not yell a lot. I promise.”

  Sam took one of the backpacks from Christy. She held Ellie’s hand and the small family went in search of something to eat. In the end, they found a small stand that sold sandwiches. Christy and Ellie waited at an empty table while Sam purchased the food.

  Ellie gobbled down a tuna sandwich like she was starving. Christy, he noticed, barely nibbled on hers.

  “You okay?”

  She nodded, sliding a glance at Ellie. “I don’t like staying in one place for so long. I keep expecting someone to find us.”

  “Christy, what happened?”

  She dropped her gaze and took another nibble. Stalling, no doubt. He didn’t want to upset her, but it was time he had some answers.

  “Yesterday?” She still didn’t raise her eyes.

  “Jah, yesterday, but also six years ago.” He gestured toward their daughter. “You left—”

  “I didn’t leave.” Her eyes snapped to his face. “Not willingly.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Explain, please.”

  “I’d run away from home and taken a bus and got off here. I didn’t plan on sticking around. When I met you, I changed my mind. I never dreamed I’d be traced so easily. My father had found me. I had gone to the mall to get some new shoes, remember? When I got back to my car, he was there waiting for me. He had hired a private investigator who’d found me. My father forced me to go with him. I wanted to return to you, especially when I knew...” She gestured at Ellie.

  He nodded; yes, he understood.

  “By then, though, my older sister had been diagnosed with cancer. Jo Anne had no one to stand with her as she went through treatments.”

  “She would have had your father, right?”

  Christy snorted. “My father was never one to be comforting. I think he found her illness an inconvenience. And my stepmother had never been fond of either of us. I couldn’t leave her alone.”

  He remembered that about her. Christy had always had a keen sense of compassion. He recalled how outraged she would become when she read newspaper articles about people suffering or being mistreated. He knew her well enough to understand that she wouldn’t have been able to leave her sister alone. But still...what about him? Their marriage? Shouldn’t her devotion have extended to him? At the very least, couldn’t they have talked about her options? There was more she wasn’t saying. He was sure there was.

  But perhaps she was right. Now was not the time.

  “I’ll accept that for now.”

  Relief crossed her face. “You’ll help us?”