Safe Hearts (Amish Safe House, Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

a
visitor,” Ryan said as he smiled at her. Something fluttered in
Kate’s chest at his smile. For a moment, she wondered why. She had
dated before; she had felt attracted to men before. Yet with Ryan,
it always felt a little different somehow.
    As Ryan walked past her to take up his
seat, she felt a tingle shiver up her arm and down her spine. Every
nerve in her body felt like it was on high alert, but in an
exhilarating way.
    “ I'm, I'm...” She blinked
and tried to find the words. Had she been pretending to be an
awkward Amish for too long? She actually felt like she couldn't
find the words to say. “I uh. Jeremiah.”
    “ Jeremiah?” Ryan
frowned.
    “ Jeremiah Steinbeck,” Kate
said, as she tried to clear the cobwebs out of her head and get
back in the game. What was wrong with her? “He’s Beckie’s cousin.
Everyone’s frantic over his arrest. I was hoping you might be able
to help them.”
    “ Steinbeck?” It might have
been her imagination, but he looked a little relieved that this was
a business call, and disappointed too, oddly enough. Was it
possible to be both? “Steinbeck. That’s the murder case in that
café.”
    Kate nodded as she folded her hands in
front of her, trying to keep the guise of the proper Amish woman.
“We know he is innocent, but the evidence looks bad for
him.”
    “ I hate to break this to
you, Kate -”
    “ No one wants to believe
their family can kill someone else,” she finished for him. She
herself had made that speech to many family members of criminals.
She knew how hard it was for them to accept such a horrible truth,
especially when they loved the criminal.
    Ryan nodded grimly. “I know it's
probably not what you want to hear.”
    “ I expected it,” she
admitted with a smile. “But something isn't adding up about the
whole thing. Like why he would poison the journalist someplace so
obvious? There are lots of quiet places he could have taken the
man. And why poison him if they were fighting loud enough for
someone to call? That is a pretty slow way to do the job if they
were able to draw that kind of attention to themselves.”
    Ryan furrowed his brow as he pondered
the second one. “You may have a point there, Kate. Pretty sharp
thinking for a quiet country girl.”
    “ Oh no,” Kate said quickly.
“We were discussing the case for hours at the last knitting circle.
Beckie’s a sweet woman. Everybody wanted to find some way to
help.”
    “ So you ladies all started
poking around for holes in the story.” Ryan seemed impressed. Kate
knew the feeling. The way the women could brainstorm together still
astounded her, as did the way in which they could rally around a
cause. “Maybe we should hire your group to work on some cases,”
Ryan said.
    Kate gave a polite laugh at his joke.
“Right now, they’re concerned about Jeremiah.”
    “ Let me make a couple
calls. Maybe I can figure something out, but just keep in mind that
he could still be guilty.”
    “ I understand. But at least
it will be less about circumstantial evidence.”
    Ryan gave her a half grin. “You've
been hanging around us too long.”
    “ Pardon?” she asked. Her
gut clenched as she suddenly realized her carelessness.
    “ Circumstantial evidence,”
he repeated with a hint of amusement. “You said it like you've been
in the field for years.”
    She gave a strained smile.
She had been saying
things like that for years. This fake Amish thing was getting older
by the minute. She frantically tried to think up a reason why it
would seem so natural. “We read too, you know. It's not all
knitting and baking.”
    “ Of course.” Ryan looked a
little dejected over the sharp edge in her tone. “I didn't mean
anything by that. I was just teasing you. It’s a bad time for
jokes, I know, what with one of your own in the hot seat. I’m
sorry.”
    One of her
own . If only he knew. In his eyes, she was
Kate the Amish woman. What would he ever think of the real her? Or
of the months of lies to