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“I’m fine Daddy,” I tell him, trying to sound casual but hearing my own voice crack.
Noah didn’t read my note to my Dad and I haven’t mentioned to him that I didn’t say I was going anywhere with him.
“Well, for heaven’s sake, darlin’ where are you? Do you need me to come pick you up?”
I freeze, not having the faintest clue to any story I could spin him right now that isn’t the truth.
In my note I only mentioned I’d be gone for a day or two, not saying who I’d gone with or even where.
It’s totally out of character for me, I usually tell my Dad everything and he’s more worried because of it, I can tell.
“I just had to get away for a few days, Dad,” I tell him truthfully. “At home alone in that big old house after so long being away, with you not there…”
Dad moans quietly, I don’t mean to make him feel guilty.
“I just got back honey, and after Sheriff Brodie called last night, once he saw you were missing.”
Missing?
“What do you mean, Dad. Missing?” I ask, feeling my stomach drop. Noah glances over too.
“They got the other two, but I was so worried, Brodie thought that-”
“Here, gimme that,” Noah says in his best deep voice, easing the phone out of my hand as I make a stifled cry of protest.
“Mr. Holding? Noah Templeton, I spoke to you-”
I can hear my Dad shrieking in horror as Noah has to take the phone away from his ear for a second.
“Wh- What do you want?” Dad asks, sounding more desperate by the second.
Noah frowns, looking over to me to make me feel better by winking, but it’s only making it worse.
“Uh… Well to talk, man to man. It’s about your daughter, Mr. Holding. Thing is, I kinda- huh? What’s that? You’re breaking up. Now, Mr. Holding, there’s no need to raise your voice…”
I can hear my Dad chittering like a monkey. And there is some static on the line which sees Noah screwing up his face.
“Gotta bad connection,” he whispers over to me, a matter of fact, scrunching up his nose again apologetically.
“Listen, Padre? I’ll have to call you back. Right now, I have everything I want with Faith here, and I just wanted to let you know she’s safe and well. I’ll talk to you later about the uh, finer details… hullo? Hell-”
He shrugs at me, passing the phone back as I sink into my seat.
“Not great reception out here, I’m afraid. I’ll call him later, have a pow-wow, man to man,” Noah says absently to himself.
Nervously, I power down my phone, not wanting any sort of trace or whatever they call it.
From what I just heard Noah tell my Dad, and knowing my Dad… plus the recent news stories, I can only guess that Dad and Sheriff Brodie have assumed I’ve been kidnapped by the third and still at large bandit.
The bandit they think is Noah Templeton.
I shiver in my seat, feeling like I’m about to be sick.
“You alright?” Noah asks innocently, clapping my leg with his huge hand, and squeezing it.
“It’ll be fine, Faith. Your Dad will come around, you’ll see.”
It all clicks in my mind.
Noah’s no bandit, it’s all just a simple but now extremely complicated misunderstanding.
I left home with Noah and because of what else has happened, plus Sheriff Brodie, my Dad assumes Noah is bandit number three, kidnapping his daughter and promising to call him later with the demands.
My head starts to spin with the concept, and then starts to pivot again as I look behind us every thirty seconds, eyeing every car that passes us.
“I think it’s best if I just come straight out with it, Faith. With your Dad, I mean. No point beating around the bush. I mean, him being a man of God and all, I figure he’d appreciate the straight-up truth, what do you say?” he asks.
But I can only squirm in my seat some more, feeling the blood drain from my face as I look out the window.
“It’ll be just fine, Honey. You’ll see,” he comforts me again.
For the next few miles I sit silently until Noah actually starts to whistle, he’s that pleased with how he thinks things are going.
I can’t stand it a minute longer.
I have to tell him.
After asking Noah just now if there’s anything else he wants to tell me, it would look pretty stupid of me to even begin to try and explain what I think’s actually happening on my Dad’s end.
In the outside world, which I feel like could implode on us at any minute, driving around in Noah’s truck after staying at a hotel he’s just used his real name at too.
“Now, sweetie, you were asking me?” he says, feeling my mind with his.
I shift in my seat uneasily, only asking once Noah prompts me with his eyes before focusing on the road again.
