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“My Dad… he thinks you’re the holdup bandit, that you’ve kidnapped me. I just know all those cops are looking for us, for you!” I blurt out, feeling Noah’s huge body rocking under mine as I’m pressed against him.
He’s laughing to himself.
“The holdup bandit? Now, what on earth are you talking about, Faith? Is it because I spied on you, climbed your tree? Why would the cops be after me? And why would I rob anyone?” he asks me, suddenly serious, sounding like the complete voice of reason in his deep and authoritative tone.
“Daddy said there were strangers in the area, the day you showed up. Then I saw the news report and figured he must’ve seen the same ones. He must’ve thought you were one of the bandits after speaking to you… I didn’t tell him you’d left but I never told him you stayed either-”
But Noah cuts me off. “Do you really think I’d do anything like that, Faith? And do you really feel like you’re in any danger with me?” he asks, and I can see the hurt in his eyes, feel it in his touch.
“No!” I tell him. “I know you wouldn’t do anything like that, it’s just after we left I saw the Sheriff’s car heading back to our house and knowing him… Then I saw the news again, with two of the bandits caught and one still at large. Then you talked to my Dad on the phone, making it sound like you had taken me away… making it sound like you’d call him with your demands.”
Noah looks at me sidelong for quite a while, his mouth twisting as he thinks everything through. He runs his hands through his hair and then motions for me to give him my phone.
“I’ll call your father, clear this up right now,” he says, a matter of fact. But I know it won’t be that easy.
All those police, everything, I just know my Dad and that stupid Sheriff Brodie have jumped to conclusions.
“What’s in that case, Noah?” I ask him finally, knowing it breaks our bond of trust if he tells me. But now I just have to know.
I need to know for sure he’s not mixed up in anything else. Even though I trust him with my life, I’m only worried if we’re caught, that he’ll be taken away from me.
That we’ll never get to be an ‘us’ like he’s been planning.
I’ll never see him again, and the past two days will have been a dream that turned into a nightmare.
Noah looks thoughtful for a long time, weighing everything up in his mind that I’ve told him.
“I don’t know exactly what’s in the case, Faith. But I have a fair idea. And, like I said a promise is a promise. A promise I made to a dying woman who helped make me who I am today if you must know.”
He registers my look. My apprehension and my worry for him before he pats my arm gently.
“We’re almost there, Faith. Once we get to the convent, you’ll see. Maybe your Dad and those cops might even see I’m not a bad guy, Faith. I’m just keeping a promise as much as I’m gonna keep the one to you. The one where I tell you everything’s gonna work out fine, and soon, real soon we’ll be together without any worry. How about that?” he asks, squeezing my hand and pecking me on the forehead.
I feel my heart go and my head nod.
“Oh, I want to believe it, Noah I do. But what about-”
His finger’s on my lips and he gives me a knowing look.
“Soon, Faith. Just a few hours more and we’ll have all this behind us, I promise,” he says like he somehow has control over everything.
I believe him though. Noah’s shown me enough of his magic so far, especially between the sheets so I don’t doubt anything else he’s truly capable of.
“But all those police!” I exclaim, sounding more worried than ever before.
“Yeah, well. I haven’t broken the law yet, Faith. Remember that,” he says calmly, slipping the truck back into gear and slowly pulling back out onto the highway.
“Do you wanna call your Dad again?” he asks me, a knowing look that hints I’d better. To explain things properly.
I shake my head firmly.
“We can call him once you do whatever it is you have to do,” I say with renewed determination. “If they’ve got the wrong end of the stick how is that my fault? I’m tired of having to explain myself to everyone anyway. Let’s just go, Noah. Let’s get this done and then it’ll be just like you said – the two of us.”
He smiles and heaves a breath of satisfied relief.
I clutch his arm again as he keeps a steady and very legal pace along the highway.
