Taking Faith (12 page)

Chapter 11

She watched his back as he went into his bedroom and closed the door. She stared at it for a long time before turning to look at the unlocked latch. It was a padlock type, the kind that you had to have a lock and key to
lock it. It wasn’t an accident. He was telling her plainly to go.

She bit her lip and groaned as she let her mind run wild with ideas of her creeping through the trees a night, Roger being beaten to a pu
lp or worse for letting her go.

It didn't take much of that vision in her head
- his lip bleeding, his mouth open in silent scream -
to know what her answer was going to be.

She practically ran to his bedroom door, but slowed as she eased it open. He was on his side, facing away from her with his shoes still on. She kicked off her shoes, crawled onto the bed and put her arms around him from behind.
She didn't know if he was asleep or not, but it didn't matter. She pressed close, actually loving the feel of his heartbeat through his shirt. She drifted off to sleep feeling
happier than she had in a long, long time.

* * *

When she woke it wasn't a back, but a large chest she was snuggled into. She peeked up to find him watching her with a look she'd never seen on him before.
She smiled and shrugged.
His arm around her pulled her closer and he pressed his lips to her hair. The other hand moved to rest on her cheek and neck. Amy didn’t know how long they stayed that way, but she found herself smiling the whole time.

When she woke again, she was alone. She hurried from the bed and ran into the other room to find him going over some papers at the table. "Hey," he said with a smile.

"Hey," she answered almost out of breath. "Did you sleep
all right?"

"Yeah, I
kinda
did," he said with a
small
smirk. "Thanks. Coffee's in the pot."

She nodded. She had no idea what any of this meant, but she was glad that he seemed to be in brighter spirits. She, however, felt like crap. She licked her too dr
y lips,
grabbed a cup of coffee and then turned on the radio. Toby Keith's
Beer For My Horses
was playing and she laughed. "Is this ok?" she asked him.

"
Mhhmm
," he mumbled around his sip of coffee and then smiled. "You can do anything you want to around here, Amy. What's mine is yours."

"Great," she said softly. "Thank you."

"
No, thank
you
," he replied sincerely.
He stood and leaned his hip against the table edge. "How about we blow off work today, hmm?"

"That's fine. Great actually." She licked her lips once more. "I'm…feeling strange."

"Strange how?" he asked concerned. He went to stand in f
ront of her with swift steps. "Are y
ou all right? What's going on?"

"Just sick, maybe. I don't know."

"Well sit down," he said and took her arm to move her there. She almost laughed at his sudden concern. He felt her forehead. "You do feel a little warm. Let me see if I can find a thermometer."

Now she
did
laugh. "I am not five years old. I don't need a thermometer."

He grinned. "All right, fine. Let me at least get you a glass of juice." He took the coffee from the table and came back with
a big glass of orange juice. "There. Now why don't you sit over here and we'll watch a movie or something."

"Actually," she said and took a gulp of the juice to appease him, "can we go for a ride?"

His brow creased in confusion, but then his face lit with a grin. "I can see right now that convertible is the only reason you stick around."

She laughed. "You caught me."

He held his hand out for her and she took is gladly. He grabbed his keys from the table where they'd been left all night in plain view and guided her to the car. He opened her door, set her inside and hopped over the door side to land in his seat. He put his sunglasses on and they were on their way.

The sun was bright and warm
so
she leaned her head back to just enjoy it. He reached over and took her hand, resting their entwined hands on her thigh. She didn't look up, but she smiled.

When it was lunch time he pulled into a little drive-thru deli shop. Amy, truthfully, was almost asleep. He t
ook the food and drove back
to the drive-in. She was so tired and the sun was so warm, but she managed to eat the BLT he got
her. With her feet on the dash, her shoes off and the Styrofoam cup of sweet tea in her hand, she sat back and wondered what kinds of movies they played here. And if any kind of hanky-panky ever happened. She highly doubted it.

"Feeling better?" he asked. She looked over to see him reclined in his seat.

"Uh, yeah. Sure."

"You don't sound convinced."

"I'm just so tired, that's all." She leaned over and
let her head rest on his shoulder. "Drive
,
why don’t you."

He chuckled and leaned his seat up, carefully so as not to dislodge her. "Yes, ma'am."

He drove around for a while. He took every dirt and back road he knew to give her the longest ride possible. When they'd spent as much time as they could
, he drove home.

Home. Amy found herself becoming more acceptant of that word every day.

He pulled into the garage and helped her gently out of his side. She stood in the seat and he lifted her with ease and set her feet to the pavement. Once she was there, he kissed her forehead. She sighed with the gentleness of it, but he jerked back. "You're
kinda
hot."

She gave him her best smirk. He laughed and
then
laughed some more. "Come on, I'll get you something for it."

She followed him in and he set her on the couch. He cam
e back with a bottle of pills and a glass of orange juice. He turned on the TV and flipped it to a home improvement channel. "You were watching this the other day. You like these shows?"

"My mom used to watch them a lot," she said as she swallowed the pills down. "It just reminds me of…her."

"You miss her," he said softly, but it wasn't a question.

She nodded. "Sure. She was…pretty awesome."

"Hmm." He put his hands on his hips. "Well, maybe one day I'll take you to see her."

She stopped. "What? How?"

"If we act
normal
long enough, they'll stop watching us so closely. People have taken short trips before. I'll just make up something for work and you'll just have to come with me." He smiled and looked at her hopefully. He
was trying to please her and he wanted to see her smile.

So she did
. "I'd love that. Thanks."

He nodded his head to indicate it was so and took his shoes off by the door before going into the kitchen. Amy leaned back, pulling her legs up to her chest
and watched as a man told a lady that painting the kitchen pink would not help with the resale value. She smiled, thinking about what her mom would have said to that.

When she heard pots banging around, her curiosity got the best of her. She got up and peeked around the corner. He caught her instantly. "Couch, young lady."

"What are you doing in here?"

He
looked at the stove and back to her, giving
her a grin. "Straightening my hair."

"Ha, ha." She smiled and went to peek over in his pot. He turned her and pushed her with his arms around
her back to the couch. He twisted
her to him and touched her cheek, letting his thumb rub caresses.

"Will you just sit down and let me make you some dinner? All right?" he said, his voice deep and sweet.
All she could do was nod. He
turned, but changed direction and headed to the desk.

"I almost forgot about this. I meant to take it out days ago." He opened a locked drawer with a key from his ring and pulled an old rotary telephone out. "Do you want to, uh…call Elena, maybe?" She felt her eyebrows rise and he smiled sadly."You're not my prisoner anymore, Amy."

She just sat and looked at him.
He left to go back to the kitchen and she chewed on her lip. He was like a completely different person from three weeks ago. So she picked up the phone and the small black book he'd laid beside it, and looked up Alex's number. When he answered she was almost scared of what he'd do, but he just said, "Sure," and gave the phone over to Elena.

They talked for about twenty minutes as
Amy poured out her heart to the
only
person she c
ould. Elena sounded pretty great
, which she hadn't ex
pected. She sounded almost happy
. She didn't talk much, but listened to Amy tell her all abo
ut Roger and how things had made
such a turnaround. She didn't tell her
everything
. She didn't want Roger to get in trouble if people found out he was…not like the rest of them.

She said her goodbyes to Elena,
and when she turned, she found Roger in the doorway watching her. He had a strange look on his face and she stood from where she'd been sitting on the floor. "What is it?"

He gulped. "Call your mom."

"What?" she breathed
and watched his face for seriousness. He was
.
She knelt back down to the floor.
"I can't, can I? I…"

"I want you to. Just let her know you're all right." He came and squatted in front of her. "I promise you that we'll go see her one day, ok? We'll even stay there forever if that's what you want. But if you want to stay…with me, then we just have to wait a little bit to get the
community
off of our backs. They'll look for us
with no mercy
otherwise. They'll look for us anyway, but… If your mother is as awesome as you say she is, it's not fair to make her worry."

"I'll make it really quick," she
said quickly and gripped his hand. "Just to tell her I'm safe, that's all."

He nodded and licked his bottom lip. "You can take it into the bedroom if you like."

"No," she answered swiftly. "I'm not trying to hide anything from you."

"I didn't mean that," he said. "I just thought you might want some privacy."

"You won't get into trouble? For me doing this? What if they're tracing the call or something?"

"As long as you keep it short, it should be all right."

She nodded and pressed her fingers to her mouth, thinking of what to say. She picked up the receiver and dialed. When the ringing star
t
ed, her heart beat frantically. She looked for Roger, but he was gone back into the kitchen.

"Hello," her mother answered. She sounded tired. It had been two months since she'd been taken.

"Mom," she croaked.

"Amy? Amy!" she said and then sobbed through her words so hard that Amy couldn't hear what she was saying.

"Mom, calm down. Listen, I can't talk long. I just wanted to let you know
that
I was ok."

"Where are you?
We’ve been looking everywhere.
"

"I…don't know," she said truthfully, almost glad that she didn't know so she didn
't have to lie. "But I'm fine, r
eally. I'll explain more later…when we come to see you."

"We? Who's we?
What’s going on?
What have you done, Amy?"

"Nothing. I'll explain later. It's a long story.
I just want to say that I'm ok. And I love you, Mom.
"

"
Oh, Amy. Are you in
some kind of
trouble?"

"No, Mom. I love you, ok?"

"Amy, please-"

"I
’ll
come soon. I promise."

A long pause. "All right, Amy.
I trust you." She sighed. "I love you, baby
."

"
Love you, too, Mom. Stop looking for me, ok? Bye.”

A sob filled pause and then,
“Bye.”

She pressed the call release button and hugged the phone to her chest. Her mom’s voice…she’d heard it! She knew she was ok and that was all that mattered. When she felt the happy tear roll down her cheek she rolled her eyes at herself. She got up and made quick steps to the kitchen to thank Roger. He was leaning against the counter with his palms, his head down. She realized then the sacrifice he’d made. He thought once again that she was going to leave. Maybe it was crazy to stay, but to Amy, it felt right. This was where she felt she’d been placed for a purpose and she needed to stick it out.

He turned his head only to find her watching him and tried to smile. “It went well, I guess?”