Losing Faith (9 page)

The car started to spin but continued in the direction of the truck. “Brace yourself!” Seth shouted.

Trista grabbed the passenger door and closed her eyes. She felt Seth’s arm against her, pushing her back into her seat. She grabbed onto him with her free hand and braced herself for the impact.

Chapter 11

Seth

The last thing Seth saw before closing his eyes was Frank holding onto Savannah. He heard Frank shout, “Hold on, Annie. Everything’s going to be fine.” Seth tensed, waiting for the impact. The car spun around and around in the direction of the truck before slowing and then coming to a stop. He opened his eyes. The truck, with its blinking hazard lights, stood just feet from his door. The idling sound of their car was the only thing he could hear. “Is everyone all right?” he asked.

Trista opened her eyes and looked at him. “Did we…?” She paused and looked past him toward the large truck behind him. Seth shook his head. Then he turned toward Frank and Savannah, who still sat huddled together in the center. “You guys okay?”

Savannah had tears streaming down her cheeks, and her bottom lip quivered. “We’re fine,” Frank answered.

“Aw, baby. Are you okay?” Trista let go of Seth’s arm, and for the first time, he felt his muscles relax. She leaned over the seat and ran her hands through Savannah’s hair. “That was scary, huh?”

“Why is there a truck in the highway?” Frank asked.

Seth looked over at the yellow flashing lights and shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’d sure like to ask the driver.” He opened the door, and the wind blew in a large gust of cold and snow. Seth quickly shut the door behind him and walked up to the truck. It was a plow truck with a long number written on the side. Seth looked up at the passenger side window, but he didn’t see anyone inside. He pulled himself up for a closer look, but it was empty.

“What do you see?” Frank asked, walking over to Seth. He had gotten out to examine the Malibu.

Seth dropped back down into the snow. “There’s no one inside.”

“That’s strange.”

“Maybe it broke down, and he caught a ride out of here.”

Frank nodded. “Maybe. But right now we’ve got a bigger problem.”

“What’s that?”

Frank pointed to the back tire of the Malibu. To the flat back tire. This was just what they needed. Another delay. He looked up into the blackness of the sky, trying not to scream. “Damn!”

Frank placed a hand on his shoulder. “It’s going to be all right, son. I’m sure there’s a spare in the trunk.”

Frank opened the car door and filled the girls in on the situation. Seth could see that Trista had already found her way into the back seat. Her arms were wrapped around Savannah. He opened the trunk and saw his guitar case. Faith smiled up at him. A warmth filled the center of his chest at the thought of seeing her again and holding her in his arms the way he used to when she was his little girl.

“You find the jack?” Frank asked, looking over Seth’s shoulder.

“Um, not yet.” He pulled out the guitar case and moved to the side so that Frank could take a closer look. He carried it up front and set it on the passenger seat. By the time he returned, Frank had found a tire iron and a jack.

He set them down by the flat and turned as Frank was pulling out the tire. “Well, I’m not surprised, but it’s unfortunate.”

“What are you talking about?” Seth asked him. “What’s unfortunate?”

“Well, the spare is a space-saver tire. Designed to save trunk space. The unfortunate part is that these types of tires are bad in this kind of weather. The ABS braking system and traction control aren’t as effective with this on, and as you can see,” he said, pausing to point at the plow truck, “we definitely need tires like those for traveling in this kind of weather.”

“So what are we going to do?”

Frank stared at the tire for a few seconds before looking back at Seth. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to stop at the nearest town and get this flat repaired.”

Seth’s anger came back in full force as he started to loosen the lug nuts. Yet another delay. Ever since they’d stopped to help Trista and Savannah, it had been one issue after another. No, ever since he had stopped to help the injured girl who had collided into a tree in the rain a couple of months ago. This was what he got for helping people. Had anyone ever bothered to help him? Not since he was a boy living with his father. Even his own mother had left when he was just five years old. Abandoned by his own mother. Left in the care of his father who had little to no experience raising kids. The tire iron slipped, and Seth went face first into the car.

Frank put a hand on Seth’s. “I’ve got this.” He removed the tire iron from Seth’s hand. “You put your hands back into your pockets for a little while. Get them warm again,” he said, taking Seth’s place. Seth watched as Frank cranked on the tire iron, trying to loosen the lug nut. After a few hard turns, he was satisfied. “There,” he said. “It was just stubborn.” Then he skipped one and went to the next.

“You skipped one,” Seth said, pointing to the one in the middle.

Frank gave him a curious look. “You have changed a tire, right?”

Seth nodded. “It’s been a while.” A while being more than ten years.

Frank went back to work. “You skip every other until you’ve got them all.” After loosening the last of the nuts, he handed the tire iron to Seth, “Now, you can do the heavy lifting and jack up the car so we can replace it.”

Frank reminded Seth of his own father. Always calm. Always in charge. And he had always seemed to know how to do just about anything. A trick Seth had yet to figure out. He stared at the tire iron in his hand. The cold steel felt like a heavy paperweight. “These hands weren’t meant for this,” he said, then went to work.

When Seth finished, Frank pulled the flat tire off the car and turned to Seth. “And what were they meant for?”

“I used to think they were meant for holding a guitar. Now…I’m not sure.” Seth held up the tire iron. “I can tell you that they were definitely not meant for this. This was more of my father’s kind of thing. He could do just about anything with his hands.”

“Sounds like a resourceful man.”

“I guess you could say that.” Seth remembered the last thing his father had said to him before passing away. The chemo had taken his hair and most of his weight and strength, but it hadn’t been able to take his spirit. Seth had been sitting next to his hospital bed when his dad’s doctor told him that it was time to say goodbye. But Seth hadn’t been ready to say goodbye. His father had looked up at him from his bed and smiled.
It’s about time,
he said. Seth’s jaw had tightened as he tried to hold back the tears.
I had a dream about you. You were playing on a stage in front of thousands of people. It was beautiful.
His father hadn’t always supported his love for music. It hadn’t been until his father’s last months that he had really encouraged Seth to chase his dreams.

“Are you okay?” Frank’s voice brought Seth back to the present.

“Fine. Let’s finish changing this tire and get back inside.”

Seth and Frank said little as they switched the tires. A few cars came driving slowly past. One stopped to see if they needed help, but at that point Frank was already lowering the car while Seth loaded the trunk.

By the time they got back inside the car, Seth’s hands were numb. He rubbed them together and breathed on them, but it did little to warm them. Frank took a seat at the wheel and did the same. He turned up the heat, and they placed their hands on the tiny registers.

“Is everything okay now?” Trista asked from the back seat.

“For now,” Seth replied.

“What does that mean?”

“The car came with a space-saver spare. We’ll have to stop at the nearest town and get it replaced. We can’t drive on it for long in this weather.”

Trista frowned, clearly disappointed with the news.

A set of flashing lights on top of a tow truck headed toward them. “Looks like we have company,” Seth said, pointing out the rear window.

Trista turned toward the back and then put her arm around her daughter. “Can we get out of here now?”

Frank nodded, but waited to see what the truck would do. The tow truck stayed in their lane and came to a slow stop, pinning them between the trucks. “What is this guy doing?” Frank asked.

“I have no idea,” Seth responded.

“Can we please just go? I’ve had enough of just sitting here. Let’s go,” Trista repeated.

“Are you okay?” Frank asked.

Trista looked back and forth between the truck and Frank. “What are we waiting for?” Her voice registered complete impatience.

Seth held a hand up to block the lights of the tow truck, trying to get a look inside. But the truck’s beams made it impossible for him to see the driver. He saw fear in Trista’s eyes. He turned to Frank. “Maybe we should get going.”

The driver’s-side door of the tow truck opened. The silhouette of a man stepped out into the storm. Trista turned back around and sat facing forward. She grabbed her daughter’s hand while her leg bounced up and down.

The man looked inside the car and then tapped on Frank’s window. “You guys okay?” The man’s gruff voice reminded Seth of his manager, Adam. The man had a two-pack-a-day habit.

“We had a flat,” Frank told him. “But we’re all set to go now.”

Seth turned to Trista, who continued to stare downward. Then he lowered his head to get a look at the man, but all he could see was the bottom half of his face. “All right. You guys should get goin’ before you get stuck out here. Storm’s only fixin’ to get worse.”

Frank nodded. “Thanks for stopping.”

“No problem. I actually came here for that.” The man pointed at the plow truck with the flashing hazard lights. “I saw you sittin’ and wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“I appreciate it all the same. We’ll get out of your way.”

The man backed up his truck, and Trista finally took a look out of the window as Frank backed the car up. Seth saw a look of relief come over her as they pulled away. Trista watched as the truck and the man fell out of sight. Then she turned to Seth.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. I’m just getting real tired of this storm.”

Seth put on his seatbelt and watched as large flakes of snow fell onto the windshield. Frank cleared his throat, drawing his attention. He mouthed the words, “Is she okay?”

Seth just shrugged. He knew Trista was keeping something from them, but he didn’t have a clue what it was. He had enough on his plate right now anyway. The last thing he needed was more trouble. Then he remembered something Frank had shouted just before they thought they would collide into the truck. “Hey. Who’s Annie?”

Frank paused before replying. “Why are you asking?”

“You shouted her name when we were about to run into the truck.”

“I did?”

Seth nodded. “That’s what you called Savannah when you thought we were going to crash.”

Frank took a deep breath before answering. “She was someone very close to me.”

Chapter 12

Trista

Frank took the first exit they came to and pulled into a gas station that sat in the middle of an empty shopping complex. The relentless storm had made everything slow. Driving. Walking. Everything. The stores had long since closed, leaving only a few cars parked at some of the nearby restaurants.

“I’m going to go inside and ask the attendant where the nearest place is to get a tire repaired.”

“I’ll go with you,” Seth said, slipping his leather jacket back on. “Besides, I need to get out of this storm, even if it is for just a few minutes in a gas station.” He turned to Savannah and Trista. “What about you guys?”

Trista shook her head. “We’ll wait here for you.” Her hands still trembled from the tow truck scare she’d had only minutes ago. She thought for sure the driver of the truck was going to be Tuck. Armed with a 9 mm pistol, she knew he wouldn’t hesitate to use it on her if he caught up to her. At least, that’s what he’d told her when he had first suspected that she wanted to leave him. A chill ran down her spine when she remembered again what he used to tell her.
I know how to find people, sweetheart. It’s what I do.

The ding of Savannah’s phone drew her back to the present. She watched Savannah check the phone and then quickly cover the screen, setting it on the seat next to her. “Who was that?”

Savannah turned away from her mother and looked out the window. “It’s just Lizzy.”

She stared at her daughter and then back down at the phone. Call it a mother’s instinct or an ability to read people, but she sensed that Lizzy wasn’t the one who had sent Savannah a text. “Can I see your phone?”

“Why?” Savannah asked, still looking out the window.

“Because I want to look at something.”

“You have your own phone.”

“I know. But my battery’s nearly dead, and I need to save the power.” A lie she felt bad telling, but parents did what they had to to keep their children safe.

Savannah lifted her phone, and her fingers started tapping on the touch screen. Her bluff had been called, and Trista knew her daughter was up to no good. She reached for the phone, but Savannah pulled it to her right side, away from her mother. Her little girl was as strong and defiant as she had been when she was her age. And that hadn’t exactly worked in her favor then either.

“Savannah, dear. You’ve got about two seconds to give me your phone, or I’ll make sure you never have it again.”

Savannah stared into her mom’s eyes, studying her, weighing her threat to see if there was any venom in that bite. Then her eyes softened, and she handed the phone to Trista. “Okay, but you can’t get mad.”

The last words Trista had heard were
can’t get mad
before she found the one thing on her daughter’s phone that had the power to completely set her off. A message from Trey.
Savannah, I’m so sorry for the way I acted the other day. I need you. I can’t breathe without you.
Trista’s body temperature rose, and her heart quickened as she took a deep breath. She had told Savannah that she was to have no contact with that boy. He was trouble. Worse than trouble. He was life-changing, and not in a good way. Trista drew in a deep breath, slowly letting it out. She needed to handle this right.