The Journal: Fault Line (The Journal Book 5) by Deborah D. Moore Read Free Book Online

near there, he
sighed when a battered PT Cruiser pulled up to the gas pumps. He
was ready to call it a night and had almost shut the pumps off.
    Orphaned at the age of fifteen, he’d spent
the next several years living with an alcoholic aunt. The day after
high school graduation, Trevor struck out on his own. He’d turned
thirty-five two months earlier and had celebrated by buying his
third convenience store. T’N’M stood for Trevor Nicolas Monroe,
though most thought it was T and M. He didn’t care; the
misconstrued name allowed him the anonymity to work at each of the
stores on a rotating basis, not only to keep an eye on the
employees but to also feel out the customers. He really wanted to
succeed and knew customer satisfaction was the way to do that.
    The young lady that entered the store looked
disheveled and confused and Trevor recognized her as being a
semi-regular customer. She looked around and grabbed one of the
carts that were lined up by the doors, wheeling it up and down the
short aisles, dropping things into the basket.
     
    ***
     
    Christine carefully selected some groceries.
She had been driving all day, stopping once for gas at a station
that would take only cash and had limited her purchase to only five
gallons. She was hungry and exhausted. A loaf of bread, some
lunchmeat, a few cans of soup, a case of water, two bottles of red
wine, and a frozen pizza nearly filled the cart. She headed to the
register.
    “Hi,” Trevor said, scanning Christine’s face.
Yes, this was the pretty girl he’d seen before. “Are you okay?”
    Christine’s attention was on the TV.
    “Miss?”
    She looked at Trevor and smiled, then a
single tear escaped down her cheek. She looked back up at the
screen.
    “I was there.”
    “Where?” he followed her eyes to the TV.
“ At the earthquake ?” That’s when he noticed the bruise and
bandage on her forehead. “You were hurt. What happened?”
    “Doesn’t matter now.” She handed him her
dad’s credit card.
    Trevor looked at the card, knowing it
wouldn’t go through. All the debit/credit lines were down, though
he made a show of running it anyway. “The circuits must be
overloaded, but I can run your card manually,” he lied, and pulled
out an old imprint machine. He slipped the plastic card and a
self-carbon receipt into the machine. “Umm, I know you’re not
“John” so I will need to see some I.D.,” he said smoothly, wanting
to know her name.
    Christine fumbled through her wallet and
produced her driver’s license. While Trevor copied down her
information, she saw Sadie and Dr. Palazzola on the TV. “Can you
turn up the volume please?” she asked.
    The newscaster’s voice over came up.
“ …elderly couple and their grandson escaped from their home
moments before it collapsed during the second big quake.
Fortunately none of them were injured. Here at the St. Mary’s
hospital others were not so lucky. A young deaf girl suffered a
severe head injury when a building came down on top of her while
she was out walking with her dog. Acts of kindness and bravery were
the rule of the day. Another young woman is credited for saving the
girl’s life when she risked her own removing the bricks that buried
the girl. That Good Samaritan left the hospital after having her
own head injury treated, not waiting for any recognition. That also
seems to be the rule of the day. Back to you in the
studio .”
    “I’m glad that Katie will be alright now,”
Christine muttered, still in a daze.
    “That was you, wasn’t it?” Trevor asked in
admiration and awe. Christine looked at him, not answering the
question. “Umm, here’s your card back. I’m sure your husband will
be glad to have you home, Christine,” he said, glancing at her I.D.
again.
    “Husband? I’m not married, John is my
father,” she said absentmindedly, slipping the card back in her
wallet.
    “Forgive me for asking this, but I see you
live not far from here. With your own head injury I’m