Lean on Me Read Online Free PDF

Let’s surprise her!”
Hector James said.
    “ Great idea! We’ll sneak
out and pick the blackberries,” Troy peered out the kitchen window
to see the dusky light of pre-dawn. “We’ll make her breakfast in
bed when we get back. I’ll start the coffee. Why don’t you boys go
set your beds in Ninja stealth style?”
    Hermes clapped his hands with glee. Troy
lifted Hermes and Hector James from the counter. The boys sprinted
to their room where they stuffed pillows and extra blankets under
their covers. While it never fooled Dahlia, she pretended not to
know when her boys were romping with Troy in the early morning.
    The boys started running down the hall.
    “ Ninja style!” Troy
whispered.
    The boys crept past their mother’s door to
the living room. Troy opened the sliding glass door and the boys
ran into the forest. Troy looked at his bare feet and looked around
for the flip flops he kept near the door. Not finding them easily,
and worrying the boys would get too far ahead of him, he shrugged.
He grabbed the metal pail they used for berries and he ran after
them. He made quick work of the tiny grass backyard and down the
well-maintained path through the woods. He easily caught up with
the boys and they jogged to the blackberry patch together.
    “ You boys go ahead,” Troy
said. “I’m not wearing shoes.”
    “ Daddy! That’s silly!”
Hector James said.
    “ I know!” Troy
laughed.
    He gave the boys their berry pail and they
plunged into the patch. He watched them eat almost as many as they
put in the pail. Within a few minutes, their faces and fingers were
sticky purple. Troy was laughing at the boys when he heard a
familiar sound.
    Pfft, Pfft.
    F

CHAPTER THREE
     
    He stopped moving and looked around. The
sound came again.
    Pfft, Pfft.
    That was a silenced handgun.
    “ Boys,” Troy’s voice was
intense and commanding. “I need you to stay here.”
    The children looked at him with horror.
    “ Ninja style,” Troy said.
“You know what to do.”
    “ We hide in the middle of
the patch where no one can get us,” Hector James said. “We have
supplies there.”
    “ Like real Ninjas,” Hermes
said.
    “ Good boys,” Troy said.
“Why don’t you go see if there are berries there?”
    “ And stay there?” Hermes
asked.
    “ Stay there until Mommy or
I, or Auntie Alex, come and get you. You remember Auntie
Alex?”
    The boys gave a solemn nod.
    “ Go on,” Troy
said.
    Troy waited for a moment to make sure the
boys were in the middle of the patch. He took off toward the house.
He was almost there when his phone rang. He stuck his wireless
headset in his ear and continued running.
    “ Do you have the boys?”
Dahlia asked.
    “ They are in the berry
patch,” Troy asked.
    “ He’s here,” Dahlia
whispered into the phone.
    “ Hector?”
    “ Who else?” Dahlia
whispered. “He just shot up the boys’ beds. I peeked out. He looks
completely crazy. He has guns – big ones and small ones – and those
explosives you see on TV and…”
    “ I’m almost there,” Troy
shifted into his top speed.
    “ No,” Dahlia said. “Promise
me you’ll take care of our boys.”
    “ I’m coming to get you,”
Troy said.
    “ No,” Dahlia said. “He’s
right outside my hiding place. If you love me at all, promise me
you’ll take care of our boys. Please. Promise me Troy
Olivas.”
    “ I will take care of the
boys with my life,” Troy said. “You know that.”
    “ As long as he thinks he’s
killed them,” Dahlia said. “He won’t look for them.”
    “ Dahlia!” Troy
said.
    “ You and the boys are the
only thing that’s ever mattered to me,” Dahlia said.
    “ Don’t do this! I’m almost
there. I can…” He cursed himself. Dahlia wouldn’t allow him to keep
a weapon in the house. To appease her, he always left his guns and
rifles with Alex.
    “ I used up all of our time.
I’m so sorry,” Dahlia said. “I love you, Troy.”
    Troy heard Hector break through the wooden
barrier covering