Out of the Storm Read Online Free PDF Page A

his question from the night before. It made no more sense this morning.
    She turned. “No,” she said, looking curious. “You’re right. I never thought about it until you mentioned it, but they didn’t.”
    He headed for the stairs. The thought nagged at him. Maybe he was being too analytical, too cynical. Combat made you that way. Assess every detail, look at everything. Especially the ones that seemed trivial. They were usually the most important, the ones that could mean the difference between life and death.
    No backpack, no change of clothes, toothbrush, not even a stuffed animal for the little girl. It just didn’t make sense. There had to be an explanation. But it could wait. It had too. Ashley was in the hospital, there was a seven-year-old sleeping in his guest room, and he had a business to run. He stopped. Maybe Ralph really had pushed them out the front door. If that was the case, Eric wanted to know why.
    “Be back in a second,” he said as he changed directions and turned toward the living room. Eric went to the generous nook that had doubled as a home office and Elaine’s sewing room. Small but cheery, sunlight poured in through the sheer curtains from the east-facing windows. It did nothing to brighten Eric’s mood. A phone sat on the small desk, and he could close the door for privacy. He pulled a yellowed slip of paper from the bottom of the top drawer. The last number he had for Ralph.
    As he was about to dial, Eric looked at the phone. The message light blinked. He never came into the room to use the phone. He always used his cell or the land-line in the kitchen. Eric picked up the handset. He had a strange premonition. Swallowing hard, Eric pressed play.
    A scratchy voice spoke to him. “Eric…” his brother’s voice whispered. “I know we…we didn’t always get along. But there’s something I have to ask you. You remember Ashley, Melissa’s daughter? You don’t owe me anything, but I got a funny feeling she may show up at your place. Please, if she does, take care of her. Real good care. She’s a great kid and she’s in bad trouble.” Silence followed. “She got into something that…” Ralph started then stopped suddenly. The line went dead. He covered the receiver. Maybe Eric had misjudged his brother.

Chapter Five
    Eric replayed Ralph’s voice mail three times. Nothing. Not a clue. He stared at the phone, remembering one of his professors defining stupidity as repeating the same thing with the expectation of different results. There was something in his brother’s voice, an intonation he’d never heard from Ralph—regret, fear, a plea for help? Eric tried returning the call twice. The number on caller ID was the same one he had in his drawer. A recorded message told him the number was no longer in service.
    Ashley was running away from something and Ralph knew about it. He wasn’t the reason. An abusive boyfriend, the police, bad guys? What could have happened to bring her to his door. Leaving everything and dragging her daughter six hundred miles through a monsoon wasn’t a schoolgirl whim. This was something heavy. Had she brought the danger with her? What about him, Lu, and everyone she came in contact with? He needed answers.
    “Eric.” Lu opened the door, holding a cup of steaming coffee. “I thought you forgot this.” She brought the mug in and stopped, studying his face. “You okay?”
    “Yeah, I’m fine.” He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. “Just an old message I missed.”
    Eric took the mug.
    “Could you bring your coffee into the kitchen? Please.” She gestured. Her eyebrows were raised, but she wore a soft look. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”
    Eric swallowed and nodded, following his mother-in-law as he ran through his options. When they arrived in the kitchen, Eric stood facing the little girl he’d seen the night before. The child was very thin. She had Ashley’s large, dark eyes and dimples carved into her shallow