After the Storm Read Online Free Page A

hard to tail him without him knowing it if he’s on foot,” Donovan said dubiously.
    Rusty grimaced. “Yeah, he watches his back. It’s why I know he’s scared shitless and is in some kind of trouble. I mean, most kids walk around oblivious. Especially in a small town like this. They walk like they don’t have a care in the world. This kid? He walks like he expects someone to jump out at him at every turn. He’s very cautious. Constantly looking around.”
    “You’ve been watching this kid pretty closely.”
    She nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been trying to figure out how to approach him. I’ve gone back and forth in my mind about how to do this. I would just ask him straight out, but that would spook him. Been there, done that. If anyone had come out like that to me, I’d have been gone in a shot. I didn’t trust anyone, and I don’t imagine he does either.”
    “I know you had a rough life,” Donovan said softly. “It’s pretty damn awesome that you’re wanting to help this boy out.”
    Her cheeks went pink, but her eyes gleamed with happiness over his praise.
    “I need to get back so he doesn’t get antsy. If you could hang around, I planned to let him work thirty more minutes. I’m paying him in cash and I’m going to intentionally short him a twenty. He won’t say anything. I know that much. He’ll take whatever I give him and be grateful. But it will give us an excuse to follow him to his house. I can tell him I shorted him and we can check out his living conditions.”
    Donovan gave her a rueful smile. “You’ve got a quick mind, kiddo. I swear you could take over the running of KGI and probably rule the world one day.”
    She grinned cheekily. “I wouldn’t turn down a tech geek job with you guys. Then I could play on Hoss.”
    Donovan scowled. “Hoss is mine. No one touches him but me. Besides, I’m not letting you anywhere near our computers. You’d hack into them in thirty seconds.”
    “I can’t help it if my tech skills are superior to yours,” she said loftily.
    “Oh, good Lord,” he muttered. “That’s one hell of an ego you’ve got. I’m the geek in the Kelly family, thank you very much. The really hot, intelligent geek women are powerless to resist.”
    Rusty burst into laughter. “And you talk about
my
ego?”
    He grinned and then pushed her toward the hardware store. “Go take care of the kid. I’ll park a block down and watch when he comes out. If you’ll hightail it down to my truck, we can follow him and see what happens.”
    “Thanks, Van. You’re the best!”
    “I expect you to remember that,” he said dryly.
    She hurried off with a wave, and Donovan walked back to his truck to move it farther down the street. He couldn’t believe he’d just been roped into this craziness, but he also knew that he couldn’t just look the other way and pretend ignorance. If this kid truly was in trouble and needed help, he couldn’t ignore that. He hated to think of any child bearing so much responsibility at such a young age and worse, going hungry.
    His pet charities were all about helping disadvantaged children, homeless and hungry children, and the majority of his financial support went to shelters for abused women. He’d cofounded a foundation to give support and financial help to women getting out of abusive relationships. His family didn’t even know about it. Not that they would object in any way. The Kellys as a whole gave back a lot financially and by taking on missions that aided women and children without receiving a cent in compensation.
    He just hadn’t wanted to make a big deal of his foundation, so he’d funded and set it up with two women who oversaw day-to-day operations and gave him a heads-up when they ran up against a woman who needed more than just financial help. In those cases, KGI took on the mission whether it was to rescue a kidnapped child or to get a woman out of an unhealthy situation. They funded her new life and gave her the opportunity to