A Plea for Help Book 3
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Cristal Sieberhagen
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15.3K
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10
<Surprise>
Book 3: Beyond Help
Parker’s senses strained for any movement from the hospital bed, but all she heard were machines beeping and nurses chattering at the duty station through the open door.
“Have you asked Mrs. Robertson if she needs anything?” Nurse Townsend asked someone.
“Yes, she says she isn’t hungry, but I encouraged her to eat a protein bar and a fruit snack. She’s had tea and water as well.
“If sheer willpower might wake a man up, Mr. Parsons would do an Irish jig by now.”
That was Nurse Hawkins. They had no idea how sensitive Parker’s hearing had become, and she didn’t enlighten them.
Many people spoke within her hearing as if being blind also made her deaf.
Her current situation got easier to handle with the passage of time in some ways, but harder in others.
People treated her differently, either undercompensating or overcompensating for her disability or distancing themselves.
***
Parker’s mind wandered to her wedding day. Had it only been a week? It seemed so much longer.
Sierra and Chris had just said their wedding vows when some commotion alerted her that Arly’s water had broken.
Her friend had been a trooper up to that point, but as everyone rushed to help her, another commotion created chaos.
It took a moment to figure out that a wounded man had stumbled into the building.
She felt helpless, stranded, and frustrated as Carol kept her out of everyone’s way, but she picked up on it before her sister did.
“It’s Barry!” a woman exclaimed in shock.
“How is it possibly Barry? Barry’s dead,” a man said, and her entire world crashed to a halt as her brain failed to process what her ears had perceived. A terrible hope bloomed in her heart.
“Oh, my God, it’s Barry!” Carol gasped, stunned. “But how?”
“I want to go to him!” The words rushed from her lips as joy and excitement overpowered reason.
“He’s hurt, Parker, and it’s chaos out on the floor. There’s no way I can get you there before the ambulance has him loaded.
“The best thing will be if I take you outside, get my husband, and we can follow the ambulance.”
“Where’s Arly?”
“She’s fine, the baby’s already crowning, and she told me to tell you to go with Barry,” Mellina said from beside them. “Come on. I’ll take you in my van—I need to go along, anyway.”
***
They spent hours waiting with very little news until Ayesha’s cousin arrived to talk to them.
“Mr. Parsons is severely dehydrated and has pneumonia.
“He’s had a fever on and off from the bullet wound to his hip for months, and although someone treated it, they used the wrong medicines.
“There’s damage to his kidneys, he’s unconscious and shows signs of malnourishment, but most concerningly, he shows signs of torture.
“Luckily, due to his wound he must have been unconscious more often than not. He’s fortunate to be alive and should thank his lucky stars that he hadn’t developed gangrene.
“It might take a few days before he’s well enough to wake up, but rest is the best medicine right now.”
“I don’t get it. How’s he still alive? Who had him? Where did they keep him, and how did they fool us?” Greg asked.
“They must have planted some random body parts in the house, knowing we wouldn’t search for him and wouldn’t bother to do a DNA test.” Marc’s speculation sounded chillingly reasonable.
“They had him for months. Why?” Carol asked.
“They wanted to know something, but they didn’t count on him getting shot and his wound messing with their plans.” Sierra sounded tired after all the excitement.
“We’ll have to wait for him to tell us what happened.”
***
“Mrs. Robertson? Mr. Parsons is awake and asking for you,” Nurse Hawkins informed her as she sat outside in the sunshine and fresh air.
“Thank you,” she said, standing and grasping her cane. The nurse directed Parker’s hand to the crook of the nurse’s arm as they made their way to the hospital.
“How is he?” she asked.
“A bit disoriented, a little confused, but not like yesterday. Here we are. Careful, we’re going through the door.”
The quiet made her frown; only the heart rate monitor and Barry’s breathing disturbed the silence.
“Two more steps. That’s it. I’ve put your chair beside the bed. Do you need anything else?” the nurse asked.
“Can I please have a bottle of water?” It had been rather hot outside, and she’d been gone longer than expected.
She reached for the chair and seated herself, folding her cane and putting it beside her in a tote hanging from the armrest.
She could feel Barry watching her, the heaviness of his scowl almost causing an itch between her brows.
“Barry?” she asked, knowing it would draw him from his shock. “We thought you were dead,” she told him, knowing he needed a moment to process.
She wished she could see his face. It was much harder to communicate with people and judge their moods without being able to gauge their expressions or read their body language.
“It’s all a bit blurry, confusing, and jumbled. They were waiting for me inside the house, two men and a woman with masks” he started.
He moved on the bed, probably trying to prop himself more upright, and she wished she could help him.
“They blew up something in a canister as I went for one of them. He had a gun, we fought, the gun went off, and I woke up in a cage meant for animals.
“I was wounded and in pain, and they kept asking me about jewels and a book, but I had no idea what they were talking about. Then Erin came.”
He hesitated for so long that she wasn’t sure he would continue.
“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to, Barry,” she assured him gently.
“She wanted to know how I learned about her past and who else knew. They interrogated me for hours, asking the same questions until the fever and blood loss made me delirious.”
The nurse returned.
“Sorry to interrupt,” she said. “I just brought some shaved ice for Mr. Parsons, and I will sit him more upright if that might make him more comfortable.”
A few moments passed as Parker listened to the rustle of cloth and the nurse moving around.
“I’ll leave you alone now,” Nurse Hawkins said as she left.
“I don’t remember much after that. At some point, they forgot to lock the cage because they thought I was too weak to escape.
“I got out the door and wandered through the forest until I stumbled onto a path I realized would lead me somewhere. The rest is nothing more than flashes of light, sensations, and pain.”
“You were in a building, not a cave?” Parker asked, frowning.
It confounded her. The only houses on the Res were grouped in the little town, and there was no way to wander onto the reserve from somewhere else; it was fenced in and vast.
She’d have to text that information to Mellina, but not now—she didn’t want to interrupt him,
The idea bothered her, throwing all of their theories out of whack, and she struggled to keep her mind from wandering.
