A Matter of Blood
Part 2
By N.R. Levy
Jarod sank onto the bed that occupied his latest lair, his mind and body exhausted. He had been in San Diego for two weeks now. He had arrived so full of hope, but his lead on Emily had again turned up empty, and had he not stumbled onto the newspaper article about Stephanie Hart, he would have left days ago.
Instead he had felt compelled to help the young woman who lay in a coma in the Intensive care unit of University Hospital. She had been ended up there courtesy of a serial rapist who had plagued the city for months now. The man had previously assaulted his victims, then left, but clearly, with his attack on Stephanie, his psychosis had driven him to need further violence. He had beaten the young woman nearly to death, and she still might never recover.
He had spent his days between the hospital, where he posed as a physical therapist in charge of Stephanie’s recovery, and the police station where he was working as a criminologist. He had gained several leads on potential suspects, but he knew now that this pretend would not be easy. It would take a great deal of time to uncover the assailant, and who knew how long Stephanie’s recovery might take. And that all added up to many weeks of not searching for Emily, his father or the boy.
Tired, he laid back against the pillows, wishing he could sleep, but that had been a hard commodity to come by since his recent return trip to the Centre. His nightmares had never been so horrible. He wasn’t sure which was worse – the memories of what they’d done to him during those terrifying 21 days, or the constant vision of Miss Parker falling into her father’s arms, her blood flowing down her back.
She was still angry with him for the shipping container, and while that didn’t surprise him, he hoped that underneath her anger was a bit of understanding. She hadn’t mentioned the watch to him, but Sydney had told him she’d worn it every day since she’d gotten it back. He wondered if she remembered telling him about that day at the lake – how scared she had been. He certainly remembered how much it had frightened him to hear how close she had come to dying. But she hadn’t died, not then and not at the airfield.
What worried him was that she would ignore his message. Lyle was her brother, but he didn’t give a damn about her – God, he’d tried to blow her up just weeks ago. She had to see how dangerous he was, no matter what Jarod had to do to make that clear.
He reached over and picked up his cell phone, hitting the preprogrammed button that held her number.
“What?” Her voice sounded instantly different to him – she was worried about something.
“What’s wrong, Miss Parker?”
In a Delaware hospital, Miss Parker leaned heavily against the wall of the hallway outside of Angelo’s room. The sound of Jarod’s voice was the last thing she’d expected to hear, and with a guilty rush she remembered her conversation with Lyle.
“Jarod, now isn’t a good time.”
“What’s wrong?”
Miss Parker was about to respond when she saw the doctor approaching her.
“Jarod, I have to go.” She hung up quickly before he could argue, and she turned her full attention to Dr. Keller.
“Miss Parker, I got the rest of your brother’s results back.”
“And?”
“Well, the CT scan confirms what we found in the blood tests. Your brother has a pyogenic liver abscess. Now in English, that means that for any one of a myriad of reasons, he’s developed an infection in his liver and we are going to have to go in and cut it out.”
Parker felt her heart beginning to pound again. She still couldn’t figure out what was happening to her. She’d always had something of a soft spot for Angelo, but where was all this concern coming from? A hold over from those days when she’d hoped it was he and not Lyle who was her brother? She didn’t know. She only knew that she felt a sense of fear and worry that she apparently had no control over.
“How much danger is he in?”
“Well, I have to be honest with you, even with treatment we lose between 20 and 40 percent of patients with this condition. But your brother seems very strong – he’s got a good chance. We’re starting him on massive doses of IV antibiotics, and we’ll do the surgery at 5:00.”
Parker nodded, the words sinking in. The doctor walked away and Parker reflexively began to rub the area on the inside of her arm where the blood bank needle had been only an hour or so ago.
‘I wish I could have known the real you.’ She’d said the words to him more than a year ago, and she had meant them.
‘I wish I could have known the real you.’ His response had touched her heart, and she remembered how hard it had been to watch Timmy disappear, his soul once again becoming trapped inside the tortured space that was Angelo’s mind.
She walked into Angelo’s room, glad that she had sent Broots back to the Centre. The last thing she needed was for anyone to see her turning into a marshmallow over the man who now lay helpless in the bed. She sat down in the chair beside his bed, her hand taking hold of his.
“You’re going to be okay, Angelo. I promise.”
Sydney paced angrily around his house, furious that he had to choose now to be sick. Angelo needed him, and yet Sydney couldn’t go anywhere near him. The last thing the poor man needed was to be exposed to any more possible infections, and Sydney’s flu virus was definitely a risk.
The phone rang, and Sydney hurried to it, hoping it was Broots with more information on Angelo’s condition.
“Hello?”
“Sydney, what’s wrong with Miss Parker?”
“What do you mean, Jarod?”
“Something’s wrong and she won’t tell me what it is.”
“When did you speak to her?”
“A little while ago. She said it wasn’t a good time.”
“She’s at the hospital, Jarod, with Angelo.”
Sydney could tell from the silence that followed his comment that Jarod didn’t know what to deal with first – his concern for Angelo or his shock that Miss Parker was with him. Sydney briefly explained the other man’s medical condition, then waited for some response from Jarod.
“Why is he in the hospital? I can’t believe Lyle let him outside.”
“Because Miss Parker insisted, at least, that’s what Broots tells me.”
“Why, Sydney?”
Sydney thought for a moment, not certain what the answer was. He had seen Miss Parker’s loving nature come out before – with Debbie, with Broots, even with Angelo, but certainly she had rarely taken such a big risk as taking Angelo out of the Centre.
“I don’t know, Jarod. But I do know that she probably saved his life.”
Lyle leaned back in his chair, a satisfied smile crossing his face. He had her. Mr. White had located Emily again, and this time, they would make the most of the opportunity. Even better, with Miss Parker’s help,
Jarod wouldn’t know what hit him.His phone buzzed, and Lyle reached over to answer it.
“Yes?”
“Is your plan in place?” Lyle smiled again at Mr. White’s question.
“We’re almost ready. I’m just on my way to make sure Miss Parker is onboard.”
“How can you be sure you can trust her?”
“Don’t worry about my sister, Mr. White. Family is everything to her. She’ll do what she has to do to protect hers.”
Miss Parker watched nervously as the orderlies took Angelo away for his surgery. He had been unconscious since his arrival at the hospital, and she hoped that if had felt her presence, he’d felt only her good wishes and none of her concern or fear.
Dr. Keller approached just as Angelo was wheeled down the hall.
“Dr. Baxter is a fantastic surgeon. Your brother is in good hands.”
Miss Parker only nodded, sinking down onto the couch in the hallway. She was surprised when Dr. Keller sat down beside her.
“Miss Parker, there is something else I wanted to discuss with you.”
“What is it?”
“Well, it’s nothing to worry about, just something I wanted to make sure you were aware of.”
Parker looked at him, a question on her face.
“Has anyone ever mentioned to you a condition called Hageman’s factor or Factor XII?”
“No.” Miss Parker’s voice faltered a little, concern taking hold of her. The doctor noticed the change in her composure.
“Miss Parker, really, this is nothing to worry about. The condition simply means that both you and your brother's blood is prone to over coagulation. It’s not dangerous, it’s just something you should be aware of.”
Parker shook her head, taking in what the doctor had said. Then two word’s jumped out at her. ‘your brother’
“I’m sorry, did you say that my brother has this, too?”
“Well, yes, but that’s not all that surprising. Hageman’s is an extremely rare disorder, but you are siblings, so...”
Miss Parker’s mind began to reel. What exactly was she hearing?
“What would be the chances of two people who knew each other but weren’t related both having this disorder?”
“Oh, my goodness, one in fifty million. It’s even rare in siblings, but it does happen.”
“And if the siblings are twins?”
“Then they would both have the disorder, no question. But like I said, Miss Parker, it’s nothing to worry about, just something you should know.”
The doctor stood and walked away as Miss Parker stood and began to anxiously pace the hallways. ‘Something you should know.’ Oh, god. Angelo was – But Broots’ tests? He would never have deceived her, which meant that somehow, Lyle must have known...
Quickly, she drew out her cell phone and began to dial Broots’ number, but her action was interrupted by the sight of Lyle walking down the hallway toward her.
“So, how’s your science experiment?”
Parker fought the urge to glare at him. God, all these months of thinking this bastard was – she wanted to kill him. But something purely instinctual kept her from flying at him in a rage. If Lyle had manipulated the tests, if he had altered the results, then he knew that Angelo was really...her brother, yes, he was her brother, and if Lyle knew that, then Angelo would be in grave danger if she tipped her hand. For now, she would play his game.
“What do you want, Lyle?”
“I came to talk to you about Jarod. It’s time for our new game to begin.”
And she listened to him detail how they would find Emily, how they would force Jarod to come for her, and how the trap they set would give them both their Pretender and a potential breeder for the Gemini program. It was all she could do not to throw up right in front of him.
“I assume I can count on your full support?” Lyle smiled down at her as he stood up, readying himself to leave.
“I gave you my word, didn’t I?”
That made his smile grow, and he turned and walked down the hall. He had just rounded the corner when her cell phone rang. She looked down to see that she was still holding it from her earlier attempt to call Broots.
“What?”
“How is Angelo?” Jarod. God, how did he always know when to call?
“In surgery.”
There was silence as each read the other’s emotions as well as they could over the phone. She needed to speak to him about something, wanted to; Jarod could feel it. But he wasn’t certain how to make sure she knew it. Finally, he spoke.
“I’m thinking of taking a vacation.”
“Really? Care to tell me where?”
“I hear Maine is beautiful this time of year.”
Miss Parker tightened her grip on the phone. He was issuing an invitation – a truce. That was the only reason he would ever bring up Maine, to remind her of Lake Catherine. Now all she had to do was decide if she was going to take the chance he was giving her.
“I think you should, Jarod. We could all use some rest.”
She hung up quickly, her hands beginning to shake. What exactly had she just decided to do?