Mercy: Queen’s Birds of Prey: Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Queen's Birds of Prey Book 1)

by Kathi S. Barton

  The nursing staff was quiet on this floor, and they were moving back and forth between rooms helping the patients. Once a light went on for a room, they wasted no time in going there and figuring out what was wrong. Mercy had been a doctor once, not long ago, and she had treated her nursing staff with courtesy, as well as humor. They would get very little of that from anyone else they worked with, she had noticed. Joel started talking again, and she turned her attention back to him.

  “Snow would meet me at the bus every day. The other kids were excited to see her as much as I was. She’d try to get on the bus with me too, I guess to help me off faster, and that would delight them as well. But of course, Saul hated her. Mom was going to pick up something for Snow to celebrate my birthday with me.” She held his hand tighter when he seemed to be upset a little. “Mom left me there with Saul. And the entire time she was gone, he wanted me to give him the other ten. I was going to take us to the movies, just he and I, but he wanted it all. Anyway, while our parents were gone, he and I got into a fist fight. Well, he beat the crap out of me, and I laid there and took it. Usually I just passed out from it, and this time was no different. Not a long time, but enough that he’d get bored waiting on me to wake up and would leave me alone.”

  “I bet he was a bully at school too, wasn’t he?” Joel told her that he was at home, suspended, more than he was attending class. “Yes, I can see that about him. He just gives off an aura of meanness.”

  “As soon as Mom pulled our Chevy Rambler into the driveway, I knew that something had happened. She stood out by the car for so long that I didn’t want to go out. But she looked at me while I watched her and started crying.” Joel told her that he’d been hiding behind the couch, waiting on their mom to come home and save him. “I finally went out. I told myself I was ten and there wasn’t anything to be afraid of anymore. But I saw Snow as soon as I got to Mom.”

  Tears fell down Joel’s cheeks. She didn’t want him to remember any more, but she knew that it would be next to impossible for him not to finish the story. He needed to tell her more than she needed to hear it.

  “He’d taken a knife to her. Cut her head off and left it there so they’d know what they were looking at. But that wasn’t enough for Saul. It was never enough if he could do more. He’d taken the lawn mower and had run over Snow’s little body over and over until there was nothing left of her but scraps of fur and blood.” Joel held her to his chest as he continued. “If that wasn’t bad enough, he knocked the chocolate cake that my mom had gotten on clearance, because it was more festive than she could have made, to the ground. Smashing it with his bare feet, he made sure that there wasn’t a bit of it left for anyone to eat.

  “He taunted me later, as he was stood in the corner after Dad had beaten his ass. Saul told me whenever we were alone in the kitchen that the next time he told me to do something, I’d better do it. Laughingly, he also told me how he’d found the money that I’d hidden away and had burned it. I believed him. There were remnants of it still in the kitchen near the stove.” Joel looked exhausted after that, but he told her the rest. “After that, I would just simply give the money to my mom when I had any. Stashing it away never did me any good with Saul around. Then when he was fifteen, he hit my mom and they sent him away for five years. That was the first stint of prison for Saul. But far from the last.”

  They sat there in silence for the most part, only talking when people came by to see how they were doing. The man who ran the deli in the hospital, a person that one of her sisters had helped out, brought them thick sandwiches. While she told Joel she wasn’t hungry either, he reminded her that she was going to have a baby and needed to eat. They both ate half of one of the big subs before they’d had more than enough.

  The nurse came out to give them updates every hour or so. It was going on five hours now since Saul had entered surgery, and it looked like it might be a few more before they were finished. The other birds came to sit with them. and someone had even brought Miley.

  “This is a hell of a wedding night.” She laughed with Joel. “I’ll make it up to you soon. After all this is over. Right now, I want to just make sure that Saul isn’t going to be any trouble and that he’s all right. I don’t know why I care, but I do.”

  “Because he wouldn’t.” She looked hard at Esme when she spoke. “Don’t give me that look. You know as well as we all do that had that been Joel on the side of the road, he could have more than likely laughed at him as he laid there dying. Not lifting a finger to help at all.”

  “You’re right. He is a bastard.” Joel stood up with the rest of them when the doctor came down the hall. He was still in scrubs and his face looked exhausted, but he smiled when he told them all to have a seat. “What did you have to do, Doctor?”

  Doctor Brian Wayne had been a friend of theirs for some time now, since Remi had recruited him to come to their little town and work there. Since then he’d set up a practice with his wife, become the go to man at the hospital, as well as become a member of the school board with Joel. He was a good man.

  “I have to tell you, it was touch and go there for a while. He’s lost a great deal of weight, and it’s taken its toll on his heart and other organs. We did have to remove his left leg to the thigh. He’d let it go too long. And since he wasn’t eating right nor taking any care of the wound, the blood poison ran throughout his system quickly. I’m sorry, but we may yet have to remove this right foot too.” Mercy asked about his hands—they were bad when she’d seen them. “Yes, they were. After cleaning the gravel and other dirt out, it was determined that we’d leave them for now. He was in the worst shape that I’ve seen for a while. And Mr. Oliver, he’s been a type two diabetic for what I would say is most of his life. He was just lucky, until the end here, that it didn’t get the better of him sooner.”

  “Should I be tested for it as well? And I have a daughter too. Should we be worried?” The doctor explained that if they hadn’t had trouble with it before now, they were probably fine. But to keep an eye on it, and that testing wasn’t a bad idea. “Yes, we will.”

  The doctor explained that they’d have to be gowned up to go and see Saul for the next several days. If there was a chance of infection or if they had anything like a cold, then he’d prefer that they didn’t visit.

  “He’s going to need long-term care after this. I’m not sure what his situation is, but he isn’t going to be able to be left on his own for a while. If ever. He’s going to be confined to a wheelchair for sure, and unless he comes to terms with what’s happened to him and what he needs to do to be healthy, then I’m afraid the prognosis isn’t going to be good for him.” No one said that they’d make sure he did. The doctor noticed it too. “I’m assuming that he’s not on the best of terms with any of you. He gave my people a hard time, mentioning that he needed a gun to kill someone named Miley.”

  “That would be our daughter.” Joel looked at his daughter, then back at the doctor. “No, we’re not on the best of terms with him, but we’ll make sure that he has care. My wife and I will talk it over, and we’ll get back with you on what we can do.”

  “Whatever it takes.” Joel kissed her when she chimed in. “We will do whatever it takes to make him comfortable and safe. But we can’t let him in our home. Not ever. He’s been trying to kill Miley since he showed up at our door, almost as soon as he was in town.”

  “I understand. I’ve heard about him, living out there in the hotel all alone. I have to tell you, I thought that perhaps it was something like that. I know you well enough, Mercy, that I know that you’d not deliberately leave someone to die like that.” She thanked him. “No need for that. But I will warn you, he’ll need care, a great deal of it, as I said. If you’d like, I can make arrangements to have him set up in a long-term care nursing home that will help him cope. I think, knowing him as I have the last few hours, he’d need that so that he’ll follow the rules in keeping him on a diet plan.”

  “Yes, all right. You set that up and we�
�ll make arrangements to pay the bills too.” Brian nodded at Mercy, then left them there to see that things were set up immediately. Joel looked at her when the doctor left them. “Are you all right with this? I mean, he’ll be close, but I’m thinking he won’t be coming to the house anytime soon.”

  “Yes, I’m very all right with what you’ve done for him. All I’ve ever wanted to do since we were children is shove him in a hole someplace and forget him. But since meeting you, I’ve come to the decision that no matter what he tries to do to us, he’s still family.” Mercy said that was correct. “Thank you. Thank you all for standing with me on this. I just don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t a part of my life.”

  Dinner was a pizza. The subs that they’d had earlier hadn’t hit the spot, and now they were all starving. It wasn’t as if the subs weren’t good—they were very good. But they had been stressed out, and now they needed to celebrate. Not because Saul was still ill, but because for now anyway, he was going to be all right. And safe. Mercy was glad for that. She wasn’t sure that Joel could have stood for his brother dying the way he might have out there alone.

  ~*~

  Joel sat near the bed that Saul was lying in. He was still in the hospital after ten days, and Joel had come by a couple of times a day to check up on him. The second surgery had really ended all chances of Saul living a normal life. His right foot had had to be removed the second time in the operating room, as well as part of one of his fingers on his right hand. The dirt in a hangnail had gotten so infected that they feared for his life.

  The day before yesterday he’d sat down with Mercy, and they worked out a plan with the doctor. The nursing home for Saul was set up now, as well as an exercise program to keep him in shape. He also had a very strict diet that he was going to be on, and a pump to regulate his insulin for the rest of his life. Saul was not going to be happy about any of this.

  Joel looked at his brother. Saul had awakened several times when he’d been there. Mostly he’d just stare at him, never saying a word, then close his eyes and turn so that the back of his head was facing him. Joel had learned not to say anything to him. He was sure that this was just another one of those times until Saul spoke to him.

  “Where am I?” Joel told him. “You left me out there to die, didn’t you? You poisoned my food and made me ill.”

  “No. Whatever happened to you, you did that all on your own.” Saul closed his eyes again and didn’t say another word. Joel got up and stretched—it was time that he left anyway. He was working a good job and having a blast at it.

  Miley was still here working on strengthening her legs, so he stopped by to see if he could take her home. She was all for it, especially since he was taking her to lunch. As soon as she was finished up and had her shower, they were headed out of the hospital.

  “Saul asked me again where he was. Then he accused me of leaving him out there to die. If I didn’t already have a dislike of the man, I would now, the way he keeps repeating himself.” Miley was walking well now. She still had a cane for her balance, which she was still getting used to. But he did help her into the car. He sat there on his knees after lifting her legs in and told her he was sorry.

  “For what?” Joel told her. “Dad, I know that you don’t like him. I don’t either, for all the things that he was planning to do to me. That, I have to tell you, was a real eye opener. He laid out all the paper at the hotel to wrap me in, even putting my name on the sheets. But even before that, he wasn’t very nice to us. I remember him coming by the house. The things he said to you.”

  “I love you, Miley. And I’m so very proud of you.” She kissed him on the forehead and told him to stop being sappy and feed her. “I can always depend on you to put me where I belong. All right, my dear, what’s it to be? Pizza, burgers, or would you like a sub?”

  “I want to go to that pizza place that Remi is starting up. It looked good when I spell checked her menu.” She’d been helping all of them out a great deal lately, and even though she’d not wanted any money for it, she was getting a nice sized bank account for herself.

  The place was busy, but mostly due to the staff being trained. There were two people for every table waiting on folks, and it was a little overwhelming. But Remi had decided to have too many at first—most were not cut out for food service, she thought—rather than to not have enough when it was time for the grand opening. If the soft opening—without advertising that they were there yet—was any indication, she was going to have a hit on her hands.

  They enjoyed the pizza as well as the iced tea. Mercy didn’t drink coffee or any sodas, so he’d gotten used to drinking what she did. Miley drank milk—a great deal of it, as a matter of fact. Remi came out to sit with them and brought out a platter of different foods for them to try.

  “Those are going to be twist ups. I’m going with a fifties sort of theme in here. I know there’s and old jukebox in storage that I’m going to bring here too.” They tried all the different flavors and gave all but one the okay. “Yeah, wasn’t sure about that one. I know there are a lot of people who like black olives, me included, but they’re not to everyone’s taste. Mercy said that we’re going out to the stash today. I haven’t any idea why we still call it that. It’s a frigging cave. Anyway. I have a few ideas that I’d like to bring back with us. I bought a house. Did I tell you?”

  “Yes, Mercy mentioned it. She said that it’s really old and that it needs some work done on it.” Miley asked her if she was going to do all the work herself.

  “No way. I have better things to do with my time than to put in plumbing again.” Miley asked if she’d done that before. “I think that we’ve all done just about everything at one point in our lives. Mercy and I were doctors together. It wasn’t my cup of tea, so to speak. I wanted to heal them all, but I realized that it wouldn’t go over well. Mercy just didn’t like it from the start, but she stuck with it longer than I did. I think she might still have her license. I remember that Esme was a pirate. She really enjoyed that.” That got Miley excited. Remi told her of all the things that she’d done that she could remember. It had been a long time.

  When they were getting ready to leave, Mercy joined them. She had been scoping out a couple of places to put in a grocery store. The one that they had had in the town had burnt to the ground about five years ago. The need for one was great, as it took almost forty minutes to drive to the one in the next town over.

  “I have two places that I think will work. And some of the pack have said that they’d help with the construction. That will be helpful all the way around. Income and a place to buy milk.” She took one of the twisters off the plate and spit it out on her napkin. “That is gross. Who would want black olives in their bread?”

  Joel was still laughing as they left the restaurant. His cell was ringing as he was walking to his car, and he knew it was the hospital. Answering it, he was asked to come back to see his brother, as he was asking for him.

  “He’s done this before. Is he awake enough to know that he’s asking for me?” The nurse assured him that he was indeed awake, and that they’d had to restrain him. “I’m sorry. I’ll be right there.”

  They decided to go with him, Miley and Mercy. They were riding up in the elevator to his floor when Mercy asked Miley if she’d like to wait with her, give Joel time with his brother. She looked so relieved that he was glad that Mercy had suggested it. But he wasn’t looking forward to seeing his brother on his own.

  Saul was yelling when he entered the room. The nurse was trying her best to put Saul at ease, but he wasn’t having any of it. He was telling her to shut the fuck up and to get his brother. Joel knew that he could do this, talk to Saul, because he was stronger than he’d ever been before.

  Putting both his fingers in his mouth, Joel let out a whistle that even impressed him. But the room grew suddenly silent, which was what he wanted.

  “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been calling out for you for an hour.” Joel simply sat down and asked t
he nurse to leave them alone. She ran out of the room like she’d been reprieved from prison. “Answer me, you fucking bastard. Where have you been?”

  “Having a nice lunch with my wife and daughter. And I was here not an hour ago and you were still out. We have to talk, Saul. There are things you need to be made aware of.” Saul asked him when he was getting out of here. “You’re not. Not for a while, anyway. You’ve had some major surgery, and you’re still healing.”

  Saul looked down at his hand but said nothing about the thick bandage around it, smeared in blood. Joel decided to wait on him to ask. It wasn’t going to change things for him to blurt it all out at one time.

  “That wife of yours, she brought me here under duress. I’m going to sue her for everything that she has for doing that.” Joel waited for him to get whatever it was out of his system. “Well, jackass? Are you going to tell me what happened to my hand?”

  “They had to remove one of your fingers.” Saul paled but said nothing. Joel leaned back in his chair as he continued. “It was infected from the hangnail that you had there. If you’d gotten help sooner, when it was offered to you, you might have been in better shape all the way around.”

  Saul glanced at his legs but turned away. There was a tent-like thing over his lower half. It looked like his legs were having a strange and peculiar campout. Saul asked him where his wife was.

  “In the waiting room with Miley. The police found the newspapers that you laid out to put her in when you murdered her. Why did you do that, put her name on each sheet?” Saul laughed, telling him so Joel would know it was from him. “Yes, well, that’s a moot point now, isn’t it?”

  “You think so? I’m still going to hurt you, Joel. In a way that you’re never going to recover from it. I’m going to kill that daughter of yours and do just want I said, lay her in that open pit so that the rodents can get to her pretty face.” Joel felt his bird run along his skin. If Saul felt it, the magic, he didn’t mention it. “Then I’m going to take what I can from you before I kill off you and that wife of yours. Why she gave you all the money too is beyond me. But it will go a long way in making up for you making it so I lost my finger.”