Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,10
jumped up to help the nurse keep her in bed.
“You don’t want to do that,” Brianna said, her hand closing over Paula’s stop her from pulling her IV out. “They’ll have to stick you with more needles to put it back in.”
“I’m not…staying. I have…to find…Art.” Paula tried to move, but Aaron laid one firm hand on her shoulder, making her focus on him.
“Who’s Art?”
A whimper came from the floor. Stanley was standing next to the chair, his tail wagging as he whimpered again.
Paula coughed and must’ve realized how bad of shape she was in without the oxygen, and suddenly slumped back into the bed. “Art is…Stanley’s owner.”
At Art’s name Stanley whimpered again and this time tried to jump on the bed. Aaron picked him up and set him beside Paula, where he snuggled in beside her. The nurse gave Aaron a pinched-lipped look but he just shrugged. She put the oxygen back on Paula and checked the status of her IV before leaving the room with instructions for Paula to try and relax.
“You’re watching him for Art?” Brianna asked once they were alone again.
Paula shook her head. “He’s missing. Been…looking for…him.”
That got Aaron’s attention. “How do you know he’s missing?”
Paula paused as the door to the room opened again. In came a bald-headed man with a salt-and-pepper Van Dyke style mustache and beard combination, dragging a machine with him. “My name’s George and I’m going to be giving you a breathing treatment.” He looked at the monitor reading out Paula’s vital signs and wrote something on his clipboard, then began working on his treatment machine. “This is Albuterol and it will help ease some of your discomfort from all your coughing. I see you have a bed companion. Service dog?” he asked with a nod to Stanley.
“No,” Paula said.
The respiratory therapist hooked up the machine and poured in the prescribed medicine to make the mist for Paula to breath in. “How’d you get him past the witchy charge nurse tonight?”
Paula nodded Aaron’s way. “Cop.”
“Ah, he a witness or something?” George said, handing the breathing apparatus to Paula.
“Something…like that.” Paula stared pointedly at Aaron before putting the mouthpiece between her lips and breathing in the medicated, humidified air.
“This will take about ten to fifteen minutes, if you want to go get some coffee or something,” George said to Brianna and Aaron.
They exchanged looks, reading each other’s minds. Given her history of domestic abuse and her fear of hospitals, neither Aaron nor Brianna were keen on leaving her alone with a stranger, even with Stanley firmly planted on the bed with her.
“Can I speak to you outside?” Aaron said to Brianna. Stanley sat up and whimpered as if he wanted to come, too. “Stanley, stay,” he said, and the pooch snuggled back down beside Paula.
Brianna followed him out the door but left it open so Paula could see them both as she breathed with the machine. “What’s up?”
“I think Paula’s telling us she’s been out looking for her friend Art, using Stanley as a sort of bloodhound on his trail.”
“I thought that, too. She told me once that when she’s not working with us, she helps out at some of the other homeless shelters and food kitchens in the area.”
“That may be how she got sick. The weather has been cold and rainy lately. Someone needs to stay with her, especially if we take Stanley with us to go look for his owner.”
“You’d do that?”
“Take Stanley?” Aaron shrugged. “He’s got his master’s scent. Makes sense to see if he can help us find him. Of course, we’ll need a description from Paula. A picture if she has one.
“No, I mean you’d go with me?”
He leaned one hip against the wall and studied her. “You’re going to go look for Art on you own anyways, right?”
A light blush filled her cheeks as she narrowed her eyes at him. “Yes, but how did you know?”
“Because he’s missing. You wanted to look for Paula because she was missing. I’ve learned things about you over the past few years, Brianna. You don’t like being told what to do. You don’t like people being missing, whether you know them or not, which has to do with your kidnapping. You like helping people, in fact, it’s like a mission with you. If I want to be sure you and Stanley are safe, I’m going to be going with you.” He pulled out his cell phone and punched in some numbers.