For the Love of Anna (The Town of Pearl 1)

s a fever.”

“Oh, my God! Will she be okay? She won’t go to a hospital. If I call an ambulance, she’ll freak when she wakes up. What do I do?” Stacy covered her mouth and began to cry.

“I think you should go back downstairs, Stacy. I’m confident that I can help her. If she gets any worse, we’ll have to bring her to the hospital. Promises or not, I want to do what’s best for her,” Charlie stated.

“Come on, Stacy, Charlie can take care of her. He knows what he’s doing,” Eric added.

“No. She needs me. I can protect her now that she’s here. I won’t leave her again.”

“Honey, listen to Charlie. He’ll come get us if he thinks she needs to go to the hospital,” Eric replied, trying to calm her. Charlie locked gazes with his cousin, and it was as if Eric understood that this was more serious than Anna let on.

“Please take care of her, Charlie.”

“Come on, Stacy,” Eric whispered, taking her hand and leading her toward the door.

Ben now stood there as well.

Stacy and Eric went back into the kitchen.

“Do you need anything?” Ben asked.

“Yeah, actually, I could use your help. This is going to be difficult with her sleeping.”

Ben stood next to the bed just staring at Anna.

“She looks so small and fragile,” he whispered.

“She’s special, Ben, I won’t let her leave here. We need to protect her.”

Ben leaned down and caressed her skin. Charlie watched as his brother noticed the culprit of the bruising on her face and body.

“Those are hand and finger marks. Who the fuck would do this to such a little thing?” he said with a growl.

“Take a deep breath, it helps.”

“If I ever find the bastard, he’s fucking cow dung.”

“I’ll need your help with this. I think she may have a couple of broken ribs.”

“What?”

“Shhh. You’ll wake her.”

“I’m gonna give her a shot of something to help her with the pain and to sleep. That way, we can wrap her ribs and monitor her breathing. I’m pretty sure she didn’t puncture a lung. She would be in a lot worse shape.”

“Jesus!”

“I know, Ben. I know. Tomorrow, I’ll try to convince her to get X-rays. I can call Doc Jones and ask him to keep it on the low. He’ll help us out.”

“We’re going to have to tell Wyatt.”

“I don’t even want to think about what Wyatt will do when he hears about her injuries.”

Charlie filled the syringe and carefully injected the medicine into Anna’s arm.

He got the supplies ready to wrap Anna’s ribs.

“Okay, Ben, you’re gonna have to hold her up while I wrap this around her nice and tight. I don’t feel right removing her bra. Prepare yourself.”