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“Our backs,” he smiled. “Think of it like a clock. In front of you is twelve. Behind you is your six. We always have the back of the man in front of us. No surprises.”
“That’s amazing. May I ask,” she said, lowering her voice, “those two men over there, Ryan and Devin. How did they lose their limbs?” Razor waved them over, and Lyra blushed.
“It’s okay,” smiled Bella.
“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s perfectly alright,” said Razor. “I’m not telling you because it’s their story to tell, not mine.”
“Hey, Razor, Bella. Hi, Lyra,” smiled Ryan.
“Hello.”
“Guys, Lyra was curious how you lost your limbs. Do you mind telling your stories?” asked Bella.
“Not at all,” said Parker. “I lost mine while serving. Ben Robicheaux was my captain. I was sitting, wallowing in self-pity in West Virginia, and these boys showed up on my doorstep. Actually, Ben’s wife found me. But I just wanted out of there. My brother had other ideas.” He smiled at Lyra, who cocked her head in curiosity.
“Didn’t he want you to be well?”
“Oh, he did. In his own way. He’d just divorced for the third time. Or maybe it was the fourth, I can’t remember,” he smirked. “I was the replacement for his attention, and he was smothering me to death. They all came asking about something unrelated and offered me a place to heal and potentially work.”
“That’s awesome,” she smiled. He nodded.
“It was. I had the chance to work with a kangaroo we rescued who had lost one of her arms. Matilda was a beauty, and she seemed drawn to me for some reason. In the process, we discovered an exotic animal ring that was killing off species on every continent. And I met my beautiful wife, Dani.”
“That’s a wonderful story,” she smiled. “May I ask, I mean, if you’re willing to tell me. I knew a guy in college who had returned from overseas and appeared fine on the outside. What no one saw was the pain and damage on the inside. He’d been suffering with depression and delusions. No one helped him, and he eventually took his life.”
“That makes me very sad,” said Ryan, looking at Parker. “It’s something we try very hard to ensure doesn’t happen here.”
“I guess my question is, he was whole, and you weren’t. How did you avoid the same fate?”
“He wasn’t whole, honey. He was half the man he was when he left. It happens more than we like, and when we see any signs of it, we stop it immediately. We get them help, sit up with them all night, anything. Losing a man, or woman, is not an option.”
“Thank you for telling me that. What about you? How did you lose your arm?”
“My story is far more complicated,” said Ryan. “I was nine when my mother, a drug addict, abandoned me. I called my Aunt Ella, and she immediately hopped on a plane and came to get me. The problem was my mother owed some drug dealers a lot of money, and they came for her.”
“Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes. They took my aunt and me and were prepared to sell us in a trafficking auction. I was terrified. I didn’t understand any of it, but my Aunt Ella, I call her mom now,” he smiled. “Mom, she protected me until help arrived.”
“The police?”
“No, honey. These men. The man I call Dad now. They rescued every last woman and child that was on the auction block that night. Dozens of us, including Luke, Adam, Ben, Carl, Violet, and Lucy. They were all adopted by Gaspar and Alexandra. You would think that I would be grateful for all that, and I was.”
“But they weren’t your mom,” she said, staring at him.
“No, they weren’t, but I didn’t know how to communicate that. I started acting out a bit in high school, separating myself from all my friends that I grew up with. It was stupid. I had the chance of a lifetime, and I was throwing it away. I had a crush on one of the girls here and acted out. Then, I developed a gambling problem, which led to a drug problem. It all started when I met a woman at the casino. She was beautiful, and she was giving me a lot of attention. I thought she cared for me.
“What I didn’t know at the time was that they were trying to get information from me about G.R.I.P. A woman, specifically. I did something incredibly stupid, Lyra.” He swallowed, turning away for a moment with tears in his eyes. “I was in love with Paige but was still filled with poison. I slapped her. I didn’t mean to. I regretted it immediately and vowed to stop what I was doing. Unfortunately, the men and women I was dealing with had other ideas.
“The entire team went to Paris while I was in rehab. These people kidnapped me, beat me within an inch of my life, and then cut off my arm, hoping I would tell them something.”
“Dear God,” said Lyra. Ryan nodded.
“It was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“How can you say that?” she gasped.
