Page 53 of Fighting for Family

“I won’t let you. I’ll be by your side forever.”

Patch choked up at her words. Life took on a whole new meaning for him. For his dead brothers, he’d honor them by living a good one. For Leo, he’d never give up or abandon his brothers. For Claire, he’d be the man she deserved, a man he could be proud of.

* * *

The following day, Knight came up behind Gabby and zipped up her maternity dress.

“Why can’t you call Claire and tell her we can’t come to lunch at Ty’s? I want to spend time with you and Marcus,” he cajoled.

“Some of the other ladies are coming, too,” she answered. “Who makes a maternity dress with a zipper in the back? We can barely find our feet. How do they think we can get to our back?”

“I’ve seen Patch’s mug for the last several months every day. Now you want me to have lunch with him?” Knight grumbled, picking up his son. “Don’t you want Daddy to stay home with you, big boy?”

“It’s only for a couple of hours, and one of the teens who watches Marcus will be here any minute. Get dressed. The faster we leave, the sooner we can come home,” she admonished. “The women have supported Claire and me through this whole pregnancy. I can’t tell Bryanna sorry, my husband came home, and yours is still stuck in Afghanistan.”

Knight frowned. “I can imagine Saint’s all kinds of pissed about me leaving the team. Victoria locked the cabin door while I helped with Hollywood. When the plane started moving, I demanded she stop it and let me off. I don’t care what Doc and Kassie say about her being sweet and all. The woman can be scary. She pulled out a knife and told me to sit down and buckle up, or she’d help with slowing the population boom in Serenity.”

“Oh, she only teased you,” Gabby said, brushing him off with a wave of her hand as she put on her pearl earrings.

“I’m telling you, she planned to neuter me right then and there. I saw it in her eyes,” he insisted.

“Knight, you’re a Navy SEAL, and you’re telling me a woman twice your age and half your size scared you,” Gabby said, disbelieving him.

“It’s like her eyes glowed with anticipation. Then Patch opened his big mouth, and I knew we were in trouble,” he explained.

Gabby turned toward Knight. “What did he do?”

“He told me to give him a hand with Hollywood. When I went to help, Patch thanked Victoria for coming.”

“I don’t see why him thanking her caused any problems,” Gabby reasoned as she took Marcus from Knight.

“Usually, it wouldn’t, but he kept working on Hollywood, who kept yammering about a rattle and trying to get up to leave. He lost his patience and told me to bring my candy ass back there. Victoria let me pass, and then he said, ‘Thanks for coming. I’d feel awful if I bothered Ivan in the field.’”

“No, he didn’t,” Gabby exclaimed, not believing him.

“Yeah. Then she asked him what he thought she did all this time. He replied. “I don’t know. Ivan said you went home. Did you stock up on Irish coffee and those stupid sausages Kassie likes so much?”

“Nooo,” Gabby said, plopping on the bed. “Did she try to kill him?”

“Her eyes narrowed, and she got this mean expression on her face,” he told her. “Then he barked at me for stupidly thinking Sparky didn’t have a hand in it. He thinks she put the team at risk by asking Victoria to leave before she boarded the plane. Apparently, Victoria assumed Patch meant women didn’t belong in the field.”

“Oh, he didn’t go there. I’m surprised he’s still breathing,” Gabby said. “Did he not realize who he spoke to?”

“He vented about Sparky. With her blindness and no dog, she was the weakest link on the team. Don’t get me wrong, she knew the areas and the language, allowing us to investigate. Saint worried Sparky might get hurt or lost if we ended up in a firefight with some of the villagers. We left a man behind to watch over her, and it cost us one set of boots on the ground, searching for Leo.”

“I take it, Victoria didn’t handle his choice of words and applied them to herself, too,” Gabby surmised as she put a clean shirt over her son’s head.

“Exactly. Since then, Victoria hasn’t said a word to him. She’s flying out in the next couple of days before Doc and Whiskey leave. He needs to apologize. He doesn’t need a pissed-off Victoria telling Ivan. Cole barely survived Victoria when he went after Ivan at the community center, thinking he presented a threat after all the dealings there,” Knight explained. “When Victoria goes quiet, the devil rubs his hands together if you know what I mean.”

“I’m sure if he explains and apologizes, she’ll forgive him. He got caught up in a stressful situation. We’re all worried about Sparky staying there without Ice. Ty takes him everywhere,” Gabby said, giving him a pointed stare. “You can mention it to him today at lunch. I’m craving Ty’s chicken salad with a bowl of his chicken and rice soup.”

“How about we have it delivered?” Knight suggested.

“I love you, but if you’re not dressed by the time Chloe arrives to watch Marcus, I’m taking lessons from Victoria,” Gabby threatened.

“Fine,” he acquiesced, taking Marcus from her and setting him on the floor to play with his train.

“I hope he has sherbert. He said he only keeps it for the summer, but I became addicted to it and banana popsicles. Lizzy introduced them to me when I kept getting nauseous. They helped immensely,” she informed him.