in and get Surgery cleaned up. I don’t want anyone tackling that alone—we’ve made a mess!” Her staff laughed and she used the energy to buoy her through the next thirty minutes of a thorough scrubbing down of their operating room.
It was a mess from the day’s routine spaying and neutering surgeries, and the unexpected gunshot wound. She’d spent two hours picking out birdshot pellets from a sweet labradoodle’s right haunch. These were all in addition to the regular duties she had as the K9 veterinarian. The RRPD encouraged her clinic to help the community whenever possible. But her first duty was always K9.
Not to mention the personal connection. The Red Ridge K9 unit, training center and clinic were dedicated to the memory of Patience’s mother, who’d died in childbirth. Her father, Fenwick Colton, lived up to his reputation as a wealthy, self-serving ass most of the time. But when it came to her mom’s legacy and the K9 facility, Fenwick didn’t waver. Until recently, when he’d threatened to shut down funding because of Colton Energy’s dwindling bankroll.
Her father had put his family through its paces, fathering five children by three different wives. Her older half sister, Layla, was the only one from Fenwick’s first marriage, while Patience and her older sister, Beatrix, were from his second trip down the aisle. After their mother died birthing Patience, Fenwick remarried again and had her younger half brother, Blake, and then half sister Gemma. While Patience enjoyed a pretty good relationship with all of her siblings, she’d always felt closest to Layla. She’d taken her cue from hardworking Layla, too, dedicating herself to veterinary work as diligently as Layla did to Colton Energy.
Which made Patience furious with her father for mismanaging his funds and putting the K9 program at risk. She was convinced that it was by no fault of Layla’s that Colton Energy was struggling. If anything, Layla’s contributions kept the company from going belly-up much sooner. Patience wanted to ask Layla more detailed questions about it but her caseload prevented her from digging too deep into the financial records. She trusted her corporate tycoon half sister to fill her in on the details. Not that Layla was thrilled to share anything with her. Not since Patience had blown up at her for agreeing to an engagement to that old geezer Hamlin Harrington. His son, Devlin, was Layla’s age, for heaven’s sake. But all Fenwick saw was that Hamlin’s money would save Colton Energy and the Red Ridge K9 facility, and so that was what Layla focused on. As much as Patience loved her job, nothing was worth her sister’s happiness. She’d begged Layla to call of the wedding.
Layla disagreed. Their epic fight had occurred hours before Patience had found blessed escape in Nash Maddox’s arms.
Once the cleanup was done, she dismissed her remaining staff. Patience relished the alone time, a chance to pick through her thoughts over her family’s conflicts.
She stopped at the sink and ran the hot water, hoping she’d still be able to convince Layla to come up with another way to make bank. While she was grateful that Layla’s fiancé had postponed their wedding until the Groom Killer was caught, Patience still couldn’t contain the revulsion she had toward her sister’s fiancé. Naturally, their father wanted the killer behind bars so that the wedding could happen as soon as possible. Fenwick Colton was always about himself and his company and he’d stop at nothing to get the money out of Hamlin. Worse, Fenwick threatened to cut off his K9 endowment if the Groom Killer wasn’t apprehended ASAP. Patience shuddered at what she’d heard her father tell the police chief. Do your job or you won’t have one. Even as the mayor of Red Ridge, Fenwick was clueless as to the man-hours and emotional dedication required to nail down a hardened criminal, and it took that much more effort to corner someone as wily as the Groom Killer. But even her father’s intimidation hadn’t produced the killer, not yet.
“What are you going to do for dinner, Doc?” Ted Jones, the college student who volunteered as he waited to apply for vet school, spoke up as she washed her hands. Normally she didn’t mind having a meal with him and answering his myriad questions on the application process, but she was spent.
“I’ve got a lot of food in the staff refrigerator, and it’s my turn to pull night duty. You go ahead and get out of here. Don’t you have midterms to study for?”
“Yeah, I do. Thanks, Doc.” He grinned and sauntered off. Patience enjoyed the camaraderie her staff shared, paid and volunteer alike. It was what had made her want to be the K9 vet for the RRPD. The sense of belonging and being part of a bigger picture had wrapped its arms around her the minute she’d walked in here three years ago.
Patience waited until everyone had left the building before she went back into her office and sat at her desk. She needed some time to ground herself before eating dinner and then starting the care rounds for the dogs and cats, and the one parrot they were boarding for an elderly woman who’d broken her hip and was in ortho rehabilitation for the next month. Patience opened her top desk drawer and gazed at the pregnancy test result from this morning.
“Well, look at that. Still pregnant.” She giggled at her own joke, but her laughter turned to sobs as the enormity of her circumstances hit her. She was going to have a child and had no clue how to handle a baby. A puppy or kitten, sure, she could do that blindfolded. But a human child, her child?
Her father had been absent at best, throwing himself into his work and accumulation of wealth her entire life. Patience had never known anything but the selfish man Fenwick Colton was. Yet she’d never given up on him, or broken contact with her full and half siblings. Family was important to her.
A baby.
She was going to have a baby. Her profuse tears had to be from the hormones, since she usually prided herself on her self-control.
Loud guffaws sounded from the boarding area and she sniffed, unable to keep the grin from breaking through her tears. Mrs. Bellamy’s scarlet macaw was hungry. Patience’s stomach grumbled in response, and she wiped her cheeks with a tissue.
“Coming, Gabby!”
The brilliantly hued bird tilted her head in welcome and made kissing noises with her smooth white beak as Patience walked into the huge room and opened the birdcage door.
“How are you doing, sweetie?”
Gabby climbed out of her cage and onto the playpen atop her dwelling as Patience gathered some mixed veggies from the freezer and heated them in the microwave. The parrot let out a loud shriek that was half laugh, half scream.
“Stop it, silly. You still have plenty of pellets and nuts in your bowl, beautiful bird.”
After Gabby was busy with her warm supper, Patience checked on her other charges. Most of the post-op animals were resting, the effects of anesthesia and their bodies’ ordeals exhausting them. But Fred, the labradoodle gunshot victim, had his big brown eyes open and managed to wag his tail the tiniest bit when she approached.
“It’s okay, Fred. You’re doing great.” The poor dog had done nothing to deserve the hit from a bird hunter’s gun. It had been a legitimate mistake, as Fred had escaped his owner’s yard via a broken fence post, and the hunter wasn’t in a residential area. With his caramel coat, Fred had blended in perfectly with the South Dakota hills and underbrush. Fred and the hunter had been after the same duck. Fred had inadvertently saved the duck’s life.
“What am I going to tell Nash, Fred? How will I tell him? He needs to know, so there’s no sense trying to be all trauma drama and play ‘I’ve got a secret’ about this.”
The dog’s eyebrows moved as if he understood her dilemma. A part of her brain knew that Fred was a dog, and he was in the midst of serious recuperation, but as she looked around the room full of animals,
