Chapter 60

There were eight young men sitting on the steps watching while the three worked loading the boxes.

"Hey pretty lady are you leaving us?" asked a bold young man.

Ignoring the man, Krystal continued carrying the smaller boxes outside. Within fifteen minutes after the man had made his remark they were ready to leave. Shutting the trunk, Tom moved to help Krystal into the car. That's when he saw it. A flat tire. Kneeling down he looked it over good and realized someone had slashed it with a knife. The young men on the steps started to laugh when he looked their way.

"AJ, wait, we have some unfinished business before we can leave," Tom said never taking his eyes from the men. "My tire's been slashed and I'm sure that one of these young men did it. In for a good fight, buddy?"

"You bet. Hey, Tom, there's only eight of them, it doesn't quite seem fair," AJ laughed. "You guys have any friends you'd like to help you?" At this the men jumped off the steps and surrounded the two men.

"We don't need friends to beat up two old men," laughed one. "Hell, we don't even need all of us. Let me handle these two, it shouldn't take long."

Heading toward AJ for taunting him he took a swing at him. AJ ducked. He then came back with a gut punch that knocked the man to his knees. While he was down, he hit his nose breaking it. Blood running from his nose the thug yelled, "Don't just stand there, get them!"

The other seven ran at Tom and AJ, but the two were ready for them. Tom ducked at a swing coming back with a throat punch putting one out of commission. AJ's thug with the broken nose ran when AJ started toward him again. They were now down to six. One came at Tom and he stomped the guys foot and hit him under the chin knocking him out cold. 'Huh, glass jaw,' thought Tom.

The brave one pulled a knife and started for AJ. When AJ dropped kicked the thug's knee out from under him. Once down and without his knife he wasn't so brave. The other two ran off while Tom called the police and AJ used the extra twine to tie the men up.

"Not bad for two old men, huh?" laughed Tom. "Feels good. I haven't been in good a fight in years."

"Not much of a fight, I don't even have a bruise," grumbled AJ.

Krystal ran over to check on Tom, "Are you alright, sweetheart?"

"Yep, just our hands are all that got hurt," he grinned down at her. "You want to kiss them and make them better?"

"Yes, but only after they've been cleaned up. I don't want to get any germs on them," she replied going into his arms her heart beating faster than his.

The police arrived and took the six men into custody while Tom and AJ changed the tire.

They finally reached Tom's house and began unloading the boxes. Krystal was trying to get her clothes out and hung up. There was only one box left and it was marked pictures. The men looked at each other and grinned, they just had to open this box to see what it contained. Once inside, Tom found an album that had an 8Xl0 of him pinning Krystal's gold wings on her. Somehow there were other pictures of them taken together that the guys on ship had got during parties and such. He was so moved that she had kept the 8Xl0 all these years and it was in a frame, which meant that she had kept it close to her.

The other album was of the twins when they were babies, up to eleven years old and some high school photos. It was unreal to see how much they looked alike as babies.

"Amazing how much alike they look," whispered AJ looking at a photo of the girls on a set of swings around the age of five.

"Yeah, look at this one. The traditional naked baby photo. They're what around three months old?" he guessed holding up the album for AJ to see.

"Yep, and look at that half moon birth mark on the right one's, right butt cheek. That's Krista," he smiled.

Krystal coming in the room saw red, "WHAT! How the hell would you know that Admiral?"

To be continued…