“Nina?” Jase called after her, but her single-mindedness drove her feet in the direction of the ferry.
Reaching the end of the line for the boat, she began pushing her way through, ignoring the comments and protests.
“Hey! Hey, you! Simon!”
As she reached the redhead and grabbed handfuls of his jacket, he jerked around.
Nina met a pair of cornflower blue eyes and stumbled back.
The man grabbed her arm. “You must be Nina Moore.”
Chapter Seven
Jase reached Nina just in time to pull her away from the redheaded stranger’s grasp. She collapsed against him, her face pale and her lips trembling.
The man’s eyes darted to Jase’s face, and he spread his hands in front of him. “Just catching her fall.”
“Who is this, Nina?” Jase wrapped his arm around Nina’s waist, curling it around her front.
“I...I don’t know. I thought he was...someone else, but he knows my name.”
The man’s face turned almost the same shade as his hair as he jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Can we talk about this somewhere else?”
“Spill it now. You’re going to miss your ferry.” Jase nodded toward the front of the line shuffling toward the gangplank.
“Doesn’t matter. This ferry is going to Break Island. I was on my way to see Nina anyway.”
Nina’s body froze and she clawed at Jase’s wrist. “Why? Who are you? What do you want?”
“He’s right, Nina. Let’s continue this conversation out of this line. We’re going to start holding people up.”
They jostled their way out of the line, and Jase pointed toward the Kleinschmidts’ boat. “We have a boat over here.”
The stranger followed them, as Nina shrank against Jase’s side. Why was she so afraid of him? Just because he knew her name?
When they got to the boat, Jase balanced one foot on the pallet while still holding onto Nina. “So, who are you and what do you want with Nina?”
“Nina.” The man turned to face her. “I’m Simon Skinner’s brother.”
Jase worked hard to keep his face impassive, clenching his teeth in the process. Now he could see it. The picture Jack had shown him of Tempest Agent Simon Skinner revealed a man with reddish hair, but in full living color, Simon’s hair must be a match for this man’s. “Nina?”
She huffed out a breath, as if she’d been holding it from the moment she’d confronted this man.
“Th-that’s not possible. Simon had no siblings.”
One corner of the man’s mouth lifted. “That he knew of. Simon told you he’d been adopted, didn’t he?”
“Yes.” Nina had loosened her grip on Jase’s wrist, although the imprint from her fingernails remained.
“That’s why I’m a Kitchens, not a Skinner.” He held out his hand. “Chris Kitchens.”
When nobody moved to shake his hand, Kitchens dropped it. “Our mother gave us up for adoption when I was three and Simon was just a baby. Of course, he’d have no conscious memory of me, but I remembered a baby brother and when I got my stuff together I decided to find him.”
Nina clasped her hands in front of her and faced Jase. “Simon Skinner was my ex-fiancé.”
Jase nodded. She could interpret that any way she wanted.
Chris continued. “So, you can imagine my disappointment when I went through all the time and trouble to locate my brother only to...not locate him. I found his life to an extent, and I found you, but not much more.”
“H-how did you find me?”
“I was able to track down Simon’s last known address, which was an apartment in your name. A little more digging by a PI friend of mine led me to Break Island.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t help you, Chris. Simon and I split up months ago, and I haven’t seen him since.”
“Yeah, I gathered that from some of your neighbors in LA.”
Jase ground his back teeth even more. If Chris and his PI friend had tracked down Nina that easily, what chance did she have against Tempest if that agency wanted to find her?
“And yet you still followed me out to Washington?” Her eyes narrowed and her spine stiffened. “Why?”
Chris shrugged his big shoulders. “I don’t know. I thought maybe you’d heard from him. Maybe I just wanted to find out about my baby brother from someone who knew him well. Y-you did know Simon well, didn’t you? I mean, you two were engaged.”
Nina smiled a tight smile while tucking her hair behind her ear. “Of course.”
Jase swallowed. You had to feel for the guy. He’d searched high and low for a brother he remembered before adoption split them apart, and now that brother was dead. And Jace couldn’t even tell him. Couldn’t tell Nina—not yet anyway.
“Why don’t you come back with us?” He pointed to the ferry to Break Island chugging away from the dock. “I think you missed that boat.”
“Sure, if—” he glanced at Nina “—if it’s okay. I won’t stay too long, Nina. Who knows? Maybe after talking to you, I’ll be able to find Simon myself.”
“Maybe.” Nina’s flat voice didn’t offer much encouragement for that endeavor. “I’m sorry. Chris, this is Jase Buckley.”
Jase shook the other man’s hand. “I’m staying at the B and B and helping Nina fix up the place.”
“I’d offer you a room, but I’m not ready to take on guests yet.”
“No problem. I already booked a room at a motel in town.” He tapped the cart. “Do you want me to return this for you?”
“Sure.” Jase shoved it in his direction. “We’ll get the boat ready for takeoff.”
When Chris took off with the cart, Nina turned to him. “Sorry about the craziness. He looks a lot like his brother, my ex-fiancé, and I thought...”
“You thought your ex had come back for you?”
“Something like that.”
“Is that something you want? I mean, do you want to get back together with Simon?”
She snapped, “No!”
He took her by the shoulders. “Did your ex hurt you, Nina? You were so freaked out about this guy, Chris.”
“Simon never physically harmed me, but he could’ve been heading that way. I have to believe it was PTSD, but he wouldn’t get help.”
Chris came back into view and Nina grabbed Jase’s arm and put her finger to her lips. “Chris doesn’t need to know anything like that about his brother, okay? I plan to tell him only the good stuff.”
“I think that’s a good idea. He’s gonna be heartbroken enough as it is.”
Nina tilted her head and wrinkled her nose. “What do you mean?”
Jase sealed his lips and busied himself with the motor.
“Why’s Chris going to be heartbroken?”
He glanced up at the big redhead barreling toward the dock. “Just that after thinking he’d found his brother, he’s gone.”
“Yeah, maybe he will have some luck tracking him down.” She turned and waved to Chris. “Hop on board.”
Jase maneuvered the boat across the water, passing the ferry at the midpoint of the trip. The brisk wind and the rumbling motor on the boat kept conversation to a minimum. All passengers seemed lost in their own thoughts anyway.
He had sized up Chris and felt comfortable enough to invite him back to Break Island with them. He was headed that way anyway, whether or not they’d extended the invitation. This way, Jase could keep an eye on him.
Nina seemed to think Chris resembled Simon enough to believe he was her ex-fiancé, so the story about him and Simon as brothers separated by adoption rang true.
Tempest wouldn’t go through the trouble of finding someone who resembled Simon and then sending him out here with that story—would they?
Jase di
dn’t know too much about Tempest. Like his agency, Prospero, Tempest was deep undercover, beneath the umbrella of the CIA but involved in missions completely off the radar.
Even Jack Coburn had only a foggy notion of Tempest’s assignments. Jase hadn’t given the other agency much thought at all until one of its agents, Max Duvall, had come in with wild stories about superagents and drugs and world chaos.
He gazed at the approaching shoreline of the peaceful island and snorted. Break Island was about as far removed from that world as it could be.
Missing siblings turning up unexpectedly? That, it had in spades.
As the boat eased up to the Kleinschmidts’ dock, Chris jumped from the deck and started pulling the craft in.
“You know your way around a boat?” Jase tossed him the anchor rope.
“I should hope so. I spent five years in the navy.”
Nina drew in a breath. “Simon was in the navy, too.”
“I know that.” He looped the end of the rope around the post. “That’s how I was able to get some info on him.”
With his back to the bay, Chris surveyed the island. “This sure is pretty. Simon spend much time here?”
“None at all. We had a busy life in LA. When he managed to get time off, we’d spend it in Hawaii, mostly.”
“One of my favorite places, too.” He snapped his fingers. “It’s sort of like twins separated at birth, except Simon and I were two years apart.”
They got the boat docked, and Chris helped him carry the supplies and groceries to Moonstones. Jase watched Nina closely, wondering if and when she planned to tell Chris he was going to be an uncle.
But so far, her lips were sealed.
Maybe Jack and Prospero had been wrong for once. He didn’t doubt that his agency had discovered Nina’s pregnancy, but maybe she’d lost the baby.
A knife twisted in his gut and he almost doubled over. He wiped a sudden bead of sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. He had to stop taking this whole assignment so personally. From accessing her medical records, Prospero had no indication that she’d lost the baby.
“You okay?” Chris slapped him on the back after dropping off another load of soil next to the porch.
“Low blood sugar. I haven’t eaten in a while.”
Nina stood on the porch, hooking her thumbs in the pockets of her jeans. “I think we all need something to eat.”
“Is there someplace we can meet for dinner?” Chris pointed to the bend in the road. “I think I’m headed that way into town. I’ll check into my motel and we can meet up later.”
“Mandy’s. It’s on the main street. You can’t miss it, or ask a local. Six okay?”
“Fine with me. Thanks, Nina, for humoring me.”
“I understand completely. I’m sure it’s what Simon would want.”
“So, where do you think he is?”
She shrugged. “He had a job with the government. They sent him places, sometimes for a long time.”
“Six months?”
“I can’t help you with that part of it, Chris.”
“I understand. Dinner is enough. I just want to find out everything about my brother, or as much as you can tell me.”
Nina joined Jase at the fence to watch Chris follow the road to town.
She murmured under her breath, “No, you don’t.”
“A few little white lies won’t hurt. Then if he ever does find Simon, he can make his own judgments.” He smacked the top of the post. “Let’s put this stuff away. You can do the groceries, and I’ll take care of the yard supplies. Still don’t trust a store where you can buy fertilizer along with five-gallon jugs of milk.”
Nina disappeared inside the house, and Jase hoisted a bag of soil onto his shoulder and walked to the back of the B and B.
He lifted his work cell phone from the inside zippered pocket of his jacket and placed a call to his boss.
“What do you have to report, Jase?”
Jack knew agents didn’t use these phones for social calls.
“A twist.”
“Is the subject okay?”
“The subject.”
“Ah, Nina Moore.”
“The subject’s fine, but her ex-fiancé’s long-lost brother showed up on her doorstep.”
“Simon Skinner doesn’t have a brother. He has no family. That’s the way Tempest prefers its agents—rootless, alone.”
“Skinner was adopted, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, he had a brother who was adopted out, too. The brother is older and remembered having a younger sibling.”
Jack’s voice sharpened. “You’re sure? Could be a Tempest ploy.”
“Don’t think so. Apparently, the guy’s the spitting image of Simon Skinner.”
“Name?”
“Chris Kitchens.”
“We’ll look into him.”
“Nina’s flaky sister made an appearance on the island, too.”
“This is getting more complicated than we’d bargained for. Keep the players straight and keep the subject safe.”
“I’m on it.”
“You still think this is an unnecessary babysitting job?”
“I haven’t seen any evidence of Tempest’s interest in Nina yet.”
“I had a gut feeling Tempest wasn’t going to ignore Skinner’s fiancée, ex or otherwise.”
“I know all about your gut feelings, Jack. That’s what I’m doing out here.”
“It’s more than a gut feeling now, Bennett.”
Jase’s pulse ticked up a notch. “Why is that?”
“Simon Skinner finally turned up—dead.”
Chapter Eight
Nina stood on her tiptoes on the chair to shove the package of thirty-six rolls of toilet paper onto the top shelf in the storage room. She didn’t need them now, but once guests started checking in on a regular basis, they’d come in handy. They’d probably come in handy once this baby started crowding her bladder, too.
A pair of strong hands clasped her around the hips. “What the hell are you doing?”
She glanced down into Jase’s face, lined with worry. “I’m putting away some toilet paper.”
“This chair isn’t exactly steady, and if you have to go up on your tiptoes, it’s not high enough.”
“Okay, but it’s not like I’m twenty stories high.”
He took her hand. “Let me help you down.”
She stepped down in front of him, facing him only inches apart. “I can’t figure you out.”
His dark eyes deepened to inky unfathomable depths. “What’s to figure out?”
“Either you grew up with sisters and were very protective of them, or you were in a house full of boys and treated your mother like a queen.” She bit the end of her finger to lighten the mood, since she could feel the tension coming off his taut body.
He cracked a smile. “Neither. I have one sister and we fought like a couple of boxers circling each other in a ring, and everyone else treated my mother like a queen, so I was spared Her Majesty’s service.”
“Must be a military thing, then.”
“Probably.” He lifted a shoulder and stepped around her. “I’m going to clean up for dinner.”
“You don’t have to go, Jase.” Would he really want to sit through a litany of Simon’s accomplishments and virtues? “I know you have writing to do, and you’ve gotten precious little of that done since you’ve arrived on Break Island.”
“I think it’s a good idea if I tag along.”
“Why? Do you suspect Chris of some ulterior motive?”
“Do you?”
“Why would you ask that? He looks very much like Simon. For that reason alone, his story rings true.”
“Something about all of this—” his hands framed an imaginary ball “—seems off.”
She swept her tongue along her dry bottom lip. “What do you mean, off?”
“You’re a woman who ended an engagement with a man and then haven’t laid eyes on that man for months. When you think you see him, your response isn’t curiosity or even anger. It’s fear.” He put out his hand, palm forward. “Don’t even deny it, Nina. I saw you. I held you. You were trembling like a petal in a rainstorm.”
“I told you. Simon was suffering from PTSD. He was acting crazy before we split up. It’s why we split up. He wouldn’t get help, denied anything was wrong.”
“Do you think he’ll track you down?”
She spun away from him and grabbed the storage room doorjamb. “I’m not sure. When I was in LA, it felt like someone was watching me.”
Jase sucked in a noisy breath. “Simon?”
“I don’t know. I never saw anyone, could never pick out a face in the crowd, but I felt a presence.”
Jase’s angular features had sharpened even more. “You never told me this.”
“Uh, we met yesterday, Jase. That’s not something you generally spring on a stranger. It’s bad enough that you got the full force of Hurricane Lou, and now my ex-fiancé’s brother has come calling. I’m surprised you haven’t run for the hills yet.”
“That’s serious stuff if you think your ex is stalking you, but why wouldn’t he just approach you?”
“I don’t know. I told him I wouldn’t see him again until he got help. He probably hasn’t gotten help.”
Jase took a step toward her and threaded his fingers through hers. “It’s not Simon.”
She whispered, “How do you know that?”
“It just doesn’t make sense.” He toyed with her fingers. “I don’t think he’d creep around stalking you. If anything, he’d confront you head-on. The way you describe him, he sounds like that guy.”
Her nose tingled with unspent tears. Jase made her feel so good, so safe. Should she tell him now about her pregnancy? It might be the last straw to send him running for the exit, but she wanted him to know everything. She’d be making the switch to maternity clothes in the next week anyway. Much better to tell him than announce it with a maternity shirt hugging her visible baby bump.
The Pregnancy Plot (Brothers In Arms: Retribution Book 2) Page 7