Free The Pregnancy Plot (Brothers In Arms: Retribution Book 2) by Carol Ericson

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