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

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 didn’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