The Pregnancy Plot (Brothers In Arms: Retribution Book 2)

by Carol Ericson

  “Fair enough.” He pulled his weapon from his down jacket and held it up. “And if Chris Kitchens is the actual threat, I’ll know about that soon enough.”

  “Okay, then. Is the boat ready to go?”

  “All set.”

  She locked up Moonstones, and they crossed the dark yard to the Kleinschmidts’ boat.

  He gunned the motor and flicked on the spotlights, which illuminated the lapping water. The trip to the town wharf couldn’t be more than ten minutes, but judging from the choppy water, it would be a rough ten minutes.

  “Do you get seasick?”

  “No, do you? This ain’t like sailing on some calm bay, preppy boy.”

  He laughed, and the wind snatched the sound and rolled it over the waves. “Okay, pioneer girl of the Pacific Northwest. Did you fly up from LA or come over in a covered wagon?”

  She punched him in the side, which he barely felt.

  The boat chugged into the water, which slapped its sides, sending salty spray into the air. The mist clung to his eyelashes and moistened his lips, where he licked it off.

  The ten-minute trip turned into fifteen as he negotiated the waves, riding them up and down. As the lights from the wharf grew brighter, he reduced his speed and shouted, “Is it very busy this time of night?”

  “No, but I expect it to be busier than usual as people try to make their way off the island before the storm hits.”

  “Why do you suppose Chris isn’t among them? Why does he need a ride from you?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he figures out on the water is the safest place to warn me.”

  He aimed the boat toward an empty slip and crawled into the harbor. Streetlamps every fifty feet or so cast a glow on the boats bobbing in their slips.

  “Chris better be keeping an eye out for us, because I’m not going to let you wander around looking for him and I sure as hell am not going to, either.”

  “He’s the one who set this up.”

  He pulled into the slip, and as the boat bumped the boat dock bumpers, he tossed a rope to Nina. “Are we supposed to pay for the slip?”

  “Not if we’re doing a quick in-and-out.”

  “I guess that depends on Chris.”

  Jase left on the boat’s lights to create a circle of illumination on the wooden walkway fronting the boats. He didn’t want any surprises from Kitchens.

  A boat started several slips over and they both turned to look.

  “Where is this guy?”

  “Are you jumpy or what?” Nina sat on the storage bin. “We just got here.”

  Jase felt for the gun in the pocket of the mackinaw. Definitely jumpy. “I thought he was in a big hurry to leave the island. Maybe he got a ride on Kip’s helicopter.”

  Nina snorted. Then she put down the boat’s stepladder and climbed over. Glancing one way and then the other, she called out softly, “Chris?”

  Jase vaulted over the side of the boat to join her, his feet landing with a clang on the gangplank that echoed in the night. He shoved his hand into his pocket and gripped his gun.

  Something didn’t smell right, and he didn’t mean the fishy odor that permeated the air. Had that even been Kitchens texting Nina? Anyone with access to his phone could be sending her messages.

  Someone halfway down the line of boats shouted.

  Nina’s head jerked up. “What was that?”

  “Someone yelling down there.”

  The voice rose again and a few boats turned on their spotlights.

  “What do you think is going on?”

  “I have no idea.” But he had an uneasy feeling in his gut.

  A man burst out of the bait shop and started running toward the lights.

  Nina took two steps toward the commotion. “Jase.”

  Something about the men’s shouts chilled his blood. Nina must’ve heard it, too.

  She took two more steps.

  “Wait, Nina.”

  “I heard... I heard...” Her shoes pounded against the damp wood as she ran toward the agitated knot of people at the water’s edge.

  He had no choice but to follow her, his weapon banging against his thigh. He reached her before she reached the clutch of people, all talking and pointing at once.

  They approached the group together and Jase asked, “What’s going on?”

  The boater they’d talked to earlier that day pointed at the brackish water lapping against the side of his boat. “It looks like...I don’t know, something.”

  Jase grabbed the flashlight from him and crouched on the silver gangplank, leaning forward as the beam of light played over the water.

  Something floated out from beneath the gangplank and everyone behind him gasped and jumped back.

  It was something all right—it was Chris Kitchens’s dead body.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Nina stumbled against Jase, almost falling over him. “It’s Chris.”

  “You know this guy?” The man from the bait shop squatted next to Jase.

  The boater snapped his fingers. “Is that the one you were asking about this morning? The ex-boyfriend?”

  Three pairs of eyes drilled into her. She put her hands over her face. This was getting crazy and she couldn’t even keep her own lies straight.

  “Yes. No. I didn’t say he was my boyfriend.”

  Jase refocused the flashlight on the group. “We do know this man, however. Has someone called 9-1-1 yet?”

  Thank God for Jase taking charge. She was finding it hard to even stand up.

  Steve, the boater from earlier in the day, scratched his chin. “Hell, I didn’t even know if it was really a body or not. I thought I saw a face in the water. Scared the hell out of me.”

  The bait shop owner held up his phone. “I got it.”

  While he made the call, Nina tried to catch Jase’s eye, but he was busy trying to haul in the body—Chris.

  “I think he’s stuck on something beneath the slip.”

  “Maybe we should just let the professionals handle this.”

  “Bubbles!” Jase flattened out on his belly and scooted closer to Chris’s floating head. “I saw bubbles. He’s not dead.”

  Jase shed her stepfather’s coat and slid into the black water as Nina screamed his name.

  “I’ll be damned.” The boater dropped to his knees and aimed the flashlight where Jase had disappeared.

  Nina released a breath when Jase popped up again, keeping Chris’s head above the surface.

  Jase coughed and shook wet hair from his eyes. “His leg is pinned. Hold him up while I release him.”

  Steve leaned forward and hooked his arms beneath Chris’s armpits while Jase dived down again.

  Nina wrapped her arms around her body to stop the shivering, but it wasn’t the cold that was causing it.

  Sirens wailed and the emergency vehicles lit up the pier.

  Finally, Jase rose from the murky depths and the rest of Chris’s body floated to the surface.

  The EMTs did the rest as they hauled Chris from the water. They pumped his chest.

  “Is he alive?” She hovered on the outside of the circle of EMTs working on Chris.

  A cop stepped in front of her. “Ma’am, you’re going to have to give them room.”

  She spun around and grabbed Jase, soaking wet and freezing cold to the touch. “What were you thinking, jumping in that water?”

  “He was alive, Nina. I saw bubbles at the surface of the water.”

  “That could’ve been anything.”

  “She has a point there. There’re all kinds of things bubbling in that water.” The bait shop owner shook his head. “He sure looked like a goner to me.”

  A police officer approached them with a pad of pape
r in one hand. “I’m Officer Franklin. Who discovered him?”

  Steve raised his hand. “That’s my boat. I was going to ready her for a trip to the mainland when I saw something white floating beside her.”

  “He yelled out and I’m parked right next door.” The other boat owner thrust his thumb over his shoulder. “I came over to see what all the commotion was about. I saw Ned step out of his shop and called him over, and then these two showed up.”

  The cop wagged his finger between her and Jase. “And what were you two doing out here?”

  Jase poked her in the small of her back. “Nina’s stepsister died earlier this morning. I was just taking her back to this side of the island because she left something in her sister’s motel room.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Franklin tapped his chin with the eraser of his pencil. “Louise Moore. Sorry for your loss, ma’am, but couldn’t you two just walk from the dune side of the island?”

  “We had the boat out anyway.”

  Nina nodded, marveling at the easy lies that sprang to Jase’s lips. She supposed it was best the cops didn’t know they’d come here to meet Chris, but wouldn’t they discover that anyway once they checked out his cell phone and saw his texts to her number?

  The EMTs pulled a white sheet over Chris’s face, and Nina swayed. Jase caught her around the waist.

  “Is he gone?”

  The EMTs strapped Chris’s body to the gurney. “He’s gone.”

  The cop circled his pencil in the air. “Does anyone know who he is?”

  Would Jase lie about this, too?

  He cleared his throat. “His name is Chris Kitchens. He’s related to a friend of Ms. Moore’s. We met him for the first time yesterday and figured he’d left the island today.”

  Steve shoved a toothpick between his lips. “This isn’t the boyfriend?”

  “Boyfriend?” Nina ran her tongue along her bottom lip. “I think you misunderstood. He’s related to an ex-boyfriend.”

  “Does anyone know next of kin?”

  Ned was already heading for his bait shop and Steve shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know a thing about him.”

  “Like I said, we just met him yesterday. He was looking for his brother, whom he hadn’t seen since they were both adopted over twenty years ago.” Jase draped the mackinaw over his shoulders. “We couldn’t help him.”

  “Anyone plan on leaving the island anytime soon?”

  Nina rubbed her eyes as the EMTs began loading Chris’s body into the back of the ambulance. “I live here now, not going anywhere.”

  “Just in case.” Franklin put away his notepad. “We’ll see what the autopsy turns up. Could be he took a wrong turn, fell into the water, hit his head and drowned.”

  Nina doubted that scenario, but unless she wanted to spend the rest of the night at the police station, she’d keep her mouth shut.

  “If it’s okay, I’m going to get him home before icicles start forming on the end of his nose.” She took Jase’s arm and pulled him toward the parking lot.

  He resisted. “The boat.”

  “You’re not going back on the water. We’ll get a taxi back and fetch the boat tomorrow morning.”

  Officer Franklin spoke up. “I’ll give you two a ride back. Moonstones, right?”

  “That’s it.” Everyone here already knew her business. She wouldn’t be surprised if the officer knew about Chris’s contact with her stepsister before she OD’d. “Did you find Chris’s phone?”

  “Just his wallet, no phone. Maybe it fell in the water.”

  Even more reason to keep quiet about her connection to Chris, since the police department wouldn’t discover anything without that phone.

  Jase’s teeth chattered on and off during the ride back to the B and B, so she threaded her fingers through his and squeezed his hand every time a chill claimed his body.

  He leaned forward and spoke through the mesh separating the front seat from the back. “Sorry I’m getting water all over your backseat.”

  “That’s okay. It’s seen a lot worse.”

  Franklin wheeled his patrol car in front of Moonstones. “Are you two going to be okay?”

  “As soon as I dry off and warm up, I’ll be fine. Damn, I could’ve sworn he still had breath in him.”

  “Tough break. We’ll be in touch.”

  They scrambled from the car and Nina ran ahead of Jase to open the front door. “Why is it every time we come back here, one of us is all wet?”

  “It’s an island.”

  She shoved him from behind. “Go get some warm, dry clothes on and I’ll get the fire started—then we talk.”

  He planted his feet on the floor. “Sit down and relax. I’ll start the fire when I come back. In the meantime, crank on the furnace. I’m going to hop in the shower for a few minutes first.”

  She didn’t argue with him, since he’d somehow come to the conclusion that pregnancy sapped a woman’s strength and energy—and reason, come to think of it.

  She sat meekly on the edge of the chair, and as soon as she heard his door shut, she crouched before the fireplace and lit the kindling. Jase had already stacked the logs in the grate.

  Fanning the fire to life, she stared into the depths of the flames. What had just happened? Chris had been the one to warn her and he’d wound up dead. No way was that a coincidence.

  Would Simon kill his own brother? What did Chris mean to Simon anyway? They’d grown up apart. They were strangers despite Chris’s romanticized vision of finding his little brother.

  She’d listen to Jase’s conclusions before jumping to any of her own. He seemed to discount Simon’s involvement so quickly. Maybe he just couldn’t imagine a man wanting to harm his own child. Jase seemed quite taken with hers.

  She rubbed her belly and then ducked behind the bar to nab her stepfather’s good cognac. Tea wouldn’t cut it for Jase. She filled the bottom of a bowl-shaped snifter with the golden liquid and brought it to the table by the fire. Her gaze shifted to Jase’s laptop.

  For a writer, he sure didn’t do much writing. Of course, he was living out a real-life drama with her and her problems. Maybe he was putting all this in his book.

  She ran her fingers along the seamed closure of the laptop and snatched her hand back when she heard Jase emerge from his room.

  “That hot shower felt good.” He sauntered into the room, dark gray sweats covering his long legs and a white T-shirt hugging the muscles she’d always suspected of hiding beneath his bulky flannels.

  He caught her stare. “I’m sorry. Were you expecting a smoking jacket or silk pajamas?”

  She lifted the glass of cognac. “Would’ve gone nicely with this cognac.”

  “How’d you know I’d enjoy a glass of the good stuff?”

  She swirled the liquid in the glass before handing it to him. “Just a guess.”

  He took the snifter from her, brushing her fingers in the process, before sinking into the love seat. “I see you got the fire going anyway.”

  “It wasn’t hard or taxing, believe it or not.”

  He stretched out his long legs. “Feels good.”

  “Don’t ignore the elephant in the room.” She dropped to the floor in front of his chair and hugged her knees to her chest, or at least as close as she could get them to her chest. “What happened to Chris?”

  “He drowned.” Jase took a sip of the cognac and watched her over the rim of the snifter.

  “Someone killed him before he could warn me.”

  Jase’s eyes flickered but he didn’t jump into a denial—which scared the hell out of her.

  “When I pulled him out of the water, it looked like he had an abrasion on the side of his head, but that could’ve happened when he fell into the water.”

  “Who falls off a gangpla
nk into the water?”

  “It was dark out there. Steve’s boat’s in the shadows.”

  “Just who are you trying to convince?” She rested her chin on her knees. “It’s Simon.”

  “You think he’d kill his own brother?”

  She clicked her tongue. “He didn’t know Chris. He never mentioned having a brother to me once. He never discussed his birth family. As far as Simon was concerned, the people who adopted him were his parents and he had no siblings.”

  The amber liquid in Jase’s glass sloshed from side to side as another chill rolled through his body.

  “Scoot over.” She hopped to her feet. “You’re still not completely warmed up. You’re going to catch a chill.”

  He shifted to the side of the love seat and patted the other cushion. “Be my guest.”

  She settled beside him and her body flushed with warmth as she remembered falling asleep in his arms the other night.

  Maybe tonight he’d fall asleep in her arms.

  He cupped his glass with two hands. “Have you ever reported Simon? Gotten a restraining order against him?”

  “How can you get a restraining order against a ghost?”

  His body stiffened. “What does that mean?”

  He really was still chilled to the bone. She pressed her hands against his shoulders, pushing him forward. Then she began kneading the tight muscles between his shoulder blades with her knuckles.

  “What I mean is I’ve never seen Simon. I haven’t seen him since the day he walked out of our place.” She skimmed her hands down his back, feeling the smooth flesh beneath his thin T-shirt. “I’ve sensed his presence or at least a presence, but you can’t get a restraining order against a presence.”

  His muscles bunched into even tighter knots beneath her fingers.

  “You’re going to be sore tomorrow morning if you don’t relax your muscles. You must still be chilled.” She tapped his glass with her fingernail. “Drink up and have another.”

  He tossed back the drink and set the glass on the table with a clink. “If there is someone out there stalking you, I don’t want to be drunk when he comes to your door.”

  She tucked her feet beneath her body and leaned against Jase’s arm. “I’d put my money on you drunk or sober, Jase Buckley.”