The Pregnancy Plot (Brothers In Arms: Retribution Book 2) (9 page)

She sucked in some tea and then choked on it. “I didn’t kick Simon out all that quickly. I encouraged him to get help. I called a psychologist friend of mine. I called the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

“What was he doing? What was he saying?”

“He’d come home from an assignment—” she circled her finger in the air “—he traveled a lot. Worked for the government but couldn’t talk about his job much. When he’d get home, he’d lock all the doors and draw the blinds. Sometimes he’d sit for days in front of the TV with a gun in his hand.”

“You didn’t feel threatened?”

“Not then. His anger and paranoia weren’t addressed at me. He kept saying we weren’t safe, that if they found out about him, they’d come and get him.”

“Did he ever identify who
they
were?” He rubbed the stubble on his chin. This account sounded similar to the types of things Max Duvall had been claiming.

“He never got into it, wouldn’t answer me.” Hugging herself, she continued. “Then the ranting started alternating with the violence. He’d punch holes in the wall or kick a piece of furniture to pieces.”

“That must’ve been scary, even if it wasn’t aimed at you.”

“That’s the thing.” She clasped her hands between her knees. “The last time he was home, he started going on and on about how I was next, how they wouldn’t leave me alone, either.”

Did Simon Skinner’s ranting hold more truth than paranoia? “And that was the final straw?”

“It freaked me out. I still had no idea who he was talking about. Maybe he was talking about himself. I’d been bugging him for weeks to get help, but he refused. When I gave him an ultimatum—get help or leave—he left.”

“Would you have made good on your threat?”

“I’d like to think so, but the final punch to the gut was his warning to me never to look him up or contact him again.”

“You respected his wishes?”

“About not contacting him?”

“Yeah.”

“Up until the time I found out I was pregnant. Then I did everything in my power to find him to tell him, even though I wasn’t sure what kind of role he’d play in the baby’s life.”

“That makes sense.”

“Not a whole lot made sense at that time, but I sort of have a theory about how it all went down.”

“I’m listening.”

He wasn’t kidding. Jase had scooted to the edge of the deep chair, bracing his forearms against his knees and hunching forward. He’d been absorbing every detail of her story from the beginning. How was this guy even still single?

“I think Simon found out I was looking for him and why. He knew I wouldn’t let him be a father to the baby unless he checked into a treatment facility or went to the VA. Not being ready for that or even believing he needed that, he decided to stalk me instead. Until yesterday when I spotted Chris Kitchens, I figured Simon had given up when I came out here. It’s kind of hard to hide on a small island like this.”

Jase had covered his face with his hands, digging the tips of his fingers into his thick brown hair.

“What? Do you think that’s far-fetched?”

He parted his fingers and peered at her through the spaces. “I don’t know, Nina. I think you should try to put Simon out of your mind right now. Concentrate on staying relaxed and happy. That’s what you’re here for, right? And I’m here to write and help you get this place in working order.”

She rolled her shoulders back and slumped in the chair. “You’re right. Simon’s going to come back or he’s not. Maybe Chris will have better luck.”

Jase sat back and wrapped his long fingers around his sweating bottle. He tipped the rest of the contents down his throat. “That’s good stuff.”

“Do you want another?”

“I’m tired enough as it is. I worked all morning on the fence, fetched you, your groceries and a total stranger who turned your world upside down, fought off a wild Tasmanian devil and let a huge cat out of the bag. I’m ready to hit the sack.”

She raised her arms above her head and yawned. “When you put it that way, but you need to promise me something, Jase Buckley.”

“Anything.” He rose from the chair, beer bottle in hand, and then swooped down to sweep up her cup.

“You need to promise me you’ll do some writing tomorrow.” She pushed up from the chair and hugged the robe around her body. “I feel so guilty. You came to Break Island to write and you’ve been entangled in my family drama.”

As he turned toward the kitchen, he shrugged. “Family drama’s good for my writing.”

She paused at the hallway leading back to her living area. “Thanks, Jase, for being there, for everything.”

She didn’t know if he heard her or not, since his only answer was the clinking of glass. She took a breath to repeat herself and then blew it out as she walked down the hallway. She could add modesty to his list of virtues.

* * *

H
OURS
LATER
N
INA
woke with a start. The rain had increased through the night and drops of it pelted her window in a relentless rhythm.

She rolled to her side and squished down a pillow to see the floating green digits of the alarm clock. Three o’clock?

Groaning, she pulled the pillow over her head. Ever since her pregnancy, once she woke up like this in the early morning hours she’d had a hard time getting back to sleep.

She closed her eyes and tried some deep breathing. A gust of wind hurried the spatters of rain against her window and then blew an errant branch against the pane, where it scratched and tapped out its own Morse code.

Its message was insistent and sinister.

She bolted upright. Sinister?

With her heart pounding, she rolled from the bed and pressed her nose against the window, where trickles of rain formed a pattern on the glass. The window looked out on the deck with the fire pit, and she felt a strong force beckoning her outside.

The deck had been her parents’ favorite spot. Her mother had died on that deck, wrapped in blankets and her husband’s loving arms. Not wanting to defile the sanctity of the place, her stepfather had shot himself out on the water, but his presence lingered on the deck, just as her mother’s did.

She shoved her feet into her clogs and dragged her robe around her body. She made a stop at her closet to retrieve Dad’s shotgun—not the weapon he’d used to commit suicide—and shuffled to the front door.

Raindrops sprinkled her face, and she wiped them away as she stepped onto the porch. The clouds parted just long enough for the moon to glisten against the wet leaves before hiding it from view again and casting the ground into darkness.

Nina took the two porch steps slowly and scuffled along the gravel path that led to the side of Moonstones and the deck.

Darkness draped every inch of it. And then a burst of wind picked up the leaves on the ground and sent them dancing in the air and snatched at her robe, daring her to dance with the leaves.

The wind also shoved the clouds apart, and the moon cast a glow over the deck and the fire pit.

A formless shape huddled in one of the chairs and a shaft of fear pierced her heart. She whispered, “Mom?”

Her feet propelled her toward the deck, the clogs slogging through the mud and the hem of her robe dragging behind her.

She gripped the battered wooden railing as she navigated the three steps up to the deck. The clouds decided to play peekaboo with the moon again and bathed the deck in gloom.

She froze, afraid to take a step onto the deck with its rotten spots. As if sensing her hesitation, the wind gently swirled around her and the clouds shifted. The moon spilled its light once more on the deck and Nina picked her way across to the rattan love seat beneath her bedroom window.

She crouched beside the love seat and reached for the pile of clothing in front of her. Her fingers met flesh—cold, dead flesh.

Chapter Ten

The scream that shattered the night launched Jase from the porch. When he hit the ground, he grabbed a handful of leaves on a bush to keep from sliding into the mud. The scream had come from the side of the house, and he aimed his flashlight in that direction and followed the beam of light.

He swept the flashlight up the deck and zeroed in on Nina hunched over a piece of furniture against the wall of the house.

“Nina! Nina, are you okay?”

A pale oval turned his way, and he clambered up the steps of the deck and rushed to her side. His flashlight played over the figure slumped sideways on the love seat and lit up the face of Nina’s stepsister, Lou.

Nina craned her head around to look at him, the rain mingling with the tears streaming down her face.

He set down his flashlight, away from the sad spectacle on the love seat, and hooked his hands beneath Nina’s arms. “Let’s go inside and call 9-1-1.”

“She’s dead, isn’t she?”

She sure looked dead to him, and he’d seen plenty of dead people, but he pressed two fingers against the pulse in her throat to satisfy Nina. “She’s gone.”

“I don’t... Can you see...? Is she hurt?”

“It’s too hard to see anything out here, Nina. Let’s allow the professionals to do their jobs.” He put an arm around her. “You’re shivering.”

He led her back into the B and B, the flashlight showing them the way. After settling her before the fireplace, he picked up her landline and punched in 9-1-1 to report finding Lou’s body.

Then he sat on the arm of Nina’s chair and rubbed her back. “Do you want to get out of this wet robe? The hem’s all muddy.”

She untied the sash and he peeled the robe from her shoulders. She’d been wet and shivering three times in two days. That couldn’t be good for the baby.

He put some water on to boil and went into his room to yank the blanket from his bed. When he returned, Nina was rocking back and forth with her hands pinned between her knees.

Dropping the blanket around her shoulders, he said, “Get warmed up. I’ll bring you some tea.”

When she didn’t make a move, he tucked the blanket around her body, noticing for the first time a fullness to her breasts and a rounded belly beneath the filmy material of her nightgown. His desire for her surged through his veins with red-hot need and he dropped the corner of the blanket in her lap, as if it had burned his fingers.

He backed away from her and moved into the kitchen to watch the kettle on the stove. He was losing it. He’d allowed his past disappointments to get mixed up in his feelings for Nina and his job assignment. He had to pull out of this nosedive.

A revolving light from the front of the B and B splashed red light into the sitting room. “Let me do this.”

Jase moved to the door, but Nina followed him, the blanket trailing behind her.

He stepped onto the porch as the EMTs were hopping from the ambulance. He pointed to the side of the house. “She’s on the deck.”

Two police cars rolled up, facing the B and B, and illuminated the entire yard with white spotlights.

Two police officers approached them. The taller one spoke first. “You’re Nina Moore, aren’t you? Bruce and Lori’s daughter? I’m Sergeant Pruitt.”

“Yes, the...the body we found is my stepsister, Louise Moore.” She touched Jase’s arm. “This is Jase Buckley.”

“Good to meet you.” The sergeant nodded. “I knew Lou. She caused a bit of ruckus a few nights ago.”

“Lou could do that.”

“Your father did all he could for that girl.” He jerked his head to the side of the house. “What happened?”

Jase answered. “We’re not sure. We didn’t see any visible signs of injury on the body, but it was dark.”

“The body just appeared? No noises? Signs of struggle? How’d you come to find her?”

Nina tugged the blanket closed. “I woke up, and I had a bad feeling. I looked outside first but didn’t see anything. Then I walked outside and found her there. I...I must’ve screamed, because Jase appeared almost immediately after I found Lou.”

“You did scream, but I was already coming out here. I heard noises—must’ve been you coming outside.”

“You didn’t see anyone else, Ms. Moore?”

“You can call me Nina. I didn’t see anyone or anything.”

“Did you hear any cars or dogs barking?”

“Just the wind and the ocean, Sergeant Pruitt.”

“Yep. Helluva storm coming in.” The sergeant used his powerful flashlight to light a path to the deck on the side of the house.

As Nina started to follow him, Jase grabbed her hand. “Why don’t you go back inside?”

“She’s my sister.” She shook him off and caught up to Sergeant Pruitt.

The EMTs had moved Lou’s body to a gurney, while the other officer was blocking off the deck with yellow tape.

Jase squinted against the bright light. “What does it look like?”

One of the EMTs answered. “At first look, a drug overdose.”

Nina gasped and drove a fist against her mouth.

Jase put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “No signs of violence?”

“Not that we can tell, but we’ll deliver the body to the local hospital and the coroner will want to do an autopsy.”

Nina choked. “I don’t understand how she got here. We left her in town earlier tonight, or rather last night.”

The sergeant lifted his shoulders. “It’s not a long walk.”

“But if she was under the influence or drugged out...”

“Maybe the drugs didn’t take full effect until she got here. We’ll let the coroner figure that out, Nina, but we need to treat this as a crime scene until we know what happened.”

“What does that mean?” She shivered but this time she moved in against Jase instead of pulling away.

His body reacted in all the wrong ways to the feeling of her soft curves melding against his frame.

“Just the deck. When it gets light, the crime scene investigators will come out and survey the area.” The sergeant stomped his feet and rubbed his hands together. “Was she with anyone last night when you saw her?”

“Her constant companion on the island, Kip Chandler.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve seen him around, too.”

Jase cleared his throat. “And Chris Kitchens.”

“That name I don’t know.”

Nina tilted her head back to look Jase in the face. “She wasn’t really with Chris.”

“He was giving her his jacket when we left them.”

“Who is this Chris Kitchens?” Pruitt took a pad of paper out of his front pocket.

“He was a visitor to the island. He was looking for his brother, someone I used to know. I couldn’t help him with his brother, but we had dinner with him.”

“Did he know Lou?”

“He had just met her. He was giving her his jacket because...because it had started raining.”

“That’s the last you saw of them? Of your stepsister?”

“Yes.” Nina turned her face into Jase’s arm, pressing her nose against his sweatshirt.

“Sergeant Pruitt, can we finish this inside? Nina’s chilled to the bone.”

“I think I’m done with my questions tonight.” He lifted the tape flapping in the wind. “Stay off the deck until the crime scene techs do their investigation. I’m leaving Officer Jamison here until dawn, which—” he yanked up the sleeve of his jacket “—will be just a few hours from now.”

“If you need anything else, Sergeant Pruitt, we’ll both be here.”

Pruitt’s eyes darted from Jase’s face to Nina’s. “You taking in guests already?”

“Jase isn’t really a guest. He’s helping me fix up the place in exchange for room and board.”

“You
should
fix up this place, Nina. It meant a lot to your mom and stepdad.”

“Maybe that’s why Lou made her way back here.” Her bottom lip trembled along with her voice, and Jase gripped her arm and steered her back toward the house.

“Let us know if you need anything, Sergeant.”

“It won’t be until sunup, so try to get some rest. “I’m sorry for your loss, Nina.”

Jase bundled her back into the B and B while the EMTs and officers were still talking over the body covered by a sheet.

“Get back to bed. I’ll get the lights.”

She flopped back into the chair and kicked her feet up on the ottoman. “I can’t go back to sleep. Lou’s still out there.”

“What made you get up?”

“I don’t know. I felt her presence out there. My mom died on that deck, too.”

“Maybe you heard a noise that woke you up.”

“That’s the logical explanation, isn’t it? But nothing about Lou has ever been logical. I thought she was off the hard stuff. I know she was still smoking weed, and she was an alcoholic.”

“Maybe it was the booze—alcohol poisoning.”

“The EMT thought it was a drug overdose.”

“He guessed at that by looking at her in the dark. We’ll have to wait for the autopsy.”

“Maybe in the end, she was coming to me for help. When she was clearheaded, she could be so funny and warm.”

“I wouldn’t know. I only ever saw her as an acute danger to you.”

Sighing, she rested her head against the chair’s cushion. “I suppose I had been waiting for this ending for a while.”

“You’re still shivering.” He nudged her. “Is there room in that chair for me? You need to get warm.”

Her eyes widened but she scooted over and he wedged himself into the chair next to her. He repositioned himself and opened his arms so she could rest against his chest. He tugged the blanket around her more closely and she draped her legs over his thighs, burrowing halfway onto his lap.

He held her, and she nestled her cheek against his chest—right above his pounding heart.

He stroked her hair and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

Her eyelashes fluttered and her lips parted as if she were ready to answer, but she emitted a soft breath instead.

He tightened his arms around her, and she drifted to sleep. He could hold her for the rest of the morning and never grow tired of watching her face, peaceful and free from worry.

Would Coburn have sent him on this assignment if he’d known the complications of Nina Moore’s life? Probably. Some of those complications, namely Chris Kitchens, had deep roots in Nina’s connection to Simon Skinner and Tempest.

But she knew nothing of her ex-fiancé’s job and life. Tempest had to realize that, too.

He’d step back when the assignment ended. Once they figured out Tempest had no interest in Nina, he’d move on to the next assignment and she could run her B and B and raise her baby—alone.

Lots of women chose single motherhood. Hell, Maggie had insisted on it and Nina had a lot more strength than Maggie did.

After two hours of thinking too much and sleeping too little, Jase shifted his position in the chair as the gray light of dawn seeped through the drapes.

A vehicle pulled up to the house, its engine idling. Must be the crime scene guys relieving the cop standing guard at the deck.

Jase stretched his legs in front of him and slipped his arm from beneath Nina’s body. She mumbled and her eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks. He repositioned her head against the cushion of the chair and sauntered to the window to peer outside.

A black van had pulled up in front of Moonstones, discharging personnel from the sliding door on the side where he could make out white letters announcing the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department.

He glanced over his shoulder at Nina, still sleeping, and pulled last night’s sweatshirt over his head. Stepping out onto the porch, he walked into beads of moisture that clung to his hair. The clouds from last night continued to threaten, but the storm hadn’t rolled in with its full force yet.

One of the techs from the van stopped and waved. “We’re here to sift through the location where the body was found, even though the report I saw details a simple overdose.”

“Are overdoses ever simple?” Jase shoved his hands into his pockets and walked down the steps.

“Suppose not. Sorry, was she a relative? A friend?”

“My friend’s stepsister. She had a lot of problems, so her ending isn’t a surprise.”

“Still tough to deal with.”

The officer from last night emerged from the side of the house, shrugging out of his poncho. “Was Ms. Moore okay last night?”

“She slept. Do you know when the coroner’s office is going to release the body for burial?”

He pointed to the techs. “If these guys don’t discover anything and the autopsy doesn’t indicate foul play, I don’t think it’ll be that long. But with the storm coming?” He shrugged. “I’m sure the coroner will want to do a toxicology test, and that can take a while out here.”

“Did you find anything?”

Jase turned at the sound of Nina’s voice. She’d not only woken up, but she’d pulled on a pair of black leggings paired with some fuzzy boots and a down jacket that hung almost to her knees.

“We’re just getting started.” The lead crime scene tech patted the black bag slung over his shoulder. “She was your stepsister?”

“Yes. Will you be able to tell how long she’d been on the deck? How long she’d been dead?”

“The autopsy will get to that. We’ll look at how she got here and if there was anyone with her.”

She blew on her hands and rubbed them together. “I just have a feeling she came here to see me. Maybe she knew she was dying and she wanted to tell me something.”

“Between us and the coroner, we should be able to paint a picture of her last hours. I hope it gives you some closure.” He joined his team on the deck.

Jase rubbed Nina’s arms through the slick, puffy sleeves of her jacket. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay. How are you after sleeping upright in a chair all night?” She shook her finger in his face. “Don’t think I don’t know what you did, Jase Buckley. You watched over me in that chair when you should’ve just carried me to my bed and gotten a few hours of shut-eye in your own bed.”

“You needed to warm up and...”

“Moonstones
does
have central heating.”

“...and you needed someone to hold you.”

A rush of color stained her cheeks and she twisted her ponytail around her hand. “Did you think I was falling apart?”

“Nina, you’d just found your stepsister’s body, hours after she attacked you in the street. Pregnant or not, that’s enough to drive anyone to the edge.”