The Pregnancy Plot (Brothers In Arms: Retribution Book 2) Read Free Page A

through the sand toward the front gate and left it open behind him. He clambered on top of a pile of rocks and faced the bay, his eyes watering at the sharp, cold breeze stinging his face.
    He hadn’t brought the full Bennett charm into play yet—just didn’t seem right with a pregnant woman, even though he wasn’t supposed to know she was expecting—but it looked as if it was going to be harder than he’d imagined getting close to Nina Moore.
    And for some strange reason, he’d completely changed his mind about this assignment after meeting his quarry. He couldn’t wait to get close to Nina Moore.
    * * *
    N INA LOCKED THE FRONT door behind her and cursed the weeds as she slogged through them to the sagging gate. Her pulse jumped as she spied Jase on the rocks in front of the property next door. Was he waiting for her?
    She’d felt such a connection to him the moment he’d turned and faced her shotgun. He had a quality that reminded her of Simon—not his looks. Simon was a good-looking guy, too, but his red hair and broad features were worlds apart from Jase’s dark intensity. Both men had an air of watchful readiness about them, as if they could spring into action at any moment.
    They also both shared a commanding presence, giving her the uneasy feeling that she’d do their bidding even at her own peril. All a man had to do was promise to lead and she’d follow him anywhere.
    Must be the pregnancy hormones making her crazy. She shook her head and tossed her ponytail over her shoulder.
    She latched the gate and veered left. Her sneakers hit the wood planks leading to the boat dock where Dad’s sixteen-foot boat bobbed in the water. Keeping one eye on Jase still peering at the bay, she started the seventy-horsepower engine. It sputtered and coughed and then rumbled to life. She aimed the boat toward the line of shore she could just make out in the distance.
    The salty breeze whipped the ponytail across her face, and she stuck out her tongue to catch the spray just because she felt like it. She glanced over her shoulder at Jase, still on the rocks, his figure getting smaller and smaller although he still loomed large in her mind.
    It must be that inner spit and polish that gave military men their bearing, leaving the impression of invincibility. That’s why Simon’s behavior had been so frightening. At first she’d pegged it as post-traumatic stress disorder and had encouraged him to visit a therapist, but he’d have none of that. The same personality traits that gave him supreme control in the face of danger also led him to an impenetrable stubbornness.
    She sighed and slightly shifted the course of the boat. If Simon ever wanted to be part of his son’s life, he’d have to get some counseling first.
    She shivered and stamped her feet—in a puddle. She looked down, gasping at the pool of water sloshing over her sneakers. The spray hadn’t been that high or wild to flood the boat—not yet anyway, although a storm was on its way down from Alaska.
    She skimmed the toe of her wet shoe across the bottom of the boat and more water gushed in. Bending over, she ran her fingers across the fiberglass surface, her tips tripping over the edge of some electrical tape.
    “Are you kidding me?” She peeled back the tape, exposing a hole in the fiberglass the size of a quarter and getting bigger as more water gurgled into the boat.
    She rose, jerking her head toward the mainland and then toward the island. Faster to go back.
    She eased into a turn and started chugging back to Break Island. The boat lurched and listed as it took on more water the faster she went. When the water got ankle-high, she slowed the boat and tried to bail out with a bucket.
    When the left stern started to dip, she abandoned the idea of a bailout and eyed the shoreline of the island. Even if she could swim that distance with her clothes dragging her down, the water would be freezing cold. Would her baby feel the cold?
    How had this happened? She