Stork Alert by Delores Fossen

sputtered out a cough and dropped his cigar.
    Nick’s maneuver had two armed men springing from the limo parked in front of the ranch house.
    Nick ignored the hired guns and got right in Eric’s face. “Don’t make me kill you.”
    Despite the cough and the obviously ruffled composure, Eric smiled. “You won’t. There are the promises we made to our mother not to do harm to one another—”
    “A promise you would have already broken if you knew you could get away with murder,” Nick interrupted.
    “There is that,” Eric conceded. “But then, the right opportunity hasn’t arisen, yet. Murder isn’t really murder if the police can’t link your death back to me.” He lowered his voice. “You know how this has to end, Nick. One of us will have to kill the other. Cain and Abel. Except I won’t be the one to die.”
    “No one has to die if you stay away from me and the people important to me.” And with that, Nick let go of his brother’s jacket and aimed a warning glare at the men who were about to step onto his porch.
    They froze.
    “Leave,” Nick ordered Eric. “And don’t come back.”
    Nick stepped back into the foyer and slammed the door, but he didn’t move. He stood there for several moments as if trying to keep a chokehold on his temper. Kelly figured she was about to get a tongue-lashing because she’d disobeyed his order to stay away from Eric.
    She was right.
    “What you did was very dangerous,” Nick informed her.
    “Everything I do is dangerous, thanks to your brother. I didn’t want him to think I was afraid of him.” Even though she was afraid. Not for herself. But for what that evil man could do to Joseph and William.
    “Remember, you have other guests in the solarium,” Cooper reminded Nick.
    Nick cursed under his breath. “Have them go to my office. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” He then turned and faced Kelly. “This conversation isn’t over. Go back to your suite or the nursery and stay there until Eric is off the grounds.”
    Well, that got her heart racing. “You actually think he’ll come back?”
    He turned and walked toward his office. “Anything’s possible with Eric.”

Chapter Eight
     
    Nick watched Kelly to make sure she returned to the nursery. He hadn’t wanted her to confront Eric, and he definitely didn’t want her in his office when he spoke to his other visitors: Todd Burgess and Paula Barker. In some ways, an association with them was just as dangerous as the meeting they’d had with his brother.
    Because both Todd and Paula were agents with the Justice Department.
    And Nick was helping them.
    It was bad enough that Kelly was now on his brother’s radar. He didn’t want her to have to deal with the Feds.
    He found the two federal agents waiting impatiently in his office. Paula, a tall, athletically built brunette, was pacing with her arms folded over her chest. Nick had run a background check on her, and she was considered to be one of the best agents at the department. A whiz at martial arts, Paula had successfully defended herself against men twice her size.
    Todd, rail thin and too pale, didn’t look as if he could defend himself against anyone, but Nick knew he had all the qualifications to be an agent. He’d made rank early and was hungry and ambitious enough for success that he would do whatever it took to bring down the prize that the Justice Department desperately wanted.
    Eric.
    Todd was seated across from Nick’s desk, drumming his fingers on the chair arm. His thin mouth was pursed. Of course, it usually was. Ditto for his rumpled mud-brown hair. Even though Nick had only known the man for a few short months, he’d learned that Todd was not a man who relaxed easily.
    Todd had his gaze fastened to the security monitor on Nick’s desk. Kelly was sitting on the floor playing with the babies. Since it seemed like a violation of her privacy and because it wasn’t any of Todd’s business, Nick reached over and clicked it