by Debra Kayn
"But?"
"I have no one to help me, and I'll do anything to find my sister." She looked at him. "I'm flying by the seat of my pants, Chuck. I know what you want me to say, and I also know I can't because I know the law. My hands are tied."
"I'll advise you again to go to the police for help," he said.
Her mouth tightened. "If I do, I'd be killing my sister. There are other people involved who are watching me and telling me what I need to do because they're trying to find the man who has my sister. That's why I have this room protected, so nobody knows I'm staying up here. I left my car in the garage at my house, and I'm trying to buy myself some time to figure out how to save Rachel. But, my business needs to stay open and eventually, they'll find me during the daytime. I just know that when they come back, I've run out of time to save my sister."
"Jesus," muttered Chuck.
He believed her. The little things she'd mentioned were red alerts. Notus wouldn't only have to find Erikka's sister, they'd need to save her from the man who abducted her, and find out who the men were that were after the kidnapper and make sure no one harmed her sister. It was a fucking war game.
"Lieutenant Gomez said Notus Motorcycle Club was the best at finding someone," whispered Erikka. "I'll pay any amount you ask, if you help me."
"Who are the men that are after the man that you believe has your sister?"
Her lips closed. He wanted to wait her out. Her silence wasn't helping anyone and the information she'd given him painted a different picture than he came here prepared for. The time needed, along with Notus getting involved in something that could be bigger than they would want to handle, made him leery of giving her any encouragement. Wayne, Thad, and Glen could still vote down the job.
"I don't know who they are, but I have two different pictures of them. One when they succeeded in getting inside the building and made a mess of everything downstairs. The second time, I was prepared, and they weren't able to get inside, but the security camera recorded them outside the door in the back of the building. I also believe they were the same men who broke into my sister's house and thrashed her home." She sat straighter. "Agree to help me, and I'll show you who they are. I'll give you the client's information who has my sister. I'll even sign over the bail bonds business to you. The building, the clientele, and everything that comes with it. I only want my sister brought back to me alive."
"I'll do it." He raised his brows stopping her from relaxing. "You'll have to wait until tomorrow until I run this by the others before I know if they'll take the case. If not, you've got me to help you."
She nodded enthusiastically. He gritted his teeth. His decision came not because of the amount of danger surrounding her or the triangle of people after each other. It was because her sister needed help, and he would not let another woman go unfounded until it was too late to bring her home alive.
Chapter 4
The next morning after meeting Erikka, Chuck stood in front of the other Notus MC members inside Wayne's garage. "I'm going to help her regardless of the club's vote to take the case or not."
Wayne latched his fingers behind his head and leaned back in the chair, putting his boots up on the desk. "None of us have ever stepped outside the club and worked on our own. We're not going to start now. I'm calling a vote on the Levenson case."
Glen, leaving his sunglasses on in the house, lifted his finger. "I'm in."
"Yep." Thad looked down at the screen of his phone. "Me, too. Though, I'm sticking close to home until the baby comes."
Chuck would expect nothing less. Thad was dedicated to Lena and his family.
"Go ahead and call her, we'll go over to St. John's Bail Bonds now and begin." Wayne's boots thunked against the floor as he stood. "I'm going to fill in Clara and let her know I'll be gone for a while. Everybody be ready to ride in five minutes."
"I'll call Gracie and see if she's going to stay home or if she wants me to pick her up and bring her over here to stay with her sister." Chuck tapped his phone and put his cell to his ear. Gracie was fine during the day staying at her townhouse by herself knowing she could call any of the Notus members to come to her. She would even go to Vavoom's Bar during the day as long as Clara, Peyton, Maureen, or even Pauly were around.
"Hello?" said Gracie.
"Hey, sweetheart. The club's riding for the day. What's your plan?" He pulled his gloves out of his back pocket.
"Clara was going to pick me up soon to go over to Vavoom's. I need to do payroll."
She'd be okay with her sister, and Peyton was at the bar to watch both of them. "Good deal."
"Anything exciting going on?" she asked.
"Same shit, different day." He caught Glen walking out of the garage. "I need to go."
"Okay. Ride safe."
"Always." He disconnected the call.
On the way out of the house, he winked at Clara who held a stack of papers and her purse, ready to lock the door and leave. Chuck fell into order behind the other Notus member as they rode through town to St. John's Bail Bonds. When they arrived, their motorcycles took up all the curb space on the street in front of the building.
"Tell me what we're walking into," said Wayne joining Chuck on the sidewalk. "Is she going to be intimidated and it'll take us all day to get the basics out of her?"
Chuck took off his gloves. "Her fear for her sister's life will outweigh her fear of us."
Wayne inhaled deeply. "Let's get this meeting going."
Instead of knocking, he called first. Within a minute, Erikka opened the front door to Notus and stepped aside to let them inside. Chuck waited until his MC brothers were in and stopped beside Erikka, holding the door open. She leaned closer, and he couldn't help noticing the swollen eyes and sadness radiating out of her.
"Did you get any sleep last night?" he asked.
"Some." She squeezed his wrist and whispered, "Thank you so much for talking them into coming."
"We're ready to jump on this." He lifted his chin, motioning her toward the club members. "Start from the beginning and give us as many details as you can, and we'll move forward."
"Okay," she mouthed. "Will you help me if I mess up? I don't want to make a mistake."
He slipped his hand into hers and guided her across the room. After introducing her to everyone, he gave her a squeeze. "Tell us your sister's name and the time and place you last seen her."
She let go of him and clasped her hands in front of her. "My sister's name is Rachel Ann Levenson. She's thirty-seven years old. On Wednesday, at ten o'clock in the morning, Tony Stoddard, a client of ours, came into the office for a pre-arranged ride to the St. John's courthouse for his sentencing. They left in my sister's car at five minutes after ten. I expected Rachel to be back at the office at eleven thirty. At noon, I called her cell phone, and her voice message came on. I've called so many times, her voicemail is full. I've tried finding Stoddard and even went to his mother's house and a friend's house, two people he had as references when we bonded him. Neither one has seen him and swears it is unlike him to disappear. Though I will say that I've been in this business a long time, and family members and friends will hide the location of the client if he runs ninety percent of the time."
Chuck finished typing in the information on his phone. As soon as he could, he'd do background checks on Rachel and Stoddard.
"What were Stoddard's charges?" asked Wayne.
Erikka stepped over to her desk and picked up a piece of paper. "Stealing money."
Wayne passed the paper to Glen. "Where at?"
Erikka sat down behind her desk. "He was arrested at Northern Chinook Springs at a blackjack table. He'd been employed there for four years as a dealer. During his arraignment, he pleaded not guilty."
"This is Stoddard's first arrest?" Glen looked up from the paper, and when he received the verbal confirmation from Erikka, he said, "Go home or go big. He jumped right into a business that takes money seriously."
"It's his lack of criminal backgrou
nd that put him at low risk for running. I've dealt with criminals before, and I always feel them out. He gave me nothing to think he would run and take my sister." Erikka exhaled loudly. "His situation gets bigger."
"In what way?" Thad stepped closer to the desk and looked at Chuck, making sure he was paying attention.
"Since Wednesday, my sister's house was broken into and ransacked. Far as I can tell, nothing was taken." She adjusted her computer monitor to face the Notus members and moved the mouse to change the screen. "I believe these two men are responsible for the break-in. They also broke in here and tossed everything around."
Chuck moved forward and planted his hand on the corner of the desk to get a closer look. Two men, average height and weight, walked back and forth in front of the camera, paused and looked up at the camera. Both men were clean-shaven, white, brown hair, and non-descript, except for the suits they were wearing.
"Businessmen?" asked Chuck.
"More like bruisers for someone higher and more powerful." Erikka sat back in the chair. "The first time they visited, they strolled right inside, coming through the back door, and proceeded to lock the front door and demand that I bring Stoddard to them. That happened the day my sister went missing. That night, they broke inside the building and tossed things around. For some reason, they were able to dismantle the security camera I have inside the office. When I checked, the recording was black for ten hours straight. That picture you're looking at now is when I started locking the back door during the day, and they couldn't get inside. It was taken two days after Rachel went missing."
Chuck straightened. She'd failed to tell him the men entered the business and frightened her when they'd talked last night. "Did they hurt you?"
She shook her head. "No, only scared me because it was the first evidence that my belief that Stoddard kidnapped my sister was real. It only took one time for me to take precautions to make sure nobody gets inside the building during the hours I'm open."
"The pistol," muttered Chuck.
Erikka raised her brows. "I have a concealed weapons permit."
"Does your sister?" he asked.
"Yes, our dad required it. She would have a three-eighty in her purse."
Thad grunted from the other side of the room. "A weapon doesn't guarantee safety. It can work against her."
"We both know that and are responsible," said Erikka.
Every situation, no matter how prepared, could backfire. Chuck studied Erikka, trying to understand where her thoughts were going. He wanted her to focus on the positive and not the negative.
"Can we get a copy of the recording?" asked Wayne.
Erikka opened her drawer and slid a flash drive across the desk. "Both visits are on there. The one where they threatened me and the one you're looking at now."
Glen whistled low and looked at Chuck. "Piece of cake?"
"Maybe." All Notus research fell on his shoulders. He had ins with every agency, the police department, and had ways of gaining information, mainly because women loved him and would do him favors. He wasn't bragging. It was his job within the club.
"I've already researched to try and get an I.D. on them, but you're free to try. I've also included several pictures of my sister and all her details for you on the file marked with her name on the flash drive."
Wayne tossed the drive to him. Chuck asked, "Do you have a plug into the P.D.'s facial recognition software?"
"No," said Erikka, tilting her head in curiosity.
"I'll get on this as soon as we're done here." Chuck slipped the flash drive into his pocket and looked at his MC brothers. "Erikka is staying upstairs. She's got the bedroom blackened out, so nobody knows she's staying in the apartment."
"You have a home?" asked Thad.
"Yes. Several houses down from where my sister has a house over on Seventh Street in the Kenworth Subdivision." She lifted her hand. "I can't see Rachel's house from mine, or I'd take my chances and stay at home, but I don't have security cameras there. I figured it was better to stay here in case something happens, it would be recorded."
Thad looked at him and then Glen. Chuck shrugged. That was their neighborhood, seeing as how they all lived in the Kenworth Subdivision.
"They could take out the cameras or steal your receiver. It's not foolproof," muttered Chuck.
Erikka's mouth tightened. "No, nothing is guaranteed, but it's the only option I have."
Chuck glanced at Thad. One of them had to live close enough to Erikka that they could get her home and protect her. The upstairs in the building had an old twin bed among filing cabinets and boxes. It wasn't a place where she could stretch out and relax.
"What's your house number?" asked Chuck.
She frowned. "Seven-fourteen. Why?"
He looked at Thad who shook his head, and then Glen, who shrugged. "What's your sister's house number?"
"Rachel's is seven-zero-three," said Erikka.
Wayne cleared his throat and looked at Chuck. "Where are you going with this?"
Chuck stepped away from the desk and sat in an empty chair. "Rachel lives between Glen and Thad. Erikka's house is around the corner from them and not in sight. I think she should stay at her sister's place, putting her between two Notus members, they can keep an eye on her. Or, she can stay with me. Hiding upstairs here isn't safe or comfortable."
"No." Erikka stood. "I'll stay here."
"You wanted Notus's help. You'll cooperate with the plans on how it's best to take care of you while we search for your sister." Chuck paused when she opened her mouth. When she sat back without saying anything, he continued. "We can escort you over to my house."
"No," she said, closing her eyes an extra beat.
"Why not?"
"Because I need to be here. There's a landline here. Rachel knows I always have my cell on me, but if for some reason she can't get ahold of me she'll know to call here at Bail Bonds."
Chuck's gut tightened. Usually, women would do as he asked, but Erikka wasn't going to budge, and he couldn't help but admire her commitment to family. Even if he disagreed about her putting herself in danger.
"We'll work out a schedule and see that one of us is near at night in case trouble comes knocking." Wayne stood. "One last thing. What kind of woman is your sister?"
"What do you mean?" Erikka moistened her lips.
"Is she a fighter or does she tend to be submissive around men? I want to know what you think she's doing right now if someone is holding her against her will." Wayne scratched the side of his head, unconsciously pulling strands of hair out of his ponytail.
"I think..." Erikka blew out her breath and cleared her throat. "I want to believe she'd fight, but she'll be scared, and if faced with someone who terrifies her, she'll do what she's told."
Erikka ignored the tear that made it past her lashes. Chuck stepped around the desk and wanted to soften her experience with Notus. "I'm going to take off and see if I can find some names to put to the men you've got on camera. Before I go, do you believe it was only Stoddard who was arrested for stealing or was it a wide sweep done by the casino?"
"I'm sorry. I don't know the answer. I assumed it was only him." She looked up at him. "Is that going to make it harder to find Rachel?"
The panic in her voice spoke volumes. Going through the details of her sister missing on top of the threatening situations she'd found herself in and the lack of answers and help took their toll on her.
"No, I can find out." He leaned closer. "Are you okay, sweetheart."
She tilted toward him before she stiffened her back. "I will be once my sister is home safe."
"We're going to leave, talk through everything, and get started." He tilted his head, keeping eye contact with her. "Can I see your cell phone?"
She leaned over and picked her phone off the desk, handing it over to him. He put Wayne, Glen, and Thad's phone numbers in her contacts knowing his cell number was already on the phone from when he'd called her, he made sure it was saved under his name.
He handed her phone back. "You call me if you hear or see something, or you just want me."
She lifted her brows, and he caught the slight acknowledgment that he wanted to be a part of making sure she survived the time between search and rescue. He would do whatever necessary to bring her sister home.
Wayne knocked on the edge of the desk. "Considering you spoke with Lieutenant Gomez, you understand that we often work with St. John's Police Department on missing person cases if the family is open to more help on the ground. I want to be upfront with you that there could be times we're called away because another woman or child needs us, but I promise that at least one of us will keep working with you to find your sister."
Erikka leaned in Chuck's direction until their arms touched. "If that happens, can it be Chuck who stays working with me?"
Wayne dipped his chin in affirmative, motioned to the others, and walked out of the building. The last one to take off, Chuck barely had his gloves in his hand when Erikka hugged his waist.
"Thank you so much." She stepped back and dropped her arms to her sides.
All through the meeting, Erikka had been rational, factional, and smart going over the leads to find her sister, but it was the way she was willing to throw it all away for her sister that impressed Chuck.
Her eyes welled up with tears. His chest tightened. He'd always been a sucker for a woman in trouble. Alone with her, he wanted to reassure her, but there was nothing to say. Her sister was missing, and at the moment, he had nothing to give her, except himself.
Chapter 5
A soft thunk came from downstairs at Bail Bonds. Erikka froze hunkered down over the open drawer of the filing cabinet. It was Monday, a holiday, Bail Bonds was locked up tight. The bakery next door was also closed.
After several seconds and no noise coming from below her on the first floor of the building, she decided her paranoia had caught up with her. Pulling out the file she'd been looking for, she straightened. Her dad had kept all records on every client that he'd bonded out of jail throughout the years. She hoped there would be a picture of the men who broke in and threatened her, and she'd be able to get their names.
