by Debra Kayn
Her throat closed and a foreign sound came out of her mouth. As soon as it dawned on her that she was crying, she found herself wrapped in Chuck's arms and him bringing her face to his neck. Awkward sitting on the couch, she could only lean against him and hold on. His strong arms sheltered her, and the comfort overwhelmed her. She closed her eyes and silently let the fear of the unknown out.
"You're fine, sweetheart," whispered Chuck. "We'll get your sister home and keep you safe."
She nodded, rubbing her face against his broad shoulder. "I'm sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry about." He kissed the side of her head.
She squeezed him, thankful for the comfort. Subconsciously, she wondered if his attention to her stress load came with the job she'd hired him to do or if he gave every person or family missing a loved one the comfort he was giving her. Maybe he was the client whisperer.
Pulling her head off his shoulder, she sniffed and wiped underneath her eyes, gaining control of her emotions. The next twenty-four hours were going to wear on her while she played the waiting game from a different country than her sister.
"Lieutenant Gomez will be back in ten minutes," said Thad.
She looked at Chuck. "Is there a bathroom I can use?"
He pointed her in Clara's direction, and Wayne's woman led her down the hallway. She paused at the door. "Thank you."
"Hey, it's no problem." Clara spontaneously reached out and gave her a hug. "We're all thinking about your sister. Notus will do everything in their power to bring her home to you."
She inhaled swiftly. "I know."
Alone inside the bathroom, she washed her face and dried her cheeks off with the towel. Closing her eyes, she inhaled and exhaled a few times trying to slow her heartbeat. The pressure in her chest suffocated her when she heard the news. Why would Stoddard take Rachel out of the country? Because he was guilty and trying to escape prison time?
She exhaled heavily and opened her eyes. The reason would escape her until she got Rachel home and Stoddard behind bars. She'd make him pay for what he'd done.
Erikka walked out of the bathroom, retracing her steps. She had to do what Chuck advised. And, she could move forward with him by her side. She could do this.
Inside the living room, she stopped. Lieutenant Gomez stood in the middle of the room talking with Wayne. Erikka glanced around looking for Chuck and found him gone. She backed up and looked into the kitchen, finding him. Her head pounded in shock.
No.
Impossible.
He wouldn't.
But, he was.
Disappointment filled her.
Chuck kissed Clara's forehead with such tenderness, there was no denying the attraction and feelings shared between them.
A hand touched Erikka's back. She startled and turned around, not wanting to be caught spying on something that could or couldn't be a huge secret in the Notus Motorcycle Club, and stumbled back at coming face to face with... Clara?
"Whoa. Careful." Clara grabbed Erikka's arms. "Why don't you have a brownie and get something in your stomach while you talk with the lieutenant. You don't want to pass out, and sometimes sugar helps you feel better."
She glanced behind her at Clara. Looked in front of her at Clara. She was seeing two Clara's.
Shit.
She was going crazy.
"Please, do." The other Clara stood beside her holding a tray of brownies. "Chuck's already had two, so there's a good chance that if you don't grab one now, he'll eat them all before the night is through."
"I..." She swung her gaze over to Chuck. He studied her frowning. "There are two of you."
The one with the brownies smiled. "I’m Gracie. Clara's twin sister."
"You wore a white T-shirt." Clara tugged on the sleeve of her sister's top. "We usually try and dress differently to make it easier for others to tell us apart, but some days it happens—like today, and we both wear white tops and blue jeans."
"I can fix it, so you can tell us apart." Gracie held out the tray. "Take a brownie first."
Erikka took one because she was still trying to wrap her head around Chuck hugging and kissing Clara. No, her sister, Gracie. It no longer mattered who. Chuck kissed someone after he'd comforted her and kissed her head, and she felt sick.
He gave affection freely to everyone, not only her. For some reason, she couldn't handle the disappointment on top of the stress overhearing the new information about Rachel.
Gracie set down the tray and pulled a rubber band out of her pocket, sweeping her hair up and binding it in a messy bun. "There. Clara's hair is down. Mine's up."
Chuck stepped over to Gracie and kissed her cheek. "Thanks again for the brownies, sweetheart."
Sweetheart?
Erikka shoved the brownie in her mouth and walked into the living room leaving Chuck and his women behind. He'd called her sweetheart, too.
His endearment usage when speaking to all women made her feel generic. Just another woman with a missing family member.
Lieutenant Gomez approached her while she still thought of Chuck and guided her outside. Thankful for the break away from the others, she leaned against the house.
"Wayne's filled me in on the situation." Lieutenant Gomez held his notepad in his hands. "I wish you would've come to me when you asked about a reference, and I pushed you toward Notus Motorcycle club. I had no idea it was for you or that Rachel was missing."
She and Rachel had worked with Lieutenant Gomez in the past. Half their time was spent in the courthouse and at the police department. They all worked with criminals.
"Notus found out Rachel is out of the United States and in Cabo San Lucas." She shook her head, still reeling from her sister being so far away. "What do you need from me to get started on finding her and bringing her back?"
"Did she have a passport?"
She nodded. "We both got one about five years ago. Rachel had set her sights on going to Italy, and I appeased her and got one, too. We never went."
The door opened, and Chuck came outside and stood beside her. She ignored him.
"Does she have any money with her or did she withdrawal any out of the bank before disappearing?" Lieutenant Gomez wrote on his pad.
"I can't be sure how much money she had on her or if she went to the bank. She's the only one listed on her account." She looked up at the lieutenant. "I never even thought to try and find out."
"If you're not on the account, you wouldn't be able to. We'll need to get an order from the judge. I'll get on that as soon as we're done. We can find out if she's used any credit cards, too." Lieutenant Gomez rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Stoddard has a warrant out for his arrest for not showing up at his sentencing. I'll step up the search for him—"
"He's in Cabo San Lucas," said Chuck. "Save your time and check the flight records for Rachel and you'll learn he was with her."
"Do not tell me how you came about that information." Gomez held up his hand. "Is there a positive I.D. on Stoddard?"
"No," said Chuck.
"He took her. I know that with all my heart. There was no one else with her, and she was going to the courthouse when she disappeared. Stoddard was in her car." She pushed off the side of the house and crossed her arms. The big bite of brownie set wrong on her stomach, making her feel sick.
"Where's her car?" asked Lieutenant Gomez.
She looked at Chuck. Until that moment, she hadn't thought of Rachel's car or the leads that could've come from finding the vehicle. Maybe Notus could've found Rachel faster if she'd spoken up.
"We've checked all travel stations and even called Seattle airport in case she ran away. Her car isn't there," said Chuck.
Erikka stared at him. He'd done that?
"If I have more questions, and I will, I'll call you, Erikka." He put his notepad in his pocket. "I want to get my request to the judge and get moving on trying to track down the money and card usage."
"What about the person Notus knows who can go to Cabo San Lucas?" She stepped forw
ard, not wanting to forget a single step.
Lieutenant Gomez looked at Chuck and then returned his attention to Erikka. "You've hired them to work for you, and how they search will be faster than anything the department and I can do on our end, from here. We can work with law enforcement in Cabo San Lucas to have them search for your sister, but until we have proof that Stoddard took her, we need to follow the legal steps."
"We'll keep him updated on what we're doing, and he'll use the information that can be held up in a court of law." Chuck put his hand on Erikka's back and rubbed. "This is the best scenario."
"Okay," she whispered.
Once Lieutenant Gomez got in his patrol car and drove away, Erikka slapped her forehead. "I forgot to tell him about Mr. Markham."
"I think that's information best kept separate at this time. Let them concentrate on finding Rachel." Chuck tilted his head. "Are you ready to get out of here?"
She blew out her cheeks and exhaled, nodding. Time to herself to think about everything that had happened was the only way she was going to get things straight in her head. Her sister was in Cabo San Lucas. The police department was now involved in searching for her. Only Notus believed Stoddard had Rachel.
And, Chuck was romantically involved with Gracie who looked exactly like Clara.
Chapter 12
Erikka paced the length of Chuck's deck in his backyard. He finished the phone call and set his phone down on the outside glass table without taking his gaze off her. Between conversations with Galeeno, Gomez, and Clara and Gracie stopping by with food for him and Erikka, he hadn't been able to find out what was going through Erikka's head.
He pulled a cigar out of his pocket and cut off the end. Holding a lighter up, he puffed until it was lit. He blew the smoke away from Erikka.
If not for the constant movements and fidgety hands that touched everything on his deck and moved in front of her letting him know she was having a silent conversation with herself, he would believe she'd shut down because she hadn't said a word to him in the last two hours.
He rubbed the back of his neck. "Galeeno and his two sons fly out of PDX in forty-five minutes."
Erikka stopped pacing. "How long will it take for them to get to Cabo?"
"It'll take fifteen hours to land at Los Cabos International Airport." He sat down in a lawn chair. "Gomez has a phone meeting with someone in the police department in Cabo at seven o'clock in the morning to inform them of the crime and let them know Galeeno and Sons will be arriving to look."
"Why doesn't he call them now?"
"Apparently, the officer or detective he needs to speak to doesn't start until eight—seven o'clock our time. They're an hour ahead of us." He moved his head from side to side, stretching his neck muscles.
He puffed away on the cigar. It'd been a long fucking day.
He studied Erikka, trying to come up with something that would get her to relax. "Are you getting hungry yet?"
Erikka frowned. "No."
"You need to eat to keep up your strength. Gracie brought over—"
"I know what she brought over. I was standing right beside you," said Erikka, turning away from him.
He took in the rigid back and absorbed her snappish reply. "I'm just saying, you need to eat."
She shook her head. "Later, or maybe tomorrow. I need to concentrate on Rachel. There's absolutely nothing I can do here. The least I can do is keep positive and will her every bit of strength and hope I have for her."
"You are doing everything for her." In every search, there were times of desperation and frustration over what could and couldn't be done. He'd witnessed families handle the stress in different way. Some angry. Some traumatized. Some pretended it wasn't happening.
Notus dealt with their own struggles. They wanted every missing person found. When a search reached a dead-end or worse, a murder, they dealt with the results in their own way.
"If it were you who was missing, your sister would've done the exact same thing you are. That's what family does for one another. We cope, and we do everything in our power to help. If there were something we could do more and better, Notus would've done it."
"Would you have?" She crossed her arms. "You're pulled in different directions. You search, but you work a forty-hour week loading cars on a ship. You're dealing with Rachel missing, but there are other cases you help the police with. You even have time to play around with Gracie and kiss her. You can't tell me it's the same. Every second of the day and night for me is about my sister. There's not a moment where I'm not hoping she's still alive, and I know the chances are slim, but I'm doing the best I can to hold it together."
He remained impassive, hearing Erikka out. Why the hell would she bring up Gracie?
"God, I hate this." She swung her arm out, her hand fisted. "I'm going to kill Stoddard, I swear."
"You'll let the police handle Stoddard," he said softly, understanding.
"Oh, no." She violently shook her head. "The moment that asshole steps back into the United States, I'm going to kill him."
He let her vent. During the whole process, she'd taken a mature, almost business-like stance in her sister's abduction. She deserved to let her anger out.
Erikka clamped her lips and groaned, fast-tracking into gazing at him in helplessness. "What if he hurt her?"
"We don't—"
"I know the odds of her coming home alive," she snapped. "I can't think about that. She's coming home, but I need to prepare for everything. He could've hurt her. He probably did or why else would he have stolen her from her life? From my life? She's all that I have left."
He stood. She was crashing fast.
"You'll deal once you know. There's no use borrowing worries before they happen." He stepped in front of her, stopping her frantic need to escape her problems, and cupped her cheek. "I'm going to pour you a drink, and you're going to go inside and relax, clear your head."
A sound of disgust filled her throat, and she slapped his hand away. "Don't."
He held his palms in front of him. "Okay. I'm not touching you."
"If you need someone to touch, go touch Gracie," she muttered, half turning away frowning.
"What's that mean?" It was the second time she'd thrown Gracie's name at him, and he was starting to get irritated. Gracie was a woman protected by Notus. If there was a reason Erikka was pissed at Gracie, he needed to know. But, he was there when she met Gracie and Clara for the first time. Before this afternoon, they hadn't known each other.
"Nevermind." She waved her hand. "How you act around women is your problem, not mine."
What the fuck?
"I have some work I need to do on my computer. There's whiskey on the kitchen counter, maybe something a little softer there that you'd like more. Help yourself." He stubbed out his cigar and walked into the house leaving her to deal with her opinion on her own. Gracie was off limits to her. He wouldn't allow Erikka to insult her.
He walked upstairs to the spare bedroom that he had set up into his office so that the times he couldn't get over to Wayne's he could hack into the computer system and use most of the info and programs. Not all, but enough to do research on a missing husband, waiting for him to start the search on.
In the chair, he turned on the computer and brought up the screen to do a background check. Birth certificate, marriage license, social security, all known history of addresses, and employment records tracing Brad Moore's taxable income.
He stared at the screen, unable to see the information in front of him. Erikka was outside, tucked safely in his backyard, and her world was falling apart. Everything she believed in, depended on, and needed in life was lost to her.
"Fuck," he muttered, standing and walking out of the room.
He returned to the deck and found Erikka sitting in a chair, her knees bent, and her feet perched on the edge of the seat. His chest tightened. If Notus made one mistake, it could be too late to save Rachel.
He wanted to protect her from more hurt.
Caught up in her thoughts, Erikka wasn't aware of him outside. He walked up behind her chair and put his hands on her shoulders. She stiffened, but when she remained silent, neither pulling away or telling him to stop, he massaged the tense muscles riddling her upper body.
He admired her. Having lived through a similar experience when they'd all lost Thalia, Thad's sister, almost twenty-five years ago, he'd gone past the point of redemption. He'd taken her abduction and murder as something personal. He'd hurt everyone with the way he'd lashed out.
Most of all, he'd forced Rich away from Notus Motorcycle Club. He swallowed hard. He had no idea if Rich was still alive or dead and every day he never gave up looking for any sign that his MC brother was out there, so that he could bring him home.
Chuck removed his hands from Erikka's shoulder and framed her head, tilting her face up. He leaned down, kissed her forehead, and whispered, "I promise, we won't stop searching for your sister until we can bring her home to you."
He couldn't promise her that Rachel would be alive.
He couldn't promise her that the damage of being abducted wouldn't alter her sister for the rest of her life if she were alive.
He was promising to bring her sister home. No matter how long it took. In whatever condition.
"I'm sorry for getting angry," she said.
He put his hands on her shoulders again and rubbed. From working for her, he understood her father passed away not long ago, and she felt responsible for her older sister. Her choice of professions made her tough. Not only strong in the face of danger working with criminals, but she had a deeper understanding of the type of criminal they were hunting down.
"You can get angry." He stepped over and sat down in the lawn chair beside her. "You're dealing with something most people can't even imagine."
He looked out at the yard, feeling the heat of her studying him. She was a beautiful woman, and he found it hard to not notice her when he was either looking, touching, talking with her.
It was selfish of him to allow his attraction to take up space in his head, much less feel something for her. But it was hard not to admire her strength and resolve.
