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.

"Lieutenant Gomez hasn't called you back?" She put her feet on the wooden deck.

"No." He reached over and scooped her hand up in his, offering support. "We probably won't hear anything until tomorrow. Same goes for Galeeno."

"The wait is the hardest part," she said softly, holding onto his hand.

"You don't have to wait alone." He raised her hand and kissed her knuckles.

The comfort he gave her was not given to every client or the family members of the police cases Notus helped out on. He understood it wasn't fair to take advantage of her. She wasn't thinking about herself or him. All her focus was on Rachel.

Dusk turned to darkness. The crickets sang. He'd always enjoyed the night. It was one of the reasons why he preferred a woman's company in the evenings. Ladies lost their inhibitions under the mask of darkness.

He looked over at Erikka and found her eyes closed. "You need to go to bed."

"I'm only resting my eyes." She peeked out from between her lashes. "They burn."

"Because you haven't slept." He tugged her hand and stood her up. "Go inside and go to bed. No arguing, just lay there if that's all you can do."

He followed her inside, locked up the house, and went up to his office alone. Not bothering to turn on the light, he sat at the computer and turned on the screen. Thinking about Erikka's situation thrust him into dwelling on Rich. Life was fucking short, and he'd lost precious time with someone who was closer than family.

There was no way to make up twenty-five years to someone or take the years of pain away from his Notus brothers.

Forcing himself to concentrate on the work ahead of him, he transferred Moore's record to a new file. Tomorrow morning, he'd print out the sheets when he knew the printer wouldn't wake up Erikka.

He stretched his back. The odds were pointing to a man who'd probably skipped out with another woman, and when they found proof and told the wife, Notus would break her heart.

That wasn't their motive.

They'd find the guy, threaten him enough to scare him straight, and he'd go back to his family with the urge to cheat out of his system. For a while. Men like Brad Moore never stayed monogamous for long.

A soft knock behind him grabbed his attention. He whirled around on the chair and found Erikka standing in a long nightdress. His gaze fell to her hips, outlined by the hallway light behind her.

"I just wanted to tell you it's silly for you to sleep on the couch. You're too big." She folded her arms, taking away his peep show.

He inhaled deeply, stretched his legs out, and hooked his hands behind his head. "It's the only other place to lay my head, sweetheart. I'll do fine."

Her head tilted. "You have a king size bed. We can share. It's the least I can do after all the work you're doing for me."

While the thought of spending another night on the couch had no appeal to him, he also understood he'd have a sleepless night being in the same bed as Erikka. He wanted her, and he wasn't in the habit of being in the same bed with a woman without sex being involved. Hell, he couldn't remember a time where that had ever happened.

"Please," she said. "It'd make me feel better knowing you could get a good night's rest before tomorrow."

"Okay." He cleared his throat. "Go jump back in bed. I need to take a shower, and then I'll be in."

She turned and walked out of sight. He let his head fall back and closed his eyes. All that sweetness wrapped into a body with curves to soften his load, and he couldn't do a damn thing with her.

Life had a hell of a way of showing him what he wanted and keeping it from him.