The air horn blared, ending the day at Port Loaders. Chuck jogged off the ship to the parking lot. He'd already informed the other Notus members to meet him at his house after work. Markham, who had the balls to come down to the dock during his lunch break, had put more pressure on him to hand over Stoddard to him.

He would've shot the son of a bitch if not for the fifty other employees watching the meeting.

He started his Harley and roared down the road. After a quick check in with Galeeno, Gomez, and Erikka, he planned to go pay a visit to the casino and teach Markham the rules of the game.

Stuck behind the heavy flow of traffic on Lombard Street, he heard the approach of the other riders catching up to him before they appeared in his side-view mirror. Checking the road ahead, he passed right through traffic and weaved by the cars parked along the curb, leading Notus members to his house.

Making a big sweep in front of his driveway, he backed the motorcycle up to the garage and parked for a quick exit. He got off the bike with his belongings and unlocked the house, walking inside and leaving the door open for the others. Erikka sat on the couch, her legs curled under her.

Tossing his helmet and gloves to the floor, he opened the duffle and took out his club vest. He shoved his arms in while studying Erikka. All the way home, he'd imagined her jumping up to ask him if he'd heard anything yet. Instead, she only watched him without saying a word.

The others stepped inside and closed the door. He walked over and sat by Erikka, patting her knee. "Okay?"

"Yeah," she said in monotone.

"Good." He looked around the room before directing the next bit of information to her. "Lieutenant Gomez spoke to me about a half hour ago. Galeeno has checked in with the authorities there. They have an APB out on Stoddard. By now, Galeeno should be making contact with others putting out feelers to try and find Stoddard and Rachel on his own. Depending on how easily he finds leads, we could hear something at any time or —"

"It could be weeks," she mumbled.

He nodded once.

"I think it would be best for me to go home," she said.

"Bail Bonds is boarded up. The glass windows and door in the front of the building were busted. The contents on the main floor were scattered." He leaned closer. "Gomez spoke to you about the break-in?"

"Yes, but I want to go back to my house." She sat straighter and slid her feet into her shoes. "There are things I need to do pertaining to the business before this is over with and I need to be somewhere that I'm comfortable."

"Erikka—"

"Thanks for letting me stay here. You've gone above and beyond what I hired you to do, and I appreciate it." She stood and walked across the room and stuck her fucking hand out in front of Wayne, completely ignoring Chuck. "Thank you."

She held both hands in front of her and covered her heart. "Thank you all."

Without a second look at Chuck, she walked over to the door, picked up her bag she'd used the other night to bring her clothes with her, and walked out his front door. The latch clicked softly behind her.

"Hell," he mumbled, standing. "I'm going after her."

"Let her go." Wayne opened the blinds in the front window. "We rode by her house on the way over, and nobody was there. She'll be safe while we talk."

He wanted her at the house until he could put a stop to Markham going after Stoddard through Erikka. "I want to get her settled and go after Teegan Markham."

"What can you do?" Glen removed a piece of gum from a pack and placed the piece in his mouth. "Security at the casino is tight. You can't walk in and blow his brains out."

"I can put him out of commission for a few days and let her fucking breathe easier," he said, rubbing his shaved head. "I can't fucking believe that son of a bitch showed up at work, threatening Erikka if I didn't work with him."

"Are you taking responsibility for her?" asked Thad.

"We're all responsible for her. She hired us." He shook his head. "Fuck, I'd like a beer."

Wayne chuckled.

Glen covered his mouth, hiding his grin. Thad turned away from Chuck, his shoulders shaking with laughter. The amusement he heard coming from his president and lifelong friends irritated him. "What the fuck is so funny?" he asked.

Wayne tucked his hands under his armpits and leaned against the wall closest to the window. Turning from looking outside, he said, "She's out of sight. Give her five minutes and then give her a call on her phone to make sure she arrived safely and remind her to lock her door."

He already knew how to treat a lady. "Are you going to answer my question? What's so funny?"

"Bro, haven't you noticed that anytime one of us brings a woman into our home to protect her, the woman stays. Mine's giving me a baby," said Thad.

His upper lip curled. "Bull shit. That's not what is happening with Erikka."

"Bull true," said Glen.

Chuck shook his head. "I have women over here all the time. I don't keep them. Erikka needed help. She hired us."

"Clara and Gracie needed my help," said Wayne.

Glen's upper lip twitched. "Ingrid needed more than my help. She needed a home."

Thad sat down on the couch. "Lena's having my—"

"Jesus Christ. You don't think we can see Lena's pregnant, man." Chuck snortled, unsure why everyone looked at him like he was the crazy one. He wasn't the one tied down or dealing with twin sisters or ready to become a father.

"All we're saying is taking the responsibility of a missing person's case on and bringing them into our lives is different than a random fuck for a good time," said Wayne. "You're feeling something toward Erikka."

Erikka. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called her. Everyone was fucked up. He was working. Just because he was attracted to a woman who had stayed with him didn't mean he was going to check himself out of the single's life.

"Hey, everything okay at the house?" He turned his back to the others in the room, wishing he was alone and could ask her what the hell was going on. Now was not the time for her to retreat into herself. She needed people around her who would support her. With Markham breathing down his neck, she needed protection.

"It's cold in the house," she said.

"Turn on the heater."

"It's summer. It shouldn't be cold."

He lowered his chin to his chest. "Sweetheart..."

"Don't."

He walked into the kitchen, needing to be closer to her. "What's going on?"

"Gracie, and who knows how many other women you call sweetheart is what's going on," she said quietly. "I don't like how I'm feeling when I have to witness you saying it to other women. There shouldn't be any reason why it bothers me, considering I hired you and you've been more than gracious on helping me. So, the best thing I can do is stay at the house and concentrate on Rachel. That's what I'm supposed to be doing and I can't when my feelings are all over the place. I'm not in a good place emotionally to figure everything out that's going on in my head at the moment. My sister is the one who needs me."

He called Gracie sweetheart, and that's why Erikka got upset? He closed his eyes briefly. "It's just a name."

"Not when men use it on more than one woman," she said.

Sure, calling women sweetheart happened in his life. It was easier than remembering their names. None of the other women cared. Most even liked it, especially when he called them that in bed.

"Then, I won't call you sweetheart." He looked behind him, making sure his MC brothers were still in the other room. "I'm going to come over to your house."

"Not now." She paused. "You can stop by later tonight before it gets dark."

He gritted his teeth. "You'll call if you need me?"

"Yeah."

"Okay." He exhaled. "Lock your doors."

"Already did," she said. "I'll see you later."

She disconnected the call. He put the phone in his pocket and rubbed his hands over his face before joining the others.

In the living room, he interrupted their conversation. "I want a way to stop Markham from contacting and ruining Erikka's life. He's already thrashed her sister's house, and now he's put her business on hold by busting out the front of the building. The cops couldn't tell if anything was missing from the inside, and understandably, Erikka refused to deal with the mess right now."

Wayne squatted and braced his elbows on his knees. "The problem with us going after Markham is it steps over into a Notus MC problem. We can protect Erikka, give her round the clock care and bring in someone else while we're working during the week to make sure she's protected. But, the second you step onto the casino property with anything more than a threat toward Markham to stay away from her, he'll take it as a sign of a personal attack. He'll come after Notus and frankly, we don't have time to deal with him. We're running two ways to Sunday on two cases."

He understood what Wayne was saying. Any other time, he'd agree. He was frustrated.

"Speaking of one of the directions we're going. Have you had time to find out anything about Brad Moore?" Thad picked up the throw pillow on the couch and shoved it behind his back. "It could be days until Galeeno gets any sort of positive sign of Rachel. We could finish up the Moore case in the meantime and lighten our load. With Lena home baking cookies, cleaning, and hanging baby clothes all day long, my mom swears she's going to go into labor by this weekend."

"Hang on." Chuck left the room, took the stairs two at a time, and printed out the papers in the file he'd gathered last night and forgot to produce that morning. Returning to the living room, he passed the papers to Thad. "He's got a pattern of gas station charges from St. John's to Seaside that coincides with hotel charges on a Visa card in his name only."

"What hotel?" asked Wayne.

"The Shilo." Chuck reached into his pocket and extracted a piece of paper. "I called the hotel during the first break at work, talked to the guest service employee at the front desk, and found out Moore doesn't stay there alone. There's always a woman who checks in before him and leaves the next day after Moore checks out."

"Business-related?" asked Glen.

Chuck shook his head. "He works construction. I bet we can verify with his wife that he claims to stay out of town on projects working. What's he's doing at the beach isn't paying him."

"Does he go on the same day every week?" Wayne straightened from the crouched position.

"No. Over the last several months, he goes on a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday pattern. Last Thursday he went missing." Chuck passed the paper with the hotel's number on it to Thad. "It'd take us half a day to find him, talk, and see if he'll go back to his wife on his own or at least have information on his location for his wife if he refuses to return."

"I'm not leaving that long with Lena due," said Thad.

"I know, it's bad fucking timing." Chuck blew out his breath. "I'd like to stay here for Erikka."

"Glen and I'll go after work tomorrow. We'd arrive around six o'clock and probably wait them out at the hotel why they're out enjoying dinner. If everything checks out, we can sign off on the case, set both parties right, and be back before midnight." Wayne picked up the papers on the coffee table, rolled and stuffed them under his vest. "I'm going to head over to Vavoom's Bar."

"I'll go with you and catch Ingrid after she gets off work at Pauly's," said Glen.

"Hey, can one of you bring me some food. Enough for Erikka, too. She needs to eat. I'll take dinner over to her. I doubt if she has anything still eatable at her house." Chuck pushed himself off the couch and walked over to the window after Glen agreed to come back with food.

One after another, the Notus members left the house. Chuck continued standing in the window watching the traffic flow knowing whoever was driving the cars, the trucks, were also turning the corner and going by Erikka's place.

Over the phone, she'd admitted to being confused. Guilt pressed down on him. She deserved more from him as she battled her fears surrounding her sister missing. He inhaled deeply. She'd left his house because she hated him calling other women sweetheart.

That was a lot of pressure on him. He was who he was, and wasn't going to change. But, damn, if he wasn't attracted to her and the thought of not having a chance to see what it'd be like between them because of his lifestyle sat wrong with him.