Hovered over Erikka on the bed, Chuck licked his lips, tasting her on his tongue. Her eyes remain half-mast from coming.

The two of them were vastly different. She lived for the day, hoping for any sign her sister was still alive. He looked forward to tomorrow, wondering when would be the next time she touched him, looked at him, trusted him.

Last night when Erikka had asked to speak to Gracie alone, he'd grown frustrated. He wanted her to trust him that he wasn't seeing anyone else. He hadn't since the first time he'd met her. Hell, he hadn't thought of another woman then, much less had a fucking itch that needed scratched.

There were at least twenty reasons why starting a relationship with Erikka at this time was a bad idea. None of them mattered. He wanted her. He couldn't walk away now that he had her. She was beautiful, sexy, and needed him.

He slid his hands underneath her plump ass and brought her further down on the bed. Standing on the floor, he grabbed another condom from atop the rumpled blankets and covered himself.

Erikka scooted down more until her lower legs hung off the edge of the mattress. He reached down and lifted her leg, hooking her calf on his shoulder, and then the other leg. Two years ago, he'd bought a king size bed and put it on a pedestal. Women had a hard time climbing onto the bed, but the extra height was perfect for him. For this. For fucking.

Knowing her sweet little folds were open, wet, and pliable, he plunged into her pussy doing his best to keep his breath even and not lose control. Something he found difficult when he was with Erikka. Everything about her made him want to come.

The soft, needy sounds she made.

The way her curious hands fluttered when she spoke.

The way she became aggressive, using her nails, teeth, and strength when she was about to orgasm.

He locked eyes with her and pumped slowly in and out. It was during sex, he received her trust. It was blatantly clear in the way she watched him. Not in fear, but in wonder.

His plan to go slow slipped when the back of her head tilted into the mattress, and a soft moan spurred him on.

The walls of her pussy clenched and spasmed around him. He ground into her at the same time Erikka reached down her body, between her legs, and scratched his stomach trying to grab him. His spine stiffened. His pelvis tilted, and he came up on his toes and spilled his come, holding her legs to his chest.

For the first time in his life, he knew exactly what he wanted and where he belonged.

He closed his eyes an extra beat as the last bit of pleasure rippled through him and filled the condom, filled her, filled them both.

Her body shuddered and relaxed. He kissed the inside of her calf and lowered her legs. She flopped her arms on the bed, totally spent. A sense of pride washed over him, and he grinned.

"Pleased with yourself, much?" She curled onto her side, drawing her knees up to her chest. "You wore me out."

"It's Saturday. Stay naked and rest all day if you want." He removed the condom, dropped it in the wastebasket, and used yesterday's shirt he found on the floor to clean himself. "I've got some frozen waffles downstairs I'll pop in the toaster for us. You want to eat now or take a nap first?"

She sat up in bed. "Later, but I'm going to get up."

He looked over his shoulder at her and buttoned his jeans. "Why?"

"I want to be with you." She hurried out of the room and down the hall toward the bathroom.

He finished getting dressed and shrugged his Notus vest on, putting the pistol he always wore, except when he was working at Port Loaders, into the holster strapped to his shoulder. He slid his wallet into his back pocket and picked up his phone.

Damn. It was almost noon.

Music blared. He whirled around looking for the source and spotted a flashing red light on the screen of Erikka's phone as she ran into the room and dove for the nightstand, falling to her knees and bumping her shoulder against the bed.

She swiped the screen. "Rachel?" she said, her voice high pitched and frantic. "Rachel?"

He made it to her in three steps and squatted down beside her. If that was her sister, they'd received the biggest clue yet on how to locate her. Erikka needed to keep her on the line as long as she could, and he could get Gomez to contact the cell service to ping a location.

"Rachel? Answer me." She looked up at Chuck. "She's not saying anything."

He put his hand over hers holding the phone and took it away from her ear. "The call has been disconnected."

"It was her." Erikka came up onto her knees. "It was her ringtone. Walk on Water by Eddie Money. It's her favorite song, and she programmed it in my phone herself. It was really her. She's alive, Chuck. My sister is alive."

He extracted the phone from her hand being careful not to touch any buttons. "I'll see if Gomez can run the call through the cell service."

"She has Verizon. We both do," she said, getting to her feet and pacing. "Oh, Lord. She's alive. Where is she? How did she call me? It was her phone. I know it was. It had to be. That song wouldn't go off for no reason. It was Rachel."

He hooked the back of her neck to calm her down. Getting her hopes up wouldn't help her until they had any answers. Anyone could have her phone and be pushing buttons. For all they knew, some homeless person dug it out of a trash can somewhere.

"That's what happened, right?" She grasped Chuck's vest. "She called, but she couldn't say anything, but she called me. She knew to call me."

Hysteria gripped Erikka as she answered her own questions. He viewed the struggle as she pushed the added fears the phone call brought with it away and desperately clung to the positive.

"Get dressed." He called Gomez on his phone. "Soon, we're going to have a house full of people.

Exactly eighteen minutes later, Wayne, Glen, Lieutenant Gomez, and Detective Harrison stood around his cardboard table. Each of them had a phone to their ear. He stood behind Erikka seated at the table and put his hands on her shoulders as she looked from one person to the other trying to keep up with all the conversations taking place.

Wayne planted his hand in the middle of the small table and leaned over. "Galeeno has a lead he put at the bottom of the list as the most insignificant. Considering the recent attempt at a phone call, he's changed his mind and will be driving back to the other side of the coast."

"Have him nail down a time. Tell him if he doesn't call when we expect, we'll send someone else in." Chuck squeezed Erikka's shoulders. Wayne understood the threat. Notus had nobody else to hire who could travel out of the country at a moment's notice, but there was no need for Galeeno to know that.

Erikka reached up and put her hand atop his. "What about tracing her phone?"

"I'm on that now." Lieutenant Gomez walked around the table. "I called our specialist. He's going to meet me at the station."

"Will he be able to find out where she is?" Erikka's body trembled.

"Because it's a cell phone, he hopes to find out which tower it pinged off of. I'm not sure how close that will get us to her, but it's the best lead we've got." Gomez checked his watch. "I'll call as soon as I hear anything."

Chuck kissed Erikka on the temple. "Sit tight. I'm going to walk out with him."

He followed Gomez to the porch of the house, shutting the door behind him. "How will this play out?"

Gomez grimaced. "We're working with international laws. Honestly, I didn't ask how hard it would be to work with a foreign telecommunication system if the phone ends up being in Cabo. We could find out it's a dead end."

"Yeah, I figured," he said. "I want to know if you do get answers and she's out of the country, what happens?"

"Detective Harrison will be the one who works with law enforcement in Cabo. I can't even give you a guess how this will play out. It will help if we are in communication with Galeeno. He can be our middleman and having someone there in person to put pressure on them will help. Time is always the problem. They're not going to take a United States crime seriously when they've got their own workload."

"Call us first." Chuck held up his hand when Gomez opened his mouth. "Like you said, Detective Harrison will be dealing with Cabo police. You can call us. Give Erikka something to hold on to."

"It's a criminal case. You want Stoddard as much as I do." Gomez looked away. "But, I'll do my best to keep you updated."

Chuck stood out on the porch while the lieutenant drove away. With every missing person case, the unanswered questions left him looking outside the box. Rarely was it a cut and dry situation.

Why would Rachel call now instead of the day she was abducted or any time in-between? It could be as simple as it was her first chance to call without putting herself in jeopardy or she somehow was in more danger. He had no way of knowing.

He walked back into the house, not wanting to leave Erikka for too long. Maybe something would be asked or talked about that would clue him in on how Stoddard could've got her out of the country without Rachel alerting someone to the abduction. Most people don't carry their passport on them. It's kept at home in a safe or filing cabinet. Stoddard would've had to have retrieved it from Rachel's home. But, Erikka believed Markham ransacked her sister's house and considering Markham had his men break the windows out of Bail Bonds, there were three different parties with different motives.

He stood behind Erikka, and she reached for his hand. Someone wasn't telling the truth.