Not wanting to give the information he had to Erikka until the rest of the Notus members arrived, he stalled by getting her a glass of water and handing it to her. Before he sat back down on the couch, the rumble of the motorcycles arriving permeated the walls of the house. He walked across the room and opened the door, then returned to Erikka's side.

"I'll need you to hear us out." He rubbed her back, looking at her to try and get his thoughts in some sort of order again.

She remained perched on the edge of the cushion. Pent-up energy had left her restless since he'd brought her to his house. She worked her hands in worry, and her legs jumped. He could feel her body tremble underneath his palm.

From the moment he'd met her, he'd taken too big of an interest in her. He was one-hundred percent behind finding Rachel. For her.

But, something pulled him toward her. Whether it was seeing an obviously strong woman needing help or the way she leaned on him, he couldn't be sure, but something was there between them. He could feel it.

Wayne walked into the house first, followed by Glen, and then Thad, who closed the door. Chuck held out his hand. "Did you bring the papers?"

Glen removed them from inside his vest and handed them over. Chuck leafed through several pages and pulled out a sheet.

"When I delved deeper into Markham's past, he's local." Chuck glanced at Erikka. "Born, raised, and continues to live in Portland, and ten years ago he started hanging out at Northern Chinook Springs as a poker player who got lucky one too many times and was banned from the tables in the casino. Yet, he kept showing up and disappearing downstairs. He's received and welcomed into the establishment, even has two suites upstairs that are his."

"That doesn't mean anything to me," said Erikka.

"It's part of our next step into finding where your sister is located." Chuck turned to her. "We'll need to get inside the casino and get close to Markham."

"Okay." She lifted her shoulders. "Then, that's what we'll do."

"Not you." Chuck cleared his throat. "A couple of us will go in and see what happens. Until we go back to the Bail Bonds building to see if it was tapped, we don't know how much Markham knows about our relationship with you, and we'd like to keep that lowkey until we have to let them know."

"When will you know?"

Glen leaned against the wall. "Soon as we're done here, I'm going to go look for a bug. I'll need the keys to the building."

She shoved her hand in her purse, pulling out her keychain. Chuck took them from her.

"As for checking up on Markham, today's Monday and a holiday. We're going to have to wait until Friday night to go to the casino when we have other people who will provide a cover for us," said Chuck.

"No. We can't wait that long." Erikka grabbed his arm. "I'm not willing to jeopardize my sister's life by waiting. I'll go over there by myself instead, and—"

"There's another option." He gritted his teeth.

When Wayne brought up the choices they had on how to handle the situation, Chuck had originally shot down taking Erikka anywhere near Markham. But, time was against them. It'd already been too long. They were pushing a week with Erikka's sister missing.

"Yes. Whatever it is, I'll do it." Erikka squeezed his forearm.

"Does your sister still look like the pictures you gave us?"

She nodded. "Those were all taken within a week of her missing. She's always sending me selfies to make fun of me because I hate them. Not her pictures. Mine."

Chuck gathered up her hands and held them between his. Her fingers were cold, despite the weather being in the upper seventies. "I can try to get you into the restaurant at the casino. We can make it look like a date, and if you can hold it together, having you there might draw Markham out, so I can...talk with him."

"Yes. Anything. I'll go." In her eagerness, she scooted closer until her knees bumped into his thigh.

"Hang on," he muttered. "You look just different enough, you're not going to fool Markham if he does know your sister. We'll need you to think, act, and dress like her. Put your hair in a style Rachel would wear, and keep your face directed on me."

Until that second, he hadn't announced he'd be the one taking her. But, he refused to let her walk into a dangerous situation without him there to protect her.

"I can do that. We have the same style. We're close to the same size, except she's taller than me. I can wear higher heels." Her body no longer trembled in fear but adrenaline.

He turned to Wayne. "Tell me what I'm missing."

"No." Erikka pulled her hands out of his and grabbed onto him again. "This will work. I promise. It's the closest possibility I've got to find out where Rachel is. We have to do it."

"Give me a few, sweetheart." He placed his hand on her thigh to keep her quiet. "Prez?"

Wayne stroked his beard. "It's irresponsible to think he'll give you answers on a chance meeting and if Markham knows Rachel, he won't confuse Erikka for her sister. Jesus Christ, they aren't twins. The whole situation could end up more dangerous than you can handle. We have no idea how many men on Markham's side will be there."

"I have a concealed weapon permit and a pistol in my purse," interrupted Erikka. "I know how to use it, so don't count me as useless in the situation."

He squeezed her leg to quiet her and spoke to Wayne. "The three of you could park outside, off Casino grounds and out of the camera range. I can call if things get hairy and there would be enough time to get you inside."

"You think we can get in there fast enough if you call?" asked Thad.

Chuck lifted his chin. "I plan on keeping Erikka in the restaurant, around other customers. No bathroom break, no wandering off. I don't think Markham will take a chance doing anything to harm her where there are a hundred witnesses or more. It'll be more dangerous on the ride home, so I'll take my car instead of my motorcycle."

"It'd speed up the search if we can make this happen." Glen pulled out his hand from his pocket and popped a few sunflower seeds in his mouth. "Since we can't find anything on Stoddard before his arrest, our options are limited. We might as well go for the other person of interest in the case."

Wayne inhaled deeply. "The best choice is to call Gomez and go to the authorities."

"No." Erikka moved to stand, and Chuck pressed her back down. "Please, no. They'll kill Rachel. I took a risk contacting Notus Motorcycle Club, but I was out of options. I might've made a bad mistake, and taken them on their word, but they never said I couldn't hire someone to find her."

He'd been searching for missing persons over two decades with the club. Chuck swallowed. He'd dealt with serial killers, abduction for ransom to innocent mishaps where Alzheimer patients wandered off from the nursing home. If a crime were committed, it wouldn't matter if the police were contacted or Notus, the abductor looked at everyone as a threat.

From here on out, the MC had to put on the pressure to keep those going after Stoddard busy. Hopefully, the distraction would be enough to keep Rachel safe. If Stoddard felt cornered, he could harm Erikka's sister.

Wayne lifted his chin. Glen cracked a sunflower between his teeth and gave the nod. Thad shrugged one shoulder. They were all in.

Chuck turned to Erikka. "I'll run down to your house and get you an outfit to wear tonight."

"I'll go with."

"No." He lowered his voice. "If anyone is watching your house, I don't need them seeing you over there. If there's a chance we can take them by surprise tonight and make them wonder why you're out with me, we'll have an advantage. Besides, I plan on going in your back door via the fence."

She frowned. "The neighbors behind me—"

"Will never know I'm skipping through their yard." He handed her his phone. "Make a list of items you need. Take your time. I'm going to step outside and talk to the others."

He motioned for everyone to follow him. Once outside, he shut the door and rubbed his hands over his scalp. Many different things could go wrong.

"We don't have any other options. We all know the chances of finding Rachel alive after twenty-four hours drastically lowers with each day that goes by. She was abducted six days ago. Besides Stoddard's current arrest record, the guy has stayed out of trouble. He's cleaner than we are." Chuck heaved a sigh. "If we could find him, we'd skip the bullshit with Markham and his men. But, I have a gut feeling that the only clues we're going to get are if we engage Markham."

"What I don't understand is Erikka's determination not to go to the police, but she has no problem hiring us." Glen's gaze narrowed. "To Markham. To Stoddard. We might as well be wearing a badge instead of a vest. The results will be the same for Rachel when they realize we're working for Erikka. That's if they haven't already figured it out. We need to get over to the Bail Bonds building and do a sweep before you march your ass into the casino. You'll need to know where you stand before you flaunt your dinner date."

"I hear you." Chuck flexed his hands. "Let's get things rolling. You and Thad can go across town and sweep the building for bugs. I'll go over to Erikka's house. Wayne can stay here with her while I'm gone. We'll plan for dinner at eight o'clock at the casino."

"Bro, I think you need reservations. It's fancy there." Thad tugged at his leather vest. "Your clothes ain't going to work."

"What the hell am I supposed to wear?" said Chuck.

"At least a shirt and tie, if not a suit." Wayne folded his arms, bringing up a hand to cover his lower face but Chuck caught the grin.

"Fuck me," he muttered. "We're going to have to come up with a different plan. Unless one of you has the clothes to take her inside the restaurant."

Everyone shook their head. Chuck gritted his teeth. He couldn't wear his vest. All his clothes were stored in baskets on his floor and consisted of T-shirts, flannels, and jeans.

Thad removed his phone. "I got this covered. Let's keep the plan."

"What do you mean?" Chuck tilted his head. "Who are you calling?"

"Mom." Thad grinned. "You're going to fucking make her day, man."

"Don't."

"Already done." Thad turned his phone around. "Give her a couple of hours. She'll have you pretty enough to walk down the God damn aisle of a church."

"Fuck you." He walked inside the house.

There were things to do, and he couldn't put it off any longer. Delaying any step forward only made their chances of rescuing Rachel slimmer.