by Debra Kayn
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.
Chapter 20
Lieutenant Gomez drove away. Erikka looked down at her phone and turned away from the doorway. Six hours after Rachel called her, the police gave back her confiscated phone, and even with the experts doing their job, there was no news.
No pings, no more calls, no location of Rachel's phone.
"I don't understand this." Erikka put the phone on the end table and turned to Chuck. "They had a record of Rachel up until she went missing. They knew who she called, where she went, and the last time she sent a text and the location she was at when she sat in her car, typed a message, and sent it to my phone. But, as soon as she goes missing, they can't find out anything. How can they not find her?"
"Like Gomez said, they're going to assume the calls were made from out of the country. They're approaching the judge to go forward and contact international phone servers or whatever bullshit they call it. All of that takes time and unfortunately, there's nothing anyone can do but wait while the police and Galeeno and Sons continue searching." Chuck walked into the kitchen and came back into the living room with two water bottles, passing one to Erikka.
"In the meantime, they expect me to just sit here and wait like a good little girl." She cracked the top and drank. "I should go to Cabo San Lucas. I have my passport. I can afford the trip. I'll find Rachel myself."
"How are you going to deal with Stoddard?" He sat down on the couch.
She lacked patience, and no matter how many times Chuck or the lieutenant told her to try and be patient, she was ready to go off half-cocked. There had to be something she could do.
"I don't know." She paced in front of him. "I'll shoot him with my pistol."
"Is your CWP valid outside the U.S.?"
She stopped. "No."
"There will be a problem using the airlines with a pistol in your carry-on bag," he said.
She made a face and shook her head. "I'll call the police when I find Stoddard."
"That's what Galeeno & Sons are trying to do."
"Well, they're not doing their job very well if they haven't found her, and they've been there for days." She plopped down on the chair across from him. "I need to do something."
The roar of a single motorcycle cut off in front of his house. She looked at Chuck to see if he was expecting anyone. He shrugged and stood from the couch. She stayed where she was and rubbed her hands over her face. She must look a sight. No makeup and the lack of sleep gave her bags under her eyes. She didn't have to look in a mirror to know they were there.
Chuck moved away from the window, and the doorbell rang. Hidden out of sight of the door, she stared at the wall. When were things going to start going Rachel's way?
Soft voices floated into the living room. Erikka cocked her head. Was that a female?
She stood and walked over to the door. Clara and Gracie talked with Chuck. Her chest tightened. Could Gracie not go a day without Chuck?
"Come here, love," said Chuck in his deep, rough voice, looking over his shoulder at her.
She walked to him and slipped her finger through his belt loop below his lower back, consciously aware that she was marking her territory no better than a neighborhood dog wandering around the block, pissing on every bush. Her already frazzled mind pushed her to look at the twins.
"We wanted to bring this over to you." One of them held out a wicker basket. "It's only a few things we put together but thought it might help while you wait for news about your sister."
She let go of Chuck and took the basket filled with lotion, notepad, pens, an electric photo viewer, bath salt, slippers, and a few more things she couldn't see at a glance. Humbled by their generosity, she struggled with understanding why they'd be nice to her when all she'd done was take their men away from them to help her find Rachel.
The lump in her throat grew, and she looked past them trying to gain control of her emotions. Wayne sat on his motorcycle at the curb behind a car. They'd made the visit as a group.
"I don't know what to say," she whispered, looking at the twins again. "Thank you."
"I'm Clara." Clara reached out and stroked Erikka's arm, helping her figure out who was who. "You're welcome. I know how hard it is to wait and all of these things are meaningless when you're worried about your sister, but if it helps to pass even three minutes of the time, I hope it helps."
Erikka looked back and forth between the twins. Clara had a red shirt on. Gracie had a white blouse. She'd never remember because her wayward thoughts had already pressed in on her. How would Clara know what it felt like to lose her sister when Gracie was standing right beside her.
"Don't give up hope." Gracie's serious expression further confused her.
"I won't...thank you." She turned and carried the basket into the kitchen.
Humbled, she fingered the items. While she dealt with Rachel missing, the women attached to Notus members also had things going on in their lives. They worked, they supported each other, and one of them had a baby and was in the hospital. Yet, Clara and Gracie took time to shop for her and present her with a gift that was meant to be emotionally supportive. Why would they go out of their way, especially if Gracie had a problem with her being with Chuck?
The thud of boots walking toward her brought her head up. Chuck raised his brow. She blew out her breath. Maybe the problem was her. She was jealous of the others, especially Gracie.
"That was really nice of them. I should've told them how much it means to me that they came over." She swallowed. "I'm not used to others reaching out. It's always been just Rachel and me, and our dad. He was never into pampering our feelings, so Rachel and I leaned on each other for support."
Chuck hopped up on the counter and sat. "Where was your mom?"
"She was never there." She shrugged. "Her and dad were never married. By the time we were three, she had given custody to my dad and walked out of our lives. Last I heard she'd gotten married and had her own family."
"She never reached out to you?"
"Phone calls and birthday cards stopped when we were in high school. She lives in Rhode Island, or she did the last time we received cards. I think she was too young or too carefree to have a family. When she finally matured, it was natural that we all moved on."
"Hurts, love," he muttered.
"Not really. Not anymore." She leaned against the counter. "Dad was a great parent. We were loved, protected, and provided for. We were used to his ways, and we all became who we are because of the way we lived. Not having a mom in our lives bothered Rachel more than me. I never really saw it for something different than kids who grew up with divorced parents. It's just...normal."
He grunted, acknowledging her but keeping his opinion to himself. She'd noticed his tight control over his words a lot when talking about different things. If he disagreed, he never argued. He let it slide off his back.
"What about your parents?" She studied him.
He exhaled. "Normal child of divorce. Both parents have passed away. They were older when they had me. One of the pitfalls, I guess."
"No brothers or sisters?"
"I had Notus my whole life. They're my family." He reached out, hooked the collar of her shirt and pulled her between his thighs.
At his height advantage sitting on
the counter, he guided her head forward. Her cheek pressed against the middle of his chest. Closing her eyes, she let him hold her.
"You need to lay off the attitude with Gracie." His hands held her tighter when she tried to pull away. "Not because I think you were rude. You weren't, and she understands what you're going through. But, you're stressing yourself out for no reason. What we have between us is not what I have with Gracie. It's up to me to take care of us. Let me."
Unable to move away, she blurted, "She knows you better than I do."
"In some ways." His fingers sprawled on the back of her head. "But, you're in my bed, and I want you in my life, which means you will get to know me the best. Remember that."
"I'm not the jealous type," she muttered.
His chest rumbled underneath her cheek, and she pinched his side. He pulled back and tilted her head, forcing her to look at him. "You're my type."
"How do you know?" She wanted to question everything until she had no doubts.
Chuck inhaled deeply and gazed at her, using his fingers to smooth out the bags under her eyes that she was self-conscious about already. "Because it took me forty-five years to figure out what I wanted through a lot of experience and mistakes."
"Maybe you're wrong. Maybe you only want sex, and I am living with you which makes it awfully convenient for you to say whatever you believe will keep me interested in you." Because she couldn't move, she raised her brows.
"Are you interested in me?"
She rolled her eyes. "That's beside the point."
"Answer me."
"Why?"
"Because I think when this is all over and I can stop babying you and fuck that jealousy streak out of you for good, I'll realize that I'm already half in love with you." His voice had gone low enough she'd strained to hear. "I'm going to be here when this is all over, and then if you want to push me away or second guess my feelings, you better be ready for me to push back because I'm not going to let you get away."
Holy.
Shit.
She gulped.
For her, because she loved a dominant man and was too headstrong for her own good, she wanted someone to take control and force her to accept changes. Her chest warmed. Other women got excited over diamonds and a weekend away. Not her.