Hard Mistake (Notus Motorcycle Club Book 4) Read online

  She glanced over at him and smiled her thanks for sticking by her side. Her heart mimicked the thrum of his Harley, rejuvenating her.

  Within fifty feet of her garage door, she jogged. Anxious to drive her car and secure herself into the building at work now that the cameras were fixed—thanks to Notus—and lose herself in paperwork and someone else's problems, she started feeling more positive. Or, at least she'd try. With Notus helping in the search, today could be the day Rachel comes home.

  She entered her house through the front door. Her anxiety level peaked at the things she needed to do. A week without vacuuming or dusting gave the living room a stale aroma. There were dirty clothes in the hamper and if she looked, two coffee cups in the sink that had been neglected. Hers and Rachel's. The morning of her sister's disappearance, Rachel had come over and had coffee with her before work. She'd planned to throw them in the dishwasher when she returned that evening.

  Opening the door to the garage, she listened to the quiet hum of the door lifting. She looked past her driveway to the street and found Chuck waiting, and scrambled into her car. Not wanting to make him late to his workplace, she started the engine and backed out of the garage onto the street. Before putting the car in Drive, she pushed the garage remote and closed her house, knowing it was locked up tight.

  Chuck pulled up beside her vehicle. She kept her foot on the brake and lowered her window.

  "All set?" he asked.

  She nodded. "Thank you."

  "I get home a little after four." He shoved his hand into his pocket and then leaned over handing her a key on a rubber Syd Dorn car lot keychain. "If you take off early and I'm not home, let yourself in the house."

  "Okay." She blindly reached over and slipped the key into her purse. "Chuck?"

  He waited.

  Her stomach fluttered. His patience with her meant a lot.

  "Thank you. For everything. I know I'm not easy to deal with and you have bigger things to do. I really do appreciate all that you are doing. Notus, too. Can you tell the others thank you from me?"

  "It's our job." He motioned his chin forward. "Go on."

  She drove away expecting him to turn on Lombard Street and go in the opposite direction, but he continued following her all the way to her building. He circled the block twice as she unlocked the front door and because she could still hear the roar of his bike, she waved from the front window.

  He lifted his hand. She smiled. Knowing she wasn't alone and someone big and strong was looking out for her safety was exactly what she needed today.

  Chapter 10

  The automatic undercoating sprayer shut off. Chuck rolled out from underneath the car on the loading deck of the third cargo ship of the day.

  "Finished, Parker?" McCormick, his foreman, lifted his clipboard.

  "It's good to go," shouted Chuck through his air respirator.

  McCormick whistled and motioned for another employee to drive the car down to the second level. "Five minutes until clock out."

  Chuck ripped off his mask and stripped out of his coveralls, ready to catch up to the other Notus members. Rerolling the sleeves of his shirt, he walked along the railing of the ship and down the loading dock to the small station. Stepping inside, he waited his turn to input the last crie of the day, then clocked out as the air horn blasted.

  In the parking lot, he took out his phone. Erikka hadn't called him, but Gomez left two messages. He listened to each one as he waited by the four Notus motorcycles for the others. Besides growing up together, they'd all worked their adult life at Port Loaders.

  Wayne arrived first. "Any update?"

  "Check your phone." Chuck exhaled loudly. "P.D. has a case for us. A woman and her father want us to help find the woman's husband who walked away from the house and never returned. Missing for forty-eight hours."

  "Damn. Bad timing," muttered Wayne taking out his cell. "I'll call Gomez and check in for the club."

  Thad and Glen jogged up. "Hey, did everyone get a call?"

  "Yeah." Chuck removed his vest from the duffle on the back of his Harley. "I need to check in with Erikka, and then we can meet at Wayne's house. Okay if I bring her over if she doesn't want to stay at the house by herself?"

  Wayne nodded. "I'll call Clara and let her know to expect company and see if Gomez can meet us there."

  Chuck rode away, ahead of the club members, toward St. John's Bail Bonds. In no time, he parked in front of the building and walked through the door, not liking that anyone off the street could get to Erikka.

  Not seeing her at first, he walked into the middle of the room and heard a thunk before Erikka stepped out from behind the wall where the staircase to the upstairs was hidden. She failed to hide the pistol in her hand.

  "Hey," he said.

  She put the weapon in the top drawer of the desk. "I didn't know you were stopping by after work."

  "Change of plans." He sat down in the nearest chair. "We've had another missing person case come up."

  Erikka's shoulders sagged. "Oh."

  "I need to meet the others over at Wayne's house to get more of the details before anything is decided." He crossed his leg, resting his boot on his knee. "You can come over with me, or I can give you the address, and when you're done here, you can come. I also need to run through a couple of things about your sister's case with you, and it makes more sense to do it with everyone there than having to repeat myself."

  "Okay. Um..." She glanced at the computer screen. "I could follow you if that works."

  "Yeah, that'd be best." He stood.

  She shut off her computer. "Did you...find out something about...Rachel?"

  He rounded the desk and stood in front of her. "A couple more leads to check out. It could be nothing, but we don't discount any trails until we prove them wrong."

  "That's great." She hurried toward the back door, returned to Chuck, locked the door at the bottom of the stairway, and grabbed the pistol out of the drawer and put it in a zippered pouch on the outside of her purse.

  "Ready?" he asked, eyeing the way she swung her purse to her left hip making easy access for her to grab the weapon with one simple crossover move. He'd never seen such a contraption before, and for some reason, he felt better knowing she was prepared for anything.

  The ride to Wayne's house with Erikka following him took less than five minutes. The other Notus members were already inside when he shut off his bike and guided Erikka up to the door. Knocking and letting himself in, he found Clara in the kitchen on the phone.

  Clara held up her finger. "He's here now. I'll tell him."

  Chuck put his hand on Erikka's back, keeping her beside him and whispered, "This is Wayne's woman, Clara."

  Before Erikka could reply, Clara put her phone down and looked at Chuck. "Gracie wanted me to tell you she's coming over and you're not to leave before she gets here. She's bringing you brownies."

  His chest warmed at Gracie making an effort to drive herself somewhere alone later in the day. She might not notice, but she was slowly gaining her independence back.

  He patted his stomach. "I'll be here."

  Clara ignored him and focused on Erikka. "Hi, I'm Clara."

  "Erikka." She shook hands. "Beautiful home. I love the porch."

  "Thanks." Clara motioned her into the kitchen. "Grab a bar stool and sit. You can keep me company while Chuck goes out to the garage and talks to the guys."

  He rubbed her back. "You'll be okay?"

  "Sure."

  "I'll come and get you when it's time to talk." Chuck left the ladies alone and walked into the garage.

  Thad raised his head from the desk at his entrance and threw a Snickers bar at him. He caught it out of the air and joined Glen and Wayne on the other side of the desk. He'd just sat down, and Lieutenant Gomez walked into the garage.

  "What do you have for us?" Wayne shoved a chair in Gomez's direction.

  The lieutenant sat and turned down his radio. "Missing husband. There was a fight with his w
ife beforehand. The wife asked about private searchers, and I told her I'd contact Notus."

  Chuck looked at Thad and raised his brows. The police would take a report, but a domestic squabble put the case down to the bottom of their priority list. Apparently, the wife understood the reality and wanted someone actually searching for her husband instead of keeping their eyes open while on patrol.

  "Does he have his cell phone?" asked Chuck.

  Gomez set a sheet of paper on the desk. "Yes, and all calls go unanswered."

  "Have you pinged the call log?" asked Wayne.

  "No, and we probably won't unless something new comes up and they believe he is in danger or a medical crisis develops. So far, he's a mentally healthy thirty-five-year-old who got in his car after having an argument with his wife. A habit that she claims he does all the time. She says he usually goes to Vavoom's Bar to drink away his temper and then returns to the house drunk. This time, he never came back."

  Wayne snapped up the paper and looked at the picture. His mouth hardened. "I recognize him."

  "Name?" Glen accepted the paper and answered his own question. "It's Brad Moore."

  "Isn't that the guy who we've kicked out of Vavoom's a few times before?" Chuck reached over and took the paper. "Yeah, that's him. He gets touchy with the waitresses and hangs out with his cousin or brother."

  "He had one DUI eight years ago. A couple speeding tickets since then." Gomez stopped and listened to the radio at his ear and spoke into the mic at his shoulder. When he was finished with police business, he said, "The wife's contact information is on the paperwork. She's aware that the P.D. will be on the lookout, but not leading an active search with outside sources. Her father has volunteered to shell out the bucks to bring his son-in-law home."

  "I'll contact her." Wayne thumped his fist against the desk. "We can put one man out looking. Once we contact Moore's cousin or whoever he's usually with, I think finding a trail will be easy enough."

  Gomez stood and shook Wayne's hand. "Let me know any progress."

  "Will do." Wayne leaned back in the chair and waited until the lieutenant left the garage before he addressed the others. "Chuck grab the paper out of the fax."

  "Fax? When have we used the fucking machine?" Chuck walked across the room. He was in charge of everything tech that was used in searching for missing persons. Most people sent documents by email because it was easier.

  "I guess that would be today, dumbfuck." Glen ducked when Chuck swung his arm out to hit him in the head.

  "Don't tell me we have another request to search," said Chuck

  "It's summertime," mumbled Thad. "People go missing more often when the weather changes."

  "There was a message left on the landline from Vicki when I got home from work. She's the one who said she was going to send information over by fax," said Wayne.

  "Who's Vicki?" Chuck glanced at the paper they'd received, trying to understand what the times and numbers meant.

  "The chick you brought around to a few parties." Wayne waited for Chuck to say something and all he could do was shrug.

  "I don't remember any Vicki." Chuck sat back down in the chair. "What did she look like?"

  "Big tits. Big ass. Tiny body." Wayne grinned. "Pretty much looks like every woman you party with. She's also our contact at the airport. I talked to her last night. She works the desk for United."

  "Oh, her. High heels all the time, even in bed." Chuck remembered how limber the woman was, but she was clingy. He held up the paper. "This is from her?"

  "As we do at the start of a case, I contacted the airport, train station, and bus station, giving them the info on Rachel and Stoddard. Vicki recognized Rachel from a photo I supplied and was able to pull a flight record. She remembers the woman and that she was with a man. The man failed to make an impression because she couldn't I.D. Stoddard." Wayne pushed the screen of the computer toward the others and slid the mouse toward Glen. "She also sent a key code by email, so we can decipher the paper she sent over. The information is confidential. She didn't want to get caught, so that's the reason for the fax."

  Unable to wait for the others to figure out the information, Chuck took the mouse and read through the flight numbers, matching the day, and time. Once he clued in on everything, he said, "Son of a bitch."

  "What?" said Thad.

  Chuck slapped the paper down. "Stoddard took her to Cabo San Lucas."

  "Where the fuck is that?" Glen frowned. "Never heard of the place."

  "Out of the country. The Caribbean." Chuck moved around the desk, straightened the screen, and pulled up his source file. As he scrolled through the names, he said, "Who do we have that can fly over there without any wait time?"

  "Try Galeeno and Sons. They keep their passports handy, and if they're not on a case, they can usually leave immediately. They also have experience working with law enforcement officials outside the United States." Wayne walked to the door of the garage. "Do you want Erikka?"

  "Yeah, bring her in." Chuck clicked on the print button and walked across the room. "Glen, call Galeeno and fill him in. Get them to Cabo San Lucas ASAP."

  The legal aspects of hunting down an abduction case in another country would slow things down unless he could get someone there in person to find Rachel. It was better for her to sit in a police department until the P.D. could clear things away with law enforcement in Cabo San Lucas than to rely on others.

  Erikka walked into the garage. Chuck waved her over to him and pulled a chair out for her. She sat, and he squatted beside her.

  "We've got an I.D. on your sister," he said.

  She scooted to the edge of the chair and grabbed his arm. "Where is she? Is she okay? Can we go get her?"

  "Sweetheart, slow down." He laid his hand on hers. "She's in Cabo San Lucas."

  Erikka's jaw dropped, and she stared in horror at him. After several seconds, she closed her mouth and jumped out of the chair. He held onto her, slowing her rapid reaction.

  "We need to get tickets and fly there." She thrust her hand in her purse and pulled out a credit card. "Can you get everyone the fastest flight there while I go home and pack?"

  "Erikka, stop." He grabbed her upper arms.

  "There's no time. We need to get there and contact the authorities." She shook her head. "Shit. It's going to be hard to find them because we don't know where to go, but we can search everywhere."

  "Erikka?"

  She blinked. "What?"

  "We're not going to Cabo San Lucas. We're not leaving the country."

  It took several seconds for his words to sink in. He knew the moment she understood because she shoved against him and marched out of the garage.

  Chapter 11

  Excitement over knowing Rachel's location blinded and deafened Erikka. She hurried down the driveway of Wayne's house, digging for her keys out of her purse. There were so many things she had to do, but she needed to get to the airport as soon as possible.

  "Erikka, wait," shouted Chuck.

  She kept going. "I have to leave."

  At her car, Chuck hooked her arm, stopping her. She pushed against him and failed to break loose. "I get it. You have to work and can't take time off, but I can. I'll shut Bail Bonds down. I don't care. I'm going after my sister."

  "You don't know where she is—"

  "I'll find her." She extracted her keys and pulled against his hold.

  "You don't know what kind of situation she's in and if she's held against her wishes or if Stoddard is dangerous. We know he took your sister out of the country. He could've passed her on to someone else. You don't know what you're getting into and you don't have the laws of the U.S. to protect you, sweetheart." He took the keys out of her hand. "Take a few minutes and hear me out about how we should deal with this. You will be involved in every step."

  "Rachel needs me." Erikka exhaled violently, fear stealing her preserve. "What if I never see her again?"

  "We're dealing with the new information. Come inside, and I'll tel
l you what we have planned." He wrapped his arm around her, forcing her to walk back into the house.

  He set her down in the living room on the couch. The other Notus members filed into the house from the garage and stood around her. The hardness on the outside of each one of them permeated the space and showed her a side of them she'd yet to feel personally.

  "We're putting a call into a team that can fly out of the country at a moment's notice. They're trained and know the laws that they'll meet in Cabo San Lucas. They can work with authorities, to find your sister."

  "They can't go to the police. Here or there." She blinked hard. "Mr. Markham will—"

  "Notus will make sure Markham doesn't touch you or yours." He squeezed her hand. "Sweetheart, we're at a point where we need to involve the St. John's police, so they can work in conjunction with law enforcement in Cabo San Lucas. Taking someone out of the country under duress can be added onto charges of abduction and whatever else develops once Rachel is back in safe hands."

  "Can I go with them? This team you're sending over there?"

  Hating the vulnerability in her voice, she held on to Chuck. Notus had stepped up and willingly helped her when she'd asked them not to go to the police. She understood now that they have proof that she's out of the country, the police needed to be involved. If she could only go where Rachel was located, she'd be there for her sister when she was found.

  "It doesn't work that way." He lowered his voice. "We need to call Lieutenant Gomez. Then, we'll call Galeeno and Sons giving them the okay and funds to go to Cabo San Lucas—"

  "Chuck, Galeeno and Sons are good to go." Glen held up his phone. "Just heard back from Galeeno Senior."

  "God, I don't know what to do." She stared into Chuck's eyes wondering if their positions were reversed if he'd allow the police to get involved knowing that more people would come after Rachel. She no longer cared about her own safety. Her sister needed to be safe. "Okay. Let the police know. I want my sister home."