Page 5 of Elling & Jackie

Stassi's grumblings only went so far. Being the youngest, and with such a wide age gap between their brothers, Stassi was spoiled. Their brothers did as much for both of them as they did for their own children.

"I better let you go. You're probably tired. It's after midnight." Stassi yawned. "Besides, I promised mom I'd help in the yard in the morning, and she'll want to start early."

"Okay." A pang of longing hit her. "Night. Love you."

"Love you, too."

Putting her cell on the bed, she popped the dill pickle in her mouth. She loved her job.

She loved meeting people from all over the world. She loved the independence. In a perfect world, the Colman Hotel would be in Tacoma, closer to family. As it was, she often went home over her two-day break, and that helped her handle the separation.

If she stayed in Portland over the weekend, often Stassi would drive down, and less seldom, Chief and her mom would make a day trip and see her. She couldn't blame them for not coming more often. At Chief's age, he liked to stay home and oversee how his sons were running Brikken.

Despite wanting to get away from the overbearing, protectiveness of the men in her family, which included every member of Brikken who decided it was their job to be the eyes and ears for the Stanton men, there was nothing like home.

Bikers were a different breed. They were all the same. Stubborn, brooding, and domineering. She blew out her breath, remembering the blue eyes of the biker earlier outside the hotel that reminded her of a crystal-clear lake. The shock of seeing someone from another club had quickly worn off as she realized he wouldn't know her from any other woman in Portland.

Until he'd seen her tattoo.

Why couldn't she have stayed inside and let him deal with his bike problems on his own?

One of the obligations she had, belonging to Brikken, was to protect the club. One of the stipulations of her living on her own away from family was that she promised to let one of her brothers know if any other club contacted her, tried to meet her, or hung around the hotel.

She understood why. She accepted the rules in her life.

Picking up the phone, she called Jett's number. He answered on the first ring.

"What's wrong?" asked Jett.

No hello. No how are you doing?

"Why do you think something is wrong?" She stood from the bed.

"It's almost one o'clock in the morning."

Shit. She could've waited until the morning to call him. The Brikken members were under pressure at the moment. She hated bothering him when her encounter tonight was probably nothing.

"I'll make this quick, and you can go back to sleep," she said.

"Ain't asleep."

Okay, then. She stood in front of the bathroom door. "Tonight, I locked one of the two doors at the front of the hotel. I do that at ten o'clock every night."

"Why ten o'clock?"

Her neck straightened. "I don't know. It's the rules."

"That doesn't make sense to lock one door when someone can still enter the other one," said Jett.

"It's supposed to stop a rush of people entering. It's a safety measure."

"There's nothing safe about having a door open all night to anyone who can walk off the street."

She sighed. "I'm not going to debate hotel regulations with you."

"Okay." Jett paused. "Continue."

"Well, tonight, there was a biker sitting out front when I locked the one door." She paced the bedroom. "Now that I think about it, it was probably nothing. It was raining before I had gone out there and he probably was taking a break until the rain stopped."

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