“You, ah, might want to look in the mirror, Lou,” Slade said, his lips quivering. “It’s Christmas, not Halloween.”

Lou Ellen stopped at the head of the table and frowned, then glanced at her reflection in the window behind Slade and squeaked as her hand flew to cover her mouth.

“So when do we get to meet the lucky guy you let mess up your lipstick?” Caleb asked with a chuckle.

“I want to meet him, because I want to mess up his mouth,” Levi growled, his eyebrows crashing together. “What in the hell are you doing, Lou?”

“What’s the emergency?” Dave grumbled as he strode into the conference room with Dex tailing him. He stopped to stare at Lou Ellen and his eyebrows raised. “Jesus, Lou—did you get into a catfight with someone? We’ll have to call in the women if you need help with that.”

“Well, Cee Cee isn’t helping,” Cade said as he filled the doorway. “She’s up to her eyeballs in wrapping paper right now. That woman has presents stacked higher than our tree.”

“Well, my sister doesn’t do things in moderation,” Dave said with a laugh. “Half of those gifts are probably for the kid’s wing at the hospital and the other half for the trafficked women’s shelter where she’s been volunteering.”

“No, where she’s working,” Cade corrected and rolled his eyes. “They needed an admin and she’s it.” Cade’s eyes darted to Lou Ellen and he grinned. “Your cheeks are awfully rosy, Lou, and your eyes are glassy. Have you been hitting the Christmas spirits without us? Was this call a drunken prank? That was my first thought when I got your text, because everyone knows I’ve retired from all operations that don’t include a surgery suite.”

“If it is a prank call, Grace and Callie are going to be upset. We were supposed to go see the lights tonight,” Dex said as he walked to the table to sit down and open his laptop.

Mortified, Lou Ellen turned to leave the room and go to the bathroom, but ran smack into Griff’s chest. His fingers dug into her shoulders as he moved her to the side to step into the room.

“No, it’s not Halloween.” He pointed his thumb at his chest. “I’m that lucky guy,” he said looking at Caleb. He turned his gaze to Levi. “Take your best shot, bud.” He pinned Logan with a look. “No, she didn’t get into a fight, I kissed the shit out of her because she let me.” Finally, he looked at Cade. “No, she hasn’t been drinking, and this isn’t a prank.” He took a deep breath and blew it out. “I’m Thomas Griffin—Griff—and I’m glad to meet you all, but if it’s too much trouble for you to help me, I can do this myself.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you too, Mr. Griffin, but you’ll have to understand our surprise,” Logan said, stepping forward to extend his hand. “And we won’t know if it’s too much trouble until you tell us what’s going on.”

The testosterone filling the room became too much and made Lou Ellen dizzy, so she edged her way behind Griff to sneak out of the door. She was a good alpha male manager, the best, but the concentration of alpha in that room was too much, even for her.

Maybe she needed that drink Cade accused her of having to deal with this situation. But she wouldn’t have it, because of Griff. She was going into that bathroom, combing her hair and washing her face, then going right back in there to do her job.

---

Griff circled the table and took a seat beside the guy who threatened to kick his ass for kissing Lou Ellen. He gave him a tight, challenging smile as he sat down and received a glare. Once everyone was seated, he took a deep breath.

“I met a girl, a fifteen-year-old runaway, in Tent City,” he started and several of the men gasped, the one beside him growled.

“You’re homeless?!?” Levi finally shouted, scraping back his chair. “What in the fuck is Lou Ellen thinking?”

“Chill out, Levi—let him finish,” Dave grated, giving him a glare.

Tense as he’d ever been in his life, Griff looked over to meet his eyes. “Yes, I’m homeless. Hopefully, you’ll be fortunate enough to never know what that’s like. And Lou Ellen is a woman with the kindest heart I’ve ever seen. You should take lessons, jackoff.”

“Fifteen-year-old?” Dave growled and Griff looked his way. “Why did she go into gangland, if she was with you?”

“I left her on her own for too long on Thanksgiving Day, so she thought I’d abandoned her, or I assume that’s why. Layla has trust issues. My tent neighbor told me she left with a gang banger named Dragon. I’ve searched for her in Crips and Varrio territory, but she’s not there. That leaves MS-13 turf, which ups the pucker factor a hundred times.”

“Not somewhere you want to go alone or unarmed, for sure,” Caleb inserted. “Have you called the cops?”

Griff looked at him and laughed. “The cops are not interested in runaway vagrants. She ran away from an abusive foster home, which makes her less of a priority.”

“We’re in, Mr. Griffin. Let’s talk about how we’re going to do this. Dex, hit the databases and try to find information on a thug with the street name of Dragon and pull maps of the gang territories. Caleb, you and Levi go to the gun safe and assemble our equipment so we can head out at first light. Make sure you include com equipment, because we’re going to have a lot of ground to cover. Cade, Slade—Dex will email you the maps, so you can make a game plan.”

Griff laughed, amazed at the speed with which Logan issued orders. “This isn’t your first rodeo, is it?” he asked.

“No, and it’s not yours either, is it?” Dave asked, his eyes swinging back to Griff. “After this is over, you’re going to tell me your story, because I want to know the reason you’re homeless. One, because I need to know you’re not a criminal if you’re messing with Lou Ellen, and two, it’s obvious you’re homeless by choice.”

Griff nodded, but he knew he’d be long gone before that discussion happened. He had to be to keep Lou Ellen and Layla safe. He didn’t know much about her, but what he did know told him Lou Ellen would take care of Layla and was more than woman enough to handle her.

That was all Griff was worried about. He could take care of himself.

He was going to talk to her about that tonight—before things went any further. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt the hand that was helping him, or the one he wanted to selfishly hold for just a moment.