by Becky McGraw
“With Taylor and Buddy,” he replied. “Those two mutts are inseparable. Taylor hates to hear Buddy whine, so I left her.”
“Well, you might be needing her for this mission. And I need you to round up a set of your clothes for me, please.”
“For who? And what mission?” he asked, frowning as he stood and went into ops mode.
“For Griff. You’ll meet him in a few minutes,” she replied. “We have a rescue mission to help him with.”
“Roger that—I’ll be back in a few,” he replied, as he walked to the front door. The door opened as soon as it closed and Caleb and Levi walked in wearing serious expressions.
“What’s the emergency?” Levi asked, his eyes scanning the room as Caleb stepped up beside him to do the same.
“I’ll fill y’all in as soon as the rest of the crew gets here. There’s no sense repeating myself. We’re going on a rescue mission,” she replied. “I’d suggest you get your arsenal ready, because guns will definitely be needed where we’re going.”
“Where are we going?” Caleb asked.
“Northeast Dallas into MS-13 territory,” she replied.
“Tonight?!?” Levi shouted as he glanced at Caleb.
Lou Ellen nodded. “Tonight and every night and day after until we find her.”
“Find who?” Levi asked, and Lou Ellen sighed. “Okay, okay, we’ll wait for the crew in the conference room.” He walked down the hallway and Caleb followed.
The office door opened again and Slade strode in with Lola and a stack of clothes in his hands, which he handed to her. Lou Ellen smiled at the dog and bent to scratch her between the ears, earning a quick lap of her tongue on her wrist.
“Dex, Logan and Cade are on the way. Levi and Caleb are waiting in the conference room,” she told Slade. “I’m going to deliver these clothes and I’ll join you in a minute.”
“You called in Cade? This must be a big mission if you called in the big gun,” Slade said with a laugh.
“It is a big mission, but the big gun is in Logan’s suite. You’ll meet him in a few minutes,” Lou Ellen replied cryptically and Slade’s smile slipped.
“You’re really gonna make me wait? I’m second in command here, and you know how slow Logan is. It will probably be an hour. It’s eight o’clock at night. I could be doing other things right now, like making out with Taylor.”
“You’ve been doing enough of that lately. The rabbit died, so give her a rest, big boy,” Lou Ellen said, and Slade frowned.
“What rabbit? What are you talking about?” he asked, and Lou Ellen threw her head back and laughed as she walked down the hallway to the suite. She stopped at the door and pushed in the code, then went inside when it clicked open.
Halfway across the suite to the dining room table, she looked left when the bathroom door opened and steam billowed out. A leanly muscled Adonis filled the doorway covered only in a towel wrapped low on his hips. Lou Ellen missed a step and stumbled. The pile of clothes in her hands went flying and she stopped to stare.
He smiled, showing even white teeth, as he strode out into the living room, running his hands through his wet hair. “God, I feel like a new man,” he growled, scrubbing his hand over his square, clean-shaven jaw as he stopped in front of her.
Lou Ellen whimpered, because there was no way she could shove the words out of her mouth. Holy shit, you look like a new man too. A young man—much too young for me to be lusting over.
“How old are you?” Lou Ellen asked, the words rolling out of her mouth without permission. The corner of his lips quirked up into a sexy, feral kind of smile she felt down low as he stepped closer.
“Old enough to know what I’m doing and young enough to go the distance,” Griff replied, his eyelids drooping as he focused on her mouth.
Chapter 10
Griff reached up to cup her jaw in his palm and stroked his thumb over her lower lip. “God, you have an amazing mouth.” He moved his thumb to caress her cheek while staring into her eyes. “I’m going to kiss you, Queenie, so if you’re not okay with that, tell me now.”
Not okay? What a silly, silly man, Lou Ellen thought, as she placed her shaking hands on his chest and slid them up his hot, wet skin to his broad shoulders. His eyes held hers and all she could do was stare into them as his head gravitated toward hers.
His hand slid into her hair and he pulled her closer. His minty breath wafted over her tastebuds before he sealed his mouth to hers. A moan rumbled up her throat and escaped into his mouth, as he skimmed his mouth over hers.
Slow and methodical in his assault, he nipped, licked and sucked her mouth until Lou Ellen’s toes curled in her shoes. Hot flames of desire licked at her insides and she leaned into him, needing more. She opened her mouth in invitation, and his tongue slipped inside her mouth to find hers. His groan rumbled against her sternum as his free arm wrapped around her waist to pull her body flush to his. The most erotic kiss of her life went on and on for what seemed like forever.
They didn’t have forever right now, though. With a final delicious taste of him and a sigh, she rocked back on her heels and stepped back. His heartbeat pounded under her palm at the center of his chest as rapidly as hers beat against her ribs.
She smiled up at his frowning face. “The team will be waiting for us in the conference room, so let’s pause this for now, but I definitely want to hit play later. Logan gets pissy when he has to wait and I don’t want to have to kill him tonight.” She reached up to smooth her fingers over her throbbing lips then winked at him. “Definitely, rewind and replay later.”
He finally smiled. “For a minute there, I thought I’d lost my touch. It has been a long time,” he said and pain filled his eyes.
Lou Ellen stepped close again and put her hand on his cheek. “Honey, you haven’t lost a damned thing.” She tiptoed to give him a lingering kiss. “I can’t wait to see the rest of what you think you’ve forgotten.” His body tensed and his arms tightened around her. Lou Ellen leaned back in his arms to meet his eyes.
“Really?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.
“Yes, really. But I have no idea why you’re wasting your time with an old woman like me. Looking like this, you could have any woman you want.”
Lou Ellen was very willing to be his leg up back into the saddle of life. She could do younger and temporary, but she didn’t want to let herself fall in love with him and be hurt if that was the arrangement. They needed to talk about it.
“The woman I want is you,” he growled and his hand shot out to grab hers. He forced her hand between them, uncurled her fingers and held it against his erection. “Does that feel like I’m wasting my time or playing?” Heat surged up her body to set her scalp on fire and she knew her face was flaming too.
“You haven’t had sex in a long time, so you’re just horny,” she said with a laugh. “I’m good with that. I need to know where this is going when you’re not.”
“I don’t walk around with a perpetual erection, Lou Ellen. You made me this way,” he shot back, his voice fierce. “You’re a gorgeous woman and I want to fuck you like there’s no tomorrow. My dick doesn’t care that you’re older than me.” That nerve ticked beside his eye when his jaw clenched. “But I can’t promise you more than today, because that’s how I live.”
A gush of warmth flooded through her body to settle between her legs. “Well, then,” she replied, her lips spreading into a smile. “Let’s hope tomorrow never comes.”
His blue eyes sparked as he grabbed the back of her skull again and slammed his mouth into hers. There was nothing gentle about his kiss this time and he didn’t stop kissing her senseless until she moaned and her fingers squeezed around his cock. Until that moment, she didn’t realize she’d still been holding him. A tremor rocked him and with a groan, he dragged his mouth from hers and pushed her away.
“We have to find Layla. You go meet with your team and I’ll be in there in a second,” he said, his breathing ragged.
Lou Ellen nodded
and walked to the door of the suite. She reached for the knob, but felt Griff behind her. He grabbed her shoulders, turned her around and pinned her to the door. He tipped up her chin with his forefinger.
“This is not because I’m horny or desperate. It’s not even because I’m grateful. It’s because I want you, Queenie.”
It was a damned good thing she was leaning on the door, because her knees went weak. Those words, which were reinforced by his eyes and expression, were more than a woman could take. “I heard you the first time,” she replied.
“But I can tell you don’t believe me,” he fired back. “Tell me you believe me, or I’m not letting you out of here.”
“I believe, but I—” He put his finger over her lips and smiled.
He was right. Lou Ellen was in disbelief over everything that had happened since she met this man on Thanksgiving. Anyone would be. But it was Christmastime, and miracles did happen.
She hoped another one would fall out of the sky and they found that girl before it was too late. If something happened to her, she was afraid this man would fall back into the dark hole he’d crawled out of and would never come out again.
Chapter 11
“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.
Chapter 12
A little after midnight, the door to the suite clicked open. Tensing, Griff turned to watch Lou Ellen walk in with one arm filled with folded sheets and in her other hand a steaming mug of something. She looked exhausted, but still more beautiful than any woman he’d met in a long time. He pushed up from the sofa and walked over to take the sheets from her.
“I’ll make the bed. You sit down, take your shoes off and enjoy that tea.”
The clean, fresh smell of the linens filled his senses and ma
de him lightheaded, giddy almost. He’d checked out the huge bed in the bedroom and figured he might go to sleep tonight and never wake up. It had been a helluva long time since his mattress had been anything other than a worn out sleeping bag.
You chose that life, so don’t poor mouth. No, it chose me.
“I have enough men in my life trying to tell me what to do. Don’t be one of them,” she said, handing him the tea and taking the sheets back. His eyes fell to the perfect form of her ass as it swayed in her tight skirt while she walked to the bedroom. That ass alone made him want to stay, but he knew that would only endanger her and Layla.
She also had enough men in her life to protect her, which made him feel better about his decision to disappear as soon as they found Layla. It was best for all of them. But he needed to make sure she understood that before he put his hands on that amazing body of hers.
When she came back into the living room, he met her eyes and patted the sofa beside him. “Come here, Queenie. We need to talk,” he said, and she stopped for a second to stare at him.
“I’m talked out, Griffin. I’m looking for a place to lay my head and maybe a little action,” she said with a laugh. “We’re not getting any younger, and it’s past my bedtime.”
“That’s the first thing we need to talk about,” he replied, anger simmering in his stomach at her calling herself old. The woman was better preserved than any thirty-year old he’d seen. Her body was toned and perfect, her face held not a wrinkle. He preferred that she had life experience to go with those good looks. “I’m forty-six, you’re what?”
“Fifty-five,” she replied frowning. “You looked older before you shaved off the beard.”
“Then I’ll grow it back, if that makes you feel better,” he said, leaning forward to set the tea on the coffee table and stand. “After forty, age doesn’t mean shit, Queenie.” She laughed, and her smile warmed his insides as he stepped closer to take her shoulders in his hands. “If age is your only problem with me, I’d say I’m doing good. We need to talk about the other stuff.”