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for me.”
    “Aren’t you leaving out a huge part of the story?” Griffin cut in. “We both know that Caleb is only hearing half of it. Why don’t you tell him the rest?”
    Why was Griffin pushing him so hard about this ? Didn’t he already feel bad enough about his behavior as it was, but his friend wasn’t going to let it drop until everything was out?
    “Fine,” Dante snapped, upset at being pushed so hard. “I caught the thief and dragged them back here to the club, but they didn’t have any parts from my bike on them. The homeless person had only stolen my bag of hot wings and fries.”
    “All right, I’m still not getting what this has to do with a girl and why Griffin is so pissed off at you. Why does he feel like I need to know all about this?” The confusion was loud and clear in Caleb’s deep voice.
    Taking a deep breath, Dante blew it out. “The homeless person wasn’t a teenage boy but a young girl. I didn’t know this at first or I wouldn’t have manhandled her the way I had earlier. I only found out because she was running out of the bar after I told her I was going to call the cops and have her arrested. I grabbed the back of the hoodie she was wearing and it fell down revealing a young, black girl when she spun back around.”
    Caleb’s eyebrows drew together into an angry frown. “You were rough with a woman? Aren’t you the one who, when we were back in college, defended any girl whose boyfriend got too rough or abused her? Damn man, you taught self-defense classes for three years. How could you be so disrespectful with a woman? If it had been me or Griffin that had done something like that you would’ve been down our throats.”
    Shit! He didn’t need to hear any of this.
    Jumping up from his seat, Dante began pacing in circles around his office. He felt Griffin’s and Caleb’s eyes watching his every move. It wasn’t like he knew she was a girl beforehand with all of the baggy clothes covering up her body. He regretted acting so quickly last night and he tried to fix his mistake by searching for her; however, his little thief was a street kid. So, without a doubt she probably had a million hiding places around Los Angeles.
    Where in the world was her family? Did something happen at home to send her to a life she was leading now?
    Someone as young as her didn’t need to be struggling to survive day to day on the streets. She was barely able to protect herself from him. How was she going to protect herself against a man who wanted to take something from her?
    He couldn’t believe she was faring well at all. He could have been a helping hand to her instead of scaring the shit out of her. He wouldn’t feel better until he found her and helped her out any way he could.
    “Dante, stop beating yourself down about last night,” Griffin said, cutting into his wandering thoughts. “Caleb and I know you’re a good guy. You just made an honest mistake. All of us could have done it. Hell, I saw her and thought she was a boy too. You didn’t hurt her. You merely frightened her a little. I know you’ll probably run into her again and will be able to lend a hand to her if she’s willing to accept it.”
    He stopped his pacing and studied his friends, but he had his doubts. “Thanks, I wish I could feel the same way.”
    “Griffin is right. You’re being way too hard on yourself. I shouldn’t have said anything else about it. I know how you have this hero complex. You feel this need to save the lost and lonely. I know you’ll get another chance to fix this,” Caleb said.
    “Are both of you sure?”
    “Damn right,” Griffin stated. “Now, how about you get out of this office? We need your help in the bar with this crowd. They’re starting to pile in and we need to make sure everything is flowing smoothly.”
    Dante wanted to argue and resume searching for her again, but any problems with his bar came first. He only hoped that he did get another chance to prove he wasn’t as