Page 35 of Crush's Fall

Lucifer knew he should be worried for his life, since Bullet could end him without breaking a sweat, but Lucifer just chuckled.

Trip dropped his hand from Lucifer’s face and shook his head. “You are a ballsy motherfucker. I’ll give you that.”

Lucifer nodded. “Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Crush

Since her mother found out about Lucifer, she had been texting Crush, demanding to meet him. The third text message in twelve hours vibrated her phone, but she ignored it as she headed for the front door of Milhawk Investigations with her club sisters. She would introduce Lucifer to her parents if she ever decided to actually make things official. Until then, they could just fucking wait.

Walking inside, Crush was preparing herself for being annoyed, since she knew she would leave that way. She barely managed to tolerate Axle’s control issues. Dealing with the control issues of the president of the UpRiders, the leader of the champions, and Hawkin was no doubt going to set her on edge.

They were at M.I. to make a plan to handle the war and to pair up champions with members of their clubs to help bridge the gap when it came to spreading necessary information among so many people under the command of several different leaders. It made sense, but it was the part of the job of president of a motorcycle club that tested her patience the most.

What they entered wasn’t a conference room, but rather a wide-open, unused section of the warehouse that held the headquarters of Milhawk Investigations. At least it was clean and well lit.

Directly across from the door they entered through, Lira and her champions were lined up. To the right was the Milhawk investigations team, as well as Riles and his few UpRiders. As Crush and the Claws moved off to the left, her tiger was pacing inside of her, already reacting to the tension.

She waited there, eyeing the other groups, as they waited for the Axle and the Howlers to file into the space.

In the middle of the room was a conference table large enough for ten people. Once the Howlers were in the room, Crush and Pinky headed for the table, along with the other leaders and their seconds. The rest of the members of the clubs and the other factions hung back in their respective sections, watching and ready to act if necessary. If any of them made a wrong move, this could be a bloodbath.

After much discussion, it was decided that Axle and Lira would be in charge of the war movements, with Hawkin and his crew only coming in if necessary, or if they had new intel on the movements of the other side. Crush was okay with this only because Axle was one of the leaders. She trusted Axle enough to know he wouldn’t fuck the Claws over, especially in something so important.

Crush could understand Hawkin’s hesitancy to be involved. Laws were going to be broken, and while Hawkin tried to avoid doing that, he was also the type to always side with good over evil. Despite their differences, Hawkin knew the Howlers and the Claws were good people.

“Who is watching your women and children?”

At Lira’s question to Axle, Crush’s gaze swung over to the woman, and she glared.

Axle stared back. “Half of the Claws and a handful of the Howlers. Do you need names?”

Lira smirked. “No. I was just curious.”

“Your curiosity doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies about this partnership,” Crush said in a deadpan voice. Her glare didn’t lessen even when she heard the Howlers and Claws chuckle.

Lira continued to smirk, but her second replied, “I thought the majority of you were fuzzy.”

Trip snort laughed.

Ranger grinned at Dragon. “I think I like her.”

He would, Crush thought.

“Relax, soldier,” the second said with a grin. “I don’t go for your type. I prefer my partners to have bigger balls and wear them on their chests.”

A-motherfucking-men.Maybe these bitches weren’t so bad after all.

“Which god do you represent?” Ranger asked flirtatiously. “I need to know which one I’ll be praying to tonight.”

Axle chuckled but said, “Shut it, Ranger. We need to finish the meeting, not find you a date. And no, we can’t do both.”

“Pres, not all of us have women waiting at home for us.”

Trip laid a hand on Ranger’s shoulder and looked at the back of Axle’s head. “Yeah, Bro. Have a heart.”

“Right,” Ranger agreed, nodding. “I just want love.”

Dragon shook his head. “The two of you are going to get yourselves or the rest of us killed someday with your fucking mouths.”

---