Page 61 of Crush's Fall

Crush snorted a laugh. “Something like that.”

“The employees might be able to help with that, too,” he said, not giving a damn if he was stepping over the line. Too often owners of companies forgot that their employees knew more about the day-to-day functions of the business and might have important insight. “They could tell you what was working and not working. They might have suggestions on how to improve business or what Heat was lacking.”

Crush swung around on her stool and stared up at him. Her brows were still drawn, and she seemed to be contemplating what he had to say.

“I’m just saying you might as well make improvements now, if improvements are needed, and they would be the best source of that information.”

“Think you can handle gathering that info? I know you’re working with Trip, but—”

“Give me a list of names and numbers for them, and I’ll get it done.”

Lucifer was surprised she was taking in what he had to say without a fight, but he wasn’t about to question it. His woman wasn’t stupid. She obviously felt like he hit on something that needed to be addressed, since she was so willingly accepting his point of view.

Unable to help himself, he grinned and bent down toward her, nipping her bottom lip. “Is there a reward in it for me?”

Her arm shot out, and her hand cupped his balls through his jeans. “I might hold off slicing these off of you for being an annoying fuck for a few more days.”

Lucifer chuckled. “I’m a lot of things when I fuck, but annoying is not one of them.”

With her hand still cupping his balls, she took his lips in a kiss. “Thank you… for the massage and the suggestions.”

“You’re welcome. A blow job will be payment enough.”

When her hand tightened, he winced.

“Always have to press your luck, don’t ya?”

Crush

Feeling a lot looser after Lucifer used his strong hands to work out her tension in more ways than just giving her a shoulder massage, Crush walked through the open door of Axle’s office and plopped down in the chair across the desk from him.

Axle’s eyes shifted up from the screen of his laptop and over to her. His raised brows invited her to tell him what the hell she wanted.

“We need to put our Heat employees to work.”

That brought his full attention to her. He slowly shut the laptop. “Okay.”

“It’s not fair to them that our shit took away their day-to-day employment.”

“Ideas on where to assign them?”

She nodded. “Lucifer suggested we could offer to let them help with cleanup and rebuilding.”

Axle sighed. “I can’t have untrained employees working on a construction site.”

“So, train them.” Crush shrugged. “We could also place them in other businesses. The waitstaff might be interested in helping at the diner… or even in the clubhouse. Same with the bartenders. The rest we could offer to have them man the desk and the tattoo shop or the salon… or work shifts at the merch shop. Some of them might have office experience and can help Kisy at PM. Hell, how do we know we don’t have a mechanic hidden in the club staff?”

Axle gave a nod and a shrug. “All good points and suggestions.”

“Lucifer,” she said, simply.

“Diamond in the rough, that one.”

Crush grinned. “Mine.”

Axle chuckled. “Glad you finally see that.”

As Crush rose from her chair and headed for the door, she shot him the bird, causing his laugh to intensify.

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