Fire & Brimstone

“What did you say to her?” he asked, moving to go after him when Rebecca jumped between them and pushed him back.

“It’s fine! I quit! He was an asshole. It’s over now,” she said, placing her hand on his chest as though that was going to stop him.

“What did you say to her?” he asked, gently pushing her hand away so that he could step around her and go after the little prick.

“I-” Adam choked out, shooting a desperate look at the crowd that was now gathering around them.

“He called me a whore. Happy now?” Rebecca said, shaking her head in disgust as she pushed past him and stormed off past the onlookers glaring at Adam.

“I’m sorry!” Adam shouted, holding his hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry!”

Grinding his teeth together, Lucifer nodded as he glanced back in time to see Rebecca push past Jon and head back inside. As much as he wanted to tear Adam apart with his bare hands, he couldn’t, not with Rebecca this upset. So, it was with real regret that he followed after her.

“What did you call her?” he heard Jason drawl as he stepped inside, letting him know that the problem was being handled.

“I never liked him,” the little old woman that had kicked the shit out of Adam’s arm said with a huff as she shuffled past him slowly with her walker.

“Me neither,” he absently agreed as he searched for the short, pissed off woman and when he didn’t find her, he swore and took off across the dinning area.

He checked his office, hoping to find her in there, ranting about Adam, but she wasn’t there. Cursing, he quickly checked the back parking lot and made sure that her car was still in its parking spot before he ran upstairs. When he didn’t find her in her apartment, he sighed with relief because that meant that she was in his apartment, which he was taking as a good sign.

Already knowing where he was going to find her, he shut the door behind him and headed towards the bathroom, taking his clothes off as he went. When he opened the bathroom door, he nearly smiled when he spotted her standing in his shower with her arms folded over her chest and glaring at the wall.

Stepping in the shower, he tried to figure out what to say to make this right, but since he had no fucking clue how he’d screwed this one up, he settled for stepping up behind her and wrapping his arms around her. He didn’t say anything and neither did she, but he knew that wouldn’t last long.

Sooner or later they were going to have to talk, but until that time came, he was going to hold her. They stood there for a long time before Rebecca reached over and shut the water off. Grabbing a towel, she wrapped it around herself and walked out of the bathroom, leaving him standing there trying to decide how he was supposed to handle this. He didn’t know if he should approach her as her boss or her boyfriend, making him finally realize why Rebecca had been so dead set against working together.

Fucking hell.

He should have listened to her. Not that he thought that she was right, because she wasn’t, but because he shouldn’t have been so fucking naïve to think that things weren’t going to change for her. He also should have fired that prick a long time ago, but he’d never really pissed him off until today.

“Rebecca,” he said, not one to put this off and deciding that he would play it by ear.

If she wanted to have this handled as her boss then he would do that, figure out how to fix this and make sure that it never happened again. But, if she wanted him to handle this like her boyfriend, then he would go find that little prick and beat the shit out of him. Then again, knowing his family he would probably have to wait until Adam was released from the hospital before he got another chance.

“Do you mind if I pick the movie?” she asked when he stepped into the living room to find her laying on the couch beneath the blanket he kept there for her and her towel discarded ten feet away.

“I think we should talk,” he said, walking over to the couch.

Sighing softly, she rolled over onto her stomach and folded her arms beneath her head so that she could lay on her stomach comfortably as she scrolled through the movie guide. “I don’t think there’s really much to talk about, do you? I told you that continuing to work for you was a bad idea and I was right. Your supervisor thought that I was screwing you for special treatment, got pissed and tried to make an example out of me. I quit. You beat the shit out of him and now we have one less complication,” she said with a shrug. “There’s really nothing to talk about.”

“You’re not quitting,” he said, pulling his towel free and tossing it aside.

“I just did,” she pointed out as she flicked through a list of zombie movies that were guaranteed to make him fall asleep.

“No,” he said, lifting the blanket to reveal her beautiful body to his greedy eyes, “you really didn’t.”

Chapter 40

“I quit,” she said, wondering why he was having such a hard time accepting her decision to move on and find a new job. It wasn’t like she was breaking up with him or anything. She was just going to start spending eight to twelve hours a day doing something other than drive him crazy from now on. They’d still see each other, but not as much and maybe that was for the best.

That was actually one of the reasons that she’d decided to quit in the first place. She didn’t want to destroy whatever was happening between them because they were spending too much time together. She wanted to give him his space and if that meant finding a new job, then that was exactly what she was going to do. Instead of doing what she’d wanted, she’d foolishly let his killer smile and the way he touched her body convince her to stay.

Then again, in his defense she really hadn’t thought that it was going to turn out this badly. She’d thought she’d have to deal with constantly being asked if she’d lost her goddamn mind or people watching what they said around her. What she hadn’t expected was all the bullshit that had gone down today.

People sucked, she decided as she lay there, scrolling through a list of titles and not really caring what she watched as long as it got her mind off of things for a while. When she felt Lucifer lift the blanket off her, she sighed, because she really wasn’t in the mood for company.

Okay, granted this was his apartment, but she figured with Adam being fired and all that the Fire & Brimstone would keep him busy for a few hours. To be honest, she was actually looking forward to having a small reprieve from the argument that she knew was coming.