Chapter 15
Greg jumped up from his chair and rounded his desk, a huge grin lighting his face. He hesitated for a minute, then rubbed his eyes and shook his head in mock disbelief. “Tell me, please, that I’m not dreaming. I beg you to confirm that the gorgeous woman standing in the doorway is none other than the elusive Sergeant Viviana Moreau, aka the Enchantress!” As he strode toward her, reaching for her hands, he said, “Ah, stunning woman, if only I’d known that I could get you to come here simply by offering to buy you lunch. And, of course, by promising that we won’t discuss anything that remotely involves what my charming sergeant is doing in her on or off hours.”
Viviana laughed and accepted Greg’s quick buss on her cheek. “C’mon, Commander Bannon. I’m not that bad, am I?”
Greg winked at her and thoughtfully tugged at his chin. “Bad isn’t the word I would use to describe you, Viviana. Challenging? Elusive? Absent? All of the above. But bad? Never. Although I’m not sure my boss would agree. According to our illustrious police chief, you can be one naughty little girl. Which, in case you didn’t know, has the rest of us unlucky oafs green with envy. Ah, Viviana, to be the lucky guy who has to contend with the ‘bad’ you.”
“Really, Commander Bannon, I’d forgotten what a tease you are. Maybe I will have to hang around here more often. At least if you promise me that you won’t allow that sourpuss Lieutenant Jensen to intrude on our together time.”
Greg pursed his lips, stifling a grin. “Do I also have to promise that I won’t ask you anything that might pertain to the work you are doing?”
Viviana shrugged and gave him a saucy smile. “Now really, Commander Bannon, why would we muddle our relationship with mundane things? But given that I have been somewhat MIA since you took over this office, I do owe you a brief recap of what I’ve been doing. Which, by the way, isn’t much of anything. As I started to tell you yesterday, one of my key sources, a young woman who was instrumental in helping us bring down the pedophile gang, went off the rails. Unfortunately that happens all the time with these vulnerable girls.”
“I recall you mentioning that yesterday. I’m sorry I got called away. I would have liked to have heard more. But please, Sergeant Moreau, sit down. Our luncheon reservation isn’t until twelve thirty. I understood from both Mick O’Reilly and Jax that in addition to Flemings, you like the Paleo Plus restaurant. They assured me that dedicated carnivores like myself can find surprisingly good entrées at that proudly healthy joint.”
Greg waved her to the chair in front of his desk, then sat down behind it. Once again, a fleeting wave of regret surged over her as Viviana took her seat. She’d been so excited to get out from under Jax’s thumb that she hadn’t realized how much she would miss seeing his imposing frame across the desk. The memory of his daunting, narrow-eyed grin sent shivery sensations streaking across her lower abdomen. She quickly reminded herself that it wasn’t as though he was no longer in her life. Hardly. Jax was an omnipresent cloud that invaded every aspect of her being. At least as far as her work was concerned, she should count her blessings that it was the easy-going Greg Bannon, not the arrogant Jaxton Hughes who was in charge of her. She corrected herself with a silent smile, confirming that no one was in charge of her, which she admitted would be a heck of a lot easier to enforce with Greg Bannon than Jaxton Hughes.
Greg’s pleasant inquiry brought her back to the present moment. “Please, Viviana, tell me more about the young girl you’re concerned about. She’s obviously important to you and the work you are doing.”
Viviana quickly remonstrated. “Actually she’s not. My concern doesn’t have anything to do with the VCU. She’s important to me personally, not professionally. When I learned that she was back on the street, I hoped I could get her to go to the St. Vincent’s shelter. I don’t know if you are aware of the shelter. It’s run by some wonderful nuns, and I know Ariel would do better there.” She added, “Today I learned that Annabelle Simpson and some of her society friends are big supporters of the shelter. I wasn’t surprised. That’s apparently how women like Annabelle make up for the fact that they have so much while others have so little.”
Viviana saw the surprise flicker across Greg’s face and kicked herself for betraying her scorn. Before she could censor her words, she added, “You know, that good old ‘noblesse oblige’ trap that elite women fall prey to.”
Knowing that she had now piqued Greg’s interest, Viviana quickly changed the subject and went on the offensive.
“Tell me, Commander, has that illustrious and overbearing police chief of ours decided to back off and actually let you command the VCU?”
His quick flush confirmed that she had hit a soft spot, but Greg was too accomplished to be easily cowed. Or not to know that she was purposefully pricking his ego. He grinned at her, confirming he understood the intent of her not-so-subtle attack. “Believe it or not, the chief has only called me three times this morning to see how I’m doing, and that was after we had an hour-long breakfast meeting. At which time he warned me in compelling language what I might expect from a certain sergeant who is famously hard to manage.”
“Hmm. What did you say to reassure him?”
“I told him the most challenging item on my to-do list was not how to manage the intrepid sergeant but how to manage him.”
Viviana shrieked with laughter. “You told him that? Really? Oh God, Greg, I love you!”
Bannon chuckled and winked at her. “You should love me, Sergeant Moreau. I just want you to know that I have your back.”
She grinned at him and tilted up her chin. “That’s good to hear, Commander Bannon. But do know that the sergeant the police chief is so concerned about isn’t nearly as unmanageable as he claims.” She added with a wink, “Although she can be a bit of a handful.”
Greg’s expression tightened ever so slightly. “Hmm, something both the police chief and the sergeant need to understand is that I’m more than capable of handling them both.”
Viviana didn’t try to hide her surprise. Instead, she poked at his line in the sand. “Why, Commander Bannon, if I didn’t know better, I might think that you are laying down some ground rules for me.”
An amused voice from the doorway said, “As well he should. After all, he is the commander of the VCU.”
Viviana whirled to see a grinning Jax standing on the doorway. Before she could respond, Greg Bannon said with a pleasant smile, “Actually, sir, I was in the process of laying down ground rules for everyone I command—as well as those who command me.”
Striding forward, Jax tossed him a grin. Not taking issue with Greg’s on-target rebuke, he said pleasantly, “Again, Commander Bannon, as you should.”
Viviana was struck how easily Jax took over the room simply by entering it. God, it was no wonder that everyone stepped back in the face of his power; he was that imposing of a man. Coming up beside her, Jax reached for her arm, then leaned down and brushed his lips across her cheek. Not able to hide her startled response or the flush she felt heat her face, Viviana tried to pull away. His almost imperceptible frown as he tightened his grip on her arm confirmed that she wasn’t going anywhere he didn’t want her to. To make the point more clearly, he said, “I hope I’m not interrupting. I wanted to see if a certain blonde bombshell would like to have lunch with me.”
Jerking free of his restraint, Viviana said, “Sorry, Jax. Commander Bannon and I are planning to have lunch. We have some VCU business to catch up on.”
Jax’s grin hardened slightly, but he didn’t lose his cool in the face of her rejection. Instead he settled onto the chair beside her, then turned it at an angle where he could make eye contact with both her and Greg. Viviana had seen him do this before and begrudgingly admitted how accomplished he was. With that simple rearranging of the chairs, he now controlled the conversation, muting Greg’s position of authority from behind the desk.
Greg quickly responded, apparently seeing the tension between her and Jax. “Hey, Chief Hughes, you are more than welcome to join us, although the sergeant and I were planning to do a long-overdue debrief.”
Jax pressed his lips together in a thin line and shrugged. “I don’t want to interrupt that important conversation, Commander. Pinning down this elusive sergeant is an onerous task. If you can get her to sit still long enough to have lunch with you, I’m impressed.”
Greg held up his hands. “No, Jax, please. If it’s all right with Sergeant Moreau, I would like to have you join us. You can help me better understand the implications of the sergeant’s cases. For example, I was surprised to learn that in Sergeant Moreau’s latest venture, she has Annabelle Simpson in her sights.”
Viviana pulled back in her chair, prepared for Jax’s quick response. She needn’t have worried. He pinned a narrow gaze on her and said, “Jesus, Viviana, you have another society woman in your sights? Now you’re after the mayor’s wife?” Turning to Greg, he said, “I don’t know if you’re aware, but ‘dethroning the Dominatrix Diva’ was the name her adoring press gave to Viviana’s latest coup.”
Turning back to her, Jax didn’t hide his annoyance. “You after more divas, Viviana? I’m not surprised. You were front-page news with the last one, which has to have been intoxicating as hell.”
Viviana drew back, startled. His cutting put-down shocked her and sparked her ever-ready anger. “Oh that’s right, Jax, I forgot. You don’t believe that important, cultured women can be involved in nefarious things. Or is it just the important society women you’re fucking? I remember when you refused to believe that Deidre Cummings wasn’t anything but an easy lay.”
Knowing that he’d tripped a wire for them both, Jax sought to recover. “Whoa, Sergeant. My apologies. My remark was uncalled for. Every glowing bit of press you received in the Diva case you deserved and more.” He shook his head with a questioning frown. “Dammit, Viviana, I agree that Annabelle Simpson can be annoying—mostly because she is such a neophyte in the power circles she’s been forced to occupy. But, hell, innocent Annabelle is as different from Deidre Cummings as a python is from a pussycat. Which begs the question. What could the mayor’s wife possibly have done to put a bug up your classy butt?”
Viviana leapt to her feet. “Sorry, Commander Bannon, I’ve decided I’m not hungry. If you don’t mind, I’ll take a rain check on our lunch.” Ignoring Jax’s deep frown as he rose from his chair, she backed through the doorway. “I’ve decided I need to run more than I need to eat.” Before Jax could stop her, she’d made a beeline for the squad room exit.
Jax slammed his eyes closed and sucked in a deep breath. Dammit, he should have known that he and Viviana were treading through a minefield. It was hard enough to maintain a professional stance when they were in sync. Apparently it was impossible to do when they were angry with each other. Turning to Greg, he raised his hands in defeat. “Sorry, buddy, I didn’t mean for that to happen. I truly did intend to invite Viviana to have lunch with me. We parted on less than satisfactory terms last night, and I wanted to try to repair the damage.”
While Greg’s frowning silence embarrassed him, as it should, Jax couldn’t help turning on his friend. “In addition to apologizing for interrupting your overdue briefing with Sergeant Moreau, you wanna tell me what the hell she is on to with the mayor’s wife?”
Greg gave an exasperated snort. “Damned if I know, Jax.” Not realizing he was pouring gasoline on a smoldering fire, he said with a shrug, “Remember, I’m just her commander.”
Jax managed to stifle his angry retort but didn’t try to mask the threat in his careful response. “I suggest you find out, Commander Bannon.” He added over his shoulder as he headed to the door, “And when you do, I want a detailed report on what the woman you are supposed to be supervising is doing. You remember, Commander. The woman you told me who I needed to back off of and let her be her?”