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By two thirty she was in the office. Suzanne was behind the reception desk writing a letter to pass time. Why Rankin insisted they needed a receptionist was beyond Velvet’s understanding. Most of her calls came directly to her, and she was more than capable of setting up her own appointments. Nonetheless, she liked the older blonde woman and didn’t mind keeping her on salary. Business was that good.
“Oh Miss Washington,” Suzanne said, noticing her after she crossed the lobby and just before she went into the hallway leading to her office. “Mister Rankin was expecting you earlier.” She eyeballed the baby girl sitting on Velvet’s hip, but made no comment. “He stepped out about an hour ago. He said to tell you to wait for him.”
“Oh,” Velvet replied. She remembered to smile. Rankin was the jerk, not Suzanne.
“He said to tell you to wait in his office.”
“Rankin told you to tell me all that?” Velvet shifted Carmen to her other hip.
“Yes, he was very serious too,” Suzanne said and picked up her pen, putting it back to her paper. After a few words, a big shadow covered her desk. “Uh, Miss Washington?” She wasn’t smiling or paying mind to where the baby’s fingers went on her face. “Uh,” Suzanne repeated with a bit of unease because Velvet’s baby blue aura was suddenly slightly visible, outlining her body.
“Miss Suzanne, the next time Rankin presumes he can order me about through you, you tell him I said, “Kiss my ass.”
“Err, um...”
“I’ll be back later, after I’ve re centered myself. You tell Rankin he better be here when I return.”
“Surely.” Suzanne coughed rather uncomfortably. “I’ll tell him what you said.”
“Thanks.” Velvet bounced Carmen on her hip, then strolled out of the building.
~*~
Rankin stood in his doorway, studying her as she took her time leaving her office. It was nearly five o’clock now, and she’d returned nearly an hour earlier. Childish, Rankin thought. And she called herself a leader. Crossing his arms, he watched her stand Carmen on the floor, then lead her holding her fingers across the hall up to his doorway. After a moment or two, he backed up into the office, and went to his desk. Infuriating was the word for Velvet Washington. Always trying his nerves!
“Come on, sweets,” she encouraged Carmen to keep walking. “Just a little bit farther.” After two more baby steps, Carmen’s legs gave out. With a little cry, she fell against Velvet’s leg. “Oh, oh! She fell down!” Velvet scooped her up in her arms.
“Just sit that brat on the sofa,” Rankin instructed.
“I’d rather hold her.”
“You call this professional behavior? Bringing a child into a place of business?”
She gave him a roll of her eyes rather than retorting with him, and took her seat in a chair rather than the sofa he suggested. “So what was so important, Rankin?”
“This company, Velvet. The business and its people.” He waited for her to look at him. “Though you are our employer, you have responsibilities to us. We’ve certain rights around here or am I wrong?”
“You aren’t wrong,” she allowed.
“Then do you also agree that you’ve lost focus and behaved recklessly recently?”
“I’ve done risky things, but I’m never reckless with you or any team member.”
“In light of Milton’s abrupt exit, you have to admit you need help, guidance even. You allow yourself to be pulled into too many directions at once. You are constantly intervening between Tyra and Wilder. Come on, Vee! A slayer and a vampire working together is outrageous! One of them should leave.”
“Of course, what you really mean is, I should kick Wilder out.”
“True. That would be my vote. Except for keeping an eye on you what does he really do? He’s only available at night and that is only half the time. As a silent partner-”
“Forget it. Anything else?”
“Yes. I have to point out again that the most reckless thing you’ve done to date is bring an unknown child among us. A child we can only guess is an instrument of some force against you. And yet you embrace her.”
“I guess you would have left her on the ladies room floor.”
“Yes, I would have. As I would have done nearly everything you’ve done recently quite differently.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes, really!” Why was it so hard to talk to her these days? His mind went back to a time when she seemed to value his every opinion, when her face softened whenever he walked into a room to join her. When she preferred him by her side in battle. Those days were short lived.
“Rankin?”
“What?”
“What do you want? Cut to the chase already.”
And always so impatient with him these days.
“Rankin.”
“I require professionalism around here, Vee! I am the office manager, how can I do my job when there is always chaos? Chaos you bring to us because you can’t ignore Jerome!”
“Jerome is the menace to this society! I can’t and I won’t ignore him! The trouble in this town is vampires and in case you haven’t noticed, the werewolves are organizing with them, giving them protection and extra strength. So my boot is staying on Jerome’s and Troy’s throats until I feel I should let up.”
“Then kill him for God’s own sake! Get it done! Give me the word and I’ll do it!”
“Stop it, Rankin. We aren’t cold blooded killers. You said yourself, Leroy isn’t dead so revenge killing is off the table. Things have to be done properly or we’ll have the city coming after us. We’d become the bad guys.”
“I just know things can’t go on this way. Doesn’t what happened to Leroy tell you anything?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s not the same thing it told you,” she said rising. Carrying Carmen on her hip, she walked over to Rankin. He felt obligated to stand as well. “If you want to be somebody’s boss, why don’t you open your own business? You’ve got the money and skill. Why are you trying to undermine me all of a sudden?”
“Damn it, Velvet. Why won’t you listen to me anymore? Does a man have to sleep with you on a regular basis before you can hear anything he says?”
“What are you trying to tell me? All I hear is a lot of whining.”
“I’m only saying one thing. Your leadership is really starting to suck. You need to step back. I am qualified to run the office as well as lead in the field with the crew.”
“And what am I supposed to be doing?”
“You can play mommy,” Rankin readily replied.
“I tell you what. Why don’t you go ahead and assert yourself more, but you won’t make any changes to personnel. As far as the field goes, I’ll make it a point to consider your input more.”
“That’s it? That’s all you are willing to agree on?”
“Look, I think you need to get this straight. This is my business. My only partners are Milton and Wilder. And Wilder is silent. You are a senior associate, just above Tyra and Devon.”
“You are never going to get over it are you?”
“Get over what?”
“That you couldn’t make it work with me.”
“Why are you bringing that up?”
“Until you became dissatisfied with the course of our relationship, you treated me as if I were valuable to you and this agency. We stopped being lovers and now-”
“We were not lovers.”
“Is that where I failed you? If I’d taken you to bed things would definitely be different.”
“It would have been a grave mistake. You know that.”
“I know you didn’t give us a real chance.”
“If I’d gotten closer to you physically, Wilder would have gone berserk, literally.”
“Ah, I see. Everything is always about him.” She certainly would not let harm come to her vampire. He almost pitied her. Being stuck with a vampire she could not love anymore.
“Just remember my name is on the letterheads and the front door. That ain’t going to change. Got that?”
“Loud and clear.” He walked past her to open the door for her to carry Carmen with her out of his office. He followed them out to the front desk.
~*~
“I hope you haven’t taken anything I said the wrong way. I think a lot of you as a woman and I admire what you have tried to do with the agency.”
“But you can do it better?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Frankly, yes I can.” He wasn’t bragging either. She knew he was confident after carefully studying everything about her. Shoot, he probably was capable of doing anything better than she, but that wasn’t the point. Velvet Washington and Associates was hers. She’d spent the years fighting politics and monsters for her place in Fairlight. Some slick character like this ancient Egyptian grinning at her was not going to just jump on her broomstick and ride without paying his dues.
She sat Carmen on the desktop to fasten her coat and tie her cap under her chubby chin. Suzanne once again looked at the baby and said nothing. Obviously, she and Rankin had discussed her. It made Velvet mad. She always liked Suzanne for the grandmotherly figure she represented. Now, she wondered if the woman was taking cues from Rankin.
“Suzanne, why are you ignoring this child?”
“Excuse me?”
“I bring a baby into the office and you don’t comment. What’s up with that?”
“What’s up with...”Suzanne looked at Rankin who stood frowning at Velvet. “I wasn’t- err, I mean, I didn’t mean anything.”
“Uh huh.” Velvet took Carmen off the desktop and turned back to Rankin. Why did she put up with him anyway? Because of Tyra, she knew that and he knew it as well. Tyra would leave with him, and a big loss it would be for the team. Her name alone commanded fear, if not respect of her skill as a warrior. But Velvet also suspected Rankin was not ready to go anywhere, as he was most likely up to something and thinking she was a dummy. “Wonder why I never saw it before,” she spoke out loud.
“Excuse me?” Suzanne was nervous.
“I was talking to myself.”
“Would you like me to walk you to your car?” Rankin asked.
“Why would I need you walking me to my car?”
“Vee, I was just trying to be a gentleman. Anyway, do you really think it is safe to be carrying a child around with you?”
“It’s about as safe as you questioning me in front of the help.”
“Velvet.”
“Kiss my ass,” she suggested, and crossed to the front exit.
“As always,” he retorted sourly.
One day she was going to really have it out with him, she thought as she hugged Carmen securely to her chest and took flight from the parking lot. If Rankin was watching he’d be having a fit, and she wished he was doing just that. He did have a point though, carrying Carmen around wasn’t so smart. Devon and Tyra liked the child just fine, but they weren’t babysitters.
“What to do with you, huh?” Placing her in a protected bubble and leaving her alone wasn’t right. Nor could she expect Devon and Tyra to continue giving up their free time to watch her, even though they were practically living at her house these days. “Well, I’ll just have to impose you on them a little longer.”