“About an hour before we closed, an elderly lady came in and wanted to discuss some pieces she wanted to sell. She claimed they were from her honeymoon in Rome and thought they were valuable art.”
Intrigued, Jack tipped his head. “What were they?”
Viv picked up her fork and took a bite of her potato. “I’m not sure. She had some pictures, but didn’t want to bring the actual pieces without talking to Laney first.”
That all sounded like a typical, boring day. A day that didn’t help him one bit. But something was off. Viv had literally frozen when he’d first mentioned her workday at O’Shea’s, then she wouldn’t look at him.
“You’re sure that’s all?” he asked.
She shifted Katie to the other arm, which only aided in pulling her jacket open a bit more when Katie’s hand got caught in the V. Viv did readjust the gap, but not before he was awarded another view of the swell of her breast.
“I’m just stressed,” she assured him with a smile. “Katie is teething and the auction is going to be here before we know it. Working at O’Shea’s isn’t just me snooping and eavesdropping. They expect me to actually do a job, so it’s tiresome at times.”
Not to mention all the work she was doing for him. She was technically a single mother working two part-time jobs. But that part-time added up and when he was constantly meeting her outside of business hours, that didn’t help. Damn it, he was ready to wrap this case up and let the justice system take care of this mob family. But he had to be patient. It was a trait he hated, yet it was necessary in his line of work.
With Katie resting peacefully, Viv continued to eat. Jack didn’t press the topic again. He didn’t know if he was just reading too much into her actions or if she was truly just stressed, but he wasn’t about to add more to her plate.
“They don’t suspect you, right?”
Viv took a sip of her wine. “They suspect everyone who’s been in and out of that office. But, not me specifically. I’m careful, Jack.”
Why was his name on her lips like a tight ball of lust hitting his gut? He couldn’t afford the distraction—especially when it came to his damn assistant.
When this case was over, he’d head to his villa in Italy. He could relax, find a woman to spend a meaningless night with. He clearly was not thinking straight and he blamed everything on being overworked and sexually frustrated.
“There is a new shipment of paintings coming in on Monday,” Viv went on, oblivious to the turn in his thoughts. “I’m supposed to be off, but I thought I’d see if I could come in and just tell them I’d like some extra hours.”
Jack curled his fingers around the tumbler of bourbon and considered her idea. “I wouldn’t. They already know someone is leaking information. If you ask for extra time, that could be a red flag. I need you to do everything as you always had before.”
Viv nodded. “I guess that makes sense. I just wish there was more I could do.”
Taking a hearty, warm gulp of his favorite twenty-year bourbon, Jack wished there was more to be done. But he wasn’t inside, and using Viv as his eyes and ears was the only thing he could do at this point.
“I’d rather you explore the Parkers’ angle,” he told her, easing back in his seat and glancing at the sleeping baby. “You have the perfect lead-in, especially when you’re with Laney. Continue to talk about Katie, discuss how she’s adjusting, throw in the loss of her parents and you’ve opened up the floor.”
Viv pushed her plate back, wrapped both arms around the baby and pursed her lips. “That could work. Laney and I tend to always discuss the baby when we’re not talking about the auction.”
“Now’s the time. That’s the angle we need to work. If we can find out more about the night they were killed, I know it will circle us right back to the O’Sheas.”
Jack didn’t care what the initial charges were. This corrupt family had plenty of crimes they could be pinned with. But first he needed concrete evidence that proved the O’Sheas weren’t so squeaky clean.
No matter who was in charge now that Patriarch Patrick O’Shea had passed, this family was into illegals so deep, there was no way they could’ve gotten out in such a short time.
“I’ll be there from eight to noon tomorrow,” she reminded him, as if he didn’t have her schedule memorized down to the very last second. “I need to take Katie to the doctor for a checkup, so I’ll text you when I leave work.”
When Katie started to stir, Viv came to her feet. Rocking gently back and forth, Viv patted the baby’s back in an attempt to calm her once again. Jack watched as she instantly went into mother mode. Viv was the most giving person he’d ever known. A born nurturer. He’d checked her background thoroughly before hiring her, so he knew she’d never married or had kids. He’d seen quite a bit of hospitalizations when she’d been young, but she’d never mentioned an illness, so he never asked. He could’ve easily found out, but he’d snooped enough and didn’t want to betray her trust at this point. Honesty was of the utmost importance to him and he expected it to be a two-way street.
“I should get her home,” Viv stated. “She needs to rest and I need to get my own downtime or I’ll be of no use to anyone.”
Viv wasn’t a superhero, though she was a working foster mother juggling two jobs and carrying a colossal lie on her shoulders, so that was pretty much the same thing. Jack set his napkin on the table and rose to stand in front of her.
“Why don’t you see if your neighbor can watch Katie for a few hours extra each day so you can relax?” he suggested. “I’ll pay for it if that’s an issue.”
Viv’s brows shot up. “I don’t care about the money, Jack. The reason I became a foster mother was to care for children who don’t have anyone. Pawning Katie off on my neighbor just so I can nap will never be an option.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he retorted, though she’d made him look uncaring, which was not the case. He cared...too much. “If you don’t look out for yourself, how do you expect to do everything else?”
Her lids lowered, her breath came out on a deep sigh. She shook her head before meeting his gaze. “Everything I do is for those I care about. This child, you. I have no family, Jack, so I work to fill a void. When I stop working, when I stop caring for those around me, I start to think. I don’t want the down time. I can’t mentally afford it. Do you get what I’m saying?”
Jack swallowed the lump in his throat. How could she put his thoughts, his emotions, into such perfect terms? It was like they lived a parallel life, and he desperately wanted to know what made her this way. Why did she use work as her coping mechanism?
He’d already known she had no family. He of all people understood the need to connect with something in life and he clung to work...apparently so did she. He’d never heard her so passionate about it before, but he understood the ache, the emptiness that needed to be filled.
“You’re talking to the workaholic,” he told her, trying to lighten the intensity of the mood. “I just wanted to make sure you were taken care of, as well.”
Shoulders squared, she tipped her head. “I assure you, I’m fine. But I do need to get home and I promise I’ll text you tomorrow. We’ll get this,” she assured him. “We’ve come this far, we’ll make it the rest of the way.”
Jack helped her with the diaper bag, then assisted her with her coat and Katie’s coat—which was no easy feat, considering she was still asleep.
Once Viv was gone, Jack leaned against the front door and stared into the empty two-story foyer. Yeah, he understood perfectly about not having anyone. He’d bought this massive home in Beacon Hill after his wife died. He couldn’t stay in the small cottage he’d bought for her, the place where they’d planned to start their family. While he’d wanted to burn the cottage to the ground, he ended up selling it to a young newlywed couple who had the same dreams he’d once had.<
br />
He’d moved on, made more money than he knew what to do with and when he started looking for a permanent residence, he knew he wanted something large...something he’d never be able to fill with a family. He wanted the space so it didn’t feel like the walls were closing in on him.
Some might say he was flashing, living in a huge house all by himself, but he didn’t care. His cars, his vacation home in the mountains, the two homes overseas, they were all material things he’d give up in a second to have someone in his life.
No. Not someone. His wife.
Yet lately, when he would think of someone to share his wealth with, Viv kept popping up. He wanted to scrub that image from his mind because thinking of another woman was surely a betrayal to Carly...right?
As he headed down the hall and passed the kitchen, he instantly remembered the cheesecake. If Tilly came back in the morning and saw that none of it had been eaten, she’d be disappointed.
Easy fix. He’d be gone before she came in and he’d take it to the office with him.
Or he could take it somewhere else.
Viv claimed she didn’t need anyone to look after her, but that was a lie. And Jack would take on the role in the name of business...because that’s all he had time for in his life.
Whatever notions he had in his head about Viv, he had to remember she was his assistant. She could never be anything else.
Three
With Katie turning one next week, Viv had decided that the baby’s shots were going to have to happen on her half day at O’Shea’s.
Now that the doctor’s visit was—mercifully—over, Viv was convinced the shots had hurt her more than they’d hurt Katie. Viv had just walked into her apartment, dumped the diaper bag next to the sofa and put Katie in her Pack ’n Play when someone knocked on her door.
She couldn’t suppress the groan that escaped her. She was soaked to the bone from the chilly rain. All she wanted to do was strip off her wet suit and get into her cozy pajamas. Viv had been able to shield Katie from the elements by wrapping her inside her coat and holding Katie’s favorite blanket over the tot’s head. Now Viv needed to get that blanket into the dryer or there would be hell to pay come bedtime.
The pounding on the door persisted. What were the odds she could ignore her unwanted guest? If she lived in a house, maybe, but in an apartment building she couldn’t have her neighbors put out.
“Vivianna?” Jack’s voice boomed and Viv realized her wish to pretend no one was out there had just vanished.
She crossed the floor, her shoes squishing. She wasn’t even going to glance at her reflection in the mirror next to the door. The drowned-rat look wasn’t becoming on anyone.
Flicking the lock, Viv opened the door. Of course Jack didn’t have one drop of rain on him. The large black umbrella he held at his side was dripping.
“You’re...”
“Soaked,” she finished. “I know. Come on in.”
She stood back so he didn’t have to brush against her as he stepped inside. Katie made noises and clapped when she spotted Jack. Inwardly, Viv tended to have that same reaction, but she wasn’t too keen on the fact that he was seeing her look so haggard and frumpy.
She’d really been confident this morning when she’d left for work in her gray pencil skirt and fitted, pale yellow sweater. She’d even taken extra time with her hair, since Katie had slept in. Now Viv must look like all she’d done this morning was shower...with her clothes on.
She was so over this winter weather. One day it snowed, the next it rained. Spring couldn’t come soon enough. But it was only February, meaning Valentine’s Day was fast approaching. A holiday she could totally live without.
“I brought this for you.”
Katie eyed the dish in his hand. She’d been too preoccupied with her looks to realize he held food.
Glorious food. She didn’t even care if that domed plate held a bologna sandwich, her stomach growled at the sight. She’d skipped lunch because she’d left work late and had barely made it to Katie’s appointment.
“Whatever it is, thank you,” she said, taking the covered plate. She headed toward the kitchen, cringing as her shoes made the most unpleasant noises.
Of all the times Jack could see her, of all the times he had seen her, this was not her best moment. She set the dish on the counter and pulled the lid off. A laugh escaped her.
“Cheesecake?” she asked, turning to glance over her shoulder.
Jacked shrugged out of his suit jacket and hung it on the hook by the door...as if he’d done so a thousand times. Seeing a man’s jacket hanging next to hers did funny things to her belly. Her eyes locked on the two pieces beside each other, and she didn’t want to dwell on it too long, but couldn’t get over the fact that this simple gesture seemed so intimate.
But he wasn’t staying, he was visiting, for pity’s sake. For a second, though, she wanted to pretend. He looked good in his all-black suit, with that rich, dark hair. He’d brought her cheesecake when she looked like a mess, and he didn’t seem appalled by her appearance. If he wasn’t the world’s most perfect man, then one didn’t exist.
Would he ever see her as more than an ally? As more than his assistant?
She hadn’t missed the way he’d sneaked a peek at her cleavage last night. He was a guy; they all did it. But when she’d caught his gaze on her, everything inside her had warmed, tingled. Because he hadn’t just looked and glanced away. No, there had been a hunger in his eyes she hadn’t seen before.
“What are you doing here so early in the day?” she asked, turning to lean back against the counter. “Not that four o’clock is early, but you tend to work much later than this.”
“I had a meeting today not far from here, so I thought I’d come by to see what happened at O’Shea’s today.”
Katie clanged her blocks together and squealed as she flung them out of her Pack ’n Play. Viv ignored them. This toss and fetch was an endless game and one she wasn’t going to get sucked into.
“I need to get out of these wet clothes,” she stated. “Can we talk after?”
His eyes raked over her wet body. Jack never needed words to get his point across. This powerful man had such a hold on her emotions, and he had no idea.
All this was her problem, she knew, but did he ever think of her outside of work? Not that she’d ever know. Jack’s personal life was never on the table for discussion. She knew of Tilly, his right-hand woman, but that was all. Anyone else in Jack’s life was there only because of work. To Viv’s knowledge, he didn’t even date...or if he did, he was extremely discreet.
“I’ll wait in here,” he finally told her.
Viv tiptoed through her kitchen and out into the hallway toward her bedroom. Once inside, she shut the door, thankful for the few moments to herself. She hadn’t expected him to just show up, with carbs and calories no less, so she was even more taken aback than usual.
Before the O’Shea case, Jack had never showed up at her apartment. He’d texted and called after hours, but all pertaining to work. Granted, his recent home visits also centered around work, but he’d seriously stepped up his game in an attempt to bring the notorious family down.
Viv closed her eyes and pulled in a shaky breath. The fact that Patrick O’Shea’s journal was hidden in her closet weighed heavily on her mind. Guilt, anxiety, fear...they all consumed her, making her question her next move.
She hadn’t been lying when she said she had no one in her life. Keeping a relationship with Jack, no matter how platonic, was imperative.
She needed to tell him what she’d learned, but how did she do that without hurting him? The FBI trusted Jack, was counting on him, and he was counting on her. He sought justice like he needed it to live, so telling him about her discovery would cloud his judgment...and hurt him in a way that would alter their r
elationship.
She didn’t want to hurt him, and finding out Patrick O’Shea was his father would most certainly destroy Jack. Still, he deserved to know. The question was, when should she tell him?
Viv made quick work of ridding herself of her wet clothes and shoes. She wasn’t telling him today. She couldn’t. There would be a right time, just...not now. Hopefully, a break in the case would come soon. Then she could give the journal to him and let him decide what to do with the information.
She didn’t bother drying her hair, just twisted it up into a messy bun. After throwing on a pair of yoga pants and an off-the-shoulder sweatshirt, she headed back out into the living room.
Jack still remained closer to the kitchen than the living room. His gaze was directed across the open space at Katie, who was oblivious as she chewed on the fingers of her plush doll.
“Let’s cut into that cheesecake and talk,” Viv suggested. She needed something to occupy her hands, her mind, other than the journal in the other room and the unnerving effect Jack’s presence had on her. “How did your meeting go?”
He didn’t answer her. He never even looked her way.
“Do you think she knows the significant people in her life are gone?” he murmured, almost as if his thoughts had traveled out into the open without his knowledge. “I mean, she seems happy with you, but is she aware of the void?”
Viv thought of that often since Katie had come to live with her. The older kids she had fostered obviously knew all too well the reality of why they were in foster care. But sweet little Katie would have no idea why her world was suddenly so different.
“She says ‘Mama’ over and over, but I’m not sure if she’s just babbling or actually asking for her. But I’m certain she notices the absence.” Viv crossed her arms, stood beside Jack and watched his face. “Are you okay?”
He blinked as if waking from a trance. “It’s been a long couple months. That’s all.”
When he turned to her, Viv stepped back. That intense gaze landed directly on hers and she had no idea what to do with the emotions stirring within her, from the guilt and anxiety over when and how to tell him about the journal, to the tension and chemistry that couldn’t be ignored. It seemed unlikely she was the only one who felt the air crackling between them, yet Jack was in total control and never let on that he thought of her in any other way than simply his assistant.
The Heir's Unexpected Baby Page 3
