Chapter 7

"And where is Alec? Why isn't he here too?"

"I'm right here."

The commissioner looked past Genevieve to watch Alec stalk in, but she didn't make an effort to glance behind her. Her mind was caught up in a bold doubt, and she couldn't even feel a presence settle beside her.

"Good evenin-"

"Cut the crap, Chief."

That managed to snap her out of her trance. She side eyed Alec with a questioning look, but chose to stay silent. Granted, that they both held a certain level of dislike towards the commissioner, Genevieve felt that it wasn't necessary to display the aversion.

Alec on the other hand, looked less than friendly. His irritation wasn't clearly evident on his unreadable face, but it managed to leak into his voice. He had heard almost the entire exchange between Genevieve and the chief, and when he couldn't control his annoyance towards him, he barged into the conversation.

"What's with the stalling? I'm sure her explanation was more than enough."

Genevieve's eyes widened and she snapped her head towards Alec to look at him. The Alec in question was completely unfazed by her stare of bewilderment. His eyes were set on the chief in a challenging way, and it was almost as if he was questioning his authority with just a look.

"I think it's time you stopped lazing around and got some work done." Alec tilted his head to side ever so slightly while he continued to watch a simmering commissioner.

"That is enough!" The chief had reached his breaking point. He slammed a palm on the desk before shooting up from his seat. Genevieve could have sworn a corner of Alec's mouth quirked up at that.

"No matter how... skilled you are, I am your superior, and you will talk to me that way. I shall tell you what to do, not the other way around." He snapped, and his pasty complexion turned red with fury. The commissioner looked like a cartoon character to both of them, and the only thing missing in his enraged demeanor was smoke exiting his ears.

"What are you doing?" Genevieve hissed after taking a half step in Alec's direction, to which he responded with an indistinct smirk but never removed his eyes off of the old man. He didn't verbally reply either. Instead, he took long strides towards the commissioner before stopping right in front of his desk. His hands stuffed themselves into the pockets of his slacks, and he took a second to eye the furious man in front of him.

"I'm entirely certain that you wouldn't want the government's cash flow to be disrupted, after all, that's where you get your paycheck from." He began casually, which infuriated the chief further. But he didn't say anything, because he knew Alec was right.

"So, if you don't want to be pegged as a commissioner who couldn't do his job, I suggest you start making some calls."

'Well damn'.

A half chuckle escaped from Genevieve but she swiftly covered it up with a cough. She couldn't fathom how Alec could get away with talking to the commissioner like that. Had anyone else been in his place, they would have been dismissed from their job. Permanently.

A small moment of silence ensued after his declaration, when the chief decided to just stare at him hatefully. He managed to finally comb some words up after Alec's statement settled in.

"Get out."

"With pleasure."

Alec didn't wait a second. He spun on his heel and strolled out of the office almost immediately. Genevieve's eyes followed his movement as he left, and she glanced back at the fuming commissioner. With a curt nod she too left, and upon closing the door, she speed walked in Alec's direction and planted herself right in front of him. His steps halted immediately and he raised a brow in question.

"He-"

"No need to thank me. I did it for the case, not for you."

A series of emotions took over Genevieve, ranging from mild confusion to boiling anger. She was actually going to voice her doubts about the commissioner, but once again Alec reminded her why she loathed him so much. And usually, it was his nonchalance that infuriated her more than his words.

Genevieve watched Alec through narrowed eyes and parted lips while she contemplated on beating the lights out of him. The idea seemed heavenly at the moment, but she realized shortly after that she had better things to do than thrash an egotistical cop.

"You're a pig." She spat before walking away. It was rather childish, but that was the only insult Genevieve could think of in the midst of her increasing rage. The way he easily managed to push her to anger, such anger that could blind her was truly astonishing.

A slow grin spread on Alec's lips as he watched her stomp away. There was something about getting on her nerves that managed to entertain him, even in the most serious of situations. It was safe to say that she's been the first person whose irritation amused him.

'She's fun. A pain in the ass, but fun'.

Alec didn't make a move to leave until Genevieve disappeared from his line of sight. When she did, he resumed his steps which were interrupted by her just earlier, and his mind reverted back to the more pressing matter at hand.

_________________

"Keep them all focused on the vaults, Amber."

"Done."

One of the perks of being the biggest police station in the city, is that they could easily access every CCTV camera in the region. Malls, schools, supermarkets, street lights- you name it. It wasn't necessarily an invasion of privacy since they weren't bugging changing rooms. And, because the person in control of the surveillance room was a responsible woman. The chances of a perverted man bugging people's bathrooms in his free time were automatically reduced because of that.

Genevieve stood behind her seated colleague with folded arms. Her eyes trained themselves on every monitor, and they took their sweet time to visually inspect the screens.

"That guy needs to get fired." Amber observed as she leaned backwards in her chair and laced her fingers together behind her neck. The man in question was a security guard, who was dozing off on duty. Genevieve gave a scoff in response, but her eyes continued to glaze over the footages. She was too busy visually scanning the countless monitors that she didn't really care about a useless guard.

After her little encounter with Alec, Genevieve had stormed off to the surveillance room in the station. The motive behind that was to access the cameras of every government owned bank and jeweler. She was smart enough to not pay a visit to every single place and waste her time, so she simply sat back and let Amber work her magic.

Right now, all the monitors displayed their focus on the vaults of every bank. In case a robbery was to take place despite the heavy security that was placed, Amber would alert backup, as well a SWAT team with just the press of a few buttons.

"How's handsome doing?"

Genevieve ripped her gaze from the monitors and settled it on her with scrutiny. Regardless of the slight annoyance at that statement, she took a second to observe Amber's beautiful features that glowed under the fluorescent lights of the computer displays.

"Come on, you know he's good looking." Amber jabbed with a wink that was shot in Genevieve's direction, and she rolled her eyes as a reply.

"I just know that his words are soaked in honey every time he talks to you."

'No need to thank me. I did it for the case, not for you.'

'Touch them, and you die.'

'For your information, I'm not exactly dying to work with you.'

A constipated look lingered on Genevieve's features for a couple moments before she burst out laughing. Amber watched her break down, and the hearty giggles put a grin on her face as well. She didn't exactly crack a joke so the snickers made no sense.

"Nope." Genevieve chuckled, shaking her head at the absurd assumption.

"He hates me. I hate him. Everyone's happy."

Amber raised a puzzled eyebrow at that.

"Well, what have you done to make him hate you?"

"Absolutely noth-"

'That's a huge lie', Genevieve mused internally. It truly was, and reels of everything she had done to make Alec despise her rolled inside her head.

"All I did was kick him there, and arrest him because I thought he was some gangster. A notorious crook who he'd been tracking for months, escaped from his clutches because of that." She admitted with a cheeky grin.

"But hey, he got kicked because he started it."

This time Amber was the one who burst into a fit of chuckles, and she clutched her stomach for a while. Her eyes watered up too.

"Thats- oh my god." She gasped, and it took her a while to compose herself.

"That's my girl." She muttered adoringly, though the laughter was still evident in her voice.

Genevieve fluttered her eyelashes in response, before turning her head to look back up at the screens. But her mind was elsewhere. It was wandering towards something else, or rather, someone else.