She wanted to play this cool. Wanted to be one of those women who came off like they ate men like this for breakfast and found a new one by dinner. Women for whom flirtation came quick and easy.
Women who didn’t carry the scars of abandonment into adulthood.
But she wasn’t.
Which was why she stepped back, instead focusing on the questions that had rolled through her mind as they’d come onto the harbor docks.
“Well, um. I was thinking, actually...”
Gavin seemed to sense her reluctance and stepped back himself. “Go on.”
“What about other jurisdictions? There are endless miles of waterway in and around the country. How do other places do the same sort of work? This is an impressive outfit you’ve got here, and I can’t imagine it’s nearly this sophisticated in other places.”
“Most large cities have the same. Los Angeles and San Francisco are well outfitted. Miami and DC, too.” He stopped and looked around at all that lay before them, from boats to equipment to an even larger ship docked outside the shed-like overhang that protected this area of the marina. There was a crane built into the boat and an oversize deck wide enough to hold several vehicles.
“But yes, we’re incredibly fortunate to have all this. And there are a heck of a lot of water-based locations that simply get by with what they have. Several have volunteer services, too. Better-than-amateur divers who choose to train for rescue certifications and offer their skills.”
“I saw something about that recently,” she realized. “That big news story out of Bucks County last summer, down between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. There was a whole team of volunteers who saved several people from the rushing waters of the Delaware River.”
“That’s exactly it. There are many municipalities who benefit from that sort of support.”
“Which circles us back to the start of this. How is evidence managed in those places?”
“It’s part of training.”
“Sure, but I have to imagine your training and the professional expectations of you are considerably higher.”
“They are. But those groups are also more search-and-rescue-based than evidence recovery. Much as we’d like to believe every criminal is caught, a lot of people get away with a lot of bad things. And capturing the evidence correctly makes it easier for you and your colleagues to do their jobs.”
As if to punctuate his point, a loud shout of laughter echoed off the cavernous space as a team came walking down to the dock. Several had large bags swung over their shoulders, and despite the obvious camaraderie, there was a seriousness in their demeanor as they all headed for the boat she and Gavin stood in front of.
“We picked a good time,” he said. “That’s the forensics and evidence crew. We’ll go out with them if you’re still up for it.”
“Absolutely.”
After brief introductions and an explanation of what they were doing, she and Gavin boarded a large boat with the NYPD’s logo printed on the side. After safety checks and a quick run-through for her on where to find life vests and where the radio system was housed, they were on their way.
Gavin moved into a discussion with the leader of the forensics team, getting an update on the day before. Sera used the time to head for the back of the boat. The slip they’d left and the overhang that protected the docks grew smaller as they pulled out of Sunset Bay and began the journey toward New York Harbor and the entrance to the East River.
The city rose majestically in the distance, the iconic New York skyline unmistakable beneath a gorgeous blue sky. That decided nip in the air she’d ignored on her morning walk was positively frigid in the breeze kicking up off the water, and she crossed her arms, unwilling to go back inside the boathouse and miss the views.
Which made the jacket that came around her shoulders, already warmed by Gavin’s body heat, a welcome treat. Especially when she could inhale the soft scent of him enveloping her. It wasn’t anything she could put a name to, but she was attracted enough—and pregnant enough—to know there was a sizable hit of pheromones making her own hormones work overtime.
Who knew her increased scent receptors that had made it so difficult to keep food down would augment the scent of him in such a wonderful way?
“It’s cold out here.”
“It’s too pretty a day with too gorgeous a view to sit inside.”
He pointed out a few last things around the Brooklyn shoreline before they made the turn for the East River. “It won’t be too much farther, and you can see the team in action.”
She glanced around once more, her gaze seeming to look everywhere all at once. The Manhattan skyscrapers to the west, the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges rising above them as they passed beneath and the East River stretching before them as they navigated north.
“We’re almost there.”
“I can’t believe you do this all the time.” She turned to him, and once more was caught up in that warm gaze.
No, warm hungry gaze, she corrected herself.
Each encounter they’d had since the start of the task force only grew more intense than the last. Only made what they’d shared at New Year’s feel that much more tangible.
As if a baby hadn’t already done that.
Even so, she’d managed to separate her pregnancy from her feelings for Gavin in her mind. She loved this baby already and had from the very first moment she’d discovered she was pregnant. But the father...
What she felt for Gavin was complex and confusing and...well, wonderful. She kept trying to ignore that fact, yet circled back around to it, over and over again. She enjoyed his company.
So as they stood there, side by side on the back of a boat navigating the East River, Sera let down her guard and leaned into him.
And didn’t try to move away when his arm came around her shoulders, pulling her close.
The stealth surveillance cameras caught the work up near Hell Gate in exquisite clarity. Proof that you could get what you paid dearly for, the Organizer thought as he watched video so clear he could make out the puffs of breath from the divers coming up out of the water in the cool morning air.
The cameras had been a risk: discovery always a possibility, but a worthwhile one. He hadn’t regretted their installation for a minute.
But it was this moment that had paid off.
He’d had a clear view of the work pulling up the weapons he’d so carefully hidden. And he’d watched the crew managing the find, already thinking how he could take care of each and every one of them.
