They were liabilities.
Even as the fantasy played out, one thought more gruesome than the next, he knew it was just that. A fantasy. No matter how angry, you simply didn’t take out roughly a dozen NYPD officers without anyone noticing.
But someone would have to pay.
He wasn’t sure who or how, but there would be some retribution demanded for this. A needful sort of accounting.
Although he kept himself separate from the operation as a whole, his inner circle still gave him a wide berth. They all realized his carefully leashed temper could turn on them, and everyone was keeping their distance, hard at work looking for a new location.
Nothing would be quite as perfect, but there would be other places. Other forgotten spots that could take the place of this one.
He just needed to do damage control in the meantime.
The activity had been robust around the dump site, and he’d cataloged what was coming up out of the water and the speed of the operation. At the rate they were going, they’d likely have every last weapon by the end of the day.
Which meant he needed to put his plans with the evidence team into motion.
He’d nearly shut down the feed of the dump site and the waters beyond—he would watch more later—when movement at the edge of the screen caught his attention. No sooner did he lean in closer to the monitor when one of the evidence boats moved into view before nearly heading out of the top of the camera’s frame.
But it was the figures on the back of the boat that caught his attention.
Two people, huddled together.
He paused the video, recognition instantly flashing as he looked at the slender figure wrapped in an oversize coat, leaning into the man beside her. Zooming in on the couple, he watched Sera Forte fill his screen, the man beside her looking far more like a companion than a colleague. What the hell was a Brooklyn assistant district attorney doing on the back of the evidence boat?
And why did he have the sinking feeling that the task force he’d used to get her out of the way for a while had just reared up to bite him in the ass?
Unlike his earlier fantasy of just doing away with his enemies, this particular betrayal needed addressing. He’d think on it, but he would find the right moment. In the meantime, it might be worth tossing a diversion everyone’s way.
He hated acting on impulse—it rarely paid off—but his gut told him this required swift action.
And with all those people out on the water, he was pretty sure he knew what would shake them up once they all came home.
The discovery site was a hive of activity, and Gavin took it all in after helping Sera back into the large cabin set atop the recovery boat. A big part of him itched to be in the water with Kerrigan and Jayden and the rest of the team, diving down to pick up the weapons, even as a bigger part of him knew that the opportunities he was being given aboveground mattered.
Captain Reed’s faith in him mattered.
And if that meant he would spend less time in the water over the next few weeks, he had to accept that.
The evidence crew that had joined his Harbor team that morning was pulling out, heading back into the precinct to continue cataloging the weapons. In its place, the boat he and Sera had ridden over on pulled up alongside the NYPD boat that was the epicenter of the Harbor team’s work.
“This is quite an operation.” Sera looked around, her continued questions and awe at the work evident in her voice.
“We’re usually not this heavy with personnel and boats concentrated in one place. Normally, our work’s spread out around the city each day, but this is priority one right now.”
“Yo, Gav!”
He turned to see Kerrigan Doyle waving at him from the water. She was in full gear, and all that was visible was a bright, vivid smile beneath her heavy face mask.
“You’ve got the whole damn department doing your bidding, Doyle! Crews are coming and going for you.”
If possible, that grin grew even wider before she gestured that she’d come up on the boat.
Gavin turned to find Sera taking it all in, her hands on her hips.
“You surprised a woman’s competently doing that job, Hayes?” She’d teasingly called him Hayes before, but this time Gavin didn’t miss the distinct notes of challenge in her voice.
“Never.”
“Good. I don’t want to be wrong about you, you know.”
As he moved around to the ladder side of the boat, he had the distinct realization he didn’t want Sera to be wrong about him, either. A stark reminder that for all they didn’t know about each other, he couldn’t stop the increasing hope that they had a way forward. One that wasn’t just co-parenting, but something more.
“Kerrigan’s one of the best divers on the team,” Gavin said with absolute sincerity. “And she’s an incredible cop. She and another detective in the department were responsible for bringing down that up-and-coming crime ring last fall.”
“Incredible work that we’re still processing in the DA’s office. Wendy Parker managed to do a heck of a lot of damage in her quest to rise to the top of the New York crime syndicate pecking order.”
“She was a determined woman. And she left a wake of destruction, a term I’m using quite literally.”
They’d dived the wreck of a boat in the harbor in the midst of a nor’easter the prior October, a drug trafficking incident gone very bad. The sunken boat and the violent murders of two of the drug runners on it had opened up the case, and Kerrigan had worked it with Arlo Prescott.
“It was great work. And I shudder to think what Wendy would have done if Kerrigan and Arlo hadn’t figured out she was the source of it all.”
Kerrigan crossed over to them after shedding her mask and tanks. “Are you talking about my former high school classmate?”
“You went to school with Wendy Parker?” Sera asked.
Kerrigan nodded as she worked the tight confines of her wet suit down to her waist. “Sure did. And while I’d never have said we were close or even all that friendly, I can honestly say I never took her for a crime lord wannabe.” Kerrigan screwed up her mouth. “Or is that a crime lady? What’s the equivalent of a crime lord?”
