Which made his next words a wonderful balm to those roiling thoughts that never seemed to fully land.
“But the part that’s just about you and me? I do know I want to find out.”
“Me, too.”
The knock at the door had them pulling apart, a reminder there was still a lot in their present they needed to work out.
But as she opened the door to her smiling aunt and uncle, gesturing them in and watching as Gavin exchanged respectful, warm pleasantries with them both, she had the first real assurance that things would be all right.
She’d already found that months ago for her future with the baby. From those very first moments, she’d known things would work out. She was going to be a mother, and the deepest part of her embraced that from the start.
But this time with Gavin? It had given her hope for their future, too. Hope that no matter where they ended up, they’d find a path forward.
Romance? Friendship? Co-parenting?
Who knew?
Maybe she didn’t need to have all the answers right now. Maybe, Sera thought as she left Uncle Enzo and Gavin to talk in the living room and she and Aunt Robin crossed to the kitchen to check on the lasagna, it was enough for right now to simply know that he’d be there.
The news out of the 86th was encouraging.
Slow, like a drip feed, but encouraging all the same.
No leads. No suspects. And not one single witness. Which meant no one, not even a crew led by the biggest hotshot detective in the department, had made a dent in discovering the sniper across from the bar.
Nor had anyone actually figured out how Darius St. Germaine fit into the equation.
But it had given him an idea.
It was so pedestrian to target cops. Going after their families was far more effective. It did maximum destruction and damage, all while inciting panic and fear. Two traits that made even the most stalwart professional lose their ability to think clearly.
And it was a fitting punishment while he hunted for a new dumping ground for the weapons.
Which, despite the satisfaction he got from sowing these seeds of unrest, was his real problem in all this.
That dumping ground up at Hell Gate had been perfect. Easy to get to, isolated enough to be ignored during the dump itself and not on the beaten path of Harbor’s normal routines. That miserable confluence of water patterns had been his saving grace. Literally, the perfect hiding place for his crimes.
Only now, all he needed was for the NYPD to put one weapon together with a former case out of his office, and they had a problem on their hands. The chances were slim, but possible all the same.
And he preferred his odds absolutely stacked in his favor.
It was why he’d put Sera on the task force, effectively removing her from an upcoming case that might require...disposal of evidence. It was also why her appearance on that harbor boat was a concern.
He kept close tabs on all his ADAs, and she’d never given a whiff of anything improper or outside of team norms. Nor would he have pegged her for fraternizing within the task force.
But she’d been on that boat.
And his sniper, Bart Alonzo, had described her to a T.
Even more interesting, he’d described her with one of the Harbor team members. Even after considerable probing on that front, Bart had maintained his belief they were a couple.
So he’d keep an eye out. And he’d see if there was something going on with her and one of the Harbor guys. He’d use that knowledge to probe a bit further when they were together, gently coaxing whatever he could get out of her.
In the meantime, he had a follow-up assignment to plan for Bart.
Harbor was targeted first. He’d considered going after another one of theirs—that safecracker was a hot number and had a lot of name recognition in the borough—but that was awfully high-profile, too. Maybe too high-profile. Besides, the scare tactics would likely work better across a broader swath of the department.
He considered all the work underway on the cache of weapons and knew he had his next target.
Forensics.
Give the brave and honorable science geeks something to really worry about. They weren’t used to the danger on the streets or under the water. Which would only ratchet up the fear factor tenfold.
The plan had merit. A hell of a lot of it, as a matter of fact. And he had all the resources he needed, right here at his fingertips. Case notes. Discovery files with reams of data. All underpinned with the name of every man or woman who’d ever worked forensics out of the 86th.
It really was good to be king, David Esposito thought as he tapped in a few commands into his computer.
Very, very good.
The stink eye he’d expected from Robin and Enzo when he and Sera shared their news was, thankfully, short-lived.
Gavin had braced for it, well aware Sera’s aunt and uncle were a test run for their meeting with his own mother.
Sera’s aunt and uncle had certainly sized him up, asking several pointed questions about his intentions. But it was a testament to their love for Sera that they quickly shifted gears to excitement over the baby and all the plans to welcome him or her to the family.
Of marked interest was the lack of mention of her parents.
No reference to them or the standard question of what do they think? Not even a subtle nod to them if they’d passed away.
