The rush of activity had slowed to a crawl as they waited for SWAT’s arrival, and that sudden hush gave him far too much time to consider what was really going on here.
Civilian targets both married to cops.
High-profile shootings in public places full of NYPD personnel. First at a known cop bar and now at a funeral riddled with cops paying their respects.
It wasn’t coincidence. Just like he’d have bet everything on the two incidents being related, Gavin sensed the targeting of loved ones was by design.
What would instill maximum fear in a group who already willingly put their lives on the line for their work? Go after their families.
It played. Way too well, it played.
SWAT arrived on scene, and a perimeter was quickly set up, keeping direct view from the restaurant to a minimum. Their training collectively kicked in, and Gavin and Kerrigan outlined what they knew as they helped with the setup: blocked perimeter; shields to minimize onlooker views while also limiting the view from inside the sub shop; and a relay of the woman who’d been taken hostage and her step-by-step recounting of what had happened.
Gavin stepped back, giving them the room to work as he marked steps around the building, stopping every ten feet to turn in a full circle and consider his surroundings. Unlike the incident in front of Case Closed when Darius had been shot, the street opposite carried no hiding places. Instead, a large storefront took up the majority of the block. Other than heading inside a store, which their perp had done, there was nowhere to hide.
Which meant they were now dealing with a cornered predator.
He continued his mapping of the street, taking in the small, aged smoke shop beside the sandwich shop that was the center of their focus. The few people lingering inside had already come out based on the commotion on the street and had been quickly herded away from the storefront.
Beside that was a small alley. It was small, barely wide enough to fit the width of a truck. It was one of those weird quirks of the way the street had built up that the squat structure housing the smoke shop didn’t fully touch its neighbor, a six-story building with a dance studio on the first floor.
Gavin cataloged it all, waving Kerrigan over. “We need to get down that alley.”
“SWAT has part of the team on the street a block over, coming in from behind. They’ll cover it.”
“Do they know about—”
The words vanished as he caught sight of a body running through the alley behind, the form visible through the tunnel made between the buildings.
He took off and paid no heed to Kerrigan’s shouts behind him telling him to stop.
There was no way the runner wasn’t related to this.
Was it the shooter?
His limited visuals earlier suggested that man was tall and slim, and this figure was smaller but more solid.
Accomplice?
A partn—
The thought died in his mind as his entire world tilted on its axis. Heat like the opening of an oven consumed him in a huge roar before everything went silent. Just before he was bodily lifted by the swirling inferno of violent power and sheer force.
He slammed into something hard, his head hitting the ground the last thing he felt before the world went black.
Chapter 14
Sera paced the hospital waiting room, the four walls fading around her as her mind still only processed an open street in Brooklyn, full of madness and terror and someone determined to mete out death.
The ambulance had arrived shortly after Gavin and Kerrigan took off to chase the shooter, and she’d stood with Mack, his arms empty and his bearing bereft as the EMTs worked over his wife as a team before rushing her away. She’d been in the midst of trying to figure out what to do for someone she’d only just met when one of Jayden’s brothers, Tariq, came to them, his voice warm, caring and his touch easy as he showed them toward his car parked across the street.
I’ll take you to her.
Over and over, those words had thrummed through her mind as Tariq drove them to the hospital.
Would Valencia meet the same end as Darius?
Would there be another funeral?
Would she—
“Sera?”
Kerrigan stood on the opposite side of the waiting room, Arlo and Wyatt flanking either side of her. All three still wore their dress uniforms, but each was covered in a fine white dust, and Kerrigan even had a cut along the side of her cheek.
“Kerrigan!” She rushed toward her. “What happened?”
“Sera, I’m sorry. I have to tell you—”
Sera heard the words, but they sounded like they were coming from very far away. It was only Wyatt stepping forward and taking her elbow, leading her toward an empty row of seats that kept her grounded.
Kept her somehow in her body.
In the moment.
“What’s wrong?” She stared up at Wyatt, his eyes bleak with whatever news they’d come to share.
But it was Arlo who finally spoke. “It’s Gavin, Sera. There was an explosion. The ambulance brought him in, and he’s in with the emergency team right now.”
