Which only further reinforced why she had to focus on the work and off Gavin’s body. Or the way she felt when they were together. And definitely off parts farther south.
It’s not like you can get more pregnant...
That little voice had grown stronger, popping up with that argument at inopportune times.
Like when she was kissing him.
Or brushing her teeth.
Or pouring a cup of coffee.
Pretty much every hour no matter what task she was engaged in.
It was why she’d started a nightly visit with his team to keep them all mentally engaged.
Each night Gavin, Kerrigan, Arlo and Wyatt would regroup. Arlo outlined whatever he’d discovered in the course of the investigation while Kerrigan and Wyatt provided updates on the harbor work and feedback from the forensics team on the guns. Sera and Marlowe would then apply their non-cop brains to alternative theories. So far, they’d run the gamut from another crime leader trying for the top spot in town to a new drug node making a go of it to a murder-for-hire group.
Even as each one netted out as a dead end.
Through it all, Sera couldn’t stop thinking there was something they were missing. Something that would explain the erased serial numbers of the guns. No matter how many times she considered the woefully small set of details they knew, that was the one she kept circling back to.
Even the cleanup from the burned-out sub shop hadn’t given them a lot to go on, although they did find out the name of the gunman. He’d been a careful criminal who tended to operate alone, with a relatively short rap sheet after a lifetime of crime. He hadn’t been high on Arlo’s list of local suspects to investigate, but when a search of his home produced ballistics evidence that matched the shots that killed Darius and also shot Valencia, it had given them some measure of reassurance they’d caught the right guy.
It wasn’t much, but it was the one bright spot they’d had in the case, and she knew they were all clinging to it.
“Sera, do you have a minute?”
The interruption was welcome from the endless maze of her thoughts, and she jumped at the opportunity for a diversion. “David! Of course.”
They hadn’t seen much of each other with her task force work keeping her out of the office, and she was surprised, as he took a seat on the other side of her desk, to see that he was looking tired. Even more, he looked worn. While she fully recognized everyone went through periods of difficulty, she had to admit it was a shock to see him looking less than the dapper figure he cut in the courtroom and around town.
It was hardly a fair assessment. The pressure on him was immense, the responsibility for ensuring justice for a borough filled with more than two million people unrelenting.
With her smile firmly intact, she wondered how she could provide support. “Is there anything I can help you with?”
“I came to ask you the same. The news of what’s been happening out of the 86th is concerning. Especially when it came to my attention that you were involved.”
“Oh, well, I—” She wasn’t sure what to say. His tone was conciliatory, with a clear layer of concern. But it was overlaid with...well, censure, Sera admitted to herself. “I wouldn’t say I was involved.”
“You weren’t there?”
“Yes, I was. But thankfully, I wasn’t the target. I was able to help.”
“These are terrible risks, Sera. I put you up for the task force because I wanted to see you advance. But I can’t afford to lose you.”
“I hardly think—” She’d barely worked up a head of steam when she stopped at the strange twist of his lips.
What was going on with him?
David Esposito hadn’t become one of the city’s top legal minds—or the district attorney of New York’s largest borough—because he was easily swayed. But she also wasn’t comfortable sitting by letting him think she was going to kowtow to some ridiculous order to stand down when someone needed help.
Or was this simply a different side of him?
She’d worked for him for years and had believed she knew him, but it was entirely possible she’d only seen a side of him that he wanted her to see. And since she’d cultivated a reputation of quiet acceptance of the endless workload all while driving impeccable results, he’d had no reason to show her displeasure.
But now?
I put you up for the task force because I wanted to see you advance. But I can’t afford to lose you.
Lose her?
Well, he’d shown his true colors that every action—every opportunity given—was only to advance his own standing. It was sad, but really, why should her boss be any different from anyone else?
“You hardly think what, Sera? That you’re not at physical risk from the madman prowling the streets? You’re fraternizing with the same people who are being targeted. How does that make you safe?”
Whatever else she might have said, it all died away. David actually thought she might be at risk of being killed?
“David, it was two incredibly unfortunate incidents. The gunman for both crimes has been caught, and the case has been closed. I’m fine.”
“Until you become a target.”
Something distinctly cold uncoiled in her gut at his insistence.
“It’s a risk we all carry working in this office,” he pressed on. “One that you’re now flaunting by traipsing around town with a killer on the loose.”
What was wrong with him? And using words like flaunt and traipse? As if she were flouncing around town in a ball gown and heels, taunting a killer?
One who’d been caught in a trap of his own making.
