Threats in the Deep
Author
Addison Fox
Reads
18.6K
Chapters
17
They shared one unforgettable night And now they're partners in more ways than one NYPD diver Gavin Hayes can't stop thinking about the woman he rang in the New Year with. Assistant district attorney Sera Forte needs to find the man she spent the night with and break the news of her unexpected pregnancy. When they learn they've been paired up for a new criminal task force, they realize they need to solve more than the mystery they've been given. The burning attraction that brought them together still smolders. But the case Gavin and Sera are working is a dangerous one. Can he protect the woman he loves and their baby?
Chapter 1
Special task force.
Those words swirled through Gavin Hayes’s mind as he prepared himself for a morning in the waters around New York City.
He stared up at the beautiful stretch of the majestic Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge as his police boat moved through the tidal strait that separated Brooklyn and Staten Island on their way toward the Statue of Liberty. The bridge’s arches speared toward the bright blue early spring sky, a testament to man’s ingenuity and sheer prowess at building over, around and through nature.
He was on a patrol shift, and while they had no overt mission at the moment, he had no doubt something would come in before the day was out. He’d worked two recovery jobs yesterday and had done structural checks the day before that. So it was a nice change of pace to just be out on the water, focused on the city that rose up as majestically as the bridge.
The quiet moments were also just low-key enough that he had plenty of time to think through Captain Reed’s invitation to join a special task force in collaboration with the Feds, the Coast Guard and the DA’s office.
It was a welcome change from the endlessly roiling thoughts that hadn’t left him since welcoming in the new year with a gorgeous redhead who’d fled on New Year’s Day never to be seen or heard from again.
Put it in the past, Hayes. Firmly in the past.
There were bigger challenges ahead. Ones that he had some control over. Unlike the reality of being left all alone around three in the afternoon after the most incredible sex of his life.
Which was only a small portion of the problem. The bigger issue was that the sex—amazing as it was—had only been the physical outcome of the most extraordinary eighteen hours he’d ever spent with another person.
Sera.
He could still feel her name on his lips and could still picture the way a lock of her deep auburn hair lay over her cheek as she slept.
Damn, he needed to let this go.
Because all he had were the memories of those eighteen hours and her first name.
He caught the light spray of water as it foamed up from the boat’s wake and imagined it as a cool slap in the face.
Let.
It.
Go.
It was time. He had an exciting new opportunity in front of him and recognized it would be a challenge. A task force full of large governmental entities was a big deal. But the moment you mixed local and federal jurisdictions, things could get sticky quickly.
As much as that was true, he also recognized that New York was different. And while everyone liked returning to their own corners at the end of the day, everyone also understood that governance and security in the largest city in America was unique.
Which only added to his excitement. He’d worked his tail off to make the Harbor team, and he loved what he did in the water, but he also saw it as a path toward his future. The men and women who worked the Harbor team might have expertise in diving, but they were NYPD cops, and as such, he wanted to make detective and continue his progression up the ranks.
The task force would go a long way toward supporting those ambitions.
It was also an opportunity to show what Harbor could do. While he’d felt respected from day one, the uniqueness of his job and the work they did wasn’t as well understood by outsiders. Joining a team with federal as well as local government resources would give him an opportunity to raise the profile of their diving work, too.
While there was a lot of overlap between the Coast Guard’s responsibilities and the Harbor team’s, there were significant differences, as well. The Coast Guard’s remit was far broader, including search and rescue, marine safety and fisheries law enforcement. Gavin and his team supported search and rescue in extreme circumstances, but their work was far more narrowly defined in the realm of public safety and police work, and specific to the waters surrounding the city.
As such, there was clear sharing of jurisdiction in a way that provided minimal friction and maximum benefit to the city of New York.
Especially because once a problem hit Atlantic waters, the Coast Guard took over.
He understood it, Gavin thought as he looked out over the harbor, the Statue of Liberty growing larger as they narrowed the distance. The work. The jurisdictions. Even the politics.
And when you understood something, you could influence the good and help support change of the not-so-good.
“Gav!”
He turned to find their dive lead for the day, Detective Wyatt Trumball. Wyatt had been a force for change on the Harbor team, leading several cases over the past few years that had been both high-profile and well-executed to ultimately help reduce crime in the city.
It had also led him to his new wife, Marlowe McCoy. Granddaughter of one of the 86th Precinct’s most respected detectives, Anderson McCoy, Marlowe was practically a legend in her own right in their Sunset Bay neighborhood. She was the precinct’s favorite lock-and-vault technician and was frequently pulled in on jobs to help open recovered items in the course of casework.
A series of safes, strapped to bodies, that Gavin and Wyatt had pulled up early last fall had been a huge case for the Harbor team.
One that had also created the unexpected proximity for Marlowe and Wyatt to fall in love. Sadly, the case also brought the disturbing news that her grandfather had used his well-respected position of authority in the precinct to hide Marlowe’s father’s misdeeds decades ago.
They’d all reeled from that unsettling revelation, and the lingering fallout hadn’t fully subsided, but Wyatt had held up well under it and so had his new wife. Anderson had come clean and, while not fully exonerated, had been able to avoid jail time due to his overarchingly positive contribution to the NYPD. Now working off his remaining debt in volunteer service, the man was doing some great things with an at-risk youth program several days a week.
Was it justice?
Gavin knew there were several around the 86th who didn’t think so. But others who had already seen some improvements in those at-risk youth thought the tradeoffs were more than fair.
“Hey.” They shook hands in greeting.
Wyatt had already been in the wheelhouse when Gavin boarded, so they’d missed initial hellos as they’d started their shift. Wyatt settled in against the rail as the boat steadily navigated through the harbor.
“Heard the good news about the task force.”
“Word travels fast.”
Wyatt smiled before shrugging. “When the captain asked for recommendations, there was no one else who came to my mind. I couldn’t put you forward fast enough.”
Although they’d always had a good relationship, the endorsement went a long way.
“Thank you.”
“You’re going to knock this one out of the park.”
“It’ll reduce my time on Harbor for the next few months.”
It was the only fly in the ointment of the opportunity, and Gavin had weighed that aspect when Captain Reed first approached him.
“Which will be a loss for us,” Wyatt acknowledged, “—but you have to do this. The opportunity’s too big, and frankly, it’s time to spread your wings a bit. Good things happen here, but the only way we keep getting better is to expand perspective and grow our talent.”
This mindset was a key element of Wyatt’s management. Even bigger than that, it was the ethos of the entire 86th Precinct they were part of in Brooklyn. Under Captain Dwayne Reed’s leadership, those who showed promise were given opportunity.
And, in a virtuous cycle, because people knew there was opportunity, they worked harder and smarter and more collaboratively for it.
“I do think I can make a difference.” Gavin said it because he believed it. Way down deep.
“I know you can.”
“Speaking of different, how’s married life treating you?”
Wyatt had only returned from his honeymoon a few weeks before. “Married life is amazing. Marlowe is incredible. And she proved just how awesome she is by indulging me in a honeymoon full of diving in Grand Cayman.”
It was good to see his friend so happy. More, Gavin admitted, it was encouraging to see him come out the other side. The case that had pulled him and Marlowe together had been difficult, for the work itself, the impact on the precinct and the fact that Marlowe’s father was murdered in the process.
He was well aware that sort of grief didn’t just vanish, but it was good to see people he cared about showing signs of moving past it with the right partner to make it through.
Sometimes the right people did find each other.
It was a sobering thought, especially when all it did was bring to his own mind images of deep blue eyes and lush auburn hair.
Shaking it off, Gavin gave Wyatt a hearty slap on the back. “So you spent two weeks with an amazing woman and crystal-blue water, and now you’re back here.”
He and Wyatt turned to look over the other side of the railing. Although the Hudson had improved considerably over the past decade, the river still surrounded a major city, in a shade of blue that bordered on gray. Along with the less-than-appealing color, they regularly dived through all manner of undesirable things.
Wyatt nodded, his grin broad and most definitely sincere. “A dream all its own.”
Gavin recognized those words for truth just as a shout went out from the wheelhouse. They were heading up toward the George Washington Bridge for evidence recovery after an accident.
And as he slipped into the cold, late March water under the bridge ten minutes later, clad head-to-toe in his gear, Gavin couldn’t help but grin. He really was living the dream. Wide awake, full of the sweetest adrenaline, every damn day.
Now if he could only get a certain redhead out of his nighttime ones.
Serafina Forte reached for the clean tissue she’d had the foresight to stuff into her suit jacket pocket and wiped her mouth as she got up from the floor beside the toilet. She’d gotten lucky this afternoon. The ladies’ room at the courthouse was empty, and she hadn’t had to worry about being overheard.
A fate she had failed to escape several times over the past few months. A woman could only claim a winter stomach bug or a “touch of food poisoning” so many times.
The only upside to her daily visit to the ladies’ room—and really, what idiot called it morning sickness when her visits could happen at any time?—was that she hadn’t put on much weight. Her body was still changing, though, and she could see that in the fit of her work suits.
A fate that was going to catch up with her before she knew it.
With a sigh, she laid her head against the cool tiles of the wall, grateful she’d chosen the last stall so she could give the misery in her stomach time to settle a bit.
What was she going to do?
The question had been her constant companion for the past two months since she’d discovered her pregnancy and, as of yet, she hadn’t come up with much beyond take it one day at a time.
Perhaps the advice she should have taken was don’t have amazing sex with a man you’ve known five hours as a way to ring in the new year.
It seemed sound and eminently smart now, but was nowhere near as loud as the clanging voice in her head—one that had echoed through her body—on New Year’s Eve. That night, all she wanted to do was get as close to Gavin as possible.
Gavin.
That was all she knew. His name was Gavin, and he was a cop. They’d met at a local bar in Brooklyn and had struck up a conversation so engrossing it had taken a while for them to realize their friends had moved on to another party down the street.
Neither one of them had cared.
They’d agreed to only discuss who they were in broad strokes, which is why she’d only told him she was a lawyer, not an ADA with the city. And all she knew was that he was a cop. Since the NYPD employed roughly 36,000 people, it was a bit of a needle in a haystack.
Even if he’d wanted to get a hold of her, she hadn’t made that easy, fleeing his apartment after a bout of lovemaking that had left her breathless.
And scared.
Because people didn’t feel this way about each other—or have this sort of reaction to one another—that quickly after meeting.
Hadn’t she learned that young?
And hadn’t she been paying the price ever since?
Since that thought only produced profound misery, pregnant or not, Sera shook it off and pondered, yet again, how she could have played this differently.
They’d gone to his apartment, and it had been full of boxes. When she’d teased him on his decorating skills, he’d confirmed that he was moving in a few weeks. It was the perfect segue into a congenial conversation about why he was moving and did he like his building and where was he going?
Only their need for each other had taken over and they’d ended up kissing against said boxes, evaporating any questions she might have asked about where he was moving to.
Which now only left her with one dead end and absolutely zero lines to tug.
She had no last name. No cell phone. No known address.
And she was pregnant with his child.
On a sigh, she pushed off the wall and fixed her skirt. She slipped a breath mint out of the package she’d taken to carrying in her other jacket pocket and smoothed her hair.
Between her crushing workload, her random acts of morning sickness and her endless mooning over Gavin, she’d sort of drifted through her days—and nights. She needed to get her head back in the game.
Today’s case was big, and it meant they could get a solid handful of thugs out of the local drug trade. She’d prepped well, and she had a strong case. It was time to put her focus back on that and off her memories.
Off her worries.
Off her stupidity.
After all, crime in the city didn’t stop. And she’d be damned if she was going to let her current lapse in judgment stop her from her work.
She would figure this out. And while it wasn’t what she’d planned, in a relatively few short months, she’d have a child. One she was already beyond excited to meet. That was her reality, and her child needed to be her full focus.
Not the child’s father.
And not the way she’d become pregnant.
Even if she did look for him every time she walked the neighborhood. She’d even tried going back to their bar a few times, although once she’d realized she was pregnant, she’d switched to club soda instead of her usual wine spritzer as she’d sat alone in the bar, her breath catching in her throat each time the door opened.
But to no avail.
Gavin was a memory, and whether she liked it or not, he was going to stay there.
Their child was her future.
Gathering her things along with her renewed focus, Sera headed for the door and the waiting courtroom. Which made the presence of her boss in the hallway something of a surprise.
“Sera?”
“David. Hello.”
David Esposito was a formidable presence in the Brooklyn courts, their district attorney as adept at his job as he was at working the media. Tall and dashing, he had just the right amount of gray in his dark hair to make people feel he had the necessary gravitas to prosecute the criminals of the city and his broad shoulders filled out his suits to perfection. The media loved him, and lucky for her, his ADAs loved him, too.
He had an agile, exemplary legal mind, and he was a champion of his people. She loved working for him.
“Do you have a minute?”
“Of course.” She moved to take a seat on one of the benches that lined the hallway, but he gestured toward a small meeting room.
“Let’s go in there. I want to discuss something with you.”
“About the Landers case?”
He smiled as he waited for her to enter the room before him. “I read your brief. You’ve got it more than well in hand.”
Although she appreciated the compliment, it only added to her confusion. But he was the boss, which gave him the right to be a bit mysterious. Resolved to let him tell her in his own time, she took a seat at the small table that filled most of the room.
“I know how hard you’ve been working, Sera.”
“It’s the job.” She gave a light shrug, knowing that for the truth. “And I love the work.”
“Which is what I want to talk to you about.”
Although all lawyers were subject to scrutiny and the highest of expectations as to their behavior, the bar was set infinitely higher for the district attorney’s office. They were scrutinized, evaluated and, ultimately, held to a standard that was beyond the beyond. She’d always believed herself up to the task, but she knew there would be raised eyebrows as her pregnancy became widely known. She wouldn’t be fired for it—she had full confidence on that front—but she would get knowing glances. A fact that would only be further exacerbated by the reality that she wasn’t dating anyone.
Was that why David had pulled her into this discussion? Had her bathroom retch sessions somehow tipped someone off?
Her mind raced, and she nearly missed his words until she finally keyed back into what he was saying.
“I’m proud of all my ADAs, but you have to know, Sera, just how much your work stands out. Your dedication and your passion for the law is something to see. Our city is better for it, and my office is better for it.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s why I’m willing to give you time away to take advantage of this opportunity.”
“Away?”
He smiled at that, his expression lighting his normally serious face. “I’ve put you in for a borough-wide task force. It’ll be members from my office, the NYPD, the Coast Guard and several federal agencies.”
“A task force on what?”
“The drug trade is out of control. The governor and the mayor have been in talks with the Feds, and we want to put a team together to evaluate what can be done with the situation.”
“But I’m not a cop. I have no real knowledge of how to apprehend or take down criminals.”
“That’s why your contributions are so valuable. This is a problem we want to attack from every angle. From the jurisdiction to those running the ops to the way we prosecute. We need every mind on this and all the effort we can muster to get ahead of the enterprising criminals who make New York their home.”
It was a huge ask, and her pregnancy flashed quickly through her thoughts as a reason to decline. In fact, she nearly came out with it before Sera stopped herself.
Why say no?
What example did that set for her child? More, what did it say to herself? She was pregnant, not dead. And motherhood aside, she fully expected to have a long career in front of her.
Now would be the worst time to say no.
“I feel like I should ask you a few more questions, but you know I’m in, David.”
“I hoped so. Which is why you need to be at the 86th bright and early Monday morning.” David leaned forward and laid a hand over the back of hers folded on the table. “I’m going to miss having you in the office, but we’ll get your caseload redistributed. I want to keep you on the Landers case as well as the discovery on the Nicholson murders, but everything else will be shared out.”
Sera mentally calculated the workload. While both of those were huge cases, the reprieve from her other work would be welcome.
“It’s an amazing opportunity, David. I won’t let you down.”
He gave her hand a quick squeeze before he stood up, effectively ending their meeting. “That thought never crossed my mind.”
Sera walked the last few blocks from the subway, her umbrella up, albeit ineffectively, against the howling spring rain overhead. April had come in with a vengeance, and the city felt like it was practically underwater as she dodged puddles and what looked like a small lake at the intersection just shy of the 86th Precinct.
She’d opted for one of her pantsuits, but the thick rain boots pulled up over her calves, her slacks firmly tucked inside, were the height of frump. A fact she’d willingly overlooked as she anticipated dry feet for the day. The boots could be stowed in a corner of whatever conference room they’d be stuffed in this morning, so the fashion faux pas wasn’t permanent.
She hadn’t spent much time at the 86th, but she’d been here before. Captain Dwayne Reed ran an outstanding team, and she always enjoyed working with his officers when it was necessary for a case.
Captain Reed’s style of leadership—and his belief in his people—had caught on, and there had been clear winds of change blowing through the other neighborhoods in an effort to emulate the precinct.
We need every mind on this and all the effort we can muster to get ahead of the enterprising criminals who make New York their home.
David’s pitch for the task force had lingered in her mind all weekend as she prepared for this morning. She wanted to start off strong and make a good impression, meeting the other professionals she’d work with for the next several months.
Could they get ahead of the criminal element?
While she wasn’t an inherently negative person, she would admit to moments of frustration and disillusionment with the system. Too many criminals flooding the streets. Too few people to catch them and ultimately prosecute them. And a bad life for the ones who were caught, locked up in a system that, while often full of well-intentioned people, was home to many who weren’t.
She’d always understood it, but had also believed the work she did to serve the goal of justice would result in good outcomes. Even if her pregnancy had made her start to question some of those things and the reality of the world she was bringing her child into.
Her parents had never set a very good example, and she’d had to forge a path forward on her own. It was only recently that she’d begun to wonder if her dogged pursuit of justice was more because of them than in spite of them.
“Sera!”
Saved from her own maudlin musings by the loud shout, she glanced up to see a former law school classmate waving to her from down the hall. Picking up her pace, Sera headed his way.
“Sam, how are you?” They quickly exchanged hugs. “It’s great to see you, but what are the odds we’re here on the same day?”
“Pretty good if we’re both on the new task force starting up this morning.”
“You’re a part of it?”
He smiled before pointing toward the conference room a few feet away. “I am and will confess to getting here early and seeing your name badge on the sideboard. I’m glad we’re working together again. I’m representing the local FBI office.”
“I’d heard the Feds snapped you up. Lucky for them.”
“Lucky for me, too. I love the work.”
Although she’d always known she wanted the DA’s office, Sera was happy for him. His agile mind and love of complex cases likely made him a huge asset to the government.
“I love it, too, but I do have to say I’m disappointed in us.”
“Oh?” His blue eyes widened.
“We’re both guilty of that dreaded post-law school sin of spending most of our waking hours together for three years and then abandoning one another for the work after getting out.”
“Proof they didn’t lie about the work.”
She shook her head but couldn’t hold back the smile. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Me, either.”
They found seats at the table and, after settling their things, wandered over to the sideboard to pick up their badges and get some breakfast. Sera eyed the pastries with a bit of caution, but was pleased to also see a selection of hard-boiled eggs and some dry toast waiting for toppings.
She hadn’t been able to stomach anything that morning, but recognized the breakfast foods as a gift of fate. The protein from the egg and the bland toast with a bit of honey on top would go a long way toward keeping her level throughout the introductory meeting. A bit of tepid tea and she’d have a breakfast trifecta that would hopefully stave off morning sickness.
“You always were a healthy eater,” Sam whispered, leaning in conspiratorially.
“Not everyone can eat sugared cereals and donuts for breakfast.” She eyed his plate, a match for her own. “What happened?”
Although he’d always been a good-natured person, even in the throes of the most difficult exam periods, Sam lit up in a way she’d never seen before. “I’m a man with a fitness plan. And a wedding in three months.”
“Sam! That’s wonderful.” Sera put her plate down and pulled him in for a hug. “Tell me all about her.”
“Her name’s Alexandra. Alex.” He smiled, his gaze going hazy with love. “We met at the Bureau my second week on the job. She held out for a long time, saying we shouldn’t mix personal with work and that it was a bad idea.”
Although it wasn’t forbidden in the Bureau, Sera could understand the reticence. But she also knew Sam Baxter and figured the woman was a goner when faced with such an earnest and truly wonderful man.
“Is she a lawyer, too?”
“Nope, a field agent. Which puts us in the same office, but not working directly together most of the time.”
His happiness was electric, and Sera tried to tamp down the small shot of sadness that filled her as she pictured Gavin’s face in her mind’s eye.
Would it ever fade?
Even as she considered it, she knew the truth. Did she want it to?
And then she pushed it all away and gave Sam another hug. She could be sad in her own time, but there was no call for anything but joy in the face of such good news for a friend.
Which made the hard cough and rough “excuse me” a bit jarring as she pulled back from Sam’s embrace.
And turned to find the one man she hadn’t been able to forget standing two feet away.
