“Are you suggesting we pick up where we left off?”

  She might have been flustered, but he’d give her credit—she could turn on the freeze when she needed to. While something sharp and needy filled him, he was more than aware this task force was a huge opportunity for him. For both of them, no doubt.

  Was he even remotely considering muddying the waters with sex?

  His body screamed a resounding yes, but the control he was known for somehow managed to prevail at the last minute.

  “I’m suggesting we both deserve to go into this partnership fully acknowledging what came before. This is a major step in my career. I have to believe it is for you, too. Not addressing the past is foolish in the extreme.” He leaned forward slightly over the table, the incredibly small space ensuring he could see her as clearly as if she were sitting beside him. “Don’t you agree?”

  That flutter of pulse at her throat never faded, and if he were a fanciful man, he’d say he could practically hear her heartbeat.

  Dear Reader,

  The New York Harbor Patrol team has just caught a unique case when a cache of deliberately dumped guns is discovered on one of their dives. What does it mean? And who’s hiding evidence they don’t want found?

  Gavin Hayes is one of the harbor team’s finest. He’s strong, dependable and driven to succeed—in and out of the water. A point his captain supports with Gavin’s appointment to a major interjurisdictional task force. But when his New Year’s Eve one-night stand shows up on the first day, Gavin’s stunned.

  Serafina Forte never expected to see the guy she welcomed in the New Year with, but there he was! She’s sick to her stomach over seeing him again—and not just because of nerves. Sera’s pregnant and hasn’t had any way of finding Gavin to tell him.

  Only now they’re partners on the task force, all while trying to fight their attraction and figure out how to co-parent. But that mysterious cache of guns is suddenly causing a lot of chaos for the harbor team. And when cops’ family members become targets, the consequences are dire.

  I’ve had so much fun spending more time sailing around New York Harbor with my NYPD divers. I hope you fall in love with Gavin and Sera just like I did.

  Best,

  Addison Fox

  THREATS IN THE DEEP

  ADDISON FOX

  Addison Fox is a lifelong romance reader, addicted to happily-ever-afters. After discovering she found as much joy writing about romance as she did reading it, she’s never looked back. Addison lives in New York with an apartment full of books, a laptop that’s rarely out of sight and a wily beagle who keeps her running. You can find her at her home on the web at addisonfox.com or on Facebook (Facebook.com/addisonfoxauthor) and Twitter (@addisonfox).

  Books by Addison Fox

  Harlequin Romantic Suspense

  New York Harbor Patrol

  Danger in the Depths

  Peril in the Shallows

  Threats in the Deep

  The Coltons of Owl Creek

  Guarding Colton’s Secrets

  The Coltons of New York

  Under Colton’s Watch

  Midnight Pass, Texas

  The Cowboy’s Deadly Mission

  Special Ops Cowboy

  Under the Rancher’s Protection

  Undercover K-9 Cowboy

  Her Texas Lawman

  Visit the Author Profile

  page at Harlequin.com.

  For everyone who believes their past dictates their future. There’s more joy and wonder and beauty awaiting you than you can ever know. Reach for it—always!

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Dear Reader

  Excerpt from Cold Case Secrets by Kimberly Van Meter

  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 be
en 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.