His sister had graduated from high school and then drifted around jobs for a few years while most of her friends had gone to college. They would all be graduating next year and looking forward to starting their futures.
Sera’s started now.
He took a deep breath and squeezed her tight. “We’ll all love that baby and we’ll be okay.”
He would be okay. After all, it had been a pipe dream to think he could get through college.
But he could be a good son. He could be a good brother.
That was all that mattered now.* * ** * *
MANHATTAN
One year later
Roxanne King-Nelson looked at her husband and felt something inside her break. “What do you mean you buried my complaint?”
Joel Nelson sighed—a long-suffering sound that set her teeth on edge. He’d used that particular sound around her a lot lately. Four years into their marriage and he looked at her like she was more trouble than she was worth. But then they didn’t have much of a marriage anymore. Maybe they never had. “I talked to your captain and he’s agreed this doesn’t have to go any further.”
She stood in his well-appointed office and realized there were no pictures of the two of them. Oh, there was a beautifully framed photo of Joel standing with her and her family, but she’d started to suspect that her family and its long ties and reputation with the upper echelon of the NYPD had been far more important than any attraction he’d had to her.
After all, now that she had a problem with her sergeant, he wasn’t exactly taking her side. Joel worked directly for the chief and served as a liaison with any number of city agencies. He was perfectly placed to help her but it looked like that wasn’t going to happen.
When he’d called and asked her to meet him at his office at One Police Plaza, she’d hoped he’d wanted to talk about how to move forward. She’d known he hadn’t agreed with her decision to file a complaint against her sergeant, but she hadn’t dreamed he would intercept it and toss it out like it was trash.
She could feel her temper start to boil. It was always simmering these days, a low heat that threatened to become a flash fire at any moment. If she let it go, it might devour her and leave nothing but ash. “Billy Stephens is sexually harassing his female officers, including me.”
“I know you feel that way, Roxanne.” The words were said with the careful tone of a man who’d done his time in classes on how to handle complaints in the workplace. But then her husband was the kind of man who studied how to manipulate the world to his advantage.
Unfortunately, he apparently had missed the part where he was supposed to take complaints seriously. “I don’t merely feel that way. It’s true. He sidelined me on two operations I should have been on because I asked him to stop talking about how I fill out my uniform.”
Joel’s jaw tightened. “I told you I had a long conversation with him about that. He was joking around. You know how guys are. He gives the men in his unit hell, too. While I was there, he told a perfectly fit officer that he was getting tubby. In a weird way, it’s a form of affection for these guys.”
“I bet he didn’t tell Kevin that his ass could be used to distract criminals,” she shot back. “He says the same crap about the other women he works with. He also asks me to get him coffee. He doesn’t ask the guys.”
“Would it be so hard to get him a cup?” Joel asked, clearly exasperated. “It’s polite. Look, we all have to put up with things we would rather not put up with. It’s like that everywhere.”
But it hadn’t been. She’d been with the NYPD for almost ten years, and the Army for three before. “I know that I’ve worked in several units where no one would have joked that way.”
“You chose to go into that particular unit. You knew it was a male-dominated unit.”
She’d known they were the best, and she’d wanted to be one of them. “I also chose to go into the Army, and guess what, when a guy on my team got handsy, my superior officer took care of it. It was his job to ensure we had a safe working environment and that everyone under his command was supported when they did their job. I am the best sniper on Stephens’s team. So why was I stuck back at the station during the bank standoff last week? He looked me right in the eye and told me to monitor the situation and handed Smith my damn job.”
“That’s his prerogative. Maybe he didn’t feel comfortable with you in the sniper’s seat. Maybe he was worried you would make the team look bad since that’s what you seem to be trying to do with all these complaints.” He finally set his pen down and sat back. “This isn’t the way to move ahead. You should know that.”