He didn’t want to leave Samantha there, but he loved the view on his way out the door. Seeing her gorgeous, naked body lying on his bed was the perfect visual to take into the less than pleasant meeting they were going to have. They were meeting in Manhattan, at Calem and Cordelia’s Brownstone. Cordelia agreed to let them all use the office where she saw patients, and Calem agreed that they wouldn’t leave too much of a mess. 

They all arrived around dinner time. Pizza was the food of choice, as it always was when a few guys got together to talk business, and as they waited they all talked for a while, catching up on whatever was going on in their lives, and avoiding the elephant in the room until they could fill their stomachs a little bit. And of course, they needed some beers. Calem had stocked the fridge with about as many types of craft beers as you could imagine: IPA’s, Hefeweizens, Lagers, Ales, and all other manner of beer. When the pizzas arrived they each grabbed a drink and headed into Cordelia’s office. 

“This is a fucked up case,” Jesse said as he grabbed the first slice of pepperoni.

“Tell me more, Captain Obvious,” Quinn joked. “I know, it’s going to be hard to catch this guy, right?”

“Shut up, asshole!” Jesse yelled back. “I’m just saying, of all the cases we’ve been a part of—and that’s a few now—this is the most fucked up one of them all.”

“Eh,” Noah interrupted. “I still take the Network as being at the top of the fucked-up hierarchy, but I get your point. After a while, comparing these sickos is a little stupid. Let’s just get them all and sort them out later on.”

“Agreed,” Riley said. “Quinn, I feel like the tactics are your department.”

“Yeah, I already started thinking of ideas based on what you’ve given me. I also used Google Earth to stake out the area. Pretty seedy piece of geography.”

“Staten Island, you mean,” Jesse joked. “I agree. The forgotten borough.”

They all laughed, but Riley interjected. “You know what, man, I thought the same thing. I had those same biases and stereotypes in my head, but I have to tell you. . .”

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re moving out to the Island? You’re not even Italian.” Jesse was smiling.

“Okay, that stereotype is a little true, but the rest of them aren’t. Nice food, good restaurants, good people. They just have scumbag criminals like every other borough of this city. And that’s where we come in.”

“Sure is,” Calem added. “Let’s make some plans.”

They ate their pizza, drank their beer, and did what they all did best—put their collective heads for police work together to find a way to stop a psychopath. Individually they were great cops—some of the most decorated and celebrated on their respective forces—but together they were something greater, and that only became evident when they sat in rooms like this. 

Two hours later the pizza and beer were long gone, and as Calem desperately tried to clean every last crumb and bit of sauce from Cordelia’s office, the guys finalized their plans. “I really hope this works.”

“It will, man. We’ll get him.” Noah rested a hand on his friend’s shoulder. He could tell Riley was stressed. “We’ll do everything that we can to get him.”

Before everybody retreated to their corners of the city to rest up for the next day’s mission, Riley took a minute to thank all of them. “Listen, guys, before you go. . . I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you, and how much I know that no matter what happens, I’ll be around the best cops in the city. Hell, the best guys in the city.” 

They shared a quick group hug, and then they realized that it would have been weird if any of their wives or girlfriends had walked in and seen it, so they stopped immediately and started laughing. “Let’s never do that again, no matter how inspirational the speech is,” Noah said.

“Agreed!”

Outside the air was cold, and the chill of it focused Riley on the task at hand. There was something about physical discomfort that made investigative work easier. It sharpened the mind, and focused all of his mental energy on what needed to be done. He was ready, and now he’d have the best cops around on his team. But that was in 24 hours. Tonight he wanted to go home and see Samantha, the woman who was showing him what life could be like, when it wasn’t what he saw every day. She was his future, the promise of all his tomorrows, and at that moment all he wanted to do was be next to her in bed. That’s exactly where he was headed.