Summary: Santana is a detective in New York City and goes undercover in an effort to get evidence on a group that has been causing trouble in her district. She has to get in with a drug ring where she learns information on all the illegal activities that the group are involved in. There's a blonde woman that starts to cause problems with her cover. Brittana. Crime and Romance. AU. Rated M for violence, drugs, drug use, language, sexual content.
Chapter 1
It's dark outside. The middle of the night. I walk down a poorly lit street somewhere in New York City wearing grey skinny jeans, sneakers, and a black hooded sweatshirt. Rather common casual wear. Not too flashy and won't draw any unwanted attention. Perfect for what I'm doing.
I spot the person I believe I'm looking for standing in the doorway of one of the shops on the street. It's closed for the night and all employees have gone for the day. There are two other people walking down the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. I slow down until they pass by me. I look over my shoulder to make sure they continued walking and pay me no attention.
I walk down to the end of the block. The closer I get to the person I realize that it is, in fact, who I'm in search of. I approach the girl- she can't be older then seventeen or eighteen.
"Whatdaya got?" I ask the girl in a hushed tone. The girl stands in the shop entrance wearing a similar outfit to mine. A pair of jeans, small heels, and a leather jacket.
"Dependents." The girl says and stares me up and down. Probably judging if she can trust me or not. Or maybe trying to figure out if I'm a cop or not. "Who's asking?"
This is where a little lie and a little bit of convincing come into play. "Eva. I just need something. Can ya help me out or not?" I bounce on the balls of my feet, hoping to seem anxious, like I need a fix. This isn't second nature to me so it a tad bit nerve-wracking.
"Tonight I got coke, a lil bit of pot, and pills. Whatcha lookin' for?" The girl says with a crooked smile.
"Coke." I say bluntly.
"I can hook ya up." The girl reaches into her jacket pocket and pulls out a handful of little sandwich bags of white powder. "Is this what you're lookin' fer?"
I nod. Just what I was looking for. "Wow." I eye the large amount of cocaine the girl has just produced from her pocket. "Yes. Were'd you get all that?" I ask the girl as casually as possible. I don't want to seem suspicious in any way. Curious but not suspicious.
"My boss. He runs a big operation. I gotta get rid of all this before dawn." The girl says casually. "But ya didn't hear that from me." She gives me that crooked grin again.
"Gotcha." I say and hand over the money. The girl hands me a little baggy of white powder. "Thanks." I say and turn away from the girl. I walk across the street and then back in the direction that I came.
Once back at the tiny, studio apartment I stash the bag in the top draw of my dresser for safe keeping. It's one of the few things in the apartment. There's a bed and a dresser. On the opposite wall is a countertop that is considered the kitchen. It's just a sink and counter space. In the corner is the bathroom. It's pretty straight forward. It's not very nice but that's the point.
When one goes undercover they want to assimilate to the world that they are undercover in. That means, in this case, a small, rundown, studio apartment.
I flop down on the bed after hiding the drugs. I have no intent of using them, obviously. The purpose is to purchase them and get information on the seller and who they are selling for. I'm tired after spending the day staking out the suspected drug house, then following the girl that I bought the drug from to her selling location and purchasing the drugs. It was a long, exhausting day with little work to show for.
I take a little solace in the comfortable bed that, at least, the department purchased for me for my undercover apartment. Tomorrow is another day of surveillance and staking out the drug house. Trying to gather as much information as possible for the case. Sleep is key to good undercover work. I have to be on my toes all the time or something could go horribly wrong.
Two days pass before I head out again to get more drugs. I put on a pair of sneakers, cargo pants, and a button down plaid shirt. I make the journey, at dusk, to the same spot that I got the drugs from the other day.
Like clockwork the girl is standing there. Almost as if she is waiting for me to show up. The girl spots me when I am about fifteen feet away. She waves. The girl actually waves to me like we are friends.
"Hey, you're back. Eva, right?" The girl says with a grin.
"Right. You got a name?" I ask. I can play this to my advantage. If she thinks we are friends or acquaintances or whatever I can use that against her.
"Yeah." She scoffs. "Name's Sugar."
Santana laughs. Of course her name is Sugar. "Are you a drug dealer or a hooker?"
"I can be whatever you want me to be." Sugar says with a seductive wink. I take in this new information. "Your back awful soon. Need more coke?" She asks me.
My initial plan was to buy more and more coke from her, earn her trust, and get into her ring. But, it seems that this girl is all to willing to do whatever I say. "Actually, I was wondering where you get that stuff from?" This Sugar girl seems like she isn't the brightest when it comes to revealing information. I gonna need to add to my story. "I sell it to some of my friends and was thinking of getting into the business."
"Oh." She seems to think over my words for a few seconds. I wait in silence for her to say something more. "I actually can't tell ya who I get it from but-"
"But what?" I prompt. She seems leery about something and I am curious as to what it is.
"But- I could talk to my boss 'n' see what he says. Maybe I could get ya a meetin' with him."
"Really?" I say trying to sound excited about the possible opportunity to meet with her drug boss. "That would be awesome. If you could get me a meeting I would totally owe you one."
"Yeah, I don't know. He doesn't usually take in new people unless he knows 'em. But- I think a could sweet talk him." Sugar tells me with a wink. It makes me unease and I'm pretty sure I know what seem means when she says 'sweet talk him' and it makes me want to throw up.
"Great." I say with a fake smile. This operation might be easier getting into than I originally thought. "And I'll take two bags today." I tell her and pull out my money. If I'm gonna be 'selling drugs' to my 'friends' then I need to make it seems like I actually am. I can't just keep buying drugs every couple of days with her thinking I'm the one using them all. It needs to be believable. This needs to be as real and accurate as possible.
I look around the area but the street is empty. Discreetly, we make the exchange. "Will ya be around tomorrow?" I need to know when to check back in with her. I need to know soon if I can get a meeting with her boss.
Drug dealer, Sugar, shakes her head. "Nope. I'm only here Mondays n Wednesdays."
"Oh, should I come back next Monday?" I don't know what the protocol for this is. I've only been undercover for less than two weeks. I've only bought drugs three times, twice from this Sugar girl.
"Ya can do that- or I can let ya know where I'll be tomorra night." She looks around us again. But, there's still nobody around.
"Where will ya be tomorrow?" I ask in a whisper. Sugar takes a step closer to me and wraps her hand around my right bicep. She leans into my ear and whisper the intersection where she'll be at tomorrow night. I nod. "I know where that is." I confirm.
"Good, see ya tomorra night." She steps away from me, releasing my arm. She looks me up and down and then winks at me.
A shiver runs down my spine. She's seems like an alright girl. A little naive, and a little creepy. I wonder how she got into the drug world. I wonder what kind of home she came from and if she maybe ran away from that home.
I turn from her, waving over my shoulder. With a plan to meet up with Sugar tomorrow night and find out my possible future in the drug ring, I wave to her and nod my head. A silent goodbye.
I walk back to my studio apartment thinking about the next twenty-four hours and planning my day for tomorrow. I should do more surveillance on the drug house but I don't want anyone possibly seeing me hanging around that street if I am going to get a meeting with the drug boss.
Hopefully, everything goes well with Sugar and asking her boss. Hopefully, he agrees to meet me. That really hinges on the speed of this undercover operation. The sooner I can get in there, the better.
I spent the whole day inside my tiny apartment. I thought about what I wanted to happen going forward with this operation. A lot depends on what happens tonight when I meet Sugar.
It's ten-thirty when I leave the apartment for the night. I walk the thirty some blocks to the location that Sugar told me to meet her at. I really hope this goes well cuz if it doesn't I will have to rethink my plans to get into this ring. I need to get in there somehow. This possible meeting is my best shot and if that doesn't work I will have to come up with something else.
Sugar is about a block away from me when I spot her. She is sitting on a bus station bench. She looks like she is waiting to get on the bus when it stops. I know that's not what she is doing though.
I walk over and sit down on the bench about a foot away from her making it seem like I don't know her, but I'm still close enough to have a conversation with her without anyone else hearing us.
This spot is a little more busy than the spot I've met her at the two previous times. People walk behind the bench every minute or two. It's a more highly populated area with more people and more foot traffic. And more of a chance of getting caught by the police.
"So, what's the news?" I ask her quietly. I keep my hands stuffed in my pockets to ward off the chilly fall air.
"My boss agreed to a meetin' with ya."
"Great." I turn my head to my right to glance at Sugar. She keeps staring forward as if I wasn't even here, as if she wasn't talking to me.
"The only catch is that ya have to go tomorra night." Sugar whispers into the night air.
"What does that mean?" I'm not sure how this is suppose to work. Do I just show up at the drug house? No, wait, they can't know that I know where it is.
"It means-" Sugar turns to look at me. "-that you will meet me right here tomorra night and we will go from there. Ten pm."
"Got it." I mumble and Sugar turns back to staring straight ahead. I stare straight ahead too. I wait a few minutes before I get up from the bench and start walking back to my studio apartment.
2 weeks earlier
"Lopez. In my office now." The police captain shouts into the precinct. "You too, Puckerman."
I look around the large room nervously. I don't think I did anything wrong? I can't be in trouble. I stand from my desk chair and walk through the precinct to the captain's office. Noah Puckerman meets me at the door and motions for me to enter before him.
Noah, or Puck as he likes to be called, steps into the room behind me and shuts the door sealing us in the little room with our captain.
"Can I ask what this is about, Captain?" I ask unsure as to what this impromptu meeting is about.
"Yes, Lopez." The captain looks between me and Puckerman. "I have good news and bad news."
"Okay." I say wearily.
"You're going undercover." The captain informs us.
"Both of us?" I ask. This is definitely news.
"No. Just you Lopez. I've discussed this with Puckerman and we feel that it's best if you go undercover and not him."
"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm a little confused."
"Noah has a case, a big case, but we need some extra evidence before we can bring our suspects in. He has been investigating this case for a couple months now but can't get the evidence he needs. We need you to go undercover and get what we need."
"Why can't he do it?" I ask. I am one hundred percent committed to my job but I'm a little uneasy about going undercover without knowing what the mission is. It's not even my case. I don't know anything about it.
"Because he has already had some contact with some of the suspects. We need somebody to go in there that they don't recognize. Are you willing to do this for us? This will be a big bust for this precinct."
"Yes, sir." I nod confidently. It's been awhile since I've done an undercover operation but I'm more than willing to do it.
"Alright, great. Puckerman will fill you in on all you need to know. He will be your contact throughout this operation." The captain tells me with a nod of his head. "Make me proud, Lopez."
I'm walking down the street. It's dark just like any other night but something feels different about tonight. I can't put my finger on it but something is definitely different. It puts a little extra caution in each step I take.
After crossing a street, I look down to check my wristwatch. 9:55. There are still a few blocks to go. I'm on time as far as my calculations go. I have to be on time. I can't be late and miss this meeting. This is my chance, possibly my only chance. I need to nail this.
The next few blocks go by in a blur and before I know it I am standing next to Sugar the drug dealer next to the bench that was sat on the previous night. I don't know why she isn't sitting. We could sit, I don't see the harm in that. I'm not sure what I am suppose to say. Hello? Now what? I just don't know. Instead I step up to the bench and take a sit on it.
"Get up." Sugar says in a low rumble. I snap my head to look at her but like last night she is staring straight ahead.
Without another word I obey her order. "Are you gonna take me to the meetin'?" I ask after many uncomfortable moments of silence. This girl was all bubbly and welcoming and talkative with me the other times I've come in contact with her but now she's silent like one of those British guards.
Sugar doesn't respond. I watch her out of the corner of my eye. Every few seconds she looks up and down the street. It's making me nervous. Maybe I've done the wrong thing and gotten myself in too deep.
A few minutes pass and Sugar checks her watch and then looks down the street again. I follow her movements with my eyes. Looking in the same direction as she is. I see a car coming down the street with it's front headlights blacked out. I know that this vehicle is the car that will take me to my destination.
The black car with tinted windows - that I know just by looking at them that they are too dark and illegal - pulls up to the curb and comes to an abrupt halt directly in front of Sugar and I.
Sugar takes a step forward and I follow her lead. The back door swings open and a big beefy guy steps out. Before I can do anything he puts a large hand around my upper arm and yanks. I stumble forward and he pulls me into the car. The door slams behind me and I here another door close too.
"Hey." I yelp. I don't know who this guy is or why he has to be so rough with me. But as the seconds pass and my brain catches up with what's happen I realize it's probably just his job.
He shoves me face first into the seat and then grabs both my arms, clasping my hand together behind my back. I feel the coarse, itchiness of the rope as it's wound around my wrists. It's too tight, of course.
Internally I am panicking but I can't let that show. Well, maybe a little but not full on hysteria. Worrying that this might not have been a good idea and what did I get myself into. Wondering if this is how I'm gonna die.
The bag or maybe pillowcase goes over my head next. The big guy pulls me into a sitting position and shoves it over my head. Everything goes dark, which is most likely the point.
"Ready." The guy that's in the backseat with me grunts. The car starts moving and I have no idea where we are headed.
The panic gets the best of me. "What's happening?" I ask hoping that the occupants of the car don't hear the panic in my voice. I need to sound normal, confident even.
It's Sugar's voice that responds to my question. "It's fer your own good." Her voice sounds like it's coming from the front seat. That must have been the other door that I heard. Sugar must have gotten in the front seat of the car when it pulled up to the curb. "If the boss doesn't like ya, he will release ya somewhere far 'way from the house so ya don't know where it is and ya can't tell anyone where it is." It's quiet for a moment before her voice fills the car again. "It's for his protection, too."
"Oh." I whisper and I don't know if she hears me. I don't really want anyone to hear me but it just sort of slipped out. I stop struggling against the rope at my wrist and resign myself to the covering over my head. It smells bad though and I think it must be a pillowcase, a used pillowcase, old and stinky. I start breathing through my mouth instead of my nose.
Sugar is right. All of this, the pillowcase and the rope, are because her boss doesn't want me to know the location of the drug house. He doesn't want anyone ratting out the location to the police. That's the best part cuz, well, I am the police. But, none of these people know that and they're not gonna find out.
The car drives around for a long time after it picked Sugar and I up. Probably a diversion. My estimation would say that we've been driving around for a half hour. The odds are that the drug house isn't all that far from where Sugar's spot on that bench was but that they are making it seem farther away and confusion the directions so I can't trace it back from where they picked Sugar and I up.
We finally come stop a stop. One of the car doors open and I can hear the sound of a garage door. Probably closing. The back car door opens. I can tell because it gets lighter in the back seat. The guy in the back with me tugs on my right arm and manhandles me across the seat and out the door.
"Stand." He commands. I manage to get my feet underneath me after a couple of seconds. Once I get my feet he is tugging on my arm again. There will probably be a bruise there tomorrow from his harsh grip.
"Hey buddy, take it easy." I growl at him. In my opinion there is no need to be so rough. It's not like I'm resisting.
I hear him huff out a breath but I doesn't verbally speak any words. He leads me forward, through what I assume is a garage, my eyes still obscured. After a few steps I trip into something. "Stairs." The rough voice of my man handler says.
I manage to half walk up the stairs but he mostly just drags me up them. There's nothing I can do. I can't complain. He isn't gonna be any easier on me. He isn't gonna be nice all of a sudden. I'm not gonna get any sympathy from this guy. He's a thug.
There aren't anymore stairs, the floor is flat again. The sound of the door slamming shut behind me rings in my ears.
We come to a stop and another male voice enters my ears. "Who do we have here?"
Sugar's voice rings again. It calms me a little to know that she is still here with me. She is the one to lead me here and I feel fairly safe with her. Hopefully, she won't let anything bad happen to me.
"This is the girl I was tellin' ya 'bout. Her name's Eva. She's interested in sellin' for ya." Sugar explains pretty much everything that there is that needs to be explained.
"Uncover her face." The man, the boss, commands. My man handler rips the pillowcase from my head unceremoniously. I have to squint my eyes at the sudden intrusion of light. It's not bright in the room, at least, it's just that the pillowcase was so dark.
Without moving too much and trying not to turn my head from side to side I get a look around the room. It's not very big, maybe twenty feet by twenty feet. It's dimly lit and smoky.
To my right I can see Sugar standing. The man handler is on my left with one of his giant hands on my arm anchoring me to him. Directly in front of me, and across the room sit a man. He looks like he has light brown or maybe a reddish tint to his hair but it's hard to tell with the darkest of the room and my distance from him. I can't see the color of his eyes or any other distinguishing features. He looks older though, forty to fifty age range probably.
There is one other person in the room. A girl, no, she's older than Sugar. A woman. Maybe in between Sugar's age and mine. She sits at the side of the room, closer to where the three of us stand. She has long blonde hair and very distinct features. Her eyes look to be either blue or gray but I can't tell for sure from this distance. She's a very good looking woman.
The boss sits there with a smug look on his face, smoking a cigar. "So, Eva, you want to work for me."
"Yes, sir." I nod for good measure.
"And what is it that you think you are going to do for me?" When he speaks he sounds intelligent. Like he finished high school at the very least and possibly attended some amount of college. He speaks in full words and sentences.
I figure sounding intelligent myself could help make my case with him. "I was hoping to get in the sales side of your business, sir."
"I see." He rolls his cigar between his fingers slowly. It's intimidating.
"I very some friends that I was buying for." I'm not sure if I should mention that I bought from Sugar or not. I don't. He can put the pieces together himself. "I think I could really help you out. They are regular users and I figured I could sell to them at first and then expand from there."
"Do you have a job?"
Shit. What do I tell him? Of course I don't have a job. Not the kind of job he is talking about at least. Do I tell him that I do or make you up on the spot? "I don't, sir. That's another reason I was hoping that you would take me on."
"I see." He smirks. It's silent after that. I'm not sure if I should say anything more. My gut is telling me not to. I've said all that I had planned on saying. I've given him my sales pitch on myself now it's he's turn to decided if he wants to make use of me or not. "I don't usually take on people I don't know or trust."
"I understand that, sir. I'm really hoping you can take me on though. I could use the money." I plead.
"Right." The boss stands from his seat. I feel my eyes get a little wider as he approaches me. My nerves increase and I am sweating bullets under my leather jacket. He comes up to me, taking a puff of his cigar and blowing the smoke in my face. I struggle not to cough as the smoke enters through my nose. He eyes me up and down from up close. He circles around me and returns to stand in front of me. "Pat her down." He grumbles, puffing his cigar.
My man handler lets go of my arm and stands behind me. I tense as he puts his hands on my shoulders and runs them down over the sleeves of my jacket. Next, his hands travel down the outsides of my legs all the way to my shoes. On the way back up he runs his big, clumsy hands up the insides of my legs. I force myself not to squeeze my legs shut at the intrusion once he reaches my upper thigh. He removes his hands from me and comes around to my front. The boss takes a step back to allow the thug more room to work. He then unzips my jacket, putting her grubby hands on my hips and running them up my sides over my ribs, up to my armpits, grazing the sides of my boobs as he goes.
I try not to look at anyone during the whole search but my eyes slide over to the side of the room where the blonde sits. She's still. Her back rigid in her chair. Her eyes wide in shock but otherwise the same as when I first saw her.
The man handler step to my left side again. He takes each of his hands and runs one down my front and the other down the length of my spine. I shiver as his giant hand brushes over my chest but from disgust not pleasure.
"All clear, sir." The thug grunts.
The drug boss nods. "Good. You look like I can trust you. Sugar here, told me that I should bring you on and that you seemed like a trustworthy person. I hope I am right about that. Here's what's going to happen. You are going to report here every other day, starting tomorrow, at noon. I will give you an assignment for the day. We'll see how things go in the first week or two. I haven't taken anyone new in a couple of years. Don't make me regret my decision."
"I won't, sir." I tell him with a nod. It's all an act and I want to laugh because this guy obviously has no idea who I really am. Maybe after I am done with this undercover operation I should think about a career in acting. I'm obviously good enough to fool his guy. I played a part and it's paying off.
"One more thing. I need ID."
"It's in my back pocket." I say. This is the last test that I will have to pass. I have a fake ID that the department made. It's as real as any real identification out there. It has to be.
The man handler reaches in my back pocket and pulls out it's contents. My ID and some cash. He hands it to the boss who takes it and looks it over carefully. He looks from my ID card to me and I give him a big smile. He shakes his head and smiles back at me. He hands the card back to my man handler.
"Untie her, Karofsky." So he does have a name. A last name but a name none the less. He goes to work on the rope at me wrists. As soon as I'm untied I bring my hands around to my front and rub at the now sore spots on my wrists. That will probably hurt tomorrow too.
I look around the room more freely now. It's drab. The wall have wood paneling and there is only one light in the room, it hangs from the ceiling in the center of the room not throwing any light to the far corner of the room. There are a number of folding chairs scattered around the room and two card tables. There's the bosses chair at the front of the room which is much nicer than a folding chair. It actually looks like a throne in comparison.
"You can go now." The bosses voice makes me flinch. I survey the room once more. I catch the eyes of the woman at the side. I have no idea who she is. She hasn't been identified to me today and I haven't heard anything about her in any of Puck's case work. The only thing that I knew from Puck was the location of this place and that drugs came in and out of here. The woman gives me a tight-lipped smile. Something about her makes me feel like she doesn't belong here. I don't smile back. I don't know who she is or if she could be dangerous.
I spin around on my heels and make to leave. When I reach the door a voice stops me. "I'll see you tomorrow, Eva." The drug boss says in a deep voice. Deeper than his usual speaking voice. It makes me uneasy. I grab the doorknob with my left hand and pull it open.
It leads me to the garage where I see the car that brought me here. I look for the side door before going over and exiting the building. From the outside it looks like just a regular old house. But, it's obvious to me that they have made some modification from just being in that one room.
Stepping out into the night air gives me a chill. I zip my coat before stuffing my clammy hands into my coat pockets. I have no idea what time it is and right now I don't care. I just want to get back to my tiny apartment, wash the day off of my skin, and climb into bed.
Tomorrow will be the next test in my operation. I'm in now. I just have to make sure that I do everything right and stay in. I am also going to have to contact Puckerman sometime in the near future to let him now how it's going and to ask for more money.
I can think about all of that tomorrow though. Right now all I want is a shower and a warm, comfy bed where I can get a good nights sleep.