Hailey checked her makeup one last time in the small mirror in her locker at the office. She remembered why she rarely wore red lipstick. It drew so much attention - but she supposed that was the point of tonight. She smoothed out her newly blown out locks one more time, making them lay flat against her chest. She gave herself one last look to make sure she didn't look utterly ridiculous, and walked outside to meet up with the rest of the guys. She hated balancing in the 4 inch heels, but they worked well with her dress. She wasn't normally one to wear something so feminine (a plum lace minidress), but since this was an upscale club, it was very much a black tie place, even if the clothes didn't stay on for very long.
The whole team was decked out in varying shades of black, charcoal, and navy. Voight, Antonio, Kim, and Adam were all in blackout attire since they were going stealth for the stakeout. Kevin had changed into a dark grey suit and black collared shirt. She took a step over to her side, trying to see if Jay was sitting on one of the benches in the warehouse part of the district. As she did, she bumped into someone. She whirled around, expecting to see her partner, but instead Adam tucked his arms around her waist and stole a quick kiss from her.
"Damn, my girl is looking all sorts of fine in that dress. Nice choice, Hails."
She gave him a small smile, placing her hands on his chest. "Thanks."
She was about to ask everyone if they'd seen Jay yet, but as she moved a bit to her right, she saw him walk out of the bullpen into the warehouse to join the rest of the crew. She got a kick out of watching his expression as she walked over to him. His eyes widened and his brows hiked up in surprise. He ran a hand over his mouth to try and hide it.
"Wow, is that really Hailey Upton in there?"
She laughed. "Ha, very funny Jay." She gave him a casual once over. The black suit with the navy blue shirt was really something on him. "You don't look half bad, for a banker, I mean."
"Gee, thanks." He smiled over at her.
"Ready to go then?" She asked him, grabbing her wrap from the chair. They had both gotten fitted for mics earlier with Tech. Hailey wore the nearly invisible one in her ear, and Jay's was hidden underneath his shirt. If they happened to get separated during the night, Hailey's backup was in her clutch, and Jay's was hooked into his belt buckle.
Jay nodded. "Yeah, let's go."
"Welcome to Club 1-5, gentleman." The host had literally parted the velvet ropes for the 3 of them to step through into the main entryway of the club. "And the lovely lady." He held Hailey's hand a little too long for her liking, but she begrudgingly obliged him.
"Is this your first time here?" The man wore an expression like he already knew their answer.
Kevin, Jay, and Hailey all looked at each other. "Yes," they said in unison.
"Wonderful. Well again, welcome. First timers are welcome on the first floor lounge, dance floor, and bar. Right this way."
He led them down the hall and parted some velvet curtains to show them the massive space. It housed red lounge chairs with glass tables, a dance floor and DJ, and a full bar. The neon lights illuminated every square inch of the floor, making it look metallic. There were people buzzing everywhere, and it was only 11:30pm. Hailey tried to take it all in, but man was it a lot. She hadn't seen a club this packed in a while. She wondered if that would make it easier or harder to spot the drugs being dealt. She snuck a quick glance at Jay, who was looking around too. She saw that he nodded over to Kevin, who casually excused himself to the bar.
"So, just you two then, yes? Would you like a room?"
Hailey and Jay glanced at each other. Hailey coughed, and Jay spoke up instead. "Not tonight. Kelly begged me to come with her to see about some job offer you guys had out?"
"And how did you hear about this?"
Hailey answered. "Andre was the one that actually mentioned it to Ryan. He said that you were looking for new girls, and I could really use the extra cash." She looked at the man with her best puppy dog eyed expression.
He nodded, seeming to understand. He motioned for her to come with him. When Jay started to walk too, the man stopped him. "Sorry, Ryan. It's Ryan, right? Just her for now. Have to see what Andre thinks of her first."
Jay pushed his lips together and gave a forced nod. Hailey shot a glance back his way before being led off by the host. She just hoped she would get in so she could stop these drugs from killing another girl.
Jay decided to take the alone time to radio back to base. "You guys got that? Hailey's on her way back to meet Andre. He really is the boss for these girls. Kev, how you doing on your end? Seeing anything?"
He looked over at Kevin, who was still at the bar, casually looking around while acting like he was having a drink. He shook his head no to Jay, who nodded in confirmation.
Jay heard Voight's voice on the other end of the radio. "Jay, continue to scope out while Hailey's with Andre. But stay close on her. You too Kevin. We're not losing her again."
Jay knew he was referring to the abduction from a few months ago. Dammit, he really didn't need that in his head right now. He had finally stopped blaming himself for what happened, but he still couldn't help but wonder 'what if.' He shut his eyes and shook his head, as if that was going to get rid of the thoughts.
"Copy that, Sarge" he heard Kevin say.
"Yeah, copy that." Jay said, quieter than usual.
He tried to focus on the task at hand. Scope. Scope. Scope. He slowly walked around to where the chairs and tables were, seeing throngs of girls talking to, serving drinks to, and almost dry humping the men that were in the chairs. Jesus. He picked one of the corner booths so he could see up on the balcony and still be able to scan the first floor.
"Hey Kevin, anyone saying anything over there?"
"Yeah bro, one girl said Andre's looking to do a big blowout soon. Don't know if she means legit party or drugs, so I'm gonna have to keep on it, okay? Keep you posted. How you and Hailey doing?"
"Good, good, yeah, we're all squared away here."
He noticed a bronzed brunette heading his way, so he casually stretched out to act as if he was intrigued. She practically purred in his ear. "All alone tonight, handsome?"
Jay sat up a little straighter in his seat. "For now, yeah."
The girl got down to eye level, giving him an all-too-easy view of her chest in an ill-fitting orange dress. When she spoke, he saw that her lips were oddly the same color as her dress. Who has even heard of orange lipstick? Jay thought to himself. He locked eyes with the woman when she ran her hands down his clothes. She must have been talking still, because her mouth was moving.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?"
She pouted slightly before answering. "I just asked you what your name was. I'm Brandy." She was still bent over to him, her hands stopped on his chest. She moved in so close that Jay could smell the beer on her breath. Fitting name.
He was about to answer when she saw a flash of blonde hair across the way with a tall, Latin man. He gave Brandy an apology, saying he had to go speak to someone. She whined, saying that he owed her a dance at least, but let him go on his way. Jay bolted from the chair and ran over to see if the girl he saw really was Hailey. It'd been almost 30 minutes since she went back.
"H-Kelly?" He asked, touching the woman's shoulder. A wave of relief washed over him when he saw Hailey's face turn to him.
"Yes? Oh hi Ryan. Andre, this is my friend Ryan. You know, the one I mentioned earlier?" Hailey looked from Andre to Jay, a stone cold look on her face.
Andre blew a puff of smoke out of his mouth from his cigar. "Ah yes. Mr. Porter. What do you think of the establishment?" He made a grandiose gesture with his hands.
Jay nodded, coming around to where Hailey stood. "Very nice, very nice. So Kel, what's the deal? You got a job or what?"
Andre laughed. "Relax, Ryan. She impressed me so much, she's going to be a star here."
Hailey gave Jay a sympathetic smile. He mimicked one back to her. Hailey said enough thank you's for the both of them, and the two partners decided it was time to grab Kevin and fill each other in. As they walked back towards the bar, Jay touched Hailey's hand, startling her for a second. She looked at him quizzically. "What?"
"That dress really does look great on you." He said it close to her ear, almost in a whisper.
Hailey was thankful this side of the club got a little bit dimmer so the darkness could hide the blush that was creeping up onto her cheeks. She leaned in towards Jay and whispered her reply. "And your suit really um, suits you." She cracked up a little, not believing she actually made that bad of a pun. She wasn't normally this awkward around Jay, but lately, things between the two of them were different, to say the least. She didn't mean to shut him out, but after the abduction, she kind of put up a wall with everyone for a little bit. Even Adam. She took a personal week and went sans technology, going to her parent's house in Lake Forest. She didn't tell anyone she was going, so when she got back, everyone was curious. Jay wasn't so much curious as he was concerned. They finally did talk about things, but even after everything was said and done, it was like there were these thoughts floating above them, these unspoken words haunting their hangouts. Like they weren't telling each other the whole truth. Or maybe the only people they were lying to were themselves. She knew something had changed between them; she just didn't know how to figure out how he felt.
When they met up with Kevin, they gave each other the rundown. Kevin mentioned that the one girl who was chatting up a storm at the bar mentioned that Andre had a closer to home stash house. Jay noticed that the balcony floors were kept dark and secluded - that was probably where the deals were done. He remembered seeing a young woman brushing off her nose before coming down the balcony steps. Hailey gave her first impression of Andre: handsy, a major player in the game, and he definitely had no sadness over his loss of working girls.
The 3 of them headed for the exit, when Andre stopped Hailey. "Oh Kelly." He slipped her a piece of paper. "My card."
Hailey smiled and tucked the card into her clutch. The 3 of them drove back to the house where the rest of the team was. Night one was officially complete. Hailey grimaced, knowing this was going to be a long UC operation for sure.