Upon arriving back at Bayley Martinez's house, 'Jesse' and 'Sophia' accompanied Rodrigo inside. Halstead was still in possession of the bag full of cash, determined to hand it over to the leader of the organisation and no one else.
"We need to see the boss," Rodrigo said to another man in a smart suit. Halstead was starting to get a feel for the dress code around the place, and he wasn't currently measuring up to it.
"She's in her office," the unnamed suit said.
Halstead and Lindsay followed Rodrigo, who of course knew where to go. The office was upstairs, they learned. When they got there, Rodrigo knocked quietly on the door. It was a knock of deference and respect. Martinez might have lost some of the people who had been loyal to her father, but the ones who remained were likely very loyal to her.
"Come," Martinez's voice called from inside.
Rodrigo opened the door and led them in.
"Ah, Rodrigo, anything to report?" Martinez asked.
Halstead found the boss sitting behind a sturdy old wooden desk. There was a computer setup on the desk, which he would have loved to get a chance to explore. Sitting on the other side of the desk was a tall Hispanic woman, who looked at the new arrivals with hostility. A good judge of character, Halstead assessed her immediately as someone not to be fucked with. Possibly one of Martinez's bodyguards, he thought, although the suit she had on looked a bit too expensive for a bodyguard. No introductions were made.
"Yes, boss," Rodrigo said. "They got the money. Talked Garza into handing it over without any violence."
"Really?" Martinez said quietly. She took a second to eye Halstead and Lindsay up, maybe giving them a second appraisal now that they had shown competence. They didn't receive any praise or gratitude for their work, though. Martinez just held her hand out for the plastic bag that Halstead was holding.
"It's all there," he said, handing it over.
"Wouldn't be much good if it wasn't," Martinez said dryly. She took the bag and handed it to the as yet unnamed woman. "Count it."
The woman methodically emptied the bundles of notes onto the desk, then started counting through them. Martinez watched on intently, while the other three were left to awkwardly stand there and wait. Halstead hoped Garza hadn't been stupid enough to short change them because that would come down on his and Lindsay's asses before it came down on Garza's. Maybe it would have been better to insist on counting the money back at the auto shop.
Several minutes dragged by, with the sound of paper notes being counted the only thing to occupy the silence. It made for quite a tense atmosphere, which Halstead imagined was to Martinez's satisfaction.
"It's all there," the hard-faced woman reported eventually.
"Count out two and half," Martinez instructed.
The woman obeyed the order.
"Give it to him," Martinez said.
"Thank you," Halstead said as he accepted the payment.
"Okay, get out," Martinez said, giving a dismissive hand gesture towards the door.
"Is that it?" Lindsay demanded.
Martinez raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"
"You're not going to give us more work?"
"I don't know yet," the boss replied, staring Lindsay out.
Once Lindsay glanced away and lost the altercation, Martinez spoke again. "If you do work for me again, you'd better dress appropriately. You're a disgrace, both of you. Now get out. I'm not accustomed to telling people things twice. Rodrigo, show them to the gate."
Deciding to keep in character as the more respectful one of the two, Halstead gave the boss a polite nod before turning to leave.
Rodrigo took his now familiar position in the lead, and walked them out of the front door and down the driveway. The gates were already opening, possibly at the push of a button from Martinez's office, Halstead guessed.
"Thanks for your company today," Lindsay quipped at Rodrigo when the time came for them to part ways.
"That mouth's going to get you in a lot of trouble," Rodrigo said as a parting shot.
Halstead managed not to smile as he took his phone out of his pocket. "I guess I'll book us another Uber. We need to go and get the car back."
Erin and Jay had waited until they were back at their safe house, now with their undercover car back in their possession, to discuss the day's work. With his priorities in the correct order, Jay had fixed them a cup of coffee each before joining Erin on the couch in the living room. This was one of those weird times in their relationship where they were on personal time, but work was the topic of conversation.
"So how do you think that went?" Erin asked him, taking the cup that he offered her.
"I think it went well. We were given a job and we got it done without having to get violent. I'm glad it didn't come to that."
"I am too, obviously," Erin said, but she looked a bit unconvinced. "The only thing is, do you think Martinez wanted us to break his legs?"
"They job she gave us was to get the money, or break his legs if he didn't pay. He paid. We did exactly what she told us to do."
"I suppose you're right," Erin said thoughtfully. "Think I might have pissed her off a bit too much."
Jay chuckled. "I think you probably pissed her off. But too much? No, I don't agree. We would have looked a lot more suspect if we'd have both gone in there all subservient. By not being exactly what she might have wanted in new hires, we looked legit."
"Yes," Erin nodded. "So we'll continue in the same way. Hopefully she doesn't order us to do anything violent again. But if she does, follow my lead. We'll rough a few people up if we have to in order to gain trust from Martinez. We need to get into the gun running side of things. We've got to know when and where a big handover is taking place so that we can get Olinsky to come in with a raid. I want the whole crew rolling up."
Halstead had already known the plan of course. "Right. I'm thinking it might take some time to gain that level of trust with her. She still seemed dismissive and a bit suspicious of us. Probably doesn't help that we're white. We don't exactly fit in with the rest of them."
"Shame I couldn't have sent Z under with you."
That made Halstead laugh. The thought of Zelina Vega giving Martinez some of her attitude was quite something. But then 'Sophia' hadn't exactly held back either. And it had been quite a turn on. "I think all she would have brought to the table is sass, and you seem to have that covered. Not going to lie, it turned me on a little bit."
Erin grinned and raised an eyebrow slightly. "A little bit?"
"Alright, a lot." He moved in a started kissing the side of her neck.
"Let me put this drink down," Erin said, giggling. She attempted to put her cup on the coffee table, but she only managed to put it on the edge and it fell on the floor.
"Now we've ruined a carpet and a bed," she said, lying back to relish the attention she was getting.
"I don't care," Jay said between kisses.
Erin wrapped her arms around him. "Neither do I."
The next morning, with Bayley Martinez's words in mind, Halstead and Lindsay had gone downtown to buy themselves some smart suits to wear. The suits hadn't come cheap, but Lindsay would be able to claim the expenses back once the undercover operation was over.
"That's really nice. I like that one a lot," Halstead said.
Lindsay was trying on a light grey suit, and had come out of the changing room to get his opinion on it.
"Here, put your glasses on with it," he said, handing her the black aviator sunglasses that she had left in his custody.
Erin put the glasses on and posed with a hand on her hip.
"I don't know about Martinez, you look like a boss lady to me," Halstead said. It was hard for him not to take her into the changing rooms for some risky and inappropriate sex.
"So I take it I'm buying this one?" Lindsay asked with a wry smile on her face.
"Absolutely," he said.
She handed the glasses back to him and went back into the changing room to put her civvies back on. She had just gotten undressed when her phone rang, making her groan at the timing. Then she realised that she only had her undercover phone with her. Only Cheyenne or someone from the Martinez crew had that number. She mentally slipped back into character as Sophia before answering.
"Hello?"
"Sophia Bush?" a familiar voice asked.
"Yes?" Lindsay replied, pretending not to know who she was talking to.
"Bayley Martinez. Come to the house."
"Uh, okay. When?"
"When? Now!" Martinez snapped, as if considering anything else was an insult.
"I'll run to my car," Lindsay quipped, and ended the call.
A/N: What do you think Martinez might have in store for them this time?