"No sign of Boden?" Ruzek asked, walking up to the bar in The Friendly Tap.

"Not yet, boss," Halstead replied. He was actually almost ready to leave, the end of his shift having passed. But, knowing that Ruzek was coming, he hadn't wanted to show disrespect by taking off before seeing him.

Ruzek looked at his watch. "Still ten minutes before the time I gave them. I'll be in the back room."

Halstead nodded. "Do you need Erin and I to stick around?"

"No, you can head off. Kevin will stay, plus the late shift guys are here. Come over to the house first thing. I'll gather everyone for an update on the situation."

"You got it, boss. See you tomorrow."

Finished with serving her final customer of the night, Lindsay walked down to join them. "Hello, boss."

"Erin. Everything good?"

"Apart from that witch Upton showing up earlier and sniffing around, yeah."

"Well, we could have guessed that was going to happen," Ruzek said without concern. "We don't even know for sure who killed Antonio, so there's obviously no chance of it being linked to us. Let them dig around all they want, it's their time they're wasting."

"Grab your coat, Er. We're off home," Halstead said.

"See you at the house first thing," Ruzek said. He then walked off to the bar's private back room, where he sometimes received people, and tonight would speak to Wallace Boden.

Shortly, Lindsay came back out of the staff area, putting her coat on. Halstead exchanged a comradely handshake with Atwater. "See you in the morning."

"You will. And hopefully we'll have some answers by then. Later, Erin."

"Yeah, see you," Lindsay said, and she and Halstead left.

Only a couple of minutes later, Atwater saw Wallace Boden enter the bar. With him was Matt Casey. That was a hardly a surprise. Boden couldn't have been expected to come alone.

"Is Ruzek here?" Boden asked Atwater as he approached the bar. He sounded less than pleased to be there. Again, it was hardly a surprise.

"Yes he is. Follow me," Atwater said. He had no time for the man, but the right thing to do in this situation was to behave professionally. Ruzek would expect nothing less.

Casey took a seat at the bar as Atwater led Boden towards the back room. The 51's leader had come with some backup, but it was the done thing to meet with people one on one for this kind of conversation.

Atwater opened the door to the room and found Ruzek sitting where he had expected, at the head of the table that was capable of sitting eight people. "Mr Boden," he announced.

"Thanks, Kevin. You can leave us to it."

"Can't say I'm used to being summoned across the city like an errand boy," Boden said as soon as Atwater had closed the door for them.

Playing it cool, Ruzek got up and moved over to a drinks table in the corner of the room. "Drink? Have a seat."

"Whisky," Boden said, making like he was being very gracious in accepting the offer. He sat on one of the chairs closest to the door.

Ruzek poured approximately a double shot of whisky into a glass, then did the same into another. He carried them over to the table, handed one to Boden, and sat down at he head of the table. Raising his glass, he proposed a toast. "To the lost."

For a couple of seconds, Boden looked at him with a bit of a quizzical expression on his face. But then he raised his glass. "To the lost."

Both men drank.

"As for your opening comment," Ruzek transitioned smoothly, "I didn't summon you over here. I came to see you at the repair shop, but I was told you weren't in. Not sure that was true, but either way, that's why we're sitting here now. That and the fact that one of my men caught a bullet to the back of the head in his own living room. Antonio Dawson."

"Who?" Boden said coolly.

"Don't give me that. I know for a fact he was playing cards in at least one of your places regularly. You're not an idiot, so I know you know who your regular players are. That means I know you know who he is. What I don't know is whether you had him killed because of a personal beef or him owing you money, or if you knew he was one of my men and you're making a play. If it's the latter, things are going to get very ugly, very fast. And I think we all know who's going to get the best of it."

Ruzek had more men, more connections, and more clout in Chicago. And he knew Boden knew it, too. Wallace Boden was not a fool by any means, which made it harder to believe a play was being made. But it certainly wasn't to be ruled out.

"Okay, so I've heard of him," Boden admitted. "But that doesn't mean I had him killed. I didn't. He was a regular. Came around a couple of nights a week. Almost always managed to lose his money."

"I bet he did," Ruzek said, making it obvious that it was an accusation.

"Our poker rooms are legit," Boden said in annoyance. "Anyway, that's not the issue here. You didn't call me over here to talk about how I run my tables. You want to know who killed Dawson. Wasn't me. Even if I was bleeding him dry, why would I stop doing that and have him shot? It makes no sense. I don't know who killed him, or why."

"Frankly, I'm not sure I believe a word of this," Ruzek said with annoyance of his own. "But for a moment let's say I accept your word for now. Someone's actions still leave a valuable employee of mine dead. It's going to cause me considerable inconvenience and expense. Someone's going to pay for that. And if I find out you've lied to me and it was you..."

Boden seemed to want to demonstrate being somewhat co-operative. "Like I said, I didn't order the shooting. But I'll ask around and see if any of my people know who did. If I get any info, I'll pass it on. That's all I can do."

Ruzek knew that was the most he was going to get for now. He didn't have evidence to throw at Boden. Hell, maybe it hadn't even been him. He wanted the right person to pay for Antonio's killing, not the first suspect that came to his attention.

"You do that," he said. "And don't take too long about it. Someone killed my man, and they're in a world of trouble."

"I'll be in touch."

Boden downed his whisky and left without another word. Ruzek saw a man with a lot on his mind, as well he should have. There was a potential war at hand.

Erin Lindsay lay naked on the bed in her apartment's master bedroom. It wasn't long after she and Jay had gotten there after their shift at the bar, but neither of them had been able to wait for what they'd had planned. They had both had bad days, her especially in her view, and she had a lot of tension that needed to be released.

Lying on her front with her head turned to face the opposite way to the door, she heard rather than saw Halstead come into the room.

Fuck, she's so hot, Halstead thought. Also naked, he stood there for a second, looking at his girlfriend's incredible body. Her ass was something he could never get enough of seeing, and it had him getting hard already.

"You've been hot-tempered, feisty, and moody today, Erin," he said.

"I'm like that every day," she replied, not moving to look at him.

"Yes, you are. But today more so than usual. I think it's time you were put back in your place."

"I do too."

"Don't really care what you think. It's not going to matter, is it?"

"God, I'm so turned on already," Erin said breathlessly.

"And I've not started yet." With that, he got onto the bed, lying down beside her. He had brought several black zip ties into the room with him, and several long lengths of silky black cloth. He started by putting them all down on the bed. Then, meeting no resistance, as expected, he passed Erin's wrists either side of one of the bed frame's metal bars and tied them together one with one of the zip ties, securing it so that she was bound tightly, but not tightly enough to cause too much discomfort. The main thing was she now couldn't get free, and her hands were out of action.

"That's so fucking hot," Erin breathed, looking at her bound wrists, and trying to resist the restraint. Her effort was pointless, as she had known it would be. Struggling was part of the excitement, though.

"It's going to get hotter," he said. Moving down the bed, he used zip ties to secure each of her ankles to the bed frame. She was restrained with her legs spread apart, so that she was lying in an inverted Y shape.

"Now I can hardly move at all," Erin said, wriggling pathetically.

"Good. Now shush." Jay balled up one of the cloths between his fingers, and stuffed it into her mouth, which she opened to readily accept it.

"Don't spit it out," he instructed.

Erin did as she was told, allowing him to pull a second cloth between her teeth, pull it tight, and knot it behind her head. She was now as securely gagged as she was bound, and it turned her on big time.

"Mmmppph!" she tried to yell through the two cloths, delighting in how muffled and weak the attempt sounded. The cloth between her teeth was too thick for her to close her mouth around it, and certainly too thick for her to work the packing out past it.

"Ssshh, there's no point doing that," Jay took great pleasure in telling her. There was nothing quite like being in a totally dominant position over someone as powerful and aggressive as Erin. "Now, one last thing to do."

Erin moaned as he used the final cloth to blindfold her, securing it with another knot behind her head.

"There, all done. Fuck, you're hot," Jay said. He was now rock hard, more than ready to fuck her. And he knew she would be ready too. But she was going to be made to wait a bit first.

"Mmmmm," Erin whimpered as he moved to lie straddling her, his knees carrying his weight to avoid pressing down on her. He reached his hands around her and started fondling her breasts.

"Fantastic ass, great tits," he whispered into her ear. "So fucking hot, Er. Especially when you can't move or talk."

"Just fuck me," Erin tried to beg. Unfortunately he couldn't understand her. She found herself literally quivering in excitement at the situation she was in, and the way he was touching her.

"You know, I could keep you here like this for hours if I wanted to."

"No! Just fuck me!" Erin tried to say.

"I'm sure you're probably begging me to fuck you. Well, you're in luck."

Halstead shifted position so that he could enter her from behind, and slipped himself inside her. Naturally, he had found her nice and wet, ready for him. If he had carried on fondling her tits like that, he could have gotten her to orgasm purely because of that and the bondage, he imagined. But not this time. This time he was going to fuck her hard and fast, the way he wanted it.

And so he did, wasting no time in starting to pound her, grunting with the effort. In doing so, he knew the zip ties would hurt her ankles. But the pain was part of the pleasure.

Fucking her harder and harder, Jay's groans drowned out Erin's muffled ones. In little over a minute, he was shooting his load into her, gasping in delight as he did so.

And then it was over. It was hardly a performance to write home about, but he didn't care in the least. It had been seriously hot.

"Mmm. Mmmph," Erin sighed as he pulled out of her.

"Sshhh," he said quietly. He leaned forward, untied the blindfold and removed it for her, tossing it across the bed. He could tell by her eyes that her mind was blown. Her breathing was heavy through her nose, and her hair was messed up. He loved to see it.

"Beautiful, Er. You're so beautiful."

"Mmmmm," she groaned into the gag, looking up at him. It was all she could do to try and get him to free her.

Jay tenderly stroked some stray hairs away from her face. "No, I don't think so. You can stay like that for a while, and we can go again. Maybe several times."

There was no attempt at a complaint.

A/N: What do you make of what Boden had to say?

After that Linstead fix for you all, we'll start the next chapter with Burgess joining Ruzek for dinner. Do you think she'll enjoy it?