The Other Way Round

7

(TW: mentions of abuse)

"So you're selling where?" Kevin asks as he straps the wire to the inside of Adam's jacket.

Adam lightly shrugs his shoulders, not moving too much as not to jerk his friend's work. "Evanston, Winnetka, up and down the North Shore," he pauses for a spilt second and beats Kev to his next question. "My clients are upper-class professionals with high dreams to burn large holes in their very filled pockets."

Jay skims his eyes over the screen in front of him, pushing the headphone closer on to his ear to check that the wire was picking up the sound.

"But why'd you need me?" Kevin then asks, posing as Spiro.

Adam half-smirks. "My previous supplier got into an disagreement with some friends down south, spilt town and left me with the unhappy customers."

Adam and Kevin continue the spitfire questions and answers to each other for another few beats while Jay works the wire until Kevin whistles loudly and it brings Jay's attention up. He follows his friends gaze to see what had made Kev do that and that's when he sees Hailey stood in the doorway, nodding her head as if she expected that reaction.

Jay could see why Kevin had whistled, Hailey stood in the doorway like that had made him take a quick second glance over. Hailey wasn't the kind to get dressed-up, wasn't a skirt or dress kind of person - she would wear one for a reason, not randomly or on a daily basis - but for the case it was appropriate.

She was wearing a tight, low-cut black dress that stopped midway up her thighs, the boot-like heels she was wearing adding another inch or two to her height and her leather jacket pulled over her arms. Her hair was down, messy, sprayed over her shoulders and back, and she had a light red shade of lipstick drawn on her lips. Jay finds his eyes falling up and down the figure stood in front of him and he swears he feels his heart rate speed up as he continues to look her over. He's pulled away momentarily when in the corner of his eye he watches Adam stare at her in a (hopefully) more obvious way to the way he had glanced, the officer's bottom lip drawn subtly between his teeth.

What Kevin and Adam didn't know though was that he knew what was underneath all of that, he knew the feel of her hair laced in his fingers and the dip in her spine. He knew what it felt like to run his hands up and down her legs and back and neck. He knew why Kevin whistled, even if they didn't.

Jay rips his gaze away from the both of them, places them back in the screen and slightly shakes his head as Hailey walks further into the room.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You almost ready?" She asks.

Kevin nods for Jay, because right about now he doesn't think he'd be able to get the words out properly. "Yeah, just about."

On their exit out of the room, Kevin smiles in Hailey's direction. "You look great." He says and Hailey returns the small upturn before she looks away to hide the blush creeping up on her cheeks. Jay follows behind them and can't help but think what Kevin had said may have been true, but it's more of a huge understatement.

She looked stunning.

But he couldn't say that, of course.

xxx

About a week later, Jay found himself slightly pacing around his apartment, unsure on whether to text Hailey or not.

The case they were working - a home invasion turned homicide of an Alderman's wife - was turning into one that wasn't boding well with her, she was taking on things hard and after everything that had happened with Devin in lock-up earlier, it had only made things worse.