⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS TROUBLE
chapter twenty. payback.

"Good job, baby" Sam smiles, watching her daughter slowly climb up the stairs on the jungle gym at the park. Gracie smiles and continues to walk towards the slide.

Once she slides down the slide, Gracie starts clapping and smiling. Then she gets off the slide and runs towards her godfather and hugs his legs.

"There's my girl" Kelly says, picking Gracie up and kisses her cheek.

"Unke...Kel"

Kelly smiles and says, "Close enough"

"Thank you for being here. I gotta head to work earlier than I thought" Sam says.

"No problem. I wouldn't want to spend my day off any other way"

Gracie places her small hand on the back of Kelly's neck and lays her head down on his chest.

"Also, do you mind picking Denise up from her dance practice at 5?" Sam asks her best friend. Kelly nods and says, "Yeah. Where's Wyatt?"

"At a friends" Sam kisses her daughters check, "thank you, Kells. Love you!" Then she walks to her Jeep to head to the district.

🌙🌙🌙

"Today's tip followed the same MO as our previous two" Antonio explains to the team, "they blast the doors open, kill everybody inside, grab the money and product, and get the hell out of there"

"Just ran the prints of the two dead guys." Hailey says walking over to Antonio with three pictures in her hand, "these two. Nothing. No names, no criminal history" then hands Dawson the two pictures to hang on the board.

"That makes six dead bangers" Brayden says, crossing his arms over his chest. Hailey shows another other picture of a little boy and says, "and Felix Montero. Just turned 10"

"We talked to Felix's mom. She says she saw two Latinos, 20, jump into a dark car, but that's all we got" Kim says.

"Somebody has to see them. They didn't just disappear into thin air" Atwater says.

"Alright, so let's double down on the traffic cams, start canvassing for more witnesses" Voight says.

"Ask me, we should assume this is an inside job. You don't get the address of a stash house in the yellow pages" Al says.

"He's right. I mean, these guys aren't just getting lucky. They know where to go and when to go" Dawson says.

"You know, it could be someone inside the Latin hoods. I'll reach out to a buddy in gangs" Jay says.

"Good. Chase that. Everybody else, reach out to your CI's, and put some money on the street" Hank says.

~~~

As Sam is glued to her computer, Jay walks onto the unit and says, "I just talked to my guy in gangs. The stash house they robbed belonged to the 16th street boys, not the Latin hoods."

"So much for the inside job theory" Sam says.

"Yeah, which puts us back to square one" Antonio says.

Adam walks onto the unit and says, "alright, my CI's got intel on two Hispanic bangers moving product out of a house on 47th and Racine. Cobra label"

"Get a warrant"

"We don't need a warrant" Adam says, putting on his coat, "house is vacant"

"Let's hit it" Antonio says, as everyone grabs their jackets. Sam stands up and winces in pain, touching her shoulder.

"Hey, you good?" Jay asks. Sam nods her head and says, "I'm good. I just gotta take it slower"

~~~

Brayden and Sam walk onto the unit after the team had gone to the vacant house and picked up two guys and Hank asks, "hey, you recover any weapons?"

"No, there was no guns. Techs are still at the scene. They're looking for blood and hair. So far, nothing" Brayden says, as he and Sam take off their jackets and walk to their desks.

"Any gunshot residue?"

"Negative, but it's been a while, so that doesn't mean anything"

"The good news is, the heroin we found, it's a match. It's got the cobra insignia" Adam says.

"Huh. Hailey, get the little boys mother down here. See if she can make a positive ID. Alright, Jay, you and Sam talk to Soto. Ruzek, Atwater take a run at Fernandez" Hank says, and the couple head to interrogation.

~~~

"I'm telling you, man, if we were holding that much dope, we wouldn't be laying up in that dump" Soto says. Jay sits behind him and says, "Yeah, the law says your house, your dope"

"It's not my house. We was just crashing there"

"I'd be crashing there, too, if I just killed three people, including a little kid" Sam says, leaning on the clue cement walls.

"We ain't got nothing to do with that"

"Where were you this afternoon?" Jay asks.

"I was having a beer with my carnal at the house"

"Right, at the house that isn't yours, with the drugs that you didn't know were there"

"That's right"

"You have anybody to verify that?" Sam asks.

~~~

"So, where we at?" Antonio asks, as Jay and Sam get their guns from the safe.

"Both dudes are sticking to the script. They got nothing to do with the rips, the murders" Jay says.

"Alibi?"

"Drinking beer in the abandoned house" Sam says, going to sit at her desk.

"Hey" Platt says, standing next to the board, "I just talked with Sarah Montero, Felix's mom. I showed her a photo array of our suspects."

"Get a positive ID?" Dawson asks.

"No. Nobody familiar. So, either she didn't get a good look, or these aren't our guys"

"My moneys on choice B" Hailey says.

"Choice B? Why?" Adam questions.

"Cause I just checked out the store the guys said they got their beer from. Time stamped 9:33 a.m." Hailey says, as Ruzek takes the picture from her, "Stash house was hit at 9:36 a.m. So it's a 20 minute drive if they hit every green light and no traffic. We got the wrong guys"

"Who the hell gave you the intel?" Antonio asks Adam. Adam stands up and takes his jacket from his chair and leaves the unit.

~~~

"Just talked to the gang unit. No chatter, no leads." Antonio says, walking onto the bullpen.

"Nothing from the crime lab, either" Jay says, sat at his desk with Hailey, Kim, Brayden and Sam surrounding him.

"There's gotta be some link, something that connects these three tips to each other" Kim says.

"I just talked to a fed at HIDTA. Think I have a connection" Hailey says, getting up from her desk, "turns out Marino's narcotics squad had sealed search warrants for each other at the stash houses, but somehow, the rip crew was able to hit the stash houses before the search warrants were executed."

"You're saying someone tipped the crews off?" Sam says.

"I'm saying the rip crew knew exactly where the stash houses were, and that they were loaded with product" 

"Because of the search warrants" Antonio says.

"We got a dirty cop in Narcotics." Brayden states.

🌙🌙🌙

As the team sets up a fake stash house to catch the crew. Adam, Kevin, Brayden and Hailey walk past Jay and Sam who are undercover as homeless people and up to some undercover rooms.

"Let me know when you guys are nice and cozy" Hank says, as he and Al are in an unmarked van in the parking lot of the motel.

"Nice and cozy, boss" Hailey says.

"Us too" Adam says.

"Jay, Sam?" Hank asks.

"We're good to go" Jay says. As they pretend to be looking through the trash and what not. Sam takes a quick look around and says, "we got two males, Hispanic, 20s, dark clothing. Looks like they're wearing ski masks. One of thems got something in his pocket. These are our guys"

"We wait for them to hit that door. Hailey you say when"

"Not yet. Hang tough." Hailey says.

As the shooting starts, Jay and Sam race up the stairs and Jay ends up shooting one of the offenders.

"Hey, everybody okay?" Hank asks, as he and Al run over to their team.

"All good" Kevin says.

"The guy inside is down. He's not getting back up, not ever" Adam says.

"This ones still alive" Hailey says, feeling for a pulse.

"5021 satton. Shots fired by police. Roll an ambo to 3627 west 47th street. We got multiple offenders down" Brayden says over the radio.

"Copy that 5021 satton"

🌙🌙🌙

"Okay, so this Maldonado, is he gonna live?" Hank asks, walking onto the unit, taking off his jacket.

"We don't know yet, Sarg" Kevin says, leaving the break room, "soon as he's done with surgery at Med, Jay and Upton will let us know"

"Maldonado's weapon is a match to the beretta .380 that killed the little boy, Felix, so we're pretty positive these are the guys doing the rips" Sam says, looking up from her computer. 

"Alright, what about their apartment? We search it?" Hank asks.

"Yeah, and we found 30 grand in cash, and three keys of heroin, and the brand matches the one taken from the last stash house, cobra" Kim says.

"Okay, so we got the rippers. We just gotta figure out who they're working with"

"I got a lead on that too" Antonio says, walking onto the unit with a file in hand and hands it to Voight, "did some digging with the OCD techs."

Hank reads over it and looks at Dawson and says, "you sure about this?" And Antonio nods his head.

~~~

"Everything we have points to Rojas" Kim says, taping her picture onto the board, "and no one else in Marino's crew"

"Alright, before we can move on her, we got to find the connection with either Maldonado or Gutierrez" Hank says.

"Well, we dug deep, boss. Computer forensics saw nothing unusual. No common numbers between her phone and the burners that we pulled off those guys" Adam says.

"I mean, she's basically the rising star of Narcotics, Sarg" Kevin says, looking over a file, "her disciplinary report is perfect. Highly decorated. I don't see any irregular bank deposits or anything that shows she's living over her means"

"Well, she is one of us. She knows how to cover her tracks." Al states.

"Okay, if that's the case, why would she be careless enough to log into the OCD admin terminal with her own code?" Kim says.

"Forget about getting anything out of Maldonado" Jay says, as he and Hailey walk onto the unit, "ME's got a toe tag with his name on it"

"Hold on. Hold on. I might have something" Dawson says, getting up from his desk and taping a picture onto the board, "alright. A frequent call made from the landline at Maldonado's apartment comes back to his cousin, 'Big Frank' Bennett. He's out on bail, awaiting trial in a distribution charge. Might be a long shot, but maybe he was unloading product for his cousin"

"Means he could've met Rojas along the way" Brayden says.

"Let's chase it" Hank says.

🌙🌙🌙

Jay knocks the door down with the ram, then the team enters with their guns drawn, where they see a freshly lit cigarette being burned out on the ashtray on the glass table.

Jay and Sam slowly walk up the stairs, where they see movement in the bathroom. Sam clears the other rooms out before Antonio follows them and then Jay smashes the door in with his shoulder and shouts, "let me see your hands!" As he sees 'Big Frank' flushing the heroin down the toilet.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!"

"Hands on your head, interlock your fingers" Jay says, and he does as told and they head into the hallway.

"I ain't do nothing. Come on, none of that stuff belongs to me"

"It does now" Jay says, patting him down.

~~~

Sam drops a duffle bag full of money in front of 'Big Frank' who is on his knees with his fingers interlocked behind his head and says, "and they say crime doesn't pay"

"Just take it" Big Frank says.

"What?" Antonio says.

"I'll make believe you guys weren't here"

"I'm gonna make believe you didn't say that. I got one question. Don't get it wrong. Who was feeding your cousin the stash houses?"

"I don't know"

Sam grabs the man by the collar of his shirt and says, "you listen to me. A 10 year old boy caught a bullet to the head because of that crap you were flushing, so you, my friend, are looking at a felony murder charge"

"Come on"

"Last chance to help yourself. I'm not gonna ask again" Antonio says.

"Look, all I know is that it's a dirty cop. They would meet us at some bar named Nemo's"

🌙🌙🌙

After finding out that the person who was leaking the information was Adam's ex cop CI, Ray. They arrest and charge him.

Sam heads home to see Kelly passed out on the couch, and Denise painting his nails, while Gracie spreads lipstick across his face.

"Wow, this is gold" Sam jokes, taking out her phone and taking a quick picture, before taking the tube of lipstick from her two year old, who screams, waking up the firefighter.

"Huh. What's going on?" Kelly asks.

"Check the mirror Romeo" Sam says. Kelly gets off the couch and walks to the half bath next to the kitchen and looks into the mirror then walks out with raised eyebrows, "I think I look good, but you guys are so gonna get payback"

a/n:

This book is close to the end, which means a very depressing finale, making me cry all over again 😭