A Chicago Story.

Chapter 7: Jayden Halstead

I had checked in with Intelligence about Damion's number and it had checked out. Apparently he was a detective - just not in Intelligence. He was indeed a Chicago Police officer and from what Hank had told me, he was a highly decorated undercover detective - even helping the FBI and CIA when in town. 
I had to lay low for a couple days until Hank made contact with me on whether or not my mission needed to take a detour for this dudes or not. So for days I sat in that stupid basement and twittled my thumbs like a total moron. 
It had been well over five days before Damion came down in his gangster baggie clothes and took me upstairs. 
I felt bad for the girls who watched me go, they thought I was going up with him to pleasure and participate in his wildest dreams. When in reality, I knew he wasn't going to lay a finger on me. 
"So what's the verdict?" I asked when he locked us in the same room as before. 
I now - knowing I wasn't about to have sex with him and panicking about dying - realized it was him room. 
"Looks like we are partners." He sighed. 
I looked at him in shock. I had already worked through a hundred different conversations explaining my worth and why he needs me and my need to help these girls. I was ready to drop to my knees and beg to stay in this. I hadn't expected him to just take me at face value. 
"I'm sorry what?" 
"I said we are partners, and if we are going to be you need to listen better than that." 
"I was listening the first time I just couldn't believe those words came out of your mouth." 
"Trust me, I couldn't believe it either. If I had it my way you would be out of here before you blow my cover and get us both killed." 
I scuffed, "please, I have been doing great, thanks to me the Intelligence Unit almost has this asshole. I just need physical proof. I already have the girls to testify." 
"They know who you are?" He came at me. 
"No, I'm not that stupid. But they trust me, if I told them to jump they would, if I asked them to run I think they would after I showed them I could take him down." 
"You've grown attached." It wasn't a question. 
"I have." I wasn't going to lie. "I would have been one of these girls if it wasn't for my son and my siblings. They are just scared girls who think this is what they need to do to survive. I am going to show them that there is more to life than selling your body to live." 
"I'm sorry I didn't know." 
"No you wouldn't, so how about you stop assuming you know everything about me." 
"Fair enough." He ran his fingers through his hair. A weird anxious action in gang banger clothes. 
"Look, I have been instructed to let you in on everything I've learned and threatened by your Unit that if anything happens to you, I'll be behind bars... or worse." 
"Yeah," I smiled, "sounds like them." 
"So what I want you to do is work on the girls and I'll work on the gang bangers. If we can unite the girls against Donate we can sneak around and learn so much more." 
"I understand that and I am working on it, but it's not as easy as you make it sound. These girls are petrified of him - of you. Unlike you and me, they can'y defend themselves. They don't know how to use a gun or fight. They are broken girls who got dealt a shitty hand and have no hope." 
"So give them hope." 
"And how do you suggest I do that?" I whispered yelled at him - I knew better than to yell in Donate's house. "If you haven't noticed I am a prisoner here, and they think we are fucking." 
"Now that I know you aren't a rat hell bent on destroying my case, I can sneak you in and out of here. I do it all the time to get information to my team. I mean I am not a prisoner like you but I can 'take a liking to' you and 'bring you with me'." 
"And I can use that with the girls." A plan was formulating in my head. "I can tell them that I've gotten to you, you've fallen for me and care about me." 
"And that way you can give them hope that I'll turn on Donate and help free them." He finished. 
"That's the goal." 

"How did it go?" Penny came to 'attend to me' after my session with Damion. She was the nurture of the group, always giving her food to the others, taking beatings if one of the girls messed up, and she always takes care of us after we finish with a 'client'. 
She would be the first person I tell who I really am if I ever decided to spill the beans while in here.
"It was fine, he didn't hurt me like the other did." I pretended to be traumatised. 
I already looked like shit from not bathing for days and living down here in the pitch black so it wasn't hard to be an 'aftermath wreck'. 
She helped me to my mattress and sat with me, keeping an arm around my back in comfort. 
Time to plant my bait. "He... he was actually, k-kind to me." 
"Kind to you?" She asked in disbelief. 
"Yeah." I managed to say tiredly and I wished I was in a movie cause I'd win an Oscar. 
"I've never seen him sleep with any of the girls, not any of us or the others before." 
That makes a lot more sense to me now knowing what I know. He was a cop, and from what I've been told - a very good cop - he wouldn't hurt one of these girls unless he absolutely had to. That's what I prayed anyways, my life was literally in his hands. 
"He said he's taken a liking to me. That I reminded him of someone. He didn't hurt me when we did it, he was soft. Nice even." 
"Well maybe you've struck gold, finding a good in all the bad." 
"Maybe." I leaned closer to her. 
"But let me tell you something Dillon, he may seem all good and kind and may even give you hope to get out of this terrible life. But don't be so easily fooled, all it takes is one wrong move and you end up like the ones before us. Dead." 
And with that statement I felt defeated because I knew she was right. 
I felt almost hopeful knowing that another Chicago Police Officer was in this with me and maybe I wasn't alone in doing this blindly, but what did I really know about this guy? He hadn't even told me his real name just a badge number. I've heard how some officers are undercover so long that all they know is the life. He could have converted to the criminal side and is just using his cop status as a ploy to lure me in and gain trust with Donate for finding a mole in his mist. 
Maybe Penny was onto something. Maybe I shouldn't be trying to turn her into a believer, maybe I should be digging into my new partner and if his motives are pure or more sinister than I thought.