---

One month later

Camila was so used to taking her lunch break and driving up to Rikers that no one in the office batted an eye.

It'd been about 30 days of visiting, a month, a whole ass month and Camila was no closer to learning anything.

She'd taken to bringing some work with her to do while Lauren watched her from across the table.

Camila was also loath to say that sometimes she even helped.

"What is it today then Mila?" Lauren asked as Camila entered.

"Usual. Who's your prison contact?"

"Shocked you haven't got that one by yourself." Lauren mused. Camila rolled her eyes.

"Who's doing your gun running?"

"Who said I was gun running?" Lauren frowned briefly before it became a smirk.

"Smuggling?"

"Doesn't sound like me."

"Drugs?"

"Pass. I don't do drugs." Lauren shrugged. Camila let out a long breath and let her tongue run over her teeth.

"You... are so frustrating Jauregui."

"If you came around this side of the table I could show you how really frustrating I can be." Lauren shot back, biting her lip with a grin. "And you can call me Lauren you know."

"And you can't call me Mila. That nickname is taken." Camila replied absently as she opened her file.

"Camz."

Camila looked up quickly, blinking at Lauren who smirked. "Thought you might remember that one."

"Shut up."

"So if you're a PI now... does that mean someone hired you to take me down? Or is this still about that coffee?" Lauren asked, leaning across the table with a grin.

"Yeah I got hired." Camila murmured. Lauren looked at the pictures in the file.

"Wife's cheating and he's blackmailing the lover. So who hired you?"

"Already knew that. I just have to get proof. And none of your business." Camila replied easily.

"It's the definition of my business." Lauren retorted. "I'd try that motel there." Lauren added, leaning over to point at one of the photos; a glaring neon sign in the background.

"They wanted to remain anonymous." Camila said with a frown as she picked up the photo.

"Then they must be stupid, I have ways of finding out." Lauren scoffed, folding her arms over her chest. Camila glanced up at her with a small smile.

"Don't throw a tantrum Jauregui. I'll cuff your 'ways' before they even know what's happening." Camila mused.

"Please, you wouldn't know them if they smacked you in the face." Lauren replied.

"Oh so that guy was one of yours?" Camila rubbed her cheek thoughtfully.

"Someone hit you?" Lauren asked, her face becoming blank. Camila looked up at the sudden toneless voice.

"Uh yeah? Dude didn't like being done for extortion." Camila shrugged.

"What's his name?" Lauren asked, her nose twitching with the effort of breathing evenly. Camila put down the papers and leaned her arms on the table.

"Are you... concerned?" Camila asked, a wide smile forming on her face.

"Please. For you? You wish." Lauren scoffed. The room fell silent as Camila chuckled and went back to inspecting her file.

"His name was Jeffery Potters." She muttered. Lauren nodded and made a mental note.

"For the record he was not one of mine. My people know better than to assault law enforcement, whether there's a badge involved or not." Lauren said quietly.

"The Jauregui's are known for being polite I'm sure."

"Oh you'd be surprised." Lauren hummed. "Pretty sure we've got a good rep of being considerate. We don't go out of our way for violence."

Camila looked up at her in surprise, Lauren kept her eyes on the table between them.

"Really?"

"I only resort to violence in self defense. My people know to try and talk it out first, but if that doesn't work... then they get to beat the shit out of people." Lauren mused, before shaking her head and looking up at Camila. "One of the few rules of my dads that I kept."

Camila stared at her for a beat too long before clearing her throat.

"I am sorry about your dad."

"Look," Lauren sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "You were right. It was only a matter of time before he got busted. That's part of the risk of being a criminal."

Camila blinked at her file, a smile tugging at her lips. She opened her mouth but was interrupted by the door opening.

"Time's up guys."

Camila smiled at the guard and packed up her file.

"Until tomorrow Jauregui."

"See you Camz."

-----

"Beckett." Lauren hissed as the lights went out down the hallway. She tapped her foot impatiently as a shadowy figure appeared at her cell doors.

"I'm about to leave Jauregui, what do you want?"

"Give Mani the name Jeffery Potters. He needs to learn some manners." Lauren said lowly. Beckett nodded before wandering off and the night shift guards entered the block.

"Lights out Jauregui!"

Lauren flipped off the guard as they passed and slunk back into her bed.

"What was that about?" Halsey whispered.

"Don't worry 'bout it Ash. Just something that needs taking care of."

----

To say Normani was confused, was putting it mildly.

When Beckett had rapped on her door and told her to find a Jeffery Potters with barely an explanation from Lauren's side of things, Normani had assumed he was part of a rival gang.

But no.

He was just a Manhattan stock broker with too much money in his account and a larger portion being frozen by the police. He had zero connections with the Jauregui's in any way, not even guilty of trying to fuck with Mama Jauregui's legitimate business.

Her phone was in her hand before she could think and her thumb hovered over the unsaved number in her recents.

Lauren had said emergencies only for phone calls.

Normani shrugged and pocketed her phone, instead grabbing the car keys and starting the drive over to Manhattan.

----

Jeffery Potters was the most boring man on the planet.

Normani had found him on his break and kept an eye on him. She wasn't stupid enough to give him a beat down in broad daylight but god lord she was tempted to just to make his boring ass more interesting.

He worked. And had meetings in high-brow restaurants. There was one meeting in an alleyway for what she believed was a drug deal. But other than that one brief encounter, all she'd done was sit in the SUV and munch on snacks.

The phone rang through the bluetooth system and she answered it, her seat reclined and her eyes spacing out looking at the roof of the car.

"Yo."

"Mani, where are you? We had dinner plans for 7."

"Oh fuck babe. Oh shit. I am so sorry." Normani sat up straight suddenly and grimaced. "Laur asked for a favour."

"You teaching someone a lesson?"

"I will be when his boring ass leaves work." Normani grumbled. Dinah snorted and she could hear a door opening and closing.

"Tell me where you are and I'll come and keep you company."

"I'm outside one of the financial buildings up in Manhattan. I don't even know at this point. Just drive down wall street." Normani groaned with a sigh.

"I'm getting a cab for starters babe. But alright, I'll see you soon."

Normani settled back into her seat with a smile on her face; her and Dinah hadn't been dating long but they'd been friends for years. Lauren had always teased her about her crush on Dinah but Normani had been adamant that it was non-existent.

The thought of Lauren made Normani's smile droop. They hadn't told her yet. Everything had happened so quickly when Lauren was arrested and then a few days later they started dating.

Then with all the protests and spending a few days over at the 87th precinct's lock up, the whole telling Lauren thing just kind of taken a back seat.

Normani had no idea how long it was until Dinah was opening the passenger door and slipping inside the SUV, a gentle kiss placed on her lips when she turned her head.

"Hey."

"Hey. He's still in there." Normani said around a small yawn.

"Got a picture?" Dinah asked and Normani pointed to a sheet of paper on the dashboard. Dinah picked it up and scanned over it. "What's Laur's interest in this knob? He's just a dick."

"No clue." Normani replied. "And I wasn't gonna ask."

"Fair play- wait." Dinah stared at the bottom of the page harder. "Says here someone busted him on extortion last week."

"What?" Normani leaned over and sure enough one of the last details was a recent extortion charge over at the 99th precinct. "Who though?"

"BB Investigations." Dinah murmured, pulling out her phone and googling the name. "Some guy, Matthew Musto; a PI."

Normani paused and glanced up at Dinah.

"You don't think... that cop, uh, Cabello, works for him now? Didn't Laur say she was some half-ass PI now?"

"This doesn't exactly scream half-ass. This guy's a wall street man, which means she must've had some damn solid proof for the charge to actually go through." Dinah said with a low whistle.

"You think Lauser's in over her head?"

"I dunno but we should probably check this place out after we've dealt with Mr. Potters here." Dinah replied, nodding towards the door that had just swung open, the man in question stepping out, staring down at his phone. "Here or his house?"

"His place. His wife left him a couple weeks ago, so he's alone." Normani said, starting up the car and waiting for him to flag down a cab.

They started tailing him and Dinah frowned.

"If Laur didn't give you a reason then how are we supposed to know what we're teaching him not to do?"

"His wife filed a restraining order." Normani said, fumbling in the car door to pull out another sheet of paper. "Cops are about to charge him with domestic abuse. I'm gonna guess Laur got wind of him being a major misogynistic wife beater somehow."

"Ooh, my favourite type of shithead to beat up." Dinah said with a grin.

"Let's just hope this goes as planned before you get all fired up baby."

-----

Normani and Dinah finally stumbled into Normani's apartment just after midnight. Normani sighed and winced at the broken skin on her knuckles and the bruise forming around one of her wrists.

"Can't believe he put up so much of a fight." Dinah mumbled as she dug around in the freezer, pulling out a few ice packs and pressing one to her temple with a sigh. She walked into the living room and pressed one to Normani's thigh and handing her the last one.

"Thanks." Normani pressed the cold pack to her wrist and a small smile came across her face. "We should've expected it from someone with his record."

"God what a dick. I hope this shit was worth it." Dinah said, collapsing on the sofa next to Normani with a groan.

"It was for Laur, of course it'll be worth it."

----

"Who did you tell bitch!"

Camila startled away from her computer when the door was slammed open. Ally leapt out of her seat, her hand sitting on the top of her holster.

"What?" Camila shook away her surprise and looked closer at the man now bearing down on her desk.

"Who the fuck did you tell? Huh? Figured it was my bitch of a wife but she wouldn't fucking dare so it must've been you." The man growled.

Camila glanced over to Becky who was already on the phone. She straightened her spine and focused on the man's face before her eyes went wide.

His left eye was swollen shut, his right already turning black, his nose was crooked and haphazardly bandaged. There was a large, broad cut along one of his cheeks and a bruise blossoming on his jawline.

"Holy shit." Camila muttered as she finally recognised Jeffery Potters. "Look man I dunno what you think I did but-"

"You told some psycho bitches that I hit you! And they came after me!" Jeffery roared.

"I didn't tell anyone anything. And you sir, need to calm down and leave." Camila said calmly.

He slammed his fist into the desk and leaned closer.

"Or fucking what?"

"Or else you'll still be here when the cops show up." Becky chirped from her desk with a surprisingly friendly smile.

Jeffery hesitated and looked around the office. When blackbear finally came out of his office, his shoulder holster clearly showing the large pistol hanging there, Jeffery hunched his shoulders, shoved some stuff of Camila's desk and made his exit.

"Holy fuck. What did you do Mila?" Ally asked after the door had closed.

"I didn't do anything." Camila insisted, running her hand through her hair. It froze in its movement as Camila's brain kicked in. "Oh fuck. Actually... oh god yeah I need to go." Camila rambled, grabbing her jacket and keys before hurrying out.

"Damn, here's to hoping she'll be here to give the cops a statement." Becky grumbled.

"Rikers is too far, so no, she won't." Ally sighed, shaking her head and sitting back down.

"Rikers? What she going to Rikers for? It's not lunch yet." Becky said with a frown.

"She told Jauregui that she got hit. I expect her girls did that number on Mr. Potters there." Ally said with a shrug.

"Damn... maybe we should make sure Jauregui likes us when she gets out." Blackbear said with a grin.

"As long as Mila's working here, we'll be on her good side."

----

Camila didn't bother sitting down when she was shown into the room, instead paced back and forth in front of the table.

"You're early."

She looked up from the ground at the sound of Lauren's voice.

Without thinking she rounded the table and slammed Lauren against the wall.

"What the fuck did you do?" Camila hissed as the guard pulled her off of Lauren. Lauren took a deep breath and adjusted her collar.

"Easy Beckett." Lauren mumbled as Camila was forced to sit down at the table. "What are you on about Cabello?"

"You had your girls beat the shit out of a guy last night." Camila growled. Lauren raised an eyebrow as Camila struggled against the firm hand on her shoulder.

"Beckett I think we'll be okay." Lauren said, pulling out her chair and slowly sitting down. Beckett clenched her jaw but left them alone. "He got what he deserved."

"He was already going to be charged; his wife filed against him." Camila said between deep breaths.

"And with his money I'm sure he'd get out of it with no jail time or any real repercussions." Lauren said easily.

"How'd you know he was rich?"

"I helped you with that case Cabello." Lauren raised her eyebrow slowly as Camila slouched in her chair.

"Fuck... I'm sorry about the whole... attacking you thing." Camila muttered.

"Already moved on." Lauren replied with a smile.

"And... I guess thank you." Camila said through slightly gritted teeth. Lauren leaned forward on the table.

"What exactly for detective?"

"Teaching that douche a lesson... even if he hasn't seemed to grasp it yet." Camila chuckled. Lauren's eyes narrowed.

"Hasn't learned his lesson yet huh? Noted."

"Lauren no." Camila said bluntly. "You can't have everyone you don't like beaten up."

"Yes, I can."

"No, you can't." Camila huffed. "It's illegal for starters."

"And I'm already in prison Camz, can't get much worse than this can it?" Lauren pointed out with a tight grin.

"Oh I'm sure it could. Wouldn't want to be in here much longer than necessary right?" Camila replied, folding her arms over her chest with a glare.

"Is that a threat?" Lauren asked, a curious expression crossing her face.

"Not yet."

"Do tell me when you actually threaten me, I'd love to have that image in my head." Lauren said quietly, a smirk plastered across her features as she leaned further into the table.

"Perv."

"I've been told." Lauren shrugged, leaning back with a sigh. "Can you do me a favour?"

"Why on Earth would I do you a favour?"

"'Cause I'm hot and I might flash you?" Lauren said with a grin. Camila stared at her blankly, ignoring the blush blooming on her cheeks. "Fine, because I asked nicely."

"I didn't hear anything nice about it." Camila said, an eyebrow raising and her lips pursing.

"Please can you do me a favour?" Lauren sighed.

"Depends."

"On?"

"What I get in return." Camila said before instantly regretting her choice of words at the downright sinful look that shadowed Lauren's face. "Shut up, I meant information."

"Sure you did." Lauren purred. "But I guess I can give you a couple names to at least make it look like you're trying for your clients sake."

Camila rolled her eyes and leaned on the table.

"What's this favour then?"

"I need to know what Matt Healy's up to." Lauren sighed. "No one can tell me what he's doing. And finding shit out is kind of your job."

"What do you need?"

"I just need to know if he's planning anything elaborate at the moment. I've been putting out fires all over the place because of these protests. I don't have the manpower to get a spy into his organisation."

"Alright. I'll see what I can dig up but I'm not making any promises." Camila said after a moment of thinking it over.

Camila stood up and rolled her neck. "I'll see you tomorrow Jauregui."

"James Parker, Olivia DeRose."

Camila turned as the door was opened for her.

"What?"

"My end of the deal." Lauren said with a shrug.

"But I haven't come through yet." Camila pointed out with a frown. Lauren stood up and bit her lip.

"Maybe I've got some faith in your skills Camz." Lauren said before Beckett was leading her from the room.

Camila stood in the doorway with a heat in her cheeks and her brain running a mile a minute. She groaned and walked out into the hallway.

She refused to get butterflies around New York's biggest crime lord.

And yet...