Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 59

"You're getting really good at this, Er," Jay said.

Nearly a week after they had started the renovation work on Erin's apartment, it was another night hard at work for them, after already working their shift for Chicago PD. They were tough times physically, but what mattered more was that they were both enjoying taking on the project, to Jay's immense happiness. He had felt sure that Erin would come around once they got into it, and he had been proven right.

On this particular night, the job at hand was sanding down the wooden floors in the living room, Erin's bedroom, and the hallway in between. When they had taken up the carpets, they had discovered vintage floorboards that were still in excellent condition apart from some surface wear and tear. Jay's advice had been to sand them down and then varnish them, which had two advantages: The finish would be perfect for look that Erin wanted to end up with, and it saved the expense of ordering new carpets.

They had hired two floor sanding machines and gone to work, dressed once again in the overalls, dust masks and safety glasses. Jay had done the bedroom and the hallway, while Erin had worked in the living room. Having to work around the furniture hadn't been ideal, but they had still gotten the job done in one night between them.

"Good at DIY. I would never have thought that would be a thing," Erin replied. But she was getting good at it. To prove it, the living room floor was now sanded to perfection.

"Well, it is," Jay said. Walking over to her, he pulled off his mask then kissed her on the lips. Her mask had already been tossed aside. "The bedroom and the hallway are done too."

"So what's next? We do the varnishing?"

Jay shook his head. "No. We do that last of all. Next job is painting the ceilings."

"Okay," she said, a bit puzzled. "Why did we sand now if we're varnishing last?"

"Because we just created a crap load of dust that we would have gotten on our freshly painted walls. And we varnish last in cast we get any paint on the floor, which we probably will."

"I love how much you know about this stuff," Erin said. "At the time, I couldn't believe I was agreeing to try doing this ourselves, but now I'm so glad I did. It's enjoyable, and I'm learning." Reaching up, she pulled him down to her height and started kissing him.

"Mmmm," Jay moaned in enjoyment. "There's the added bonus that every night we've worked, it has ended in sex. Shower sex at that."

"Shower sex is hot sex," Erin breathed.

The moment was ruined by the ring tone belonging to Erin's burner. For the first time in a few days, Raquel Gonzalez was making contact. The intermittent reporting in was as arranged before the mission began. Lindsay had agreed that contact was only required when there was something to report, but a check in once a week was needed so that she knew Gonzalez was alive and well.

"Her timing is good," Jay grumbled.

"Sshhh. I'll quickly deal with this, then we can pick up where we left off." Lindsay went over to the table where the phone was sitting, picked it up, and answered it. She made sure to be non-specific in case Gonzalez was in trouble. "Hello?"

"Reporting in, Sergeant Lindsay," came the familiar Mexican accent, sounding perfectly at ease. By pre-arranged code, the use of 'Sergeant Lindsay' meant that everything was okay. If for some reason she was being made to call under duress, she would say 'boss' instead.

"How's it going, Raquel?" Lindsay asked, walking through to her kitchen.

"Well. They suspect nothing. I'm being treated like a Prospect would expect to be, which basically means like shit. I'm made to detail bikes, scrub toilets at Lynch's, and earn money by tending bar there. I have ridden with the MC a couple of times, but no involvement in anything important. Crowley says it will be like this for a few weeks, then Riot may trust me enough to involve me a bit more."