Chapter 5: The Apartment

When Det.Jessie Sanchez goes undercover to take down a mob boss she finds her heart torn.She has to decide who's the real monster.A crime boss who treats her well or a husband she could never please.

 

“Here goes nothing.” Jessie looked at the car that sat in front of her at the FBI building. Hew new life started the moment she climbed inside.

She hated the old clunker that Rick handed her the keys to. It was and old Plymouth duster and when she opened the door the first thing that caught her attention was the pavement that she could see through the hole in the floor board.

It rattled and complained when she started it and she wondered if it would get her two miles down the road. The hardest thing for her to do for the job was adorn second hand tight fitting clothes. She was used to wearing her nicely pressed suits. The tee shirts were cropped short and showed some of her belly when she moved and the jeans were so tight she felt like she was wearing a silicon glove. But she had to admit when she looked at herself in the mirror that she looked good in them.

She headed to the rough side of town and toward the apartment complex that Rick had pointed out to her on the map.

The apartment complex that Jessie had to rent for the assignment made her situation look even bleaker She had been told she would have to obtain her residence on her own. Which was a good idea. She was sure that if she managed to gain Gianetti's attention he would ask questions about her. It would be suspicious if someone else had rented the apartment for her. She just hoped that the lie she had told in the thrift store about giving her money to her landlord wouldn't come back to haunt her.

She walked into the building that Rick had told her about. It was dark and gloomy. It looked as though it should be condemned.

She had expected to see a office of some kind when she walked in but all she saw was a narrow hall way with a flight of stairs at the end. She walked up to the first door with the number one painted on it and knocked softly.

“what do you want.” A man's voice said as he thrust the door open. Jessie was taken off guard and stumbled over her words.

“I'm sorry to bother you.” she said meekly, “But I need a place to stay.”

“only got one apartment.” he snapped. “It's two hundred and eighty a month. If you ain't got the cash, don't waste my time.”

Jessie swallowed hard and then dipped into her jeans pocket and pulled out a handful of bills. They were crumbled and the man looked annoyed as she tried to straighten them out. He recounted the money she laid in his hand then let out a grunt. He disappeared inside for a moment then returned and dropped a single key in her hand.

“Third floor. Three fourteen.” he said then shut the door. Jessie looked at the cracked wooden door still in awe of how rude the man was. She had never met anyone like him before.

She began to doubt herself as she climbed the stairs to her temporary home. She went over and over the details of her assignment in her head. She thought about the last agent that went undercover in the club. Marcy. Even dressed for the part Jessie couldn't pull off the seductive look that Marcy adorned every day. It was a well known fact that Marcy had slept around with in the bureau. Just her presence told you what she was about.

“Ugh.” she moaned when she opened the door to her apartment. It was a one bedroom apartment that was sparely furnished. The paint on the old brick walls were cracked and peeling. The mantle above the old fireplace was missing a big chunk on its corner and what was left looked like someone had dug a nail or another sharp object into it several times. It truly did look like she had rented the cheapest place she could find. It smelled like it as well. She looked up at the ceiling for the first time and confirmed her suspicions about water damage. She saw two big stains in the middle and wondered if it leak when it rained.

On either side of the tattered sofa was two doors that she assumed to be closets but on further inspection she found that one led to a small bathroom.

There was no shower. Only an old stained and chipped claw foot tub. The sink was dirty and had a thick brown ring around it. The toilet looked as if it hadn't been cleaned in a decade.

She wrinkled her nose and shut the door. She would have to go back out and get cleaning supplies. Which scared her. What if she ran into Gianetti again?

Her cell phone rang and she almost didn't hear the unfamiliar ring tone.

“Jessie, is everything going as planned?” she was glad to hear Rick's voice.

“yes, I got the apartment.” she said. “It's, well let's just say my closet at home is bigger.”

“Never mind that, you'll be home before you know it. What's your apartment number?” She gave him the number. “alright we are on our way up.” He hung up before she could utter her confusion. A few minutes later there a knock on her door. She opened the door and Rick, Josh and a team of agents poured into the room.

"Hey, doll." Josh said picking her cheek.. "Look we got to get you set up on a wire before all of this gets started." He told her. Three other agents had already taken off to set mics in her apartment.

"What are you doing here?" She asked getting worried.

"Gianetti might visit you here and we need to be ready if he does.” Rick explained inspecting the apartment.

"No, I mean I've already met him. What if he saw you guys come in?"

"He isn't. Max is downstairs on surveillance. We already know where he is and will know if he or his henchmen leave. Not to mention Marcy is outside is downstairs at the door here keeping watch.

"I'm not wearing a wire." Jessie protested.

"What?" Rick said holding the small mic he was about to hide on her in his hand.

"No mic." She repeated more forcefully. "I have to get really close to him. I mean close." She said thinking about how she may have to make out with him which meant that his hands would be all over her. "And he is very carefully about the company he keeps. He's not dumb. I know he will search me all over looking for that. He probably does that with every girl he sleeps with now especially since he uncovered Josh.

Josh rushed over after hearing her statement.

“Are you saying you are planning to sleep with him?” His eyes seemed to turn green with jealousy

“No I'm not planning on sleeping with him Josh.” she snapped. “But I have to take my clothes off on that stage to get the job. How will I explain this.” she said taking the small mic out of Rick's hand. “what I'm I suppose to tell him, it's my hearing aid or something.” The agents in the room snickered. Rick nodded. She was right.

"Your right. But we need something." He eyed her necklace. "Perfect.” Her god-father reached around her neck and struggled with the clasp.

“What are you doing?” She exclaimed. She was protective over the necklace do to its sentimental value.

“Fix it.” Rick threw it to Josh once it was off. “We are going to fit it with a mic.”

“She needs a two way Rick.” Josh insisted. “So we can keep in contact with her.”

“So you can distract her you mean.” Rick knew if Jessie wore a two way mic Josh would be protesting her every move. “Besides it won't fit. Maybe you should have splurged for a bigger diamond, huh big boy.”

Josh shot him a scornful look then took the necklace to Max.

“Max is a wiz. You won't even know it's there and neither will anyone else.” Rick went on but his eyes were locked on Josh. Clearly he was irritated by him.

She nodded her head in approval. Her necklace would definitely not be something anyone would think was holding a mic. Just it's size alone would dismiss the the suspicion.

Soon they had finished and they packed up their gear.

“Good luck in there sweetie.” Rick said giving her one last fatherly hug. “I got faith in you. You can do this.” he put both his hands on her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes to drive in his encouragement. Then he, Max and the other two agents left the small apartment. Josh lingered behind for a moment, kissed her cheek and squeezed her hand gently.

“Don't forget about me while your in there.” he said. “I love you.” he was being sweet to her but she could see it in his eyes that he still thought she had no chance of getting the job. It fueled her determination.

“You're always on my mind.” she told him. But it hadn't been to make him feel better as much as it was a regret. Sometimes she wished he wasn't constantly in her thoughts because those thoughts were not always pleasant.

Later that night after she had gone out and gotten a few things from local grocery store. Which was just a little more than a convenience store huddled between a liquor store and a porn shop, she spent some time cleaning the apartment. She then took a long hot bath and tried to think about the type of person she would need to be. She was about to do something she had never dreamed of doing. Something her father would have hated.

She played with her necklace thinking about the day Josh had given it to her. It had been wrapped around the neck of white teddy bear that he had placed neatly in a box and wrapped with purple foil wrapping paper. She smiled when she remembered how surprised she had been to see the necklace. She had never expected to receive such an expensive gift on that Christmas morning. Their first Christmas together and Jessie can't remember a time before or after that she had been happier.

Jessie sighed and stopped plying with the necklace. She let it drop to its place right above her breasts and held it close to her heart. She had toyed with the idea of leaving it in the apartment. It was an expensive piece of jewelry and would surely draw attention to anyone who gazed at her. "No." She had said to herself. "I'll just say my father gave it to me before he died." It had bothered her enough to leave her wedding ring behind, tucked away in a small ceramic jewelry box that she hid in the far corner of a kitchen cabinet. But know that it was fitted with the wire, it was no longer an issue. The decision on whether to wear it or not had been solved for her.

She began to plan out the details of her new identity while she soaked. She decided she would use her own past and all its pains and victories when talking about herself, only editing out her police training, college experience and of course her marriage to Josh Sanchez. If she used part of the truth about her background she knew it would help keep her stories straight and she would not have to risk saying something later on that would contradict a lie she had told before.

She got out of the tub and looked at herself in the mirror. She definitely had the figure for the part she decided, but did she have the guts. She slipped into the dress she would wear to the club the next day and then went into the main room to her radio that she had brought with her. She put in one of her favorite CD’s and skipped through the tracks. Finding the one she had used when she had danced for Josh the night before. She practiced in front of the long chipped mirror that hung above the fireplace. Tweaking her routines as she went. Some of her moves looked jerky and forced. She needed to relax.

She closed her eyes and imagined the room to be full of people. She pictured Dave Gianetti with the big smile on his face just like he had had that day when she had met him. It made her shiver when she imagined his eyes scanning her body but she made herself drift into an alternate personality. She was becoming someone new. Someone confident and sexy. Someone who men looked at and longed for. She looked into her own eyes in the mirror and smiled. She was no longer herself.

“You're Jessie Lee Rosslin now.” she reminded the girl in the mirror. “ A poor girl from the south, stripping to make rent." She said out loud to herself. She laughed at herself. The whole idea was far from what she would do if she found herself in the same situation. She would have never made money using her body in anyway. She suddenly felt dirty when she realized that she had in fact agreed to sell her body to earn her paycheck. Did the fact that she was an FBI agent make it any different? "Oh, I hope I can pull this off." She said. Her thoughts made her reevaluate herself and her morals. She looked at herself once more. “Jessica Sanchez no longer exists.” She scolded herself.

Author's Note

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