Chapter One: Down The Rabbit Hole

Well, I'd hope that since we're here anyway
We could end up saying
Things we always needed to say
So we could end up staying

Nickleback - Someday

The street outside the diner was busy, Maggie O'Neill guessed it was from influx of college kids from the university campus down the street travelling to the nightclub across the way. The music was already pumping, she could feel the bass through the floorboards vibrating through the soles of her black leather boots. The song was new, one that she did not care for, it echoed in the street loudly causing Maggie to sigh out before she checked the expensive gold watch on her wrist. She didn't have long and her contact was already running late. She would wait only a few more minutes before she was forced to leave. She picked up her teaspoon once more and stirred the cooling coffee in front of her before taking a sip and grimacing at it's bitterness. It was clear that the coffee had been scraped from the bottom of the glass pot that was sitting on the hot plate behind the counter. The stench was hanging in the air as she watched the second pot stew away in the first one's place.

Despite the fact the coffee was awful and the place was an abysmal distance away from where she was stationed Maggie had never felt safer here. This was a place where nobody knew her, where she was unlikely to bump into those that did. That was a requirement of this meeting, for the cost of her life she could put up with the bad coffee. The bell above the door rang lightly, it was the most modern thing in the damn place. She inclined her head in order to view the new entrant, her fingertips reaching up to brush her sleek brown bangs out of her steely blue eyes. Detective Antonio Dawson stood in the doorway, his black leather jacket hung over his broad shoulders, a sea foam blue shirt clinging to his chest under it. He was carrying, she could see the slight sway of the shoulder holster under the frame of his jacket. There was no badge on his hip and she appreciated that, it would do neither of them any good for it to be on show. His dark hair was slicked back away from his handsome features, leaving that diamond stud in his left ear on show. He had had it ever since she had known him, it gave him an edgy bad boy look that appealed to certain types of women. He closed the glass door to the diner behind him, his dark eyes studying the layout intently before they landed upon her seated at the back booth, her delicate hands wrapped around a plain black mug.

She had forgotten how good he looked as he strode towards her, his black leather motorcycle boots creaking as he walked. That boyish smile of his tugged at the corners of his mouth as he slipped into the seat across from her, raising his hand to gesture to the bored middle aged waitress. There was silence between the two of them as they waited for her to arrive at their table with a mug and the coffee pot. Antonio barely raised his eyes to greet her as she poured that thick black sludge into the ceramic cup. His hands instead rested upon one another on the surface of the table, his head cocked to one side as he studied the woman in front of him.

Detective Maggie O'Neill hadn't changed much in the past three months. Her glossy chestnut hair was loose this time around, it fell to her shoulders framing her pale delicate features. She pursed her rosy pink lips before raising those pretty blue eyes of hers to meet his own. There was something in that warm smile of hers, it made his heavy heart lighter. He could tell that she was glad to see him from the way her eyes had brightened when he stepped into the room and he liked that. He saw it often with women, more now than ever since he had removed his wedding ring but he had never wanted it before. There was something about Maggie that made feel alive inside, all that fire and passion that burned deep inside of him had died back when Laura had served him with divorce papers. Now it was back, with vigor.

"Long time no see ." Antonio greeted her, his right hand reaching out for his coffee cup.

"Three months isn't too long Antonio." Maggie returned, the light in her eyes dimming just a little as she spoke.

"Long ones, I bet." his tone was full of understanding and she knew from their time together as partners in Vice that it was genuine.

"You have no idea." she said, her mind toiling back over the things she had heard and seen over the past two years. The Bembenek brothers were monsters, everybody knew it but pinning them down long enough for a conviction to stick was a nightmare. Which was why long before Oskar Bembenek had been released on bail for the murder of his mistress she had inserted herself into his organisation as an accountant on the request of her commanding officer. She had spent two years collecting information and feeding what she could to Olinsky in Intelligence. Her superiors weren't the only ones that had a vested interest in watching the Bembenek Brothers burn.

Antonio reached out his hand, his warm, calloused fingertips brushed over her knuckles lightly before he covered it entirely with his own. His eyes were dark and soulful as Maggie entwined her fingers with his for the briefest of moments. His thumb caressed the indent of her hand near the joint of her thumb, he traced the small raised white skin of the scar that disappeared along the back of her hand.

"Just don't get lost down the rabbit hole." he warned her, his gaze lingering on their joined hands before the two of them pulled away.

"I never much liked Alice in Wonderland anyway." she told him with a knowing smile before she tapped her forefinger on her watch. "I don't have much time."

Their sense of duty outweighed the disappointment of and it took no more than a mere second for each of them to slide back into their professional roles once more.

"What have you got?" Antonio asked, leaning back in his seat and wrapping his hands around his coffee cup in order to warm them.

"Not sure." Maggie responded with a shrug of her shoulders before pushing a small folded piece of paper across the table to Antonio. "There's talk of a heist tomorrow on an armored van. Lord knows what he'd take the risk for, the man has more money than sense."

"It must be important if he wants it that badly." Antonio reckoned slipping the piece of paper into the inside pocket of his leather jacket. "Do you know who he's contracted it out to?"

"Names on the paper." Maggie told him before removing a few bills from the back pocket of her jeans and placing them underneath her coffee cup.

"This won't blow back on you?" Antonio asked removing his own wallet and placing a couple of dollars down on the table before the two of them rose to their feet.

"I wasn't even in the room when this was discussed." she informed him, her expression one of feigned innocence as she slung her battered chocolate brown satchel onto her right shoulder, the strap twisted into the space under her collar. Antonio stepped forward, his hand reaching out for the strap and untangling it from the collar of Maggie's jacket.

He lingered for a second, there was barely an inch between them and more than anything Antonio wanted to close that distance. He wanted to run his fingers from her silky brown hair as he kissed her until she was demanding and needy against him. He imagined beautiful blue eyes of hers fixated on him the whole time as he made her cry out his name. His gaze dropped to the pert curve of her lips, they were so tantalizingly close, it wouldn't take more than a fraction of effort. He dared himself to do it but in the end his sense of duty won out once more. Instead he squeezed Maggie's arm lightly before stepping away and digging his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket.

"Take care of yourself." he told her firmly before he turned on his heel and left the diner, stepping once more into the cold Chicago night.