Shelby - Mandy Harbin Page 0,1

word for a sex professional, sir,” Shelby finally said. “And prostitutes make a hell of a lot more money than me. Jeez, what if he wants to do this all in public?” It wasn’t really a question she expected an answer to, more of a fear she hadn’t known she’d had until right this second.

“I know this will be uncomfortable for you, but you don’t have to have sex with Showalter. Would it make things easier? Maybe. But he and some of the other Doms help with sexual awakening when a woman thinks she might be a submissive. They have been known to engage in activities that do not involve intercourse. This is the angle we are playing.”

“That’s a big gray area,” Darrell said as he glared at Rick.

“I know. But this is our best shot. She can’t go in one evening with a wire and hope to get what we need. The man is very private, and it will take time to find out what he knows. If he knows anything, and that’s a seriously big if.”

“So she wears a wire, has some meetings with the man, and we analyze everything first before she gets too involved,” Viola said, shrugging. “No need to go in guns blazing yet.”

“Won’t work,” Carson said, frowning. “What if he wants to see her naked? We don’t know how he decides to work with a submissive. It’s the same reason why she can’t wear a wire at all. At anytime she could be asked to strip. We have some very high-tech, inconspicuous devices, but they’re not foolproof. Hell, for all we know, he could have some top-notch security measures in place to scramble the frequency, and that’s if she doesn’t get caught with one on her. The only way I see this working is going in undercover. She’d have to be the eyes and ears for us. Sorry,” he added, looking at Shelby sheepishly.

“Agreed,” Rick said. “We need Shelby to gain his trust so he’ll let her get close to him and maybe even the more personal areas of his life. We only need enough to decide to bring him in to help us out or if we have to play hardball with him.”

But the phrase personal areas of his life lingered in her mind. “How personal are we talking here?” she asked, gaping at her boss. Sure Carson had just teased about sex, but as the conversation went on, she got the sinking feeling her boss expected more from her than just showing up at the club.

He shrugged. “If you could get a date out of him, get him to take you someplace public, away from the club and any security measures it possesses, that would be a good start. We can record any conversation he has with you without needing a warrant. If you’re someplace public, you could be wired without the fear of getting caught. That’s just an idea, an option we’d have if it comes to that.” He took another sip of his coffee. “The closer you get to him, the better our chances are of getting intel directly from the source.”

“So I can’t just come right out and ask him if he’s involved or if he wants to help,” she said with an edge of sarcasm, though it’d be a heck of a lot easier on her if she could do just that.

Rick slammed his fist on the conference table, startling her. “Use your head. That’s what someone undercover does, Landry! You play along and get what you need through any means necessary.” She’d thought of Anna and the hell the last assignment put her through, lying to the man she loved in the name of justice.

How many lives would this case try to ruin?

She knew the answer to that. One. One life. Hers.

At least Rick had finally answered her question.

Shelby was going undercover in a sex club and would have to sleep with a man who had connections with the company they were investigating. She could fight this assignment and be relegated to a desk job for the indefinite future. Or be transferred out of state like they’d done to Anna and be forced to start over with a new team.

Or she could suck it up and do what she needed to see an end to this case. There was really only one answer, assuming she honestly had a choice. Prostitution was supposed to be illegal, but apparently not if one’s pimp was the federal government.

“Fine. I’ll do