Raze pops his jaw and then slouches back in his chair. Drumming his fingers on the table, he looks at me intently. "You prepared to go all the way with this?"
"You mean-am I prepared to let myself get kidnapped and possibly sold into slavery under your nose if things don't go according to your brilliant plan?" I ask calmly. "Because yes … I am."
His gaze is shrewd. "You're prepared to get up on stage and flash your tits to a bunch of strangers? Have their hands on you … shoving grease-covered dollar bills in your G-string, hoping to cop a feel of your pussy?"
I flinch hard over his crude words.
Sitting up quickly, he leans over the table in a menacing gesture and growls at me. "You can't fucking flinch over words like 'tits' and 'pussy'. That's the business you're in now, Special Agent."
"Okay … that's enough," Mike says in exasperation. "Agent Somerville-"
"That's Nikki Orgasm," I snap at Mike as I cross my arms over my chest, and I see Raze's lip twitch again.
Mike shoots me a glare and continues, "Agent Somerville will be fine. Once she's in role, she'll be able to carry herself accordingly. Let's quit dicking around. I need you to instruct her, Raze, on what to expect and how she has to act, and you're just going to have to fucking trust she can do it. Okay?"
Raze keeps his eyes pinned on me, but he finally acknowledges Mike. "Fine. But one fuck up and months of hard work are down the drain … and a very dangerous man is going to walk free."
I don't bother acknowledging his threat, just continue to stare at him. With a frustrated grunt, Raze pushes his hands through his hair, scratches the back of his head, and then slouches back down in his chair again.
"Okay," he says, his voice now sounding a bit more professional. "You're going to come in tomorrow afternoon for an audition before me, Simon Keyes, and his second in command, Lance Portman. I make the hires but the ultimate decision to nix one of my choices is in Simon's hands, so you need to impress him. I'll lay your background out to him ahead of time, and tell him that I've targeted you as one of the marks."
"What's going to make me so appealing to him?" I ask.
"Because you're expendable and no one will care. You have no family, no close friends, and no ties. You've been arrested before on drug charges, so he's going to assume you use, which makes you more vulnerable."
"What's my demeanor supposed to be? Harsh? Meek? Confident?"
"Be confident when you're on stage," Raze says thoughtfully, "but not when you're off it. You can come across as a bit of a scared rabbit, but mostly, you need to be desperate for this job. Willing to do anything to land it and keep it. He needs to have the feeling of complete power over you right away, that you're not going to be scared away, and that you're in this job for the long haul. He wants to have confidence that you're going to keep coming back for his brand of shit until he's ready to sell you."
"So I need to give him a bit of my backstory … convince him of my desperation?"
Raze gives me a short smile, and it's starting to become clear to me … maybe he's testing my mettle. "Sweetheart, the only thing you need to do is give him a lap dance that produces a hard-on. That's all he'll be looking for. He will then look to me to verify that you fit the profile of what he wants."
I don't flinch this time over his crudity, possibly because it was said with a twinge of humor. But I have had enough of his doubts over my abilities, deciding to show him that I can hang with him and all his undercover debauchery. Leaning across the table, I murmur in my sexiest, southern voice. "Baby … any man within a twenty-foot vicinity of me tomorrow is going to have a raging hard-on when I'm done dancing. I suggest you learn how to discreetly adjust yourself so you don't get embarrassed."
Mike coughs again behind his hand and shifts in his seat. God, I hope that didn't give him a hard-on, but I don't spare him a glance. I hold Raze's stare, which I'm happy to say is not as smug as it was ten seconds ago, and then he surprises me with a full and genuine laugh.
Giving me a nod of approval and still smiling with good humor, Raze says, "I've been duly warned. But we have a lot more to discuss. I want to fill you in on every person at the club, and even though you can't trust any of them, there are a few girls that will help to look out for you, and I want you to make friends with them. I want to go over your cover again and again until I'm satisfied that you know it inside and out and that you don't flinch when you hear the word 'pussy' because you'll hear it several times a night while you're working, and then I want to discuss how we can communicate safely if it becomes necessary."