Page 24

(Kong)

“They’ve got streaming services and paid subscription tiers,” Kong said as he clicked through the website for Erotic Obsessions. “It all looks legit.”

“What did Danger say about the LLC?” Mark asked.

“That it traces back to Donny and Peter Duchamp,” Kong replied. “He also found out that the LLC took out a bank loan for that building a few months back and that they seem to be backed by an investment company, though he hasn’t been able to turn up any intel on who heads it up.”

“Tell him to keep trying.”

“Already done,” Kong replied. “I called up to Kill Devil Hills and talked to Thorn, too. It took a bit of persuading, but he let me talk to Lucky about Donny Duchamp and what went on between them. He was hesitant to give many details at first, until I told him what was going on with the porn shoots up here; then he spilled his guts. Lucky said Duchamp kept trying to persuade him to bring him to the dungeon and introduce him to some of the people who hung around, particularly the other subs. Claimed to have had some employment opportunities for them but would never give Lucky any details about what they were, so he kept stalling about taking him there.”

“Probably didn’t want anyone to know who he was running around with since he knew we were all in protective mode,” Mark admitted. “Did he say anything else?”

“Yeah.”

“Spit it out already.”

“Long as you promise not to kill the messenger,” Kong muttered, running his fingers through his hair.

“Lucky said Duchamp had a fondness for rough trade and wasn’t always careful with him.

It’s got me thinking about the way Scout hissed when he went to straighten up from the pool table after I found him.

I thought he was biting back a curse; now I’m not so certain. ”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have driven away and left him standing on the curb.”

“I rode out to Factory Row.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured,” Mark said. “Didn’t find anyone, did you?”

“No.”

“You should apologize.”

“I tried when I ran into him this morning,” Kong admitted. “He told me where I could shove it.”

Mark barked out a laugh that rankled, but it was the Prez, so Kong let it be. Butting heads with him never went well, and he had enough of an issue to deal with, having Scout pissed off at him.

“Getting his fingers broken clearly didn’t teach Duchamp shit, so I think it’s time we start looking into a more permanent means of removing him and his business from the area,” Mark declared.

“He might be on the up-and-up with those contracts, but if he’s going off script and not adhering to the questionnaires he has his performers fill out, then he’s still not playing fair with the talent, and that’s bullshit.

Threatening to cancel contracts and withhold payment for the shoots already completed if they refuse to comply with a script change is coercion, though I doubt any of his performers are in a position to sue if they’re working for him. ”

“Because he preys on people who are desperate and vulnerable,” Kong growled. “He’s a fuckin’ parasite.”

“Yet you turned your back on Scout like he was in the wrong,” Mark pointed out.

“Wasn’t my intention.”

“What was?”

“To put a fuckin’ stop to it.”

“Which you can’t do, not without risking Scout’s contract,” Mark said. “You heard him up there. He’s going to see it through and finish the last five shoots so he can get paid.”

“Why not just front him the money he’s trying to raise!” Kong snapped.

“Because he wouldn’t accept it,” Mark replied. “And I don’t blame him for that. He signed the deal, and they’ve already started releasing videos of him. I’d want to get what I was owed too.”

On the screen, a trailer for one of those videos showed Scout sexily pouting as he crawled towards the camera, mismatched eyes alight with mischief as he begged for someone to come play with him. Kong’s finger hesitated over the button, so Mark reached past him and pressed it himself.

“I wanna see the first movie and the difference in the ones that came after,” Mark explained. “When Sawyer started going to the shoots with him. You don’t bring your brother to a porn shoot, even for protection, unless it’s a last resort.”

He was right, but Kong knew watching the proof wasn’t going to be easy.

Scrolling backward through the clips, Mark clicked on one that showed Scout and another man spraying whipped cream all over one another and chuckled, letting it play for almost a minute before moving on to the next video.

A few held some light paddling, others an assortment of toys, but nothing was too edgy or hardcore until they found the first video.

There were, well, several things that might have pushed Scout’s boundaries, from the bullwhip that split the skin on his thighs in two spots to the three times his scene partner had wrapped his hands around Scout’s neck and restricted his breathing.

Breath play wasn’t something to fool around with.

The look in Scout’s eyes had been tense, not panicked, but there was no way of knowing how many takes they’d done to get him to that point.

So much for the nagging worry that had been eating at him since he’d shoved one of Scout’s legs over his shoulder and kept it there while fucking him. Seeing how flexible he was in those tapes, there was no longer a reason to be concerned.

The rest of the video wasn’t much better than the first half, a lot of position changes, the whip exchanged for a cane, double penetration with the help of a dildo, and several hard, heavy slaps delivered by Scout’s scene partner, who wore a leather fingerless glove on the hand he used to redden Scout’s ass.

Each time Scout cried out and asked for another one, and each time his scene partner yanked him back by the hair as he drilled his cock into him before delivering another echoing slap.

By the time the video faded to black, Scout had lain sprawled facedown on the bed, cum splashed across the welts and reddened handprints that marred his skin.

“Did you find out if Scout had spoken to the cops before he told you to go to hell?” Mark asked as Kong closed the screen on his laptop with a grimace after the things he’d seen unfold in the video.

“He said he was headed down there this morning,” Kong said. “I haven’t spoken to him since. He took his bike this time, though. Said he was going to drop in and see Creature at the shop after he got done at the police station to see when Creature wanted him to start.”

“Alright, I’ll touch base with him when I see him later and make sure he did as he said he was going to,” Mark said. “Too bad you pissed him off. You’d have an easier time keeping an eye on him if you moved him into your cabin.”

“I asked the morning after I went back to his cabin with him; I was that interested,” Kong replied. “He said he couldn’t until you gave him permission to, since you were the one who assigned him to stay there and make sure Teddy wasn’t getting into shit when he wasn’t working.”

“Fuck, I forgot about that,” Mark admitted. “I’ll resend the order.”

“Good, though I’ll hold off asking again until I nail down a more permanent residence. I made an offer on the house I told you about,” Kong said. “Just waiting to hear back from the realtor to see if it was accepted.”

“I hope it is.”

“You and me both,” Kong said as they filled their glasses from a bottle of whiskey Mark pulled from behind his desk. “You spoken with Teddy about the shit he said?”

“What’s the point? He’s a lost cause. I’m just waiting for him to screw up at the diner, though so far, Maureen says he’s kept his mouth shut and his head down, so it may take a while before I can transfer him up to Kill Devil Hills or send him packing completely.”

“That really what you want?”

“It’s no longer about what Kat or I want,” Mark admitted. “It’s about what Teddy is or isn’t willing to do to make things right with the club. Personally, I don’t think he’s capable of humbling himself enough to admit to the wrong he’s done and make amends.”

“Well, if you’re not willing to tell him to stop trying to poison Scout against me and the club, then I’ll deal with him myself.”

“Have at it.”

“You giving me license to put the fear of God into him?”

“Do what you will; I don’t give a damn at this point,” Mark said. “I’ve never been more disappointed in anyone than I am in him.”

“Somehow I doubt that.”

“Fine,” Mark growled. “Believe what you’d like, just don’t mention him to me again.”

“Fair enough.”

They finished their whiskey in silence before Kong took his leave and headed straight for Teddy’s cabin, where the man was hopefully sleeping in preparation for the overnight shift at the club-owned eating establishment.

Sure enough, he answered bleary-eyed with his hair disheveled, blinking against the bright, sunny afternoon.

“W-haa,” Teddy slurred, then seemed to focus on Kong, recognition making his eyes widen a little. “Scout isn’t here.”

“Good, ‘cause I’m not here for him,” Kong declared. “I’m here because he told me what you said to him about steering clear of me. You had no right.”

“I had every right when you’re fucking with someone who doesn’t deserve to be toyed with!” Teddy snapped, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “He’s not as hard as he pretends to be.”

“You don’t think I know that?”

“If you did, you wouldn’t be stringing him along.”

“Did he tell you that’s what I was doing?”

Teddy sighed, hung his head, and shook it. “He said the night you spent together confused him,” Teddy admitted. “That you held him and made him feel like he mattered, but he didn’t get why.”

“Because he does matter to me,” Kong insisted, beginning to relax a little.

He’d never had an issue with Teddy before now, and to hear him speak about Scout, it really did seem like the man cared for him too and wanted to make certain that Scout wouldn’t wind up getting hurt by someone who wouldn’t care about his feelings after they’d gotten what they wanted from him.