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I still needed info before I could counterattack. So I asked, “You knew Georgie?”
“All my life. I was the only part of his family that didn’t turn on him.”
“And this is the first I’m hearing of it?”
“Need-to-know basis, only.”
“C’mon, Vance, the guy I saw in those videos was way older than you.”
“So? He’s my mother’s cousin. Helped make me who I am.”
Oh, shit. I did not want to ask this, but...”Did you have anything to do with me buying that condo?”
He leaned back, still smiling. “You said you were looking for a place. Maybe I gave the agent handling the sale a bit of a nudge...”
“But I still almost didn’t go for it. It was expensive and I wasn’t all that crazy about being right there with the bike path and...and...”
Oh, wait one fucking minute. Ben and Liam...dissing Nicky tipped me over. “Vance...did you know Ben and Liam before I introduced you?”
He sighed and pulled back his hoodie...and I finally saw his eyes without shadows...one green, one a silvery blue, both cutting into me with his cold stare.
“Rett, you’re not as worldly as you like to think you are. Or as smart. Of course I knew them. Through Georgie. And they’ve told me everything. You’ve spooked them. They don’t want to be criminals, and you think a little rape colored with blackmail will outweigh that? It’s stupid.”
“I didn’t rape them. I showed them what they really wanted.”
“Don’t try and justify what you did to those sweet boys.”
“Sweet boys? They lied to me about everything, even their ages, so...”
“They didn’t lie. They just didn’t correct your assumptions. And those assumptions were very much off the mark.”
Our main courses came, then, and more wine was poured.
This was not going the way I planned. Whenever that happens to me, I shut up...which is what I did. Let Vance speak as I tried to understand what the fuck had happened.
“To start,” he said, “Georgie never used anyone underage. They had to have an ID to even talk to him. He would pay them well, and they knew he would do whatever he wanted with whatever he shot. That was in the waiver, of which every guy was given a copy.”
“Made his living off them, huh?” I asked, just to break up his comments.
He nodded. “Two or three a week. Posted them on his own site till the San Francisco crowd invited him to do some...oh...more intensive ones for them.”
“Yeah, saw some of those.”
His grin grew almost feral. “Including...?”
It was time to stop playing ignorant. “A couple of Smoke’s.”
He nodded. “Oh, yes...he was one of Georgie’s staples. And I helped get him his cable show.”
I'll bet. “He came across very well, in the ones I saw.”
“Camera loves him. But as I said, the current project's construction is clunky. I want you to help me make it better.”
“Why?”
“His attitude. He’s very So I did that? So what? I used the money to start a business. What’s the big deal?”
“So a lot of the country’s assholes will get pissy about it.”
“But a lot won’t. And this, if done well...if done right...will help lessen the stigma behind doing the kinds of videos Georgie did.”
I had to laugh. “You’re way more optimistic than I am, about people.”
“I can’t argue there. But c’mon, Rett, you like him. He’s got that lovely bear cub presence that enthralls you. I think enough people will love him. And it will be one more step away from the right wing’s hatefulness about the gay community.”
“Don’t you meant LGBTQ+ Community?” He chuckled. I had to add, “They’ll find Georgie’s clips online and rip Smoke apart, Vance.”
“Don’t bet on it,” he continued. “I’ve known Stevie since before he was married. He’s been on several of the kink sites. Sucked off. Jacked off. Light bondage. Gagged. Blindfolded. Dressed. Undressed. Captain America undies. Lots of struggling. No fucking him or him sucking, but some of him being sucked. All under different names, of course. Shall I point you to some of the studios he’s worked?”
“No need.”
“I tell you this because he really is not the least bit ashamed of it. Paid his bills. Bought him a house. In Culver City! He’s so up front, in fact, we made it an important part of the cable show. Building yourself from porn god to custom-designer of skateboards to the stars.”
“I see.”
“Do you?”
“What am I getting paid to help you?”
That made him blink. I’d never discussed money with Vance, before, so this bluntness caught him slightly off-guard. But only slightly. “More than you can dream.”
“I can dream of a lot.”
“Does that include setting Nicky up to be taken by you?”
What the actual fuck?
I leaned back, keeping my face frozen in a nondescript expression, and quietly asked, “Can you?”
He nodded. “But Smoke is off-limits. So are the boys, from now on.” He was serious. Like a papa bear.
I hesitated then asked, “Would you answer me if I asked you how you knew what I was planning?”
He shook his head. “I don’t give away my secrets, only those of others."
“When you need to.”
“That’s where power comes from. Do we have a deal?” He offered up a pair of USB memory sticks. “Everything’s on here. You want to look?”
I took them. Put them in my pocket. And finished my meal, making nothing but chit-chat the rest of lunch. Vance knew he had me...and to be honest, I wasn’t sure I cared. If he could get me Nicky, I’d give up anything.
And he knew it.
What he didn’t know was I’d make goddamned fucking sure it all came back to me.
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