Rhythm of the Road (Lost Kings MC 16)

“Z said you’re good at setting stuff up?”

“Depends what we’re talking about.”

Ice hooks his thumbs in his pockets and turns to face us. “Already got the talent.”

I bet you do. “That’s the hardest part.”

“Anya’s my star. She’s accumulated a huge fanbase in a short amount of time.”

“Even better.”

“She hot?” Jigsaw asks.

T-Bone side-eyes him. “Here I thought Rooster was joking about you taking some knocks to the head.”

I cover up my laugh with a cough.

“Anyway,” Ice says, giving Jiggy a final warning scowl, “she’s been camming for a while but wants to focus on film.”

“Smart move,” I answer. “Camming’s a lot of work. If she starts creating content instead, she can spend a day or two filming, then have a finished product to sell forever.”

“Right.” Ice waves his hand in the air. “I don’t care about the details. I just want her safe, happy, and making bank.”

T-Bone glances down at his boots and chuckles.

“So you have female talent covered.” I’d really rather not know the details about Ice’s relationship with his “talent.” “What about male performers?”

Both of them sort of gag as if I’d asked them to fuck random dudes. Working hard to control my eye roll, I elaborate, “Our star was in the industry before so she already had access to talent. Then she does this other thing where she takes applications from her audience.”

“Yeah, I don’t want Anya doing that,” Ice says quickly.

“She can work it out later.” For fuck’s sake, I’m sorry I even mentioned it. Unless he’s planning for her to only film solo stuff, logic dictates dudes are an obvious ingredient. Whatever.

I move on to some other ideas. “Custom stuff will sell big. Customers get off on thinking they’re the director. She can also do some content trade with other performers.”

As much as Z wants me to leave Stella out of this, her numbers were down last month. Nothing alarming, but some exclusive scenes from a newcomer might help boost interest. If they partner up, it could benefit both girls and both charters in the long run.

“We can build her own website where she controls everything, or upload to a platform that will store and deliver for you. Those places usually take a hefty commission, but it can be worth it for the traffic they generate.”

“Let’s keep it in-house.”

“All right. I’ll still get her set up on a few platforms. She can post short clips there and direct them to her site where they can pay for the full ones.”

“Yeah, I like that idea.”

“Having your own location simplifies things. No reason to get permits to film, but she’s going to have to keep some records of anyone she shoots with.” Outlaws aren’t so fond of paper trails. While this whole operation’s quasi-legit at best, that’s a basic requirement that needs to be addressed whether Ice likes it or not. Again, it was simpler setting up this stuff with Stella because she’d already been in the business for years.

“Yeah, that’ll be my job too.” T-Bone raises his hand slightly.

Ice glances over his shoulder. “This is one space we’re considering using. Like, some fetish, dungeon shit.” He shrugs. “But I’ve got a rental house not too far from here. Anya’s working on decorating ‘theme’ rooms.”

Meaning she’s out shopping with the prez’s credit card.

Cool.

Any second, my eyes are gonna roll right the fuck out of my head.

“Great. If she can make it look like she’s mixing up locations without having to spend a lot on travel and renting space, even better. We can also generate income with advertising and sponsorships.”

“Whatever brings in some cash to replace what we’ve lost recently.”

That’s almost a golden opportunity for me to probe into what sort of direction he’s getting pushed in by our national president.

Ice crosses his arms over his chest. “Gettin’ real sick of Priest breathing down my neck.”

Gee, I didn’t even have to ask.

He and T-Bone share a look. “We had an issue with Vipers trying to expand into our territory.”

“Surprised they’d mess with us down here when we helped them move out of New York,” I say.

T-Bone shrugs. “They’ve never been the brightest.”

“We had an understanding with them for years.” Ice’s cold, hollow voice would probably send a shiver down the spine of anyone else. “Then they burned one of our tattoo parlors down.”

“Arson seems to be a theme with them,” Jigsaw says.

Ice nods. “Right. Forgot about Furious. Wrath’s rebuilt the place, though, right?”

“Fuck yeah,” I answer. “Bigger than before but it took a while.”

“Yeah, I’m still sorting through fucking ashes. We handled the Vipers, but the attention brought ATF sniffing around.”

“Fuck.”

“We fixed that issue,” Ice adds with a maniacal smile.

Lord, that’s not a confession I want to hear.

“Priest’s aware,” Ice assures me, reading my don’t-make-me-an-accessory-to-murder-after-the-fact expression correctly. “The problem’s been solved.”

Jiggy better not decide now would be an optimal time to crack a joke.