The Flesh Cartel #1: Capture

horrible tingling burn over the mind-blanking pain of every muscle in his body contracting. A Taser. They’d fucking tased him.
    A man loomed overhead, bending into his field of vision. “Too bad they don’t let you use those in the ring, eh? Maybe you wouldn’t lose so many fucking fights. Should I use it on your brother next? Nice little ball sac he has, like a teenage boy’s. Bet if I put the contacts right in—”
    “No,” Mat croaked. “No, please. Do it to me. Do it to me.”
    “Maybe later. If you’re good. If not, I’ll tase him in the dick and shoot you in the face, you got it?”
    “Got it.” He gritted his teeth, shuddering through another wave of involuntary muscle contractions.
    “Leave him alone,” Dougie sobbed from somewhere behind him. “If it’s me you want, leave him alone. I’ll be good, I’ll be so good . . .”
    Shut up, Dougie. Just shut up and let me handle this.
    “Wow, are you two gay together or something? I never seen two bitches fight over who gets his ass pounded before. Pick me! Pick me! Well all right, if that’s how you two want it to be, I’m game. Load ’em up. Shit got a little too loud just now to fuck around here any longer.”
    “Both of them?”
    “Yeah. Both of ’em. Why not. Seems like a waste to kill the brother when he’s so damn eager to please. ’Sides, look at him. We’ll earn our commission.”
    Commission? What the fuck ?
    Someone hefted Mat to his feet, a hand on his bound wrists to keep him still. They marched Dougie ahead of him, naked and shaking like a leaf with a gun pressed between his shoulder blades, right where Mat could see.
    “Walk, hole,” the man behind him whispered in his ear. “Or your precious brother gets it.”
    He walked.
    They had, of all fucking things, a white windowless van parked in the garage. If Dougie had come and gone through the front door like he usually did, they could have been waiting in there all damn day without anyone knowing, smoking and working themselves into a fucking frenzy.
    “What the fuck, Rick?” one of them yelled as he yanked the van’s back doors wide open. “Some fucking lookout you are. Now we got an extra guest and J’s got a goddamn concussion or some shit.”
    The van’s dim interior was ordinary but somehow sickening to look at, like a fucking nightmare. Two seats up front with a man in each, the driver with his feet on the dashboard and the passenger with a laptop balanced on one thigh. In the back, a bench ran along one side. And on the other side? A barred metal cage, no bigger than half a bathtub, with a sturdy padlock on its door.
    They’d meant to put Dougie in there. After they’d raped him on the living room floor. Abused and degraded and kicked him around and pumped him full of their cum, and then into the human kennel, to be driven God-knew-where.
    “Sorry, who was it who wanted the van in the goddamned garage? Not much I can fucking surveil from here with the equipment we came out with.”
    Someone shoved Mat hard between the shoulder blades, and he stumbled forward, thighs banging into the lip of the van. “Into the cage, hole.”
    Mat froze. If he let them lock him in there . . .
    “Put my brother in. You want a blowjob? I’ll give you one that’ll blow your mind. You can fuck my ass, too.” He swallowed a stutter. “I’m a slut. Put him in the cage, and I’ll prove it.”
    “Nice try, but what the hell would we want your loose old hole for when we’ve got this tight little virgin cunt? Cage. Now , or I’ll let him try the Taser out too.”
    Mat jolted as if they’d used it on him, but did as he was told, climbing into the back of the van and crawling to the open door of the cage. No easy feat with his hands bound behind his back. It was too small, clearly custom-built for a person but not one with his height or his breadth across the shoulders. Nowhere near close to big enough for anyone but a small child to be comfortable. But he fit. Barely. The arch of his spine touched the cage’s roof, crushing his bound hands against it, and the top of his head brushed the front. If he looked to his left, he’d be able to see the interior of the van. He’d be able to see Dougie.
    What they did to Dougie.
    He tried not to think about it, pulling his knees forward so somebody could shut and lock the cage door behind him.
    “Looking a little cramped! Well, we did bring it along for your brother.” The idea of that horrified Mat all over again. Yeah, Dougie