The Flesh Cartel, #10: False Gods

turned on his heel and left, the front door of the cabin slamming shut behind him.
    When Dougie was finished, he crawled up to that door on limbs shaking so hard he could barely convince them to obey his mind’s commands, knelt, and scratched at it to be let in. Whimpered once through chattering teeth. Sat on his haunches and waited.
    Good dog.
    The man who opened the door for him wasn’t Luke, but he stooped to hook two fingers into the ring on Dougie’s collar and drag him over the threshold with the same cruel authority. The sudden warmth of the cabin left Dougie breathless and sweating, and he barely had time to form an impression of a whole crowd of too-attractive middle-aged men, a large great room, a fire in a fieldstone hearth, a massive kitchen table, a row of bunk beds through the open door to a room on his left, before he was dragged to a hatch in the floor and shoved down a short, steep flight of stairs into . . . a root cellar? Raw earth walls and floor, damp and dank, lit by a single bulb. The space wasn’t tiny by any means, but it was small and dark enough to remind him of—
    No. Don’t think about that don’t think about that don’t think about that. They’re not going to forget about you down here. They’re not .
    And they didn’t. Four men came down the stairs, cornering Dougie against the packed dirt wall. One pinched Dougie’s face to open his mouth. Two others were unzipping their jeans. The fourth just stood there watching, smiling a nasty smile and rubbing his crotch. Just like the guards back at Madame’s.
    Don’t struggle. Don’t fight. Don’t let this be rape. Don’t. Just be good. Nikolai would want you to be good, serve these men like masters. Make them feel good, do everything they ask, anticipate their needs. Impress them.
    Dougie licked his lips, though he doubted he looked terribly seductive with his cheeks still smashed between the man’s hand. He looked up at the man through his lashes, tried to smile. Almost started to say something, but then remembered he was just a dog now, and dogs don’t speak. Whined instead, nosing closer to the man’s crotch. Let me serve you. Let me show you what a good dog I can be.
    The man laughed, let go of his face, and backhanded him so hard his head bounced off the dirt wall. “Looks like our little bitch is in heat, boys.”
    Dougie wasn’t stupid; he stayed down as the four men closed in. Hands, then, everywhere, pulling and pinching and slapping and grabbing. Teeth followed, and fingers and fists and tongues and cocks. They didn’t want his cooperation, they didn’t want his skill, they didn’t want his service. No, they wanted his pain . And he’d have given that to them too, gladly, if they’d let him, because it was so much worse when they just took it instead.

    “Did you really think you were going to escape?” Nikolai asked, and Mat couldn’t help but laugh. He sounded like such a fucking evil supervillain sometimes.
    “Kinda, yeah.” He twisted his wrists in the leather straps that kept him secured to the chair he was sitting in. Metal. Nikolai was learning, apparently.
    “I didn’t expect you to be quite that stupid, Mathias. It wasn’t like I made it very difficult for you to figure out you were walking into a trap. No locks? No guards? Really?” The guy obviously wanted to monologue, so Mat let him. Nikolai flicked Mat’s left forearm. “And did you forget about the GPS tag, or were you just too arrogant to think it would matter?”
    Huh. Mat had forgotten, actually. Must have been the distraction of having his own brother almost rape him. Or maybe just the fact that its implantation had been such a minor, long-ago horror compared to all that’d come after, symptomless and easily ignorable. But he wouldn’t forget next time. Because if this little experience had taught him anything, it was that there would be a next time. That Nikolai wasn’t perfect and no place was impervious to escape and if he’d just remembered to cut their damn chips out, they might’ve gotten into a car that hadn’t belonged to Nikolai.
    “All I had to do was let you go, let Douglas follow. I sent Roger out as soon as you cleared the property line. Had him wait in the closest town until your trackers showed you were returning to the highway. Now let’s see your brother trust you enough to follow you ever again. You failed him, Mathias, to terrible consequence. He won’t soon forget.”
    “Yeah, well, you mind-raped