The Flesh Cartel, #10: False Gods

him, and I’m pretty sure he won’t be forgetting that anytime, either. Not now that he knows freedom’s on the table. Now that he knows you’re the kind of monster who’d ask him to—” To do such unspeakable things. To betray me, and himself, and everything between us.
    Nikolai leaned in close to Mat’s ear and murmured, silky seductive, “Whatever you once were to him, Mathias, that’s over now. You destroyed what remained of it last night. He’s more mine now than he ever could’ve been without your help. I’m not a monster in his eyes. I’m his savior . The one you failed to be. And now it’s time for you to see just how badly you failed him, and just how much he’s willing to do to make me love him again.” With that, Nikolai stepped back, turned to the table in front of Mat and opened the laptop computer resting atop it, right at Mat’s eye level.
    It turned on, and the sound of Dougie’s screams filled the room.
    “Douglas is learning what his world would be like without me. Without my protection and care. And since you’ve positioned yourself as the man who would tear him from me, that means the world he’s learning about now is the one you would have him live in. He’s just getting a small taste of it, but I expect the lesson will stick.”
    Nikolai stepped aside, and now Mat could see as well as hear what was being done to his brother. He was pressed to his back on a dirt floor, one man holding his legs apart, another fist-fucking him so hard it was like he was punching the poor kid over and over. A third man had his teeth on Dougie’s nipple, and a fourth looked like he was trying to pull Dougie’s hair out by the roots.
    Mat squeezed his eyes shut and turned away, but it was way too fucking late for that. That image would be seared on his retinas until the day he died.
    “You know by now that I have a habit of buying back some of my old charges.” Nikolai nodded to someone standing behind Mat’s shoulder, Roger maybe, or another tamed man, who stood watch at the door to this small room. “Well, not all of them come back as pleasant and even-tempered as Roger. Some come back to me . . . somewhat twisted by their experiences, and eager to take back their power by dominating those lesser than themselves when given the chance. Behind their well-trained facades lie feral beasts, but they’re partly my creation, so I love them nonetheless. And let them indulge their true natures when it suits me.” He paused. “Now you say whatever brilliant comeback you have for me.”
    Mat couldn’t speak. He could feel hot tears on his face, could hear nothing but Dougie’s sounds of pain. And God, not just that, he was . . . barking? Yes, that was definitely a tear-choked woof .
    “I think that’s Luke, who takes his pleasure from making men bark like dogs. I expect your poor brother will be getting his nutrition from kibble and table scraps instead of Jeremy’s cooking over the next while. Crawling on all fours. Urinating outside.”
    “Stop this,” Mat begged, his eyes squeezed shut. “Please, please just stop, go and get him, take him back, stop them hurting him. I’ll do whatever you want, I promise.”
    “What I want is for you to learn . To learn your place, and learn the price of your disobedience. But most of all, to learn that you do not know what is best for your brother. You are not his master anymore, Mathias; you are not his idol or his god. You are nothing but a deceiver, and you lead him to pain.”
    Mat lurched against the chair, desperate to mute the fucking computer, make it all stop , scoop Dougie up and get him out of here for real this time . “Fine, fine! Just . . . please. God, please stop this.”
    “You had a chance to prevent this, Mathias, and now that time has passed. I hope you remember the consequences of your actions next time you consider doing something so spectacularly foolish.”
    Yeah. Next time he’d cut out the fucking GPS chips. Because there would be a next time. There would . Because if the only other option was abandoning Dougie to this life for good . . . well, that wasn’t a choice he was willing to make, not anymore. Not when freedom had been so fucking close. Not when he knew now they could have it again.
    And if Mat couldn’t help him escape, Dougie would be better off dead. They both would.

That night, Dougie slept on the foot of the one named Graham’s bed. Graham liked having his feet licked, and his balls too, and decided