Page 13 of Snowed in with the Brutes
“Maybe I can start with my view on how barbaric this whole thing is.How terrible, beastly, and monstrous it is.Only something an utter brute of a man would consider doing.If you had any decency, you would let me go.”
The words pour from me, shaky and uneven, but I say them loud.
“Are you talking about the pleasure debt?”Sinclair asks, the grin on his face widening.I hate that he finds me so amusing, as if I’m his personal jester.“In that case, consider us the worst of all the brutes to ever exist.”
“The pleasure debt has been a form of punishment for the Nix mafia since the beginning of time,” Flinn says.“It’s a small price to pay, considering the alternative is the man’s life.A slice of his pride and joy is better than his untimely elimination.”
“Maybe that’s an indication that you need to rewrite your history.It’s archaic.”
“It’s our tradition,” Kian says darkly, warningly.“And again, a better alternative for a man who shoots his mouth off when he shouldn’t.”
Am I always going to be this shocked every time Kian says anything to me?
“It’s an opportunistic, egotistical trap created by sick men wielding power with atrocious ruthlessness,” I say directly to him.I force him to hold my glare.I’m not going to back down.
But inside me, I’m a quivering mess.His gaze doesn’t waver, he holds me, drowning me naked in all his maleness.My eyes glitter as tears stings the corners.I might be angrier but he’s more powerful.They all three are.But it doesn’t change anything.
I’ve known about this dynamic since the day I was born.I was born into it, dammit.Just men exercising their right over other men with no power on their side.I hate it.I hate them.
“Tell us how you really feel,” Sinclair coaxes, sitting back in his chair and stroking his jaw.
“It’s nothing but a twisted, salacious game, a sentence you dish out so you can fuck some trembling virgin and call it punishment against her family.How can you live with yourself?”
“Very happily, thank you very much, especially if our cocks are going to know what the inside of your sweet virgin pussy feels like.And that mouth of yours.Especially when we hear you scream our names as you come for us, sweet, beautiful Cora.”
Blood rushes to my cheeks so fast it makes me feel dizzy.I picture Sinclair’s coarse words, the three of them touching me all at once, tearing me apart, turning my universe into an inferno, and leaving me to burn.No.It will never happen that way.
“I will never scream your names.Ever.”
I’ve lost my momentum, my bravado.My voice is small and quivering.
“Do you know you’re a major contributing factor to why William Arlington retired?”Sinclair says as he begins to clear the table.
“He still had some honor in him.He resigned because he knew he would have let you go, and that would signaled a weakness in the leadership of consortium.But we’re not burdened with the same kind of conscience, Cora.We’re not letting you go, so are you ready to deliver your statement of atonement?We’ve been more than patient,” Flinn says.
Ah, yes, the statement of atonement.Words I’ve been forced to memorize, meant to be delivered to the head––now heads––of the consortium.Once I say it, there’s no going back.They’ll retaliate, take their vengeance in the form of pleasure with their cocks inside me.
What happens if say nothing?How far can I push them?
I shake my head and say nothing.
“So be it.”
I lose my breath when Sinclair pulls my chair out with such minimal effort I could have been weightless.Before I can protest, he picks me up and swings me over his shoulder.My world falls apart as he carries me to a desk, then sets me down on my feet.
My attempts to break free are futile.But my panic escalates when, seemingly out of nowhere, Flinn produces two coils of silky red ropes.
