I've been looking at a lot of articles about rape in fiction on the was, but a lot of it does not really apply to my story.
Here, it is the main character that rapes (at least he's the most prominent of 5 main characters) and he does this because he's been hired to do so. It's his job to do crime on behalf of others; and here it's a rape of an ex-boyfriend.
This will be the introduction to this character, named Barrett, and will certainly show how sadistic he is and how he likes to be dominant. However, here's the problem, as this will certainly just make people hate his guts. Can I really make him sympathetic at all after raping someone? I think a lot of readers will just write the story off immediately and not look at the more likable sides of this character.