Page 103 of Under His Heel

That… that didn’t matter. So what if Parsons defended Alex. It didn’t change the fact that he’d been playing Alex the whole time.

There wouldn’t be a reason to defend Alex when Alex wasn’t even there, but… No. Whatever. Parsons brought everything on himself.

He hurried to the gym to take out some of his frustrations. But even after full hour at the gym he couldn’t shake the discontent, and he gave up.

While he was walking back to the room, an announcement came over the PA system.

“There will be a mandatory meeting at 18:00 tonight in the lounge. All personnel must attend except those working a shift critical to the ship’s function. Thank you,” Espinosa’s voice droned.

No question what that meeting was going to be about. Alex hurried to get back to the room and avoid all of that. He definitely didn’t want more people asking him about Parsons.

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He ended up having to entertain himself while Tracht went to that meeting, probably explaining that Parsons was locked up and that all of his shifts would be redistributed.

Would people ask questions? Alex tried to imagine if, like, Schultz had randomly disappeared from the ship. He wouldn’t have cared, but Parsons might have. And Carpenter hadn’t exactly disappeared—she’d still been around, doing menial labor and supervised for the remainder of the trip.

He lounged on the couch and scrolled through the music he had saved to the tablet. He found a bunch of songs in Chinese and clicked on one at random, but it sounded shrill and harsh. The next one he tried was just as bad, and the one after that was even worse. In frustration, Alex deleted all of them.

Maybe if he studied he could avoid thinking about… stuff. Only studying Earth was out, and all the recent stuff included notes that Parsons had helped him make. He even spotted one typed by Parsons: “Seriously, don’t ever mess with these pipes without proper safety equipment!”

Like Alex would ever do maintenance on a ship. He didn’t know why it was important for him to know what the pipes were called or what they did, and really, why the fuck was Parsons giving him advice when he’d already been planning on screwing Alex over?

With a frustrated cry Alex shut off the tablet and crawled into the bed.

Not that he could sleep either. He tossed and turned and desperately tried to clear his thoughts and relax, but it wasn’t working.

By the time Tracht came back, Alex had succeeded in working himself up so much that his muscles were tense and his leg jittered. It was torture getting on his knees for food, and even the sweet dessert didn’t distract Alex.

He actually startled when Tracht placed both of his hands on the sides of Alex’s face.

“Hmm. I was planning a reward for you,” Tracht said, “but now I’m not sure.”

Alex growled and pulled free from Tracht. He stormed over to the couch and sat down, fuming at Tracht the entire time. “Whatever.”

He caught the frown on Tracht’s face, and the then the slide into annoyance, and okay, Alex was being dumb, but he was also not in the mood for… for whatever. “What’d you tell the crew? That you beat Parsons bloody?”

Tracht stood up and slowly came over. “No. I explained that Parsons had been caught attempting industrial espionage, and that he was being confined for the remainder of the trip. I also mentioned that I would dismiss him as soon as we reached port, and that in the meantime, all of his shifts would be distributed as overtime to the rest of the crew.

“Nobody questioned the decision, though I suppose they either liked the prospect of receiving Parsons’ wages or were afraid I would find a reason to fire them as well.”

He stopped directly in front of Alex and leaned forward, bracing his arms next to Alex’s shoulders and boxing him in. “Now, tell me why you’re acting so idiotic.”

Alex shook his head and looked away. “I don’t—I’m not—I just don’t feel like it right now.”

Tracht gripped Alex’s chin and forced him to meet his eyes. “We’ve established time and again that your feelings on the matter are completely irrelevant.” He let go and stepped back. “Get on the bed, face up, with your arms above your head.”

“Or what?” Alex demanded, knowing even before he said the words that they’d piss Tracht off but for once not caring.

“Do not make me repeat myself, Alex.”

Alex didn’t know why, but the coldness settled him a bit. Tracht was going to hurt him, and it would suck, but at least he’d be distracted from the turmoil inside him.

He got on the bed and positioned himself as asked. He watched with some apprehension as Tracht pulled out a rope from his chest of torture devices, along with—

Along with the cat-o-nine tails.

Alex sucked in a breath and curled into himself. “No! Never mind! I’m sorry!”

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