Page 90 of Under His Heel

Was there a right answer to that question? Alex shrugged and scooted a bit further away from Tracht. No movie was a plus, but Tracht in a bad mood wasn’t exactly better.

Tracht sighed loudly and stood up. “I’m going to the gym. Stay here and don’t cause trouble. Or rather: please do. I would love to have a reason to take it out on you.”

“Do you need a reason?” Alex blurt out, like the idiot he was. He started shaking his head immediately. “I’ll be good! Never mind!”

But Tracht laughed cruelly. “You have a point. Come on then. Let’s find out how much you’ve learned from the movie.”

At some point, Alex really, really needed to learn to keep his mouth shut.

At least Tracht looked marginally less pissed off.

[Chapter 27]

Stupidly, Anna’s words bothered Alex a lot. He wanted to find that Dimitri guy and punch him so hard he wouldn’t even be able to look at Tracht, and he wanted to shake Anna and make her eat her words about him, too. Hitting Anna was probably out; no matter how mad at her Tracht was, he wouldn’t let Alex get away with something like that. But if Alex got some time alone on Cadmus station, maybe he could track Dimitri down and rough him up a bit. If he wore a mask, it might seem like a random mugging.

He kind of toyed with that idea between studying and writing Tracht’s log. Even if he didn’t get to actually go through with it, it was a nice fantasy.

The studying was getting to be less of a pain; he kind of liked understanding what everybody was talking about when they said to go aft or portside. Parsons helped out too, apparently really eager to get Alex up to speed with the ship lingo.

The door to Tracht’s office opened. Alex looked up from his spot on the couch and watched Espinosa walk in.

“Captain, I think we need—” She stopped when she realized Tracht wasn’t in the room. “Where’s the Captain?”

Alex shrugged. “Washroom.”

“And he left you here alone?” Espinosa sneered at him. “Make sure not to touch anything. Or steal anything.”

Alex had always thought she didn’t like him, but had never been able to place it. Turned out she was just like Anna, thinking Alex wasn’t good for anything.

“Yeah, whatever.”

She strode over and leaned against the desk. “I don’t know why he hasn’t gotten rid of you yet.”

Because Alex was just that good at sex. He was going to tell her as much, only then he noticed her shirt. Unbuttoned slightly to give just a hint of the breasts underneath.

“Nice tits,” Alex said in his skeeviest voice.

Her mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”

“I mean, I think they’re nice. If you smile a bit more, maybe people won’t think you’re such a frigid bitch.”

He’d shocked her into speechlessness. Even while the words poured out of his mouth, he knew they were a bad idea, but if he was going to get shit for it anyway he might as well go all the way.

“No matter what you do though, Tracht isn’t gonna notice you. He’s not into pussy. So you can stop strutting around here, trying to impress him.”

Her face reddened with anger and Alex was kind of riding high on that, knowing that at least Espinosa wasn’t going to try anything with Tracht. Fuck her, and fuck Anna for thinking that Alex wasn’t good enough. And fuck Dimitri too.

That was when Tracht walked back into the office. One look between Espinosa and Alex, and Tracht had figured out that something had happened.

“Ms. Espinosa. I hope Alex hasn’t done anything untoward.” He stepped closer to her.

She shook her head. “No. Or rather, yes, but it is of no concern.” She took a deep breath, and then she was back to her usual professional blankness. “I came to talk to you about an issue with the exhaust pipes.”

They kept talking about whatever the problem was, and Alex stewed by himself. He did catch Espinosa buttoning up her shirt, so he counted that as a victory. He’d touched some sort of nerve.

===

Alex thought Tracht might have forgotten about the incident. A few days passed, and the worst he did was make Alex play the role of a table.

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