Page 108 of Under His Heel

Alex looked at his shirt. It was one of the normal ones he wore on the ship, not even the fancy clothes Tracht had him wear to meetings. But yeah, it was a lot nicer than what he used to wear. It was nicer than what Nick was wearing.

“So? What happened to your rich girlfriend?” Alex moved his chair away a bit, and he ignored the exaggerated frown on Nick’s face.

“Oh, her. It was all going well, only then somebody tipped her mom off that I was lying about who I was. I dunno. It was such a freak thing. Who would even know me on Cassiopeia?”

They both quieted down when the waiter came by to take their orders. Nick ordered his spiked coffee, and then looked at Alex. “What are you getting?”

“Nothing.” He was only a little bit hungry, and the only thing Tracht had okayed for him to eat were some leftovers on the ship.

Nick shook his head. “Hey, don’t worry, I’m buying. No need to be cheap.” He looked over at the waiter. “Forgive him, he’s not used to having money. He’ll get a glass of water and whatever the soup of the day is.”

“I’m not gonna eat it,” Alex said, but the waiter didn’t seem to care.

“Spiked coffee, water, and soup of the day.” The waiter left while Alex glowered at Nick.

“I didn’t want it.”

Nick patted Alex’s shoulder again. “You always get cranky when you’re hungry. Seriously, don’t worry about the cost.”

“It’s not the cost I’m worried about. Tracht monitors everything I eat.” Ah, shit. Alex hadn’t meant to confess that. Unlike Parsons, though, Nick didn’t make some huge show of outrage.

“For real? Talk about a control freak.” And that was it. Nick went on to describe some of what he’d done on Cassiopeia, Alex’s worries forgotten.

“—and then the mom arrives with like, three armed guards. My girlfriend was crying, saying that she’d never leave my side, but I knew I wouldn’t last long if I stuck around. And man, I’d been missing you before, but I started missing you really hard when I was alone again.”

Man, sitting with Nick, shooting the shit like old times made Alex feel kind of nostalgic.

“I did miss you a bit,” Alex said. “I saw that movie again. Um, the horror movie with the really gory deaths? And the slutty character with the really bad acting?”

Nick smiled brightly and snapped his fingers. “Yeah, yeah! I remember. Was the death face still as funny as we thought it was?”

“Yeah! Funnier. Well, except I was watching it with some boring guy who didn’t see why I was laughing.”

“What? But come on, his face was all—” Nick did an impression of the death face, and Alex had to crack up, because it was a perfect imitation.

They talked more about movies they’d seen, and Alex mentioned the one he’d watched with Nadia, and Nick gave him a summary of one the ones he’d watched by himself. He talked about some of the stuff he’d gotten up to as well, funny anecdotes of people he’d conned before he’d taken up with the rich girlfriend.

The waiter brought their drinks and the soup, all while Nick chatted. Alex couldn’t help but smile and laugh. God, it was all so familiar. He’d thought he’d wanted to beat Nick up, but Nick had apologized, and he’d missed Alex, and dammit, they’d been together for almost all of their lives. They’d been through some really terrible shit together.

Maybe Tracht was wrong, and Nick wasn’t using Alex. Maybe he’d just made a really bad call. Nobody could have expected Tracht to be as thorough as he was. Alex tried to think of himself on the other side of things, with Nick as Tracht’s bondservant.

That made him feel kind of sick, but he focused on himself, trying to rescue Nick. And he didn’t think there was any way he could have done it. The moment Tracht took Nick into space, that woulda been the end of it. Staying on Cadmus and waiting was... okay, that was probably what Alex would have done, but Nick was usually smarter than Alex. The Nilsens might have tried to take it out on him anyway, despite the bondservant thing.

“You really not eating?” Nick pointed at the soup. “It looks really good.”

It really did, and Alex’s stomach twinged lightly, reminding him that it had been a while since lunch.

He shook his head. “No. You can have it.”

Nick shrugged and picked up the spoon. “Suit yourself.”

Watching Nick drink the soup was almost worse torture. Alex looked away and tried to find some way to distract himself. He ended up digging his nails into his wrist and focusing on that pain.

“So, hey,” Nick said, setting his spoon aside. He’d eaten about half of the soup. “I know we fucked it up last time. But I have a way we could actually escape together. Forget Cassiopeia. We book it to Atlanata, from there to Persephone, and then we can catch a ship through a gate to… wherever. We’d be home free for sure.”

Wait, what? Alex tensed. “That doesn’t sound any better than your last plan. No.”

“Aw, come on! I didn’t know who your buyer would be the first time, or that he’d be so well connected. But I made a couple of friends who are much, much better at sneaking people on and off stations.”

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