Page 116 of Under His Heel

Alex froze, and Tracht laughed loudly, cruelly.

“I would love to see you try, Nicholas. You’re a petty conman with no real connections, while I’m a wealthy, respected member of the community with the backing of the most influential family on Cadmus.”

“Yeah, but—”

“You never fucking quit, do you?” Alex growled. He stalked back and gave the belt, still around Nick’s neck, another harsh tug. There would be marks around Nick’s neck for days. “Just give up. You really are a pathetic little dog. Go on, bark.”

Fear flashed across Nick’s face, and he quickly said, “Woof, woof.”

Alex spat on him and then headed back to Tracht. “Now leave us the fuck alone.”

Then they left, Tracht smirking, and in the elevator Alex couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“That was—wow. Like, wow. Tracht, did you see Nick? He was scared of me! And he didn’t really fight, he just rolled over like the stupid little dog you said he was.”

“Mm, you pull off terrifying very well. Nicholas lacks your beautiful spirit.” Tracht leaned in close and nibbled on Alex’s ear. “I do have one question, Alex.”

“Huh? What?”

“How did he drug you?”

Crap. Alex tensed a bit and thought about lying, but it just wasn’t worth it. “He pressured me into eating something he’d spiked.”

“We’ll have to punish you for eating. Not tonight, I’m too tired now. But maybe we can get you drugged up again, lying incapacitated, unable to even flinch when I touch you…” Tracht kept kissing Alex for the rest of the elevator ride, telling him all the horrible things he wanted to do in the future.

Alex was just glad Tracht preferred him over Nick.

[Chapter 35]

Later, in bed with Tracht, Alex thought about how he was feeling. Not like, in a girly way, but he realized it was kind of weird that all that shit they did to Nick didn’t bother him at all, when he hadn’t liked watching Parsons get whipped.

“How come—” Alex started, and then he broke off the sentence because he didn’t really know what he wanted to ask.

“What?” Tracht sounded half asleep and annoyed. His head was pillowed on Alex’s chest, his arm curled around Alex’s waist.

“Never mind.”

Alex winced when Tracht started twisting one of his nipples. “Just tell me so we can get to sleep.”

“Uh. I dunno. Nick was more fun than Parsons.”

He heard a sigh. “Presumably because your brother’s betrayal was far more absolute, and you actually did consider Mr. Parsons a friend.”

“What’s that mean?”

Tracht switched from twisting his nipple to soothing it. “I really should just let you figure this out on your own. But I’ll help you along. Go visit Mr. Parsons tomorrow.”

No way was that was going to help. Alex was pretty sure seeing Parsons would just piss him off, not magically solve all his problems. He clearly remembered saying that he never wanted to see Parsons again.

But in the morning Tracht gave him Parsons’ address and told him to go or not, whatever he felt like. Tracht went off to do whatever business he did, Espinosa in tow, and Alex was at enough of a loose end that he gave in.

Turned out that Parsons lived in a neighborhood close to where he and Nick had lived. The artificial sky seemed more distant and gray, and the hum of the station engines was louder here. He spotted a couple of street kids eyeing him, but he gave them a menacing glare and they all decided he was too scary to bother. Good.

Parson’s apartment wasn’t the worst, but it was definitely nowhere near classy either. Alex waited for somebody else to slip into the building, and he followed them in. Security was as lax as expected. He climbed the three flights of stairs and knocked on Parsons’ door.

When that didn’t get a response, he started pounding on it. “Hey! Parsons! Open up!”

He kept at it for a few minutes before the door finally swung open.

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