Page 117 of Under His Heel

Pretty, mohawked Kai opened the door. “What’s your problem, asshole?”

“I want to talk to Parsons.”

“Did you not get the hint? Nobody here wants to talk to you.” Kai put himself squarely in the way.

Whatever. Alex pushed passed him, ignoring Kai’s squawking, and stomped through the apartment.

Not that there was much to stomp through. The couch was clearly being used to sleep on, and the kitchen was nothing more than two hotplates, waterless dishwasher, and a small fridge along one wall. A couple of crudely drawn pictures hung on the fridge.

He found Parsons in what was clearly his kid’s bedroom, with bright blue sheets and posters and pictures hanging on the wall. Parsons sat with Meilin and was paging through his tablet, apparently trying to keep her distracted.

Meilin just stared at Alex. “Who’re you?” Her lip quivered a bit as she asked, and then she wrapped her arms around Parson’s arm. Parsons grimaced and set the tablet aside, then pulled Meilin fully into his arms.

“This is Alex. I used to work with him. Lin-Lin, I’m going to go out and talk with him for a bit, and—”

“No!” Meilin shouted, her lip quivering. “Don’t go!” She tightened her hold on Parsons. “Don’t go away, daddy.”

Yeash. Alex couldn’t remember ever having been a brat like that. His mom would have simply pushed him away, but Parsons kissed Meilin’s head and got up with her still in his arms.

“You’re getting a bit heavy for this, Lin-Lin. I need to talk to him in private. How about this—I’ll take him into Uncle Kai’s room. So I’ll still be here.”

This appeased the kid; she nodded and then slowly slid down from Parsons’ grasp. “You get ten minutes! And you have to promise to come back!” she declared.

“No, at least half an hour!”

Alex boggled as Meilin and Parsons haggled back and forth over the amount of time Parsons was allowed to be alone. Wasn’t Parsons supposed to be the dad? He could just tell Meilin to shut it.

They somehow ended up settling on twenty minutes, and Parsons ruffled Meilin’s hair. “Okay, I’ll be right back.”

“You’d better!”

Alex startled when Kai pushed past him. “Sorry about that, Jeremy. I shouldn’t have opened the door. Should I call security?”

“It’s fine. Alex doesn’t take cues well anyway.” Parsons glared at Alex, then shook his head and led him into the other room.

It was smaller than Meilin’s room, with just a double pushed up against the wall and one small dresser opposite of it. Parsons leaned against the dresser and made no indication of where he wanted Alex, so Alex sat down on the bed.

“So?” Parsons asked, “What do you want? Did Tracht send you?”

“Uh.” Now that Alex was there, he had no idea what Tracht wanted him to find out. “How’s your back?”

Parsons laughed. “Really? Small talk?”

Alex hunched his shoulders defensively. “No. Just… did Singh do a good job?”

“Yeah. Not a scar on me,” Parsons said. “I’d show you, but I don’t really feel like getting naked around you.”

“Not interested anyway.” Even aside from the fact that Tracht would get mad if he did. Alex knew that Parsons was hot, but he really didn’t feel like having sex with him ever.

Silence stretched out between them.

Parsons rubbed his eyes. “Okay. This is going to take forever if we wait for you. Just tell me why you came.”

“I don’t know! I saw Nick yesterday, and he was a dick, and then I messed him up a bit. It was fine. It was fun.” Alex shrugged. “Messing you up wasn’t fun. And then Tracht said I should talk to you.”

“Messing me up? Messing me up ?” Parsons’ shook his head, mouth slightly agape. “Is that what you think happened? You messed me up a little?”

Oh, great. Alex wasn’t in the mood for Parsons’ judgments. “Look! That’s not the point! I didn’t—I didn’t like doing it to you. And I don’t get why!”

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