Page 97 of Under His Heel

Tracht rolled his eyes. “Do you remember your first few weeks on the ship, Alex? And how you tried very, very hard to hide information from me?”

Yeah. Alex did remember. He remembered not getting food and being locked in the cage and Tracht threatening to rip his tooth out. His hand went up to his mouth instinctively.

He could still make something up. He could say it was the tits, or maybe that Parsons had been a dick again.

But if Tracht found out that Alex had done anything against him—

That wasn’t just a punishment. That was a guaranteed annulment of the contract. That would be Alex going back to the Nilsens, and Tracht going off to be with Dimitri or some other bondservant.

“You said—” Alex stopped because he didn’t know where he was going with it. Then he fumbled out, “You said that friends don’t use each other. Or something like that. I don’t remember.”

“I believe I asked you if you’d ever had any friends aside from your manipulative brother. Somebody who didn’t keep you around just because you were useful. So? Has your friendship with Parsons flickered out again?” Tracht shook his head. “At this point I’m not sure why he continues to try, when he seems to dislike everything you stand for so much. And if he thinks he can save you from me, he’s doing a bad job of it.”

Oh. Duh.

Alex started laughing, and he couldn’t believe how fucking stupid he’d been.

It was Nick all over again.

“Yeah. You’re right,” Alex said through his laughter. “Parsons has no reason to like me. I mean, you’d have to be an idiot to want to hang out with the guy who knocked you out, right?”

He caught Tracht scowling at him lightly. “No, I suspect you need to be naïve. I would have said that Parsons believes you are, in some way, inculpable for your situation.”

God, Tracht was being nice about Parsons? Well, Alex was gonna show him. He stalked over to the laundry hamper and found his gym socks. He hesitated there for a second, thinking about what Tracht might do to Parsons when he found out. But if Parsons hadn’t thought about what could happen to Alex, why the fuck should Alex care about him? Alex angrily pulled the device out and then presented the it to Tracht.

“Stupid or whatever, I don’t care. He asked me to plant this near your bed. Dunno what it does. He wouldn’t tell me. I guess all he wanted from me was to use me.”

Tracht took the device and held it up to the light. Confusion morphed into fury. “Were you—were you actually going to do it?”

“No!” Alex shouted and stumbled back. “No. I didn’t want to. But maybe I wouldn’t have told you about it either. Except fuck him, fuck him, fuck him for even asking me to…”

“Asking you to betray me.” Tracht set the device down, closed the distance between the two of them, and then pulled Alex down into a kiss. Deep and searing, controlling Alex and somehow making Alex feel more than just owned. Making him feel wanted and right.

Alex wrapped his arms around Tracht and started kissing back.

“Alex,” Tracht whispered when he pulled away, “You’re going to help me deal with Parsons.”

[Chapter 30]

Parsons was on the PM shift, when he wasn’t taking overtime hours. Alex had known that, kind of vaguely, except he’d never really gone out during the night hours.

It turned out the ship was kind of creepy with all the lights dimmed. (From his studies, Alex had learned that keeping a regular day/night cycle even out in space was important for crew morale and human productivity. Otherwise people would conserve energy while traveling by keeping everything dimmed all the time.)

It didn’t help that Parsons was tasked with cleaning equipment underdeck, away from the usual human traffic. The only sounds were the hum of the engine and of Parsons muttering lightly under his breath. He had his back turned to them, but he must have heard their footsteps echoing.

“Ackerman? Is that you?” Parsons asked, and he turned around. His eyes widened lightly when he saw Tracht and Alex. “Uh, Captain. What brings you here at this hour?”

Tracht kept his expression impassive. “I’m surprised you need to ask.”

Parsons looked from Tracht to Alex, and Alex could see the exact moment where Parsons realized what had happened. Parsons looked like he wanted to bolt, only then he dropped the washcloth he’d been holding and yelled, “Fuck!”

His voice echoed a few times.

“Alex, if you would be so kind as to cuff Mr. Parsons?” Tracht said.

Unlike with Messner, Alex didn’t feel particularly happy manhandling Parsons. Maybe because Parsons wasn’t fighting back at all. He just limply accepted getting his wrists cuffed.

“This way.” Tracht led them down another hallway, and Alex was surprised to find an unused room back there. It might have been a storage room at some point, but it had been converted and held a low cot in one corner and a toilet in the other.

---