Page 3 of Under His Heel: A Kidnapping

“The scar isn’t cool. It was nasty. It hurt a—a friggin’ lot.”

Tracht considered whether that was Alex’s way of attempting to get reassurance from Tracht, but it was a bit too subtle for him. Alex’s manipulations were clumsy at best, and while he did exude confidence most of the time, he had some hang-ups regarding his appearance that Tracht was in no rush to alleviate.

Tracht kissed him lightly on the cheek anyway, right on the scar. “At least nobody will ever confuse you with your brother.”

Having seen Nick, Tracht could easily say that he preferred Alex’s flawed face. Another symptom of his over-investment, but a tolerable one. No matter what Anna said, Tracht had found that he was really quite a lot happier now than he had been before he’d acquired Alex.

He’d once thought himself incapable of this sort of sentimentality. How things changed.

They did end up looking around the room at school projects, simply for something to do. Tracht could easily say that none of the children were savants, and while he saw that Markus had a modicum of art talent, he wouldn’t have hung the final paintings anywhere on the ship.

“So, this was the school Parsons wanted his kid to go to? I don’t get the big deal,” Alex said after their tour of the room ended.

The fact that Tracht was still moderately jealous of Parsons did irk him. He hated hearing Alex speak of Parsons, even knowing that Parsons was safely in another solar system, completely unreachable to Alex. He’d even seen Alex’s clumsy attempts at messaging him, and the finality of Parsons’ dismissals.

“I’m told that this is the best school on station, but I doubt Parsons’ daughter would have received the full benefit of it. None of her peers would have accepted somebody from a lower social stratum than themselves, especially once the parents caught wind of exactly how far beneath them Parsons was. I’m only surprised that the school admitted his daughter in the first place.”

“So he really ruined everything for nothing.” Alex frowned, which worsened his already severe neutral expression. They really would have somebody calling security on them soon.

==

Anna came in some time later with Johan in tow, who looked even more sullen than he had before. “It’s time for Chryssy’s presentation. Come on.”

The classroom was packed, with parents all standing on one side of the room. Everybody wanted to hear their precious little angels speaking.

“I can’t see,” Johan complained.

“Go sit in front,” Anna said. She only had half her attention on him.

Tracht watched as Johan slipped past other adults and teenagers.

About five minutes into the presentation, Alex leaned in close to whisper, “I gotta piss.”

Tracht was half tempted to tell him to hold it—he had a few ideas of what he could do with a desperate Alex—but the school was sadly not the right venue for that.

“Then go. Bathrooms are down the hall,” Tracht said. “And come right back.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Alex casually touched Tracht’s shoulder and then muscled his way out past the disconcerted parents.

Tracht tried to concentrate on the presentation. He could appease Anna’s ire somewhat if he appeared somewhat interested, though a teenager’s understanding of physics was hardly engaging. He ended up checking his messages on his tablet, ignoring the dirty looks Anna sent him.

He’d managed to respond to two mails when he realized that Alex hadn’t returned yet. He’d been gone for more than fifteen minutes, and even accounting for the need to find the bathroom, that was an extremely long time.

If it had been a ploy to get out of listening to the presentation, Tracht was going to punish him thoroughly. In fact, he hoped it was a ploy. That would be a nice way of relieving stress after this excursion.

Maybe he’d force Alex to drink and drink, until his bladder was bursting, and let Alex urinate on a mat like a dog. Make him clean up the mess afterward too. That had some potential. Or he could give him a piss enema, which held its own appeal.

Clapping around him alerted Tracht to the end of the presentation. He put his tablet back in his coat pocket and looked up at Anna—who, hypocritically, was on her own tablet.

“Shouldn’t you have been paying more attention?” he needled.

“I—” Anna broke off and shook her head lightly. “You caught me. This was a work matter. I might need to head back early. Do you think you could—”

“No.” Tracht met her eyes. “If you need to go, then let’s round up everybody and simply leave.”

Anna nodded. “Yes, you’re right. I think the important part is over. I’ll go get Johan and Markus, and see what Chryssy wants to do.”

“I’ll find Alex.” Tracht left the classroom, expecting to find Alex loitering just outside, but he wasn’t there. How annoying.

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