Page 29 of Under Control

Tracht considered struggling, but he had no chance against three armed men. “Very well.”

He had hoped that his cooperation would mean the goons would avoid hurting him, but the first punch to his stomach disabused him of that notion.

Chapter 9

The bath had gotten boring pretty fast without Tracht to make it more entertaining. Alex went to laze in the bed, watched a few movies, and even dozed off.

When he woke, he was still alone, hunger gnawing at his stomach and preventing him from sleeping more. Tracht hadn’t come back yet, and—actually, that was weird. Tracht’s meetings didn’t usually run this late. Alex had to get out of bed and walk over to the couch to grab his tablet, and, yep, it was definitely way past the time Tracht usually got back.

Strange. He had a new voice mail. Better not be from Nadia whining about how he’d abandoned her. But it said it had come from Tracht’s number. Extra weird, since Tracht preferred writing over leaving voice messages.

Alex hit play.

“Alex. I’m being attacked. On the docks. I don’t know who—”

Then the sound of something breaking, and a few seconds later the message ended.

Alex stared at the tablet. He replayed the message, listened to Tracht’s voice. It was off. It wasn’t Tracht. Not confident enough. Not angry. Not even amused. Kind of shaky, really, in a way Tracht’s voice wasn’t supposed to ever be.

The message was from three hours ago, when Alex had been taking his bath. They wouldn’t be anywhere near the docks anymore.

Alex wanted to throw his tablet across the room, but that’d be dumb. He needed to keep the message. Maybe somebody could do… yeah, that weird tracing thing. They could trace the message. Schultz in security would know how.

Alex almost forgot to get dressed before rushing out the door. Only the difference in temperature between Tracht’s quarters and the hallway reminded him. He put on a pair of work jeans, a t-shirt, his steel-toed boots, and the leather jacket Tracht had bought him last night.

He also went through Tracht’s drawers and found the leather gloves that Tracht used for sex games. He had to protect his fists. Actually… Alex rifled through the other equipment, stuffing a thin whip into his pockets.

Also, fuck not eating. Alex had to be in top condition if Tracht was in trouble. He ate two protein bars and a few of the leftover cherries right then and downed half a bottle of water. The rest of the cherries he took along with him.

He jogged through the station, ignoring the weird looks he got from the few sailors he passed. None of them mattered.

Of course, when he got to security nobody was there because they were docked, and almost everybody was off duty. Fuck. Fuck!

Alex slammed his hand against the wall. Security. He should call station security. Except he didn’t know that they’d believe him, not with his past. Maybe if he called Vasilis or Anna, or—

“Alex? What are you doing down here?”

He looked up and saw Espinosa standing at the other end of the hall.

“Somebody said you ran down here and were causing a commotion,” Espinosa said, very pointedly looking him over. “What are you wearing? Where’s the captain?”

“I don’t know!” Alex shouted. “I don’t fucking know where Tracht is!”

She recoiled hard, then hardened her expression. “Watch yourself. I’m still a superior officer on this ship, and I am happy to bring your behavioral issues to the captain.”

“Great! Maybe you can find him for me then!” Alex said. He pulled out his tablet and hit play on the message.

It was such a short message. Too fucking short. But Espinosa paled, and she dropped her snitty attitude. “I see. Yes. We’ll need to call station security. I can handle it from here. You can return to the captain’s quarters and wait.”

“Fuck that. No.” Alex stuffed the tablet back into his pocket. “I’m gonna find him. You don’t get to ice me out of this.”

“Alex, be reasonable. You aren’t equipped to deal with a delicate matter such as this.”

“That glass shattering didn’t sound fucking delicate to me.” Alex held up his gloved fist. “I’m going to punch through every fucker who dared touch him. Got it?”

If the situation weren’t dire, if Tracht were with him, then Alex would have gotten a huge kick out of the fear in Espinosa’s eyes. Yeah, she’d forgotten that Alex wasn’t just a soft boytoy.

Espinosa swallowed visibly. “Ah, yes. But regardless, I should…” She hesitated.

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