Page 34 of Under His Skin

Galanis stepped between Kuroyama and Alex, as if trying to protect Kuroyama. Which was funny too, because Alex was sure he could break Galanis in half. Kuroyama didn’t even seem that upset about being cussed at. They probably heard worse on a regular basis.

“Just ignore him,” Galanis said to Kuroyama. “He’s been through a lot in the past five years. It’s understandable that he’s acting out in the face of a sudden change like this.”

“Well I’m right fucking here and I can hear you,” Alex said. He almost made a rude gesture too, but decided if that got back to Tracht, he’d be lucky if he didn’t get a finger broken.

Kuroyama gave Alex one last look before leaving. Good riddance. Alex hoped he never had to see Kuroyama again.

“Let’s just get this over with,” Stiegler said, tapping away on her screen. “I have four bondservants looking for people to buy their debts, and the market is… not great right now.” She handed a small device to Galanis, which looked really similar to the ring Tracht had worn that first week with the collar’s electronic key in it.

Alex still couldn’t believe he’d been so stupid, trying to run from Tracht. He didn’t even want to imagine what his life would have been like if he’d managed to escape. Stupid Nick.

He was surprised when Galanis passed the device on to Alex. “I’ve been told you know how to use this?”

Naturally all of them would know about Alex’s escape attempt. Alex took the device and held it in his palm for a bit, staring. It didn’t feel right. Tracht was going to be the one to do this. He didn’t want to remove the collar on his own.

If he was really honest, he just didn’t want to do it, period. He knew his neck was going to feel bare. Tracht had said nothing was going to change, but Tracht sometimes lied. What if Tracht decided that it would be easier to get a new bondservant, who wasn’t there willingly, who didn’t like half the shit that Tracht did to him?

He regretted even suggesting to Tracht that they remove the collar.

“Hello? I’ve got another appointment in ten minutes. I’ve got all the paperwork done, so please just take the collar off so it can be reprogrammed for the next person,” Stiegler snapped at him.

Alex looked at the device again, then threw it hard against the wall. It shattered into several pieces, a nicely satisfying little explosion of parts. Stiegler and Galanis’s stunned expressions were more than worth it.

“That’s what I think of you.” Alex then reached up to the collar—his hand was shaking a bit too much—and then he pulled on it, hard enough to break the device. He finished all of this by dropping the broken collar on Stiegler’s desk.

She finally snapped out of it and said, “Was that necessary?”

Seeing her face get red in anger got Alex smiling. “Yep, it was. And we’re done. I’m heading back to Anna’s.”

He turned around to leave, only to have Galanis step in front of him, shaking his head. “No, I’m afraid you aren’t going back to the Trachts.”

“What? Why not? You just paid off my debt! I’m a totally debt-free person. I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

“You’re not debt-free until you sign this!” Stiegler interrupted, shoving a tablet in his direction. “I hope you weren’t giving Captain Tracht this amount of trouble. I’m honestly surprised he kept you through the end of the contract.”

Alex sneered at her and quickly signed where indicated, although he felt stupid for almost having left without doing that part. Or maybe that’s what he should have done, just to save himself from having to deal with all this trial bullshit.

On the other hand, Tracht had told him to play along for now.

“Fine. I’m done. Now I’m gonna hop on a train back to Anna’s.” Alex ignored Galanis and headed back outside. He wasn’t quite as familiar with this district as the docks, but he figured the train signs would get him close enough that he could walk the rest of the way.

It turned out he didn’t have to even bother going that far. Tracht was standing outside the debtleasing center, looking super pissed off. Both of the lawyers were with him, arguing with Kuroyama. Alex didn’t care about Kuroyama though. He strode over to Tracht and bumped his shoulder against Tracht’s.

“Hi.”

Tracht didn’t smile, but something about him seemed to relax anyway. Good. Alex had been afraid that Tracht’s pissiness was going to transfer over to him.

“I suppose this was inevitable anyway,” Tracht said curtly, and maybe it was Alex’s imagination but he thought he felt Tracht’s fingers brush against his own. “Did you behave?”

“Yeah,” Alex lied. Not like Galanis or Stiegler were gonna rat him out. “Can we go back now? I’m starving. I didn’t even drink all of my shake.”

But Galanis came out of the building then, looking around frantically, and when he saw Alex standing with Tracht, he strode over with a pissed off look on his face. “Captain Tracht! Your presence here is unnecessary.”

Tracht gave Galanis a look of disapproval. “And I find your presence here to be superfluous, so we are on even ground. Now, since you’ve finished with all the paperwork—and I suppose I must thank the state for paying off the small remainder of the fees—we’ll be heading back now.”

“No.” Galanis pulled up another document on his tablet and showed it to Tracht. “Per instructions, Alex will be housed in a hotel until further notice. We cannot have you or Anna attempting to influence his testimony in any way.”

“What the fuck?” Alex took a menacing step forward, and he was pretty satisfied with the look of fear that crossed Galanis’s face.

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