Page 48 of Under His Skin

But Galanis continued, “I can see you don’t believe me. I wanted to spare you this, but Kuroyama sent me interesting footage this morning.”

He pulled up a video on his tablet and made it display on the large screen in the room.

It wasn’t much. All it showed was Tracht entering through a door, the only sign reading “Bound.” Tracht went in alone, Tracht came out alone. But it was still Tracht enjoying himself without Alex.

Because Tracht had no reason to wait around for Alex. Tracht got bored easily, right. Tracht could have anybody. Including Dimitri or Mikhail or some rando at a club.

“You see?” Galanis said. “I am certain that Captain Tracht is a gifted liar, and it’s clear to me that he is willing to say whatever it takes to get you to fall in line. He’s a manipulator, and he has you convinced that he cares about you precisely so that you would stand up and defend him against people like myself and Ms. Tracht. But Captain Tracht is only in it for himself. ”

Like Nick. Galanis was accusing Tracht of being like Nick.

Tracht lied, but he was nothing like Nick.

Suddenly he couldn’t hold back the rage. Alex reached over the table and grabbed Galanis by the collar, using enough force to slam him hard against the edge of the table. “Shut. Up. Tracht isn’t like that, and if you say one more word about him, I’m going to rearrange your face and leave you lying here a bloody mess. Got it?” He pulled hard on Galanis’s throat for good measure, reveling in how red the man got in the face.

He waited until Galanis started nodding before he let go, then backed off entirely because his threat to leave him bloody was looking more and more attractive by the second.

Why should he care about the consequences anyway?

Except he didn’t want to know how Tracht would react if he found out that Alex had gotten violent without permission. Because Tracht would care about that. Alex was suddenly sure of it.

He was stupid to let Galanis and Franziska make him doubt Tracht. That vid of Mikhael didn’t matter, because Mikhael wasn’t here. Tracht had never once mentioned him before. If Tracht wanted to get rid of Alex, he could have done it ages ago. Even that broker bitch had said it was weird that Tracht kept him for the full five years.

Tracht wasn’t like Nick, because Tracht wasn’t going to abandon Alex.

Alex slumped down on the couch and closed his eyes, a lot calmer now than he’d been the past few days.

After another fifteen minutes had passed in silence, the door opened and one of the lawyers came in.

“All right, Mr. Stone. Let’s head to the courtroom. You’re going to be called shortly.”

“Ah, I think… maybe you shouldn’t,” Galanis said to her. “I think we might have miscalculated something.”

“What?” the lawyer gave Galanis a confused look.

“It’s not a good idea. I wouldn’t call Mr. Stone to the stand.”

See, that’s what Alex had said from the start. “You should listen to him, lady.”

“I don’t make the calls here,” the lawyer answered. “My boss wants you there and the judge is expecting you, so come on, let’s get moving.”

Fine, Alex would do this. But he wasn’t going to like it, and he wouldn’t be half as nice to them now as he’d been during their little practice sessions.

===

The suit did not fit Alex properly.

That was Tracht’s first thought. Over the years, Tracht had bought a number of clothing items for Alex, in an attempt to dress him up, humiliate him, or both. His favorite on the respectable side of clothing was still the suit from their first stay in Atalanta, when he’d taken Alex to his favorite restaurant.

His second thought was the suit was chosen on purpose to make Alex look more down-trodden. Look at this poor bondservant, with not a penny to his name, who was subjugated by the evil Trachts.

Or maybe they were just being cheap.

Alex saw Tracht and smiled at him, although he didn’t wave. Tracht nodded briefly at him, simply to acknowledge that he’d seen. He’d already been warned by all lawyers that he wasn’t allowed to do anything that could be misconstrued, and that included facial expressions.

Even during the first set of questions, the ones to introduce the witness to the jury, Alex stumbled.

“My profession? Uh. I work for Tracht.” Alex sought out Tracht’s eyes, and the jury followed Alex’s gaze. Tracht had to hold back a grimace.

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