Page 27 of Under His Skin

“Thank you. I think that’s everything. If anybody asks, I’ve retired for the evening.”

So they were just going to go to bed now? Alex scrunched his eyes shut and counted to ten. At least Tracht didn’t expect Alex to go socialize, because Alex would have ripped anybody who talked to him in half.

“It’s a wonder to me that nobody appreciates your varied expressions the way I do,” Tracht commented, amusement lacing his words. “You’re completely red with frustration.”

“Yeah, because I haven’t eaten all day, and you just tortured me by dangling food in front of my face!” Alex half-yelled, suddenly not caring what else Tracht wanted to do to him.

But when he opened his eyes, he saw that Tracht was holding another tray. Tracht’s lips were pulled thin in displeasure.

“Am I to take it that you don’t want this after all?” Tracht said, holding the tray out. It had another full portion of the meal on it.

Alex looked up at Tracht in disbelief. “What? No. I mean, yes, I want it! I’m sorry! Please!”

For a moment he was terrified that Tracht would pull the exact same game again, making Alex watch, but finally Tracht set the tray down on the desk. “Help yourself. But I hope you think of a very, very creative way of thanking me for my generosity.”

Alex didn’t need to be told twice. He devoured the fruit first, savoring the sweet tartness of the cherry oranges, before going on to the savories. It all tasted divine, like Tracht had personally told them to send the most flavorful dishes the cook could manage.

When he was done, Alex sighed contentedly. His eyes fell onto Tracht, sitting on the bed, and Alex couldn’t help but smile at him.

Tracht was the best sometimes.

Chapter 8

The second day of the trial wasn’t much better, but Tracht hadn’t expected much. There was another long string of people claiming that Anna had been biased in her judgments, with Anna’s lawyers systematically discrediting each and every one of them. It was ruthless, and under other circumstances, he would have enjoyed watching it.

If he could watch it from the comfort of the Sigrun, out in space, far far away from Cadmus… But no. Despite the preliminary investigation being over, the Sigrun was well and truly grounded. Tracht wasn’t even allowed to step foot on the ship. Apparently they were afraid he might escape, even though he had no control over the dock-side magnetic anchors and half his crew had disappeared.

At least he could still torture Alex. He’d enjoyed the despair on Alex’s face last night, and the way it had morphed into absolute devotion the moment Tracht had chosen to feed him. The sex afterward had been almost inconsequential in comparison. Memories of that expression had gotten him through most of the boring bits of the trial.

He probably shouldn’t have bothered going, but he was too paranoid that somehow, somebody would end up saying something that he needed to know about. Not to mention Franziska hadn’t testified yet. She was up tomorrow. Wouldn’t that be fun to watch.

Anna was clearly looking forward to it, since she’d started pouring the drinks as soon as they’d retired to the study after dinner.

“It can’t last much longer,” Anna said, matter-of-factly. She was on her third drink for the night, and her cheeks were tinted red. She’d taken her shoes off too, and was swinging her feet back and forth. “This whole trial is a sham. They just hate me because I’m rich.”

“Anna, half the people hoping for your downfall are similarly rich. Like Franziska.”

“No. I’m the richest. I married Vasilis. Vasilis! Vasilis!” She sat up on her chair and looked around frantically, but Vasilis had left the two of them alone after the first round of drinks. Anna settled back down and opted to prop her feet onto the coffee table. “Anyway, it’ll blow over. And Mother doesn’t actually hate me. She just hates you. Me, I’m friends with everybody.”

“Are you?” Tracht asked, genuinely curious. “Actually friends, not simply mutually beneficial acquaintances?” He was still nursing his first glass of wine, since he had no interest in losing the strenuous grip he had on control. His initial anger toward her was just a low, festering simmer now, but he kept imagining doing awful things to her. Not personally, of course, but if she was convicted, she’d probably be sold into bondservitude, and there were so many terrible men who would have fun with her—

Not that Vasilis would ever let it get that far. If Tracht recalled correctly, family members weren’t allowed to pay off the debts of convicted criminals, but Vasilis would find a way.

“We’re friends! We have parties. And talk shop.” Anna pointed a finger accusingly at Tracht. “What would you know about having friends anyway?” When she pointed like that, she looked disgustingly similar to their mother.

“Absolutely nothing. I’ve gone my entire life without friends. I don’t see why I should start now. But I never claimed to be friends with anybody.” Tracht leaned forward and refilled Anna’s glass. “Drink up.”

“You’re trying to get me drunk,” Anna complained, but she drank again anyway. “Fuck all of them. Using me as a scapegoat. This is because of all the stupid anti-bondservant bullshit, I know it is.”

“Why do you say that?” Tracht asked. He’d noticed that Anna hadn’t replaced her bondservants after the contracts ran up on the previous ones, but he’d assumed it was because the children were older now and she didn’t need them anymore. Either that or because Alex unnerved her so much that she didn’t want to deal with a bondservant at home too. Now, he carefully reassessed that assumption.

“My last major case… ugh, it was with this woman. Her father was the CFO of Argos or something. Y’know. Those people.”

Argos were Lysander’s largest competitor on Cadmus. There were a few other major companies that operated in the solar system, but only Argos and Lysander were headquartered on Cadmus and did regular shipments to and from Cadmus. There was a rivalry between them, of course, but it was in both corporations’ best interests to get along when it mattered—namely, regulation and pricing.

“So what did you do to this woman?” As far as Tracht knew, Anna was only involved in regulatory cases and rarely, if ever, oversaw criminal ones.

“I didn’t do anything to her!” Anna slammed her hand on her armrest. “I would have helped her! But her lawyers were so incompetent that me siding with her would have made me look bad! It wasn’t my fault at all.”

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