Page 33 of Under His Skin

“Enough already.” Kuroyama stepped closer to crowd them. “Mr. Stone, if you could please follow me. I don’t particularly wish to handcuff you.”

Tracht stepped back and gave Kuroyama a disapproving look. “Yes, please refrain from cuffing him. I like his wrists undamaged.” He gave Alex’s shoulder one last squeeze before letting go. “I’ll be in touch.”

And that was that. Alex had half a mind to refuse anyway, but since Tracht told him to go, Alex couldn’t see a way around it. He snarled when Mr. Punchable touched him, but followed the two of them into the waiting security vehicle.

Mr. Punchable sat down across from Alex. “He’s as awful as I’ve heard.”

“Shut up,” Alex growled. “Tracht is twenty times better than you.”

Instead of getting mad, Mr. Punchable gave Alex a sad look. “I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced. My name is Dr. Sokratis Galanis. I’m a professor of psychology and debtleasing systems.”

“Cool. Leave me alone. I’m not going to testify.” Alex shifted so he was staring out the window. He kind of wished they’d gone with public transportation instead, just to make it all slower, but the vehicle made quick time heading toward the commercial center of the station.

“I’m afraid you have to testify. That’s what a subpoena means. Did you not receive any of the official summons that were sent to you?”

The official summons… Now that Alex thought about it, maybe those were the spam mails he’d been getting. “The only thing I’ve been getting is weirdo mails labeled sub-poh-ey-na.”

Next to him, Kuroyama snorted, as if Alex had said something funny. But Galanis grimaced. “Ah, no. That’s subpoena. It’s originally from—never mind. The point is, it’s an official order to testify.”

Embarrassment flared up in Alex. Great, another set of people who laughed at him for being stupid. “Whatever. I deleted them without reading. I had enough shit to deal with.”

“You deleted them? Not Captain Tracht?” Galanis sounded genuinely surprised, as if he didn’t expect Alex to do anything on his own.

“Yeah. Tracht barely reads my mails these days. And with all that shit you’re putting him and Anna through, he wouldn’t bother with my mails at all. It’s usually only Nadia mailing me, anyway.”

That wasn’t quite true; Alex sometimes got mails from the crew, wanting to know the answer to something they were too chicken to ask Tracht or Bahjat directly. Once, Alex had received a mail from one of Tracht’s clients, asking if Alex would want to switch contracts. He’d shown that one to Tracht, and it had been kind of fun watching Tracht’s attitude towards the client turn frigid.

“You have no outside correspondences at all?” Galanis’s look of disapproval deepened. “No friends? What about your family? Surely your parents—”

What was it with people pitying Alex? He was sick and tired of everybody trying to tell him how he was supposed to feel about shit. He didn’t care that he didn’t have contacts outside of Tracht and Nadia. “Mind your own business. I didn’t have a dad, my mom kicked me and Nick out when we were fourteen, oh yeah, and Nick abandoned me to the Nilsen gang five years ago.”

At this point, Kuroyama coughed. “Dr. Galanis, I believe that most people in Mr. Stone’s situation are unlikely to have a strong social security net. One does not sell one’s body lightly, after all.”

It was funny seeing Galanis’s cheeks redden. Fucking finally, it was somebody else’s turn to feel stupid. Alex crossed his arms and smirked at Galanis.

“Of course. I should have considered my words more carefully.” Galanis shut up after that, and the rest of the trip was in silence.

Alex spent the ride daydreaming about beating both of them bloody and presenting Galanis to Tracht, naked and whimpering and so fucking terrified.

Unfortunately, they arrived before his fantasies got really elaborate, and somehow that was Galanis’s fault too.

“You get a kick out of this?” Alex growled at him as they stepped out. “Ruining people’s mornings? I was having breakfast.”

“Well, as soon as we’ve got the collar off you, I’ll treat you to breakfast,” Galanis said. He motioned for Alex to follow, which was rich coming from the guy who pretended like he was trying to help Alex. It was always the same fucking thing. Parsons had been like that too, pretending to be nice but secretly wanting Alex to just follow his orders.

The receptionist was the same one as last time Alex had been there and looked just as snooty. The waiting room had a small crowd of people already, the same set of crying, simpering pussies who thought their lives were over. Whatever. Alex had gotten through it, so he still didn’t know what they were so afraid of.

They walked straight past all the people waiting, into a small private office. Alex’s eyes widened when he recognized the chick who’d dealt with his contract all those years ago.

“Dr. Galanis, Mr. Stone, hello,” she said, standing up to greet them. She didn’t move from behind her desk though, so she clearly wasn’t that interested in being polite.

“Ms. Stiegler,” Galanis said. “I think that is all, Inspector Kuroyama.”

Kuroyama stared hard at Galanis, then nodded. “Very well. I’ll leave my two officers behind though, just in case. Mr. Stone, please don’t cause any trouble. …and congratulations on being debt-free.”

“Fuck you too,” Alex barked. The shocked expressions on Galanis’s face gave him some satisfaction, although his stomach churned at having cussed. It was usually fine if Tracht wasn’t around, though, and apparently none of these assholes wanted to let him be with Tracht. So who the fuck cared what he talked like?

Yeah. They wanted to deal with just Alex, then they could have just Alex.

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