Page 20 of Born of Ice

I make a sharp turn and will my hands to drive me away from him. “Well…it wasnota pleasure; hope you choke on my lasagna and finally leave me alone.”

Just then a choking sound does sound, and I stop. “Fucking A, mate, you just had to jinx me like that, didn’t you?”

“Not your mate. And it’s not my fault you can’t perform basic body functions. Have a great life, weirdo, and hope to never see you again.”

“Man, it must really suck to not have any of your wishes come true recently.”

I exhale a tired breath. “Why are you still here?”

“Because I was sentenced here.”

“Start making sense or I don’t care how long it will take for cops to get here.”

“Jesus, relax your buttocks, oh wait, they are already relaxed.” He grins like an asshole he is. “My name is Exton Quinn, but you can call me Axe. And I’m your new babysitter.”

“You’re what?” I spit out.

“Look, we can make this real easy for the both of us. All you have to do is get up.” He claps his hands together.

All Ican doat the moment is stare at him and blink. There is a lot of blinking happening over here. “Fuck, are you high?” I even lean in slightly to look into his eyes.

Are his pupils blown? They are, right? And that name…I’ve heard it before, I think.

“Not yet,” he answers and once again gets way too close into my personal space, fixing those whiskey eyes on me as if he’s trying to hypnotize me.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Get up!”

“Get down!”

“What?” He furrows his eyebrows.

“What? I thought we were practicing dog commands over here.”

The stranger’s—Exton’s—nostrils flare as he cages me in my chair with both of his hands on my rails. “I said, get up!”

“I can’t,” I grit out.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Why are you here? Who sent you here?”

“Sentenced,” he corrects. “By someone who holds my future in their hands, and it depends on you walking. Now, talk.”

“You took the assignment without first asking all the details?”

He shrugs, “It’s not like I had many options. So?”

“I broke my sacral bone.”

“You broke what? Human language, please.”

“Wow, you know how to say ‘please’?”

He rolls his eyes and motions for me to get going with the explanation.

I sigh. “It’s the bone that stabilizes my spine and connects to my pelvis. In simple terms, I need it to be able to walk.”

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