Page 63 of Slay Ride

“It-it’s an in-in-incline!” I call back to Bennett.

“No shit?” he calls back, and I can hear his eyes roll in his head.

The water not only gets deeper as I move from the center. It’s much colder as well. Whatever warms the frigid depths near the middle can’t reach this far, it seems. And now I have to start swimming because the bottom ceases to be.

As I bob toward the end of the lane, I try to peer over the edge to see what others are doing. Maybe if I see how everyone else gets their Cattle into the water, I can just follow suit. But no matter how much upward thrust I apply to each kick of my legs, I see only snow and black water.

I can’t stay in these temps much longer. The prickly needles have become swords sawing at my bones. I swim back toward the middle and look to Bennett for help.

“Wrong fucking way!” he yells as he rubs his arms. “Swim toward the Cattle!”

“You have to do it!” I yell back. “I’m not strong enough!”

As I make my way back to the beginning, splashes come from the other lanes. Bennett holds his hand toward me as I draw closer, and I reach up and grab it. He hoists me out of the water as if I weigh nothing, then hops into the frigid ice bath.

“Fuck!” he roars as he rushes down the lane. “Shit! God damn this snowy hell!”

A warm blanket drops over my shoulders, and I look back and see Maverick. “You’ll freeze,” he says. “Your partner was supposed to have it waiting for you.”

“Where did it come from?” I ask. “And how is it so warm?”

Maverick nods toward the squat building I noticed earlier. “Those are steam rooms. We can warm up in them when the event is over, but the blankets are meant to keep us from freezing to death in the interim.”

“Couldn’t we have done this activity in the heated pool?”

As soon as the words leave my mouth, a loud splash comes from the end of my lane. Bennett managed to wrestle the Cattle into the deep end, and now he’s glaring at me.

“Your turn!” he calls as he starts making his way back.

“Looks like my partner needs a little help too.” Maverick looks at his lane, where Ice Pick’s bald head bobs like a cork in rough waters. He’s struggling to keep his victim’s head below the surface.

As Maverick jogs away to save the day, I drop the blanket and mentally prepare myself to go back into the water. The sooner I can drown the fucker at the end, the sooner I can get warm.

And that’s Bennett’s plan, apparently. He easily could have done the drowning and ended this thing for us, but he wants to make me look like a fool.

“Thanks for the warm blanket,” I mutter as I step to the edge to pull him out.

He smiles up at me. “Don’t mention it.”

I release his hand, and he falls back into the water. “Whoops! My hand slipped.”

His hand wraps around my ankle, and down I go, right into the water with him.

“Looks like your feet slipped too,” he says as I sputter to the surface.

Body heat comes off of him in waves, giving me an idea.

“Did Ezra say we couldn’t be in the water at the same time?” I ask.

Bennett catches my meaning and grins for the first time since climbing in that sleigh. “He sure didn’t. Climb on.”

I hop onto his back, and he turns and takes us toward the Cattle at the end of our lane. Our combined body weight makes it easier for Bennett to press the man’s shoulders and keep him underwater, and we’re able to last longer in the lower temps because we’re sharing our body heat.

“No cheating!” Kindra calls from her lane.

“Go ahead,” Bennett grunts so that only I can hear him. He shifts his grip on the man beneath him. “Tell them it was my idea. In fact, let go before someone sees you touching me.”

“Is that what this is about?” I ask through clenched teeth. It’s all I can do to keep them from chattering. “Are you upset that I want to keep this a secret?”

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