Page 122 of Fractured Future
Cracking open a Diet Coke, he shrugs before taking a long sip. “I’ll eat or drink anything put in front of me. I’m not fussy.”
“So I can see.”
Dropping his chin onto his palm, Axel trains his focus on me. The full force of his curious, autumnal eyes causes uneasy goosebumps to break out on my skin.
“What did Richards say?”
“How did I know that dinner was a guise to pick my brain?”
“Because I’m laughably transparent?” He wiggles his eyebrows.
“You really are.”
“Come on then. Spill the beans.”
“Aren’t my sessions supposed to be private?” I glare back at him.
Axel shrugs dismissively. “I’m trustworthy.”
“That’s not the point.”
Lifting his head, he slumps back in the creaking plastic chair. I should’ve known one of them would attempt to dig into today’s evaluations. But he was my last guess.
“We’re going to be training you first thing in the morning, Ember. We’re working together. Living together. That means we have to trust each other.”
When I don’t reply, Axel cocks his head to the side.
“Don’t you trust me?”
“It’s not you I don’t trust, Ax.”
“Then who?”
Myself.
Lapsing into silence so I don’t have to find an answer to throw him off, Axel seems content to quietly wait. When the waitress eventually smacks a plastic bag filled with food containers in front of us, she huffs as she stalks off.
“Let’s go eat outside.” Axel doesn’t wait for my response, scooping up the bag. “That woman’s pissing me right off.”
“No arguments here.”
Following him out of the café, we wind back into the evening crowd. We’re not far from the riverbank, dotted with streetlamps that illuminate the winding route of the Thames.
“Over here.” Axel hops up onto the brick barrier. “Follow me.”
“Wait, seriously?”
“Don’t be scared, dimples. I’m not going to drown you in the dark.”
“How thoughtful!”
“Well, not until you’ve eaten, at least.”
Axel disappears from sight when he drops down the other side. I clamber onto the barrier, cursing when I see there’s a decent jump down onto the stony riverbank below where he’s waiting at the bottom.
With a cursory glance around, I follow him down. Lights from surrounding bars, pubs and fancy eateries illuminate the darkness, though London glows fluorescent even in the dead of night.
“Here.” He sits on a large chunk of fallen wall, already fishing in the food bag. “This is much better.”
