Page 41 of Winging It with You

I snap my head in his direction, and Arthur chooses that very moment to raise his camera back on me. “You’re worried about thesnakesgetting hurt? What about me?”

A sarcastic little laugh slips out of his mouth, and I can’t help but glare at him. “Most snakes are harmless to humans, like the boas we have here.”

I really don’t like Wyatt.

“That’s easy for someone to say who doesn’t have to…” My voice trails off when I realize I have no idea what I’m about to do. “Wait, what’s the challenge?”

Wyatt lifts the lid of the empty tank and I step closer. There are dozens of keys in various shapes and sizes at the bottom. “The goal here is to locate the key that opens each lock as quickly as you can,” he says, tapping a built-in lock I’m just now seeing on the inside of the lid.

A pit grows in my stomach because I have a feeling I know the answer before I even ask.

“And the snakes?”

Wyatt gives me a look—the kind that confirms my suspicions. “So, if you’ll just go ahead and get into the tank…”

I look around for my own escape, hoping I can somehow slip away unnoticed, but with Arthur zeroed in on my every movement and the fact that I’ve already come this close to accomplishing my goal, I know I’m just going to have to suck it up and get this over with.

There’s also a million dollars on the line, so that helps put things into perspective.

Theo’s hand flexes in my mine, a subtle reminder that he’s right here with me.

“I…I really don’t know if I can do this,” I whisper, turning to him.

His eyes find mine. “We can walk away right now if you want to, Ash—you don’t have to do this.”

He’s giving me an out.

Permission to do the thing every cell in my body is screaming to do—run away.

Theo doesn’t break his stare, his beautiful eyes reassuring me that money or not, the only thing he cares about is my safety.

Around me, the other contestants are in various stages of their own challenges.

I see Ellie struggling with what appears to be a life-size game of Jenga, using all her strength to lift the giant pieces up and down a set of ladders.

Next to me, Jackson is hard at work sifting through mounds of sand looking for who knows what. There’s a large scale hanging behind him that gives me no context as to what challenge America chose for him.

Everyone else is already immersed in their own challenges and then there’s me, all but frozen in fear and looking like adeer in headlights. Arthur raises his eyebrows from behind his camera lens. I’m sure he’s mentally yelling at me to get my ass in the damn tank or to stop being such a baby or something gruff and Arthur-like.

Well, it’s now or never, Asher Bennett.

“You’re staying here, right?” I ask Theo before stepping into the tank, still clinging onto his hand like a vise.

“I’m not going anywhere, babe,” he says, his eyes flooded with concern. That and only that is enough to calm my overstimulated nerves. Even if his pet name of choice is just for the show, it’s like my brain needs to hear it.

The glass is cool against my sweaty skin. I run my hands along the floor of the tank once I lie down, feeling the edges of the different keys with my fingertips.

Wyatt peers in from above. “You ready?”

Fuck. Fuck.Fuck!

Every nerve ending and cell in my body is screaming out in fear. “Just get it over with,” I say through chattering teeth. My limbs are shaking, and white-hot adrenaline is coursing through my veins as my natural fight-or-flight response kicks in.

Wyatt lifts the smaller tank to the edge of the one I’m in and a curious—or starving—slippery monster sticks its head out, its tongue flicking in my direction. What is it they say about wild animals? That they are more scared of you than you are of them?

I highly doubt that.

My body tenses harder than it ever has before as I brace for Wyatt to drop them in. Time slows as he stands above me, dangling a box of snakes that are probably are chomping at the bit to choke me to death on national television.

---