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Macey managed to slip his hand beneath the pillows beside him to the alarm switch just below the headboard of the bed and the knife strapped to the wall. He could distract Landry, but Emerson would have to release Drack.
“The admiral’s learned to accept what he can get from me.” Macey tsked. “Too bad he didn’t know what he was getting with you.”
Macey tightened his hand on Emerson’s wrist beneath the sheets, a warning he prayed she was paying attention to. When he flipped the internal alarms, Drack’s cage would open. The anaconda would go for the gun. He hoped.
Macey tripped the switch. Immediately the raucous blare of sirens, screaming music, and flashing red lights tore through the room.
Landry jumped, and Macey knew the instant surprise was the only opening he would get. He tore from the bed and tackled the other man at the waist, taking them both to the floor as Emerson shot up from the bed.
Landry was strong and well trained. Macey had sparred with him on more than one occasion and had learned the other man couldn’t be anticipated. He was a gutter fighter, and he was mean.
But Macey was mean too. Mean enough to slam his fist into the other man’s upper thigh, his aim off just enough to distract Landry rather than curling him up on the floor.
It wasn’t enough. Landry managed to roll, kick out, and throw Macey back. The gun discharged, shooting wild before Macey was on him again.
“Emerson, the cage,” he screamed out as he glimpsed her from the corner of his eye. “Open the fucking cage.”
Because Drack might be their only chance. The gun had shot wild, but Macey could feel the sting of a flesh wound in his side and the blood saturating his flesh now.
He was wounded and it wouldn’t take him long to weaken. If they were going to survive, they just might need all the help they could get.
* * *
Open the cage? Emerson’s panicked gaze swung to the glass-enclosed tank that held the anaconda. Over the past days the snake had stayed hidden amid the thick plants and shallow water basin in the stone floor, but he was out now, butting against the glass, tongue flickering, slitted eyes dilated. He looked pissed. He looked dangerous. And she was terrified of snakes. She hated them. But she loved Macey. Loved him. Trusted him.
The sirens and music were blaring through the cave. Red lights were streaking through the room. It was disorienting, as she was sure it was meant to be.
She scrambled across the room, shaking, shuddering. The anaconda was huge. If he managed to wrap around Macey rather than Pierce Landry, then he would be dead.
Snakes had no loyalty. They couldn’t be trained. They were driven by instinct, nothing more. Drack wouldn’t know to attack Landry rather than Macey.
“The cage. Now!”
Her gaze swung to Macey where he struggled with Landry for possession of the gun. The other man still had it clenched in his hand, fighting to bring it around to bear on Macey.
Her gaze swung back to the snake. He was pressing against the seam of the glass door, butting against it, demanding his f
reedom. Emerson imagined she could feel the rage pouring from the creature.
Macey had warned her that the anaconda hated guns. Hated them so much that he had to keep them in a specially designed safe and he couldn’t carry one himself within the basement because of the snake’s instinctive need to kill whoever or whatever carried the weapon.
With a trembling hand she lifted the latch to the door, swung it open, and jumped aside as Drack immediately pressed out of the opening.
Drack wasn’t a fast creature, but he knew where he was headed.
Pierce. Her godfather trusted him, loved him like a son. He was always extolling the warrant officer’s virtues. He hadn’t mentioned deceit and treason as any of those virtues, though.
She couldn’t just stand here, but she couldn’t look away. The anaconda was making his way across the room toward the two men struggling for the gun. Emerson was terrified the snake would go for the scent of blood rather than the scent of a weapon.
The two men were cursing, delivering hard, powerful blows even as they fought for the gun.
Emerson considered attacking Landry herself, but if he got hold of her, she knew Macey would sacrifice himself to protect her. Instead, she ran to the other side of the bed and the phone that sat at the side of it.
She glimpsed the anaconda drawing closer as she skirted the side of the bed. Had she been insane to let the creature free, despite Macey’s orders? She hadn’t even told him she loved him, she thought frantically as she reached the table and jerked the cordless phone from its base and began to dial.
It was ringing. Ringing. Emerson stared across the bed, watching as the two men struggled on the floor now. Macey was gloriously naked, Pierce was dressed in a black mission suit.
Macey straddled the other man, one hand locked on Landry’s wrist, trying to dislodge the gun as the other hand delivered a blow to his face. Landry returned with a blow to his side, throwing Macey off as he nearly lost his grip on Landry’s wrist.
