Page 16 of Last Destination

Nikki ripped off his glasses and shoved them in his shorts pocket beneath the water. Grim determination filled his handsome features while his eyes flashed with shiny fear. “Tell me what to do.”

“On the count of three, follow my every move underwater. We need to work fast.” I turned to Jamie. “We’ll unravel from below — grab the tail and pull — keep moving toward the shore, like tug-of-war. You won’t need to swim. We might not even have two minutes.”

The terror in my throat felt like granite, and I fought hard to swallow as I stared at the man who’d caused all our problems. “If you ever gave a fuck about that woman, you’ll get a grip and help. Her life depends on it.”

I spared one second to stare at the water likely filled with tetanus and diphtheria, e coli, and snake piss. When we made it out of this jungle, I’d bathe in an alcohol bath so strong it would strip a layer of skin and remove all traces of this cesspool. But I wasn’t leaving this jungle without Marley.

Looking up, I stared into Nikki’s eyes and nodded once. “One, two…”

I drew a deep breath into my lungs and prayed to any god that would hear me.

Please let this work. Please don’t let her die.

A week ago, I was terrified I would lose my company. In an ironic twist of reality, I was more terrified now to lose this woman. If I lost her, nothing in this jungle would be worth fighting for.

“Three.”

I dove beneath the water.

My grip on the snake was reminiscent of choking a man, my preferred tool of death. I relished the feeling when the flow of blood beneath my hands slowed, and the skin of his cheeks melded into deeper, darker colors. Maintaining a strong grip on his neck as his survival instinct fought against my touch was the ultimate challenge before one final squeeze stole the last bit of breath from his lungs.

The anaconda’s scales were hard and smooth like a coat of fingernails, and each tensed muscle within its coils jostled my hold with a fierceness no man could muster.

My strength had faltered already once while here in the jungle, without the rigorous training in my cell and a third of my usual water or food rations, but I held on as if the snake were my worst enemy, destined to die at my hands.

The water swirled around my feet as Ambrose and Nikki uncoiled the beast, My calves and thighs struggled with their movements as they struggled against the snake’s predatory strength. Jamie sputtered when the first length of unwound tail became visible beneath the waves. He grabbed for it, the blunt, tapered edge rioting in his arms as if it held its own thoughts.

Had Ambrose not declared Jamie’s death if he didn’t help, I would have. The smaller man surprised me with his vehemence, but the power behind his words echoed my thoughts exactly. Help or die. The disgraced pilot made the right choice.

My ángel’s face gleamed gray and a thick coating of sweat sat on top of her skin like clear slime. Short puffs of air fluttered the few hairs in front of her face as her head hung forward, but the shallow breaths would not last long. We needed help.

Scanning the tree line, I found a brunette head bobbing through the foliage. The final member of our group was slowly making her way down the muddy incline.

“Tessa!” I bellowed the words into the swaying trees as the snake writhed within the firm claws of my hands. “I need the hatchet!”

We’d been hacking off more limbs for the night’s fire before the day’s rain could saturate the branches. I looked away from her at the top of the hill when Marley’s scream pierced my ears, my compulsion to protect Clube de Morte overtaking any consideration for the other woman in the woods. Irritation twinged while Tessa took too much time with her careful gait, but when she broke through the leaves and stumbled down the rocky terrain to the water, my relief soothed the burn at the sight of the hatchet at her side.

“Oh my fucking god,” she squeaked, her tiny body frozen at the shoreline, a little mouse trapped in a snake’s gaze.

Patience slipped through my fingers as the beast tried to shirk my hold once again. “If you want her to live, get in here now.”

Jamie sloshed through the water, slipping backward with each pull while the snake unraveled like unspooling thread. It was at least five feet in length. Only the section around Marley’s abdomen remained, but it was the portion that would take her life. Ambrose and Nikki wouldn’t be able to unwind it in time.

Tessa raced into the water on the opposite side of Jamie, avoiding the snake tail with a terrified glance. Each wade of her skinny thighs slowed her down, wasting precious time.

Two heads popped out of the water, my right hand and the intellect frantically moving in a circle while they pulled the length outward and off of Marley’s diaphragm. Two thick coils the size of my thigh still wrapped around her ribs. We needed to sever the source. I dipped my chin toward the lengthening tail. “Tessa, cut it in half.”

“No!” Ambrose paused, turning a wrathful glare on us. “If you cut it in half, the muscles will constrict further. That’s an immediate death sentence.”

I spared one glance at Marley’s face and my stomach turned to stone at the pale shade of blue, her lips taking on a similar pallor. “Think fast, companero. She’s no longer breathing.”

“Fuck!”

Thick, poignant terror pierced my skin straight into my bloodstream. I couldn’t release the head without it biting her. I had no way to contribute that wouldn’t cause her more harm. A feeling of helplessness crawled through the opening. The same one when Diaz had shoved the heroin into my vein.

Clube de Morte could not die. My ángel could not die.

Tessa forced her small frame between the two men as they upped their pace, fingers cramped into claws, desperate to loosen the tightest part of the snake’s hold. Silently, Tessa held the hatchet upright and struck right into the meaty part of the snake’s torso right over Marley’s chest. The head snapped in my hold and almost slid out of my grip entirely, its smooth scales catching on the callouses of my palms. My infected shoulder screamed and my biceps tore at the rough jolt, but I would have them ripped out of my skin before releasing it.