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“Close to it.” He nodded once, his expression pensive. “Work’s good, daughter’s givin’ me grays, I get to travel between DC and this place, and now I’m apparently joining a kink community.”
It would be awfully stupid to bring up Marina and act like I didn’t know who she was.
“How is your daughter giving you grays?” I was awfully stupid.
Ty let out a humorless chuckle. “She’s pregnant.”
Oh shit.
“And the guy’s no longer around,” he added. “The girl’s brilliant, definitely inherited my brain—but unfortunately, also her mother’s urge to save people. And she thinks she can save every douchebag out there.”
Humble much?
I quirked a brow. “Did her mother try to save you from something?”
That earned me a full-fledged grin. “You’re quick. I like that.” Then he scratched his nose and slowed down as the dirt road got narrower. “She absolutely did. Succeeded too. And if she were alive today, she’d wonder why I haven’t tanned Marina’s hide for the complete fuckbags our girl’s brought home over the years. I don’t think she’s dated a single guy who cut it, and my standards aren’t that high. Just pay your bills, have a job—any job—and treat my daughter right.”
I swallowed and faced forward. Funny how quickly those nerves returned when he spoke of Marina’s useless exes.
Hi. I was one of them.
Ty could never fucking find out who I was. So that ruled out indulging in crushes, the off-off-off-off chance of playing with him, and, God forbid, meeting Marina again.
Also, fuck Ty a little bit for that comment. I wasn’t useless. I wasn’t saying anything about Marina’s other boyfriends, but I’d been in high school. I’d been blindsided by the sight of a man who’d turned my world upside down.
Who knew what Marina had told her dad about me.
Ugh. No, I was gonna focus on reptiles and kink. Kink with Macklin and Shay.
I’d flirt my ass off as soon as we got back to the house.
I cleared my throat and went with one more comment, because it seemed appropriate when someone mentioned a late partner. “I’m sorry to hear about your wife.”
“We were never married, but thanks.” He nodded with a dip of his chin. “I’m lucky I get to see part of her in Marina every day.”
That was sweet. I knew she’d lost her mom to an aggressive cancer and Marina had no memories of her.
The topic faded away into the forest as we approached what I assumed was Mr. Locke’s property. Just a few seconds up ahead, I spotted two small houses, the water, a dock, and a houseboat. So Ty must’ve meant that literally; Mr. Locke lived on the water.
“All right, so what’s your knowledge of monitor lizards?”
I flicked him a glance. Did he think we’d encounter one? “Do you have a population of those here?”
“Not yet, but we fear they’re on their way to establishing one,” he said, pulling in next to a truck. He turned the key, and the lights went off. “We’ve had six sightings the past few months alone, and a buddy of mine caught one in the Reserve just last week.”
That was definitely a problem, because South Florida was the home of the American crocodile, and monitors loved their eggs. Unlike the gators, the crocodiles couldn’t migrate farther north because of the climate, so their population was vulnerable.
“I was tail-whipped by a juvenile once,” I offered. “Fractured my ankle, of all places.”
Ty winced and got out of the golf cart. “Yeah—been there. Then I don’t have to tell you, avoid the fuckin’ tail. I don’t know if we’re dealing with a monitor here, but I wanna prepare in case we are.”
I nodded. Good thinking. “What kind of monitor do you think it is? The Nile?”
“Most likely,” he confirmed. “We can hope it’s a smaller specimen if Willie mistook it for a tegu, but it’s gonna be a fighter no matter what.”
No doubt. The Nile monitor was one of those species that just didn’t belong in the pet trade because most people couldn’t handle the adult versions. They were generally aggressive, difficult to tame, all claws, teeth, and muscle. And once they bit down, they didn’t let go.
They were a giant problem to the ecosystem of the Everglades and nearby parks.
I had like…maybe…twenty books on them at home. Maybe.
“Beautiful beast,” I noted, mostly to myself.
“Mm.” Ty switched on a flashlight and stuck it between his teeth so he could dig through his bag. This was another bag, from the compartment in the back where I guessed golf equipment belonged. Instead, Ty had two cages, a medic kit, countless pillowcases, and some other stuff. He handed me a stick of some sort, and it wasn’t until he handed me a wire that I understood it was an extendable noose. “Don’t get bit,” he told me, removing the flashlight. “You wanna get bit, go find a python or, hell, a rattlesnake. Not a monitor.”
