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The thick coil began to unfurl along her leg, jaws still clamped on to her. Her pulse pounded in her ears like the rap-rap-rap of helicopter blades beating the air. What if the snake released her ankle? She swallowed back bile at thoughts of it biting her stomach.
Her face.
The pressure eased. A slow serpentine glide started up the outside of her leg. Panic clawed at her insides.
She forced herself to think. It wasn’t moving quickly. She just needed to find her cell phone to call for help. Except she wasn’t sure where she’d left it. She needed to find light. Quietly. If she stayed calm, someone could get the key and come for help.
Someone?
Her mind blanked of all room numbers except Max’s. Of course he was the logical choice. The man worked with animals. Max would know what to do.
Carefully, she inched her hand across the coverlet. She stifled the urge to flail against the insidious caress inching toward her hip. Her fingertips brushed the light. Steady this time. Max might even have the perfect answer for her over the phone. Once she gave him a description of the snake, he would reassure her it wasn’t poisonous. Then she would just hang out with her fanged buddy until her own personal exterminator found a key.
Darcy twisted the switch. Harsh yellow light sent sparks pricking in front of her until her eyes adjusted. She blinked, focused and turned to face her attacker.
Beady eyes the size of dimes stared back from the foot of her bed. Full-blown nausea born of terror roiled. Her dreams hadn’t been an exaggeration at all. Obsidian eyes seared her from the head of a ten-foot-long brown snake as big around as her white-knuckled fist.
Max!she mentally screamed without twitching even a muscle. Her gazejerked back to the bedside table. No cell phone waited beneath the light.
Frantically, she scanned the room until she located her cell. Fifteen feet away. It might as well have been miles. The phone rested beneath the window where she’d left it when she’d called her sister before going to bed.
Darcy drew in a shaky breath, using every ounce of training to squash her terror. Help wasn’t within reach, and she’d learned to deal with pests in survival. Which left her with only one option.
Time to kick some snake butt herself. She just hoped the reptile wasn’t looking for supper.
* * *
Unwrapping his turkey-sandwich supper, Max settled behind the laptop computer resting on the utilitarian table in his room. He clicked through the multiple menus, logging into the remote account linking him to the CIA’s mainframe computer.
Rain gurgled through the gutters outside his door while he waited for the connection to complete. He bit off half the sandwich. Scratched a hand over his bare chest. And tried not to think how much better his day could have ended if he’d been two doors down in the room with Darcy.
The secured black-and-green screen hummed to life, snagging his attention back to the job at hand - sending his report. The list of additional captioned addresses stretched like a laundry list. Why worry about a tap leaking military plans when he was all but using a bullhorn transmitting his reports to a stadium?
Not much of a team player are you, son?his father’s voice tauntedthrough the years.
Sure he was. He’d just found his animals respected rules and loyalty better. Max tipped back in his chair to open the small fridge behind him for a bottle of water.
A pop cut the air.
A gunshot.
His chair slammed back onto all fours. He shut down thought. Training assumed control. Max nailed the terminate button on his computer with one hand as he grabbed for his Glock with the other.
A second shot rattled the windows. Close.
Adrenaline pumped through him. He didn’t question his instincts. He knew. Two rooms down. Darcy.
He tore out the door and into the night air as a third shot reverberated. He blasted down the walkway past Lurch, already sprinting in the same direction. Doors flung open above them, feet pounding, heads peering over the balcony.
Max reached the door first. He twisted the knob. Locked. Cursing, he shouldered the door. Not that it budged.
“Darcy,” he shouted, “talk to me.”
Silence.
Lurch crowded behind him. “You wanna kick it in, or should I?”
“I’ve got it.” Max backed a step. Gun up and ready, he kicked the door once, twice.
