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I glanced around the shower. The smaller snakes slithered against the walls, but the big one, the one closest to me, reared up in an S-coil.
Hail Mary, full of grace, don’t let him die, don’t let me die…
“One,” Javier mouthed. “Two…”
A shot echoed in the shower. The deafening sound ricocheted in my skull. Before I could blink, the bamboo screen opened and shut around me faster than a viper’s strike. Then I clung to Javier’s solid body, enclosed in the bamboo fortress he’d improvised to fetch me out of my living nightmare.
My ears still rang from the loud crack. My body trembled so hard that I had to brace on him to keep my feet.Rap, rap, rap. The random knocks announced the strikes of fangs on wood. I couldn’t see what was happening at our feet, but I had an idea.
“Easy,” Javier murmured, tightening his hold on the rim, making sure the edges overlapped and we were both inside the relative safety of the circle. “The big one’s gone. Give the othersa moment to settle down and we’ll reverse our course.”
“This is crazy,” I rasped against his chest, basking in his warmth. “You’re crazy.”
“Yeah. I am. Crazy for you.” He blinked off the water from his face and flashed me his cocky smile. “There’s nothing in this world that I won’t do to protect you.”
I snapped my head up. In reply, he flashed me a ferocious grin.
“With me, Angel,” he murmured. “Moving out.”
Chapter Thirty-one
Missy
I perched at the edge of the bed, still wet and shivering, enveloped in a blanket Javier had snatched up and wrapped around my shoulders. Then he grabbed a towel from the stash in the closet and used it to dry me. A memory jolted me out of my state of shock.
“How many snakes were in the shower?” I closed my eyes and envisioned the dreaded creatures before I opened my eyes again. “Five?”
“Affirmative.” Kneeling in front of me, Javier dried my legs and feet. “Five vipers, one extra-large, four regular size.”
“Six,” I squeaked, fighting to find my breath and stop the shakes wracking my body. “There were six snakes in my dream.”
“What dream?” Javier frowned.
“I had this dream a while back,” I said, rubbing my eyes. “It came true. Sort of.”
“You told me your dreams don’t always become reality,” Javier reminded me.
“This one did. At least part of it did. Water, lots of it, running over flat stones. Andsixsnakes.”
He set the towel aside and considered me closely, his whiskey eyes studying my face.
“I know it sounds crazy,” I admitted. “I could be wrong, but…”
“Better safe than sorry.” He got up, planted a kiss at the top of my wet head, and undid the bed and looked under the pillows, no doubt to make sure there were no other snakes around. When he was sure the bed was safe, he said, “Hang tight. I’ll be right back.”
I respected all living creatures, including snakes. Iunderstood their important role in the ecosystem, but my terrifying experience in the shower was still fresh in my mind, and my imagination was playing on my fears. I spotted slithering shadows everywhere.
“We should leave this place,” I mumbled as Javier approached the closet. “We should get out right now.”
“It would seem logical to leave.” He took another careful step forward, his gaze roaming the space. “On the other hand, this could be exactly what our enemy wants us to do. Bekker might want to scare us out of the resort to ambush us on the way out.”
“Oh, God.” I hadn’t thought of that.
“We’ll get out, you’ll see,” Javier promised. “But only when we’re good and ready to go. Right now, I need to make sure the suite is safe.”
He opened the closet door carefully, slowly. When no snakes slinked out, he reached out for a wire hanger, unraveled it, and fashioned it into a metal stick.
“Your boots,” I called out, my voice shrill when I realized he was still walking around barefooted. “Put them on. No, wait! Check them before you do.”
