“Now, any chance I could talk to Luke?”
“Hang on.”
Thirty seconds later, Luke said, “You’re coming here?”
“I am. What’s going on?”
“For starters, I just learned that Tessa is pathologically afraid of snakes.”
“I know. She has reason. She lost a friend to a snakebite when she was young. She was with the friend when it happened.”
“That would explain it. And that’s a problem, because I count six snakes in her car.”
“Come again?”
“You heard me. There might be more. It’s hard to tell because a few of them are slithering over each other.”
“Is Tessa okay?”
Luke didn’t answer immediately, and it sounded like he was moving. When he replied, his voice was hushed. “Man, she wasfreaked out. I’ve never seen her react to anything like that. She’s holding it together, but I thought she was going to have a full-blown panic attack at first. I’m not sure how she found the strength to reverse it. But if she’d been in the car and one of those things had appeared? She would have wrecked. I have no doubt about it.”
Zane’s thoughts were running along the same path. “How on earth did someone get inside her vehicle? That place has cameras and security everywhere. And beyond that, how did they know to use snakes?”
“Maybe they didn’t know.” Luke’s voice was reasonable. It annoyed Zane but also helped him focus. “Not many people are fond of snakes. I’d say it would make most people flip if they were driving along and suddenly had a snake join them around the brake pedal.”
“Valid observation.” Zane could not believe someone had done this. “Stay close to her until I get there. Don’t leave her alone. Okay?”
“You know you don’t have to ask. I’ve got her.”
“Thanks.” Zane disconnected, ordered an Uber, and raced down to the lobby. His Uber driver was an eighteen-year-old girl with green hair. He didn’t care about her age or her hair color. He did care that she talked the entire way to Tessa’s. When she pulled into the circular drive, she commented, “Wow. There’s a lot of activity for this time of day. Wonder what’s going on.”
Zane replied with a noncommittal shrug. “Thanks for the ride.” He escaped the car and jogged to the parking garage.
Tessa stood against a wall fifty feet from her car. She was talking to two men wearing animal control jackets. Two deputies stood by her car talking to Luke. Gil and Faith stood at the back of Gil’s car looking at something on Faith’s ever-present iPad.
Tessa saw him coming and said something he couldn’t hear to the two men. They stepped away. She came toward him.
He expected her to stop a few feet away, but Tessa walked straight into his arms and clung to him. He was more than happy to hold her, but he couldn’t ignore the watchful eyes all around them. He turned his mouth to her ear. “Princess, we have an audience.”
“I don’t care.” The words came out muffled against his neck, but there was no hesitation in them.
“Your call.” He wrapped one arm around her waist, while his other hand went to the back of her head and his cheek against her hair.
She snuggled against him for a glorious thirty seconds before she pulled away, sucked in a long, slow breath, straightened her shoulders, and met his eyes. “Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
The police officers approached with wary expressions. “Special Agent Reed,” Deputy Andrews said. “We’re going to have the animal control officers remove the snakes. Then we’ll have CCBI check the vehicle for prints and any weird forensics stuff they might know to do related to snakes.”
“That’s fine.” Tessa was pure poise and composure.
The officer waved a hand to the animal control officers, and they approached the car. “Do you have anything in your vehicle that you need?”
Tessa shook her head. “I keep a bag in the trunk, but I don’t want it.”
She probably planned to burn it, along with the car.
“In that case, you’re free to go. I understand you have other priorities today, and we don’t want to keep you. We’ll be in touch.”
