“Oh, God.The snake.”Quinn eased his foot off the gas.
“Yep.He’s just a little guy, which makes him harder to catch.”She got to her knees on the floor of the passenger side and reached toward Quinn’s ankle.
“He’s down there?Right by my foot?”
“Don’t be afraid.He won’t hurt you,”
“I’m not afraid, dammit!I’m just...”He paused and made a strangled sound.“What’s that?”
“Hold still.He’s trying to climb up your leg.”
“Up myleg?What for?”
“Maybe it’s a girl snake, and she’s curious.”Jo clamped an arm around Quinn’s thigh, noting he had great muscles, and reached under his pants leg.
“Oh, my God.What’s happening?”
“Don’t look down here!Watch where you’re going, Quinn!”
“Holy sh—” Quinn’s voice was drowned out by the loud thunk of metal against metal.
ChapterThree
Jo clutched Quinn’s thigh to keep from being thrown against the dashboard as the cab lurched from the impact.The jolt dislodged the small snake, and she grabbed it behind its head.“Got him!’
“Jo!”Gasping, he clutched her shoulder.“God, I’m sorry.Are you okay?”
“I think so.”She released his thigh and pushed herself upright.“See?”She dangled the snake in front of him.“Real small.”
Quinn didn’t look so good.In fact, he was breathing hard and looked ready to pass out.
“Quinn, are you hurt?”
“No.”He kept staring at the snake.When someone started knocking on his window, he reached around and rolled it down without taking his eyes off the snake.
A man peered into the cab.“We got a problem here, buddy.You want to call the police?”
“Uh, sure.”Quinn didn’t move.
Jo figured if she didn’t get the snake out of the cab he would stay frozen in that position forever.She looked around and discovered they weren’t far from JFK.The vacant lot beside the expressway would have to do.She glanced at the man looking in the window.“Sir, I’m going to take this snake over to that field.In the meantime, Quinn, you can call the police and also call me another cab.”
Quinn nodded, but he didn’t take his attention off the wiggling snake in her hand.
Keeping a firm hold on it, Jo climbed onto the seat and opened the passenger door.As she got out she called to Quinn over her shoulder.“Move my stuff over to the other cab while I’m gone, okay?I don’t want to miss that plane!”
She climbed the knee-high metal railing beside the road and sidestepped down an embankment.“After all this I want to get you far enough away from the road that you won’t get run over,” she said to the snake.“This looks like a good field.There ought to be plenty of bugs, and when you’re bigger you might even find a mouse or two.”
After hiking about thirty yards through clumps of wild grass, she slowly lowered the snake to the ground.“There you go.Stay away from the road.Have a good life.”
The snake darted away without so much as a thank-you.But Jo felt immensely better as she walked toward the road.Holding the snake had been like a moment from home, where she’d learned to appreciate all creatures.She’d grown up in a city — her father and stepmother still lived in Chicago — but cities were no longer home to her.Maybe they hadn’t been for a long time.Her summers with Aunt Josephine at the Bar None had probably ruined her for city life by the time she was ten.
When she reached the expressway, the police and a second cab had arrived on the scene.Quinn was standing beside the damaged cab waving his arms and looking upset.Even upset he looked damned good — broad shoulders, lean hips.He really was attractive.Too bad he lived in New York.
She climbed the railing and walked to the group.The man whose car Quinn had hit glanced at her suspiciously before turning to the police officer.
“There was something kinky going on in that vehicle, I tell you.I was riding along next to them, and they were going really slow, so I got curious and went slow.Then they started swerving all over the road, and then she got down and put her face in his lap, if you get my meaning.”
“She was trying to get a snake out of my pants!”Quinn bellowed.
