Chapter One
The first rattlesnake made Alexei’s heart stop.
Just one uncomfortably long missed beat: a gasp stuck in his chest.
Thewooshof cars on the Palms to Pines Scenic Byway had faded, replaced by the not-quite-silence of the Southern California desert and the sound of Alexei’s pulse jumping in his ears. The day was already warm, his pack heavy on his shoulders.
His first steps on the Pacific Crest Trail had felt surreal, his senses muzzy, like walking through a strange fog of sunshine and sand. But almost an hour in, he had started to ease into the familiar clarity of solitude. Before the quiet around him broke, abruptly, with the distinctive rattle. Tightly wound scales, vibrating in warning.
Alexei’s feet stopped automatically.
The snake slithered across the trail in front of him.
Paused exactly where Alexei’s next footfall would have been.
For a long moment, they both waited: a fragile standoff.
Until another series of noises filtered through Alexei’s brain. The huff of breath working hard through a set of lungs. The soft pounding of shoes on sand.
Alexei’s arm shot out on instinct, hitting the solid plane of the stranger’s chest. Even as his mind raced, the movement filled him with a strangely comforting sense memory of every time he’d done the same for his younger sister: each time Alina got too close to the edge of the sidewalk in downtown Portland; whenever she leaned too far over the edge of an embankment on their family hikes through Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
But Alexei was far away from the Pacific Northwest now, and the person he was currently protecting from the rattlesnake was definitely not Alina.
For the first time since he’d heard the rattle, Alexei tore his gaze from the ground to glance at the man next to him. The stranger had dark hair, wrapped up in a bun, lightly tanned skin. And earbuds stuck in his ears, which was probably why he’d thundered up to Alexei and the rattlesnake so carelessly. Inch by inch, he lifted a hand to remove one of the small white pieces from his ear while he stared down at the snake, chest heaving against Alexei’s arm.
Which, for some reason, Alexei seemed unable to move.
“Snake,” the man said.
Alexei’s eyes returned to the trail before them.
“Snake,” he agreed.
They stood frozen there for another long second—Alexei, the stranger, and the snake. Alexei was contemplating how to get his brain to send the signal to his arm to remove itself from the stranger’s chest when the rattlesnake moved its head.
And stared directly at Alexei.
Its tail gave another sharp rattle as its long, thin tongue slithered out between its teeth.
Before Alexei could stop himself, his extended arm turned, so his hand could more easily grab a fistful of the stranger’s T-shirt. He would have been more embarrassed about this if the stranger hadn’t moved even closer to Alexei in the same instant, his shoulder shoving behind Alexei’s back. Alexei couldn’t quite focus on anything other than his pounding heart, which was making up for its earlier skipped beat by parading double time against his rib cage.
“Snake,” the stranger said again, a whisper this time, brushing against the sun-heated shell of Alexei’s ear.
What was the phrase about human reactions in emergencies? Fight or flight? Well, that was clearly untrue. Alexei was fully incapable, at the moment, of either fighting the rattlesnake or flying away from it. A more apropos phrase would be…panic or piss yourself.
And while Alexei might have been clutching a stranger’s T-shirt in his fist, at least he hadn’t pissed himself.
He was pretty sure.
He’d have to further assess the situation later.
If he made it to later.
But miraculously, the snake turned its head a beat later. Slithered into the chaparral, smooth and silent. Out of sight in half a second.
Alexei almost screamed out loud when a hand clamped around his other shoulder, a scratchy beard shoving its way next to his cheek.
“Hey, boys,” the new stranger said. “Why’re we cuddling?”
