Fairchild heard me and grinned wide. Now that I had said I’d seriously think about the fight, he’d mellowed. No more hard sells. No more glaring at Parker. Fairchild was king of his castle and loving life. The asshole.

“Technically, it’s an American sidewinder rattlesnake,” he said. “But don’t worry. Shani here is a venomoid—which means his venom has been removed.”

As if that was my worry. I wasn’t getting anywhere near the thing. Fairchild, on the other hand, seemed to think it was a great idea to lift the lid off the case.

Camille made a noise of distress, then laughed as if she hadn’t meant to, but she pressed up against Jackson. Fairchild ate it up, smiling like an ass as he waxed poetic about the majesty of his snake.

Parker snuggled in closer to me, and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You think if we say Beetlejuice three times, he’d show up and eat Fairchild?” I whispered in her ear.

She nudged me in reply, her lips pressed together in a tight line to keep from smiling.

Fairchild began to reach into the case.

“Are you sure you should do that?” Camille said.

He laughed. “The ladies are always nervous around snakes.” Yeah, no shit, dude, they saw your act coming a mile away. “Don’t you worry, honey, Shani and I are great friends.”

I rolled my eyes and kept a good hold on Parker. It wasn’t that the snake scared me—much—but I had a healthy appreciation for predators, and venom or not, a rattler wasn’t something I’d fuck around with.

Shani the snake had been napping in the sand, but Fairchild had woken him up. His diamond-shaped head lifted, and he tracked the movement of Fairchild’s hand with small, unblinking black eyes.

“Shani loves rats,” Fairchild explained. “Especially big ones—ah!”

His scream made us all jump. Shani had moved so quickly, there wasn’t time to react. His fangs sank into the fat of Fairchild’s hand, once, twice. Fairchild screamed again and whipped his hand back.

Cursing, I shot forward and slammed the lid onto the case before the snake could get out. All hell broke loose as Fairchild howled about his hand and staff came running.

As Fairchild moaned and slumped to the ground, clutching his wounded hand, I caught Parker’s eyes. God, it wasn’t funny a man getting bitten by a snake.

It wasn’t.

It couldn’t be.

My lips twitched.

Her eyes lit up, her nostrils flaring on a sharply drawn breath.

All around us, people shouted and hustled to help Fairchild. Shani coiled himself back in the sand. In the sand.

Parker’s gaze held mine. I could see the words in her head: bitten by a sand snake.