Pike (The Pawn Duet #1) - T.M. Frazier Page 0,39

to feed the snake's body into the bag for what seems like an eternity. It has to be at least twelve feet long. It’s thick, too. My hands wouldn’t even touch if I grabbed it. I shudder at the thought of actually laying my hands on it, and I’m relieved when the snake is fully in the bag. He ties it up and places the bag inside yet another bag, tying it shut at the top, but he’s not done yet. He grabs a back roll of electrical tape, wrapping it around the bag several times before cutting it with his teeth and setting the snake inside a square containment area at the front of the boat. Gutter then turns a handle on the trolling motor of the boat and makes his way toward us, beaching the boat on the mud only a foot or two away.

Gutter plops down at the edge of the boat and greets us with a slight tip of the brim of his ball cap. Now that he’s closer, I can read what it says, Willie Nelson 2020.

I lean over the edge of the boat and glance at the bag containing the snake, fascinated with why it’s there and the expertise in which Gutter had caught him. I have a million questions filling my mind, yet I’m not sure which to start with. All I know is that I need information more than I need to breathe.

Gutter snaps his fingers. “Oh, I almost forgot something.” He takes a sheet of paper out of the front pocket of his overalls and peels something from it, slapping it over the tape on the bag. It’s a sticker with his picture on it. He’s smiling and doing a double thumbs up. The caption below reads BAGGED AND TAGGED BY GUTTER. DANGEROUS REPTILE INSIDE. “That’s my third one today, and it’s a whopper, too.”

“Three of them?” I gasp then look around my feet. “How many are out here?”

The man shrugs. “Here in the Everglades?” He scratches the long wiry whiskers on his chin. “Hundreds of thousands, I reckon.”

“But pythons aren’t native to Southwest Florida…” I muse.

Gutter smiles, and gives Pike a look that says he’s impressed. “You’re right. They ain’t native, and they’ve got no real predators to thin them out. People just started dumping them out here when they got too big to keep as pets. I even saw one trying to swallow a decent-sized gator a while back. Anyway, Uncle Sam pays a pretty penny for each one I bring in.”

That’s nice and all, but my thoughts are still stuck on Hundreds of thousands.

Pike lights a cigarette. “Selling out with a government job after all, huh, Gutter?” .

Gutter rolls his eyes. “Fuck you, Pike. Everyone around these parts knows I ain’t no government employee and won’t ever be.” He spits on the ground next to his feet to punctuate his point. “Just benefiting off the fuckers for shit I’d do even if they wasn’t paying me to do it.”

“Whatever lets you sleep at night, buddy.” Pike pats him on the shoulder, and Gutter slaps his hand away. Whatever the relationship is between the men, it’s a comfortable one. I don’t imagine Pike wouldn’t retaliate a slap from someone he wasn’t comfortable with, no matter how playful it was indented.

Gutter looks at me, crosses his arm over his chest, and then dips into a dramatic bow. “And who might this beautiful young lady be?” he asks, standing straight he throws me a wink.

“Mickey, this is Gutter. Gutter, this is Mickey.”

“Mickey, like the mouse?” he teases.

I smile, but I can’t help it. Gutter’s personality is either infectious, or I’m in dire need of human contact that isn’t tied in a knot of threats. “Mickey like Michaela, but yeah, also like the mouse.”

Gutter scratches his chin. “Michaela works better for me. Never did care for that mouse being as that Disney feller was a fuckin’ Nazi,” he says, like it’s common knowledge.

“Really?” Pike scoffs. “You gotta drag Walt Disney’s name into the mud?”

“It’s true,” I say in Gutter’s defense.

Pike raises his eyebrows.

I explain. “It’s a known fact that Disney attended meetings of a pro-Nazi organization in the 1930’s, and it’s rumored that he and entertained Himmler, Hitler’s second in command, at Disney World when it first opened, although that’s never been proven. So, Gutter’s not entirely wrong although.” I look to Gutter. “No offense, not entirely right either.”

“None taken!” he says cheerily. “I like this girl, Pike. Feel free to bring

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