Roxanne blinked up at the stark light in her eyes and groaned. Everything hurt. An ache went through her like a wave that never actually left the shore and sank back into the ocean. It simply pounded against her. Where was she? She hated this particular feeling. It was why she limited herself to two beers now. No more. After she’d left Joel, she’d gone a little wild and pain had been the outcome.
“Yeah, I bet you feel like hell.” Lila LaVigne stared down at her. She was wearing scrubs and not an ounce of her usual makeup. Despite the fact that she ran a tiny clinic in a backwoods parish, Lila had never lost her big-city glam. She wasn’t the same woman who’d walked into town a year before. Papillon had softened her up, but she still liked to look chic.
Roxie’s head was killing her, and she seemed to be in the clinic. Her night had apparently taken a wrong turn, but then that seemed to be the story of her life. “What the hell happened?”
“Don’t close your eyes. I need to make sure you don’t have a concussion,” Lila said in that no-nonsense fashion that Roxie usually found calming. Lila wasn’t a woman who panicked. Ever.
Today, it grated a bit. Wait, today? No, it wasn’t day at all. She’d been working the night shift. Yes, she remembered how dark it had been. It had been deep in the night. “How long was I out?”
Lila moved the light over her eyes. “Not long, but long enough for me to worry.”
She’d been having the weirdest dream where Zep had taken her out in the woods and they’d found the sweetest dog and then . . .
She sat up and her head throbbed. “I was bitten by a snake. There was a freaking snake.”
“There was a snake. This one,” Zep said, holding up a bag. She blinked at him in surprise. Had he been there this whole time? “I went back for it. It was hell finding the damn thing again, but I got it. Copperhead. Very venomous. Lucky for you, those boots of yours are tough. Turns out he didn’t actually penetrate the leather. So no real snake bite.”
“You caught the snake?” The question came out of her mouth on a screech. “Why would you catch the snake?”
“It was nesting close to the barn. If it bites Archie or Caroline, they might not be able to handle it,” he replied. “Also, I wasn’t sure at the time that it hadn’t gotten you. I had to make certain what kind of snake we were dealing with. I already called some friends of mine from a reptile rescue. They’ll relocate it to a safer location.”
“It’s alive?” She stared at the bag, and sure enough, it shifted a bit. A chill went through her. She’d been in a lot of bad positions, places where people were shooting at her. She would take it all over that snake coming her way.
Zep frowned at her like he was deeply disappointed. “The snake was only doing what snakes do. You stepped on him. He bit you. It’s perfectly natural.” He held the bag out, an oddly prim look on his face. “Would you like to arrest the snake?”
He was so obnoxious.
Lila flicked off the light. “I’m with you, Rox. Don’t think too much of his righteous indignation. It’s not city versus country on the snake issue. I know lots of people around town who don’t like snakes.”
“Well, I don’t like them,” Zep argued. “Hell, if I killed everyone I didn’t like, there would be very few people left in this world.”
She was likely one of them. After all, it wasn’t like she was nice to the man. But it seemed as though he’d been helpful this evening. “Sorry. I’m not used to . . . critters. Especially ones with fangs. So I passed out and I didn’t actually get bitten?” It had been at her feet. She could remember the sight in the ghostly light.
Zep brought the bag back down. “Yeah. The boot leather was thick enough to stop this guy’s fangs. The problem was you hit your head when you reasonably freaked out over the snake attached to your boot. Hit it real hard.” There was a chiming sound and he pulled out his cell with his free hand. “So I had to carry you up to Archie’s, and Caroline called