Page 73 of Laying Low

“Wait!”he hissed.“You should know that Muffin escaped again!”

“Wonderful,” Anthony muttered.“Is this snake the friendly family pet, or is it poisonous and going to bite my face?I love that game.”

“Rattlesnakes see in the dark,” Reg said.“Or theysensein the dark.You’ll hear one before you grab it and call it Muffin.”

“Thanks, baby,” Anthony told him as they soft-footed down the stairs and crouched in the restocked room that they’d used—oh geez.Barely more than a week ago, right?“I’m grabbing an electric lamp anyway.”

“Good idea,” Reg told him earnestly.“We don’t want to scare Muffin.”

“You and that snake have an unhealthy attachment,” Anthony said, but he didn’t sound alarmed, so Reg assumed he was kidding.

“She’s a very nice snake,” Reg told him, but by now, they were almost crawling, the passage close and dark and a little damp, which meant they were by the pool.Anthony stumbled and swore, and the lamp went out.

“Shit,” Anthony said.“I banged it.I think I broke the bulb.”

“Leave it,” Reg whispered.“We’ll come back for it later.”And with that, he got on his hands and knees and, grateful they’d both put on their jeans that morning as opposed to their cargo shorts, he began to crawl.

Behind him, he could hear Anthony doing the same, and there was no more banter as they drew close enough to the house to know they could be heard if somebody was in the basement where they didn’t belong.

He moved his hand forward and stopped, repressing a sound of surprise, as a soft, cool body slithered past his fingertips.

“Hello, Muffin,” he whispered, and Anthony made the same grunt of surprise, and, Reg could admit it, mild alarm.

“Where—oh.The right.”

“Do you have her?”Reg asked anxiously.“Is she—”

“She’s, uhm, saying hello,” Anthony rasped.“Uhm, give me a minute—she’s almost up my arm.”

“Oh, poor baby.She’s missed us!”

“Yeah, Reg,” Anthony said, humor evident, even in the dark.“It’s a real Hallmark moment.”

“Just don’t lose her,” Reg told him earnestly.“I don’t want to have to tell Chance we lost her.”

“Someday,” Anthony said, “we are going to have to have a talk about how much I care about your little brother and how much I donotcare about catering to his every need.You will be surprised in equal amounts.Now move before she decides to love me into amputating my arm at the pit.”

“Shh!”Reg urged, wondering what sort of life-altering conversation he had in store for himnow.Then it was all about listening.

They couldn’t hear much—the tunnel was soundproofed by earth and by layers of house and foundation—but as they neared the trap door into the den, Reg thought raised voices of the kind that howled “Stop or I’ll shoot!”figured large.

“Shit,” he murmured, and Anthony said, “Fuckers,” which meant they were both on the same page.

Quietly—oh-so quietly—Reg hit the latch under the trap door, grimacing as he knocked dust down on them, because a hole in the ground wasstilla hole in the ground.

The door lifted open, and Reg peered around the room.He’d put the trap door in the corner on purpose so somebody coming into the room couldn’t be blindsided, and when he saw that the door to the den was still closed, he squirreled out and then turned to help Anthony, noting that Muffin was wrapped so tightly around his upper arm that his forearm was turning red.

“Oh geez,” Reg murmured, after a few fruitless moments of trying to get the snake to disengage.“We’re going to have to put her in her enclosure with a defrosted rat pop, or maybe put you both in the shower so she’ll relax in the steam.”

“I refuse to steam shower with a snake, Reg,” Anthony said grimly.“Just boot up the computer and do what you’ve got planned, and Muffin and I will have a little talk about codependency, okay?”

Reg stroked the snake’s long neck under her head.“Be nice to him, Muffin.He’s part of the family now.”

The snake flickered her tongue and thought snake thoughts, and Reg decided Anthony was probably right.He sat down in front of his computer and started pulling up the dispatch for the local border patrol units, while at the same time hissing to Anthony, “Hey, look up the address for the Central Valley Rattlesnake Sanctuary, okay?”

Anthony must have really loved him, because he didn’t even ask why.

The border patrol encryption was a breeze to cut through, and the rest of it was easy.A few texts to the dispatcher, a false tip, and….