Page 21 of Secrets in Calusa Cove

Her father had had all sorts of weird ideas crammed into his brain. He hadn’t trusted many people. All those stories about pirates using the Everglades—he’d believed them. He’d perpetuated the rumors. Told them around the campfire. Told her that Calusa Cove was just the kind of town and tiny port that was ripe for that kind of criminal activity because it wasn’t a tourist spot. No one came here intentionally. Those who passed through were headed to somewhere else. They stopped for gas.

It was the kind of town where people stayed one night. If they happened to stay a second night, it was because they fell for its charm but still moved on quickly because there wasn’t anything to hold their attention for more than a day.

For the last three weeks of her father’s life, he’d believed something else was going on back in the Everglades. Something other than pirates from the high seas hiding for a night before moving on. Something bigger was happening, and before he brought it to Trip this time, he wanted proof.

Watching through the screen on her camera, she flew the drone low toward the island. She raised it higher over the trees as it went across the land, making sure to record. She didn’t want to miss anything. She directed the drone to the right and deeper into the island.

She squinted, staring at the small screen, searching for signs of that old shack, looking for anything that would tell her that she—and her father—weren’t crazy.

Nothing.

She pulled it back and to the left.

Ah-ha! A clearing. The shack had to be in that direction. It hadn’t been too far from the waterline. Not too far out of sight. They’d seen it from their boat. It had been dark, and while she knew she’d seen something, her memory was fuzzy at best.

The trees ruffled, and a few birds took flight, zooming overhead. The picture on her phone disappeared, and then her drone dropped from the sky.

“What the hell?”

She glanced between her cell and the area where her drone had been hovering. She’d checked the battery before she’d sent it off. It was fully charged. It shouldn’t have died.

“Goddammit.” The stupid thing was a couple of years old, but it had never failed her before. Setting the controller aside, she fired up the airboat, pushed the lever, and pointed the bow toward a spot between two trees. Just enough space to land her boat. She tied it off to a branch. She put on her heavy-duty pants and snake-proof boots, grabbed her hook, bag, and everything else she needed to deal with a python, including her air gun and screwdriver. She might as well bring in one and start the challenge off right.

That would’ve made her father proud.

But she also wanted to find her damn drone and figure out what had happened to it. Hopefully, it could be fixed by morning. Her funds were limited, and buying a new one wasn’t in her budget.

Not to mention she’d have to drive to a more populated city at least an hour to the west. Calusa Cove didn’t even have a Walmart. They were lucky to have a decent grocery store—if you could call Denny’s Shopmart a market. But it had what you needed at decent prices. Most people made a run to the city once a month and stocked up. Of course, everyone had staples for when a hurricane barreled through.

She trekked through the thick brush, watching where she stepped. All sorts of wildlife could come out of nowhere and do some serious damage to life and limb out here. People in this town might consider her a loon—like her dad—but she wasn’t stupid. Nor did she want to die.

Nope.

Not by a snake or a gator.

She knew the dangers. She also knew where and how to spot them.

This was not her first rodeo, and she wasn’t about to make it her last.

So far, no signs of the creatures, but they were here. This was their home, not hers, and she respected that. She continued inland, glancing at the compass on her cell—which had no reception. By her calculations, the drone had fallen ten degrees northwest of where she’d been on the water. She glanced over her shoulder. It was hard to gauge that exact location now, but she did know the drone had made it to the clearing, so that’s where she needed to go.

She lifted her right foot and out of the corner of her left eye, she saw movement.

Pausing, she focused on the tall grass to her left. A freaking snake was only two feet away, and she guessed it to be about ten feet long.

Damn.

Well, last year, she’d wrangled an eight-footer.

She tucked her phone in her pocket, unclipped her air gun, and gripped her snake hook. She’d seen hunters catch these things with their bare hands. She’d done that a few times with a rattlesnake, but only because she’d had to. A python was a different story, and she wasn’t about to do that. She was confident that she could handle this one with the proper tools and technique.

She sucked in a deep breath.

The python turned its head, stuck out its tongue a few times, and eyed her like she was dinner.

“Dad, I hope you’re watching,” she whispered as she inched closer, raising the hook.

The snake watched her every move. It slithered, coiling its body, preparing to defend itself.

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