Chapter 9 #2
The boat veered right, and the marsh opened up before them, a stretch of dark waters and grass swaying in the wind.
As they drove past two alligators sunbathing on the banks, she looked at the other guests on the boat.
Maheen was regaling the tour guide with an adventure she’d had with her family in the wetlands of Ecuador the summer before.
Irum was texting. Reza was chatting with Courtney. Still.
Whatever they were talking about was certainly entertaining, judging by how Courtney was laughing.
At last the boat slowed, pulling up to a forested island.
“Whoa!” Courtney cried out as the boat anchored at a crowded dock. “That thing is huge.”
She pointed to a massive alligator floating in the water mere feet from them, its eyes fixed on their boat, unblinking.
“Ah. That’s Suzy again,” Bob said. “See the mark on her left eye? Sets her apart from the other gators. She’s our friendliest one.”
“Friendliest or hungriest?” Haris remarked.
“Seriously.” Mansur side-eyed the reptile. “Is she stalking us?”
“Nah. She’s just nosy. She was born on our preserve with her brother, Cox, but she was not one to be contained. She’s still a sucker for snacks, though, just like her brother. I like to think she remembers her time here fondly.”
Hena stepped onto the dock and breathed in the grass-scented air.
She followed the path toward the island’s center, where kids clustered around a feeding tank and dangled fishing poles with raw chicken over a pool of snapping gators.
Across the way, a woman manhandled a pair of tarantulas next to a tented booth where a man hawked photo ops with a baby alligator.
Reza stood by a metal fence with a sign announcing “Florida’s Largest Gator.” Hena joined him and leaned over the chain link to take in the enormous alligator sunning near the fence’s edge.
“Are the gators as cute as you imagined them to be?” she teased Reza.
Reza’s brow creased. “Hmm. Not exactly what I had in mind.”
She pointed toward tourists posing with the baby gator. “Interested in a pic?”
“Look at the poor thing.” He grimaced. “Its mouth is tied shut.”
“So as not to bite your face off.”
“If they weren’t holding it, there’d be no worry…” His words trailed off as Courtney and Mansur jogged up to the vendor, cash in hand.
“Come on, guys!” Courtney waved to them. “Let’s do a group pic! He’s adorable.”
“Wow,” Reza muttered.
“Now, that’s a big gator,” Haris said, joining them.
“Florida’s largest,” Reza said wryly.
“The fence looks a bit worse for the wear,” Haris said, eyeing the rusted metal gate.
“I’ll definitely be giving Lulu feedback on this place,” Hena said, turning to face them both as a gaggle of children raced past.
“Me too.” Haris tugged at his damp shirt. “For starters, I would’ve liked a heads-up that I should have packed swim trunks.”
“I’d also let her know the sun is way too bright,” Reza said, squinting, his hand shielding his eyes. “And the ride over here was kind of brutal.”
“So the review is, we hate airboats?” Hena retorted.
Reza grinned, and her heart did a little involuntary flip.
Suddenly, he stiffened, his eyes fixed on something behind her. Before she could ask what was wrong, he grabbed her by the waist, pulling her to him. Her foot slipped as she stumbled into him.
“Reza, what—”
Her breath caught.
“Florida’s Largest Gator” wasn’t enclosed anymore. The gate was open, swinging with a clang against the fence.
The gator shoved through. Lumbered forward. Toward them.
“Fuck.” Haris looked around frantically. “We need to run. Now!”
Before anyone moved, the gator hissed, its jaws yawning to reveal its sharp teeth.
“Stay still,” Hena said. Gators were fast. Faster than any of them could possibly be. She felt Reza’s heart racing against her back—it matched her own frantic pulse. She craned her neck until she spotted their guide. He was chatting with guests by the feeding tanks across the way.
“Bob!” Hena shouted. “We have a problem!”
Looking over, the guide’s easy smile shifted to horror.
“Everybody stay back,” he barked, charging forward, waving his arms. Then to the three of them, “Back up. Slow as you can.”
They gingerly inched away, but the gator hissed again. Its mouth parted. Its tail twitched. It moved toward them. Slow. Deliberate. Her body was locked rigid in Reza’s arms. Her heart felt like it was going to explode out of her chest.
“Go on, Cox,” Bob muttered. He snatched a pole resting by the fence and nudged the creature, coaxing it with years of practiced calm. He fished in his pocket and pulled out pellets of dog food. He tossed it behind the reptile, toward its enclosure.
The gator didn’t move. Its dark beady eyes watched them. Hena swallowed hard as the chain-link fence rattled in the wind.
Then, it pivoted.
Its belly scraped against concrete as it turned toward the snacks. The guide moved, edging closer and closer to the open gate as he kept dropping food, coaxing Cox back inside, until at last, the creature slithered into its enclosure. Bob slammed the gate shut, locking it tight.
Hena let out a shaky breath. Only now did she realize her body was still pressed against Reza’s, his arm still firmly around her waist.
She looked up, and his gaze met hers. He flushed and pulled back like she was hot to the touch.
“What kind of operation are you running here, Bob?” Haris had his phone out. Recording. “That gator could have killed one of us. I need to get this to the authorities.”
“That’s never—never—happened before,” the guide stammered, mopping his brow. His attention shifted to something next to Hena.
“Ah.” His eyebrows shot up. “Well, there we go. Fishing lure.” He walked over and held up a raw chicken wing by Hena’s feet. “One of the kids must have dropped it. That’s what he was going for. I knew there had to be an explanation. Cox doesn’t have a predatory bone in his body.”
“Well, he wouldn’t have gone for it if the gate wasn’t open, now would he?” Haris shot back.
Bob apologized. He promised to review footage and get to the bottom of what had happened. Ensconced in its enclosure, the gator chomped on a raw chicken breast. Hena’s eyes drifted to the black waters in the distance.
They were safe now, she told herself. Still, a tremor of unease passed through her.
Pythons. The pistachio shell in the elevator.
Now this.
They were all separate. Unrelated. Coincidental.
But her mind couldn’t stop trying to connect dots, to draw a connection.
Just how much could go wrong when the wedding week had only just begun?