The woman nodded reluctantly. “She’s just a baby. She doesn’t mean to hurt anyone. She doesn’t bite out of meanness. She was afraid.” The woman stayed calm, although he felt her accelerated pulse. “Please allow your grandmother to hold her and comfort her. She knows what she did was wrong and she won’t do it again.”

Wyatt glanced down at the child. Tears trickled down her face. It felt obscene to be looking at a baby who was so completely alone.

“Her name is Ginger. She’s only seventeen months old and her life has been hell. She’s afraid of everyone but me. Please, please take care of her.”

“I’m not afraid, Wyatt,” Nonny insisted. “Come here, baby.” She held out her arms to the child.

The woman leaned over to brush a kiss on the baby’s forehead. “It’s all right. Go with her, Ginger. They aren’t going to hurt you. Remember, I told you about the nice lady who left us food and the blanket for you?” She lifted her head to look at Nonny, avoiding Wyatt’s gaze. “She can’t stay warm unless she’s in the sun. You have to keep her warm.”

“No. Don’ you touch that child, Nonny.” Much to his consternation, his voice came out a snarling command. Fear could do that to one. He took a breath and tried again. “She’s dangerous. Her bite is dangerous. Trust me on this, Grand-mere, she’s as dangerous as the snakes here in the bayou.”

Nonny made a single sound and all three pairs of eyes immediately went to her. He’d heard that sound a few times when he’d been a young boy, mainly when he was out of control and she was about to come down hard on him.

“This is still my home, Wyatt Fontenot, and I still make my own decisions. Tha’s a baby, and in this house, as long as I own it, we take care of the children. Snakes and alligators don’ bother me. I’m not afraid of her. She’s terrified. Can’ you see that? Someone shot an enfant. Tha’s who you should save your anger for.”

“I can’ take the chance of you gettin’ hurt, Nonny,” Wyatt said, much quieter. He knew that tone, the set of her shoulders. She was not going to back down. He was fighting a losing battle.

“It isn’ your choice,” Nonny said firmly. She held out her arms to the child. “Come here to me, Ginger. I’ll keep you safe.”

The child looked to the woman, who nodded slowly.

“I’ll take good care of her,” Nonny assured. “We’re goin’ to sit right here on the couch, wrapped in blankets, and Wyatt will take care of your mommy. He’s a traiteur, baby. A very good one and he won’t let your mama die.”

Wyatt had no choice. He went to the woman and helped her over to a chair. Retaining possession of her arm, he held it below her heart. “What’s your name?” Raising his voice, he called out to his friend. “Ezekiel, I need clean soapy water. Warm, not hot.”

“Pepper. Just Pepper.”

Wyatt was astonished at how calm she was. The toxin was fast acting. Already her eyelids were drooping. She was showing signs of eye weakness, of facial paralysis. The venom was acting on her nervous system fast.

“I’m a doctor. I can help you. Just stay calm. I want you to sit down slowly. We have to keep the wound below your heart. What venom? Which snake?” He already feared he knew.

“Cobra.” Pepper looked past him to Nonny. “Please, I don’t have much time, although I won’t die. I won’t. Ginger, I’m going to be fine. It will hurt for a little while, I’ll be sick, you know that, but I’ll be fine tomorrow or the next day.”

“Don’ tell her that if it’s a cobra,” Wyatt said.

Pepper ignored his warning, her gaze clinging to his. “She’s a good girl. You can’t let them take her back to the laboratory. They were going to kill her. I had to get her out. You have to promise me you’ll hide her. You’ll take care of her…”

“Stop talkin’,” Wyatt ordered. “Are you able to slow your heart down? Has she bitten you before?” There were older bite marks on her arm in three places.

She ignored him. “Please. Promise me if something goes wrong this time, you’ll look after her.”

“Damn it, woman. Shut the hell up. Your heart is racin’. You need to slow it down. You know I’m like you. You have to know that.”

She shook her head. “We’re not like you. You’re the perfect ones. The ones they want to keep. We’re their mistakes, the ones they have to get rid of. She can’t see this. The baby. I’m going to get very sick fast and she can’t see.”

There was something almost mesmerizing about her voice. A kind of velvet seduction even in the dire circumstances and that shook him almost as much as the fact that his grandmother was cooing to a baby who had a venomous bite.

“Are all these bite marks from her?”

“They forced her to bite me – and others. She didn’t want to. She isn’t dangerous, not like you’re thinking. They were going to terminate her.” The calm façade was fading, to be replaced by desperation.

“You said that. Stay calm. Were they using you to develop an antidote, or trying to make you immune to the bite?”

She nodded slowly. “Yes. There were doctors there and they took care of it.”

He knew it wasn’t that simple. A bite from a cobra or other venomous snakes was serious. Life threatening. In any case, she wasn’t exactly answering his questions.