Chapter 18

"Croc! Stop!" I ran after him, legs propelling, arms pumping. When I'd resigned myself to telling him the truth, I hadn't anticipated what it would mean. I hadn't thought about how he'd react. The truth was, I didn't blame Danny. Not entirely. I blamed myself far too much for that. I'd made the deal. I'd agreed. If I'd said no, he would have left it at that, and I'd have gotten the same treatment as everyone else. "Croc!" I sped up, pushing myself to my absolute limit, but he didn't listen, and he was too far ahead.

He turned the corner at the side of the house, disappearing from view, and by the time I caught up, he had Danny by his throat, pressed against the tree with his feet dangling a foot above the ground.

"Croc!" I sprinted the final stretch between us. "Stop!"

Danny kicked his legs and clawed at Croc's hand, face red and eyes wide.

I jumped onto Croc's back, successfully knocking his balance enough to make him lose his grip. We tumbled sideways as he simultaneously regained his footing and maneuvered me safely to my feet.

Danny hit the ground hard, and before Croc could get back to him, I threw myself into his path. "Stop! You'll kill him!"

"I know." He took a step closer. "Go inside."

"No." I held my ground, eyes pleading. "Croc, I understand, and I appreciate that you care, but you can't kill him. You can't kill people. It's a rule."

His jaw tensed, lips thinned. He shifted his attention back to Danny and sneered. "What will you pay her for the protection she's offering you?" He bared his teeth, waiting for an answer, and when he didn't receive one, he repeated the question in a deafening roar, "What will you pay!"

Danny was silent, and so was I. The world froze over, icy and solid, and Croc was the king of it all. He was a statue, the kind that hung off ancient towers to stand gaurd. He was terrifying, and no matter what side he was on, I wanted to hide. I wanted to pretend Danny had never arrived and go back to my tree. But I couldn't do that. I couldn't let Croc kill him, no matter what he'd done.

I swallowed hard and took a breath. "I know you're angry—" I paused, needing to be careful with my words. He wasn't himself, and his rage felt like a fire on the verge of spreading. If I didn't contain him soon, he'd burn us all. "But I'm not blameless. I agreed. It was a deal." Another pause. "It was mutual."

"Mutual?" He shook his head, looking at me as if I'd lost my mind. "I may not know everything it is to be human, Willow. I may have never left this swamp, but I'm not stupid. I understand what mutual is."

"He wanted something," I said. "I could have said no. I'm sure better women did. He didn't force me to take the deal."

"Did you want to?"

I paused, swallowing back the bile. "I wanted to live."

"That's not what I asked. Did you want to?" he snapped.

I flinched. "I had to..."

"You had to..." His lip curled, and he focused back on Danny. "Did you? Did you have to?" He took a step forward.

I held up a hand. "Croc..."

"He owes me a debt. I've kept him alive. I've given him food. I've offered him protection." Each word was quiet, but somehow scarier than the ones he'd shouted. "He needs to pay me."

Danny shifted, then shakily pulled himself upright. "I can. I can give you information. I can tell you about—"

"You'll give me whatever I want!" Croc roared.

Silence fell again. Long and heavy. It deafened the swamp, everything from the smallest creature to the wind stopping to take caution. He pushed past me, ignoring my hands as I gripped his arm and tried to stop him.

I stepped back, breath held. Each move he made was slow, and the tension magnified. The atmosphere charged, and Danny stood like a man who'd stumbled upon a venomous snake.

Croc circled him, eyes blazing electric neon green and muscles coiled and ready to strike. The irony wasn't lost on me. Croc was the embodiment of the chemicals Danny had injected into so many, and despite my objections to his killing anyone, I couldn't help but be in awe of how poetically just it would be if he did.

"Gator!" he commanded. The water stirred, and Gator emerged up the embankment. "Show Danny your teeth."

Gator opened his jaws wide.

Croc motioned with his chin. "Now, put your hand in his mouth."

Danny's eyes widened, and he instinctively pulled his hands back into himself.

Croc rumbled low in his chest. "I'm not asking."

"Croc..." He couldn't mean it. He couldn't really do that, could he? I met Danny's shining eyes, saw the moisture glinting on his cheeks. His skin was as white as the ghosts he'd created. Pallid. Lifeless. Terrified. I looked into his face, devoid of any mask, for the first time, truthful, honest, and it was a face I'd seen a thousand times before. On the women in my group. On the mothers lined up with their children. On the neighbor, the night they'd forced him to his knees as his wife and daughter were loaded into the back of the truck. It was the face of the fallen, of the conquered, of death.

"He doesn't have to do it. He can choose not to, and I'll just snap his neck."

Danny broke. "I'm sorry! Please, Willow, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have done it. I should have done more to help. I shouldn't have asked you to. God! Just please! I can't do that. I'll never be able to heal. How can a doctor heal without his hand?" His words broke into sobs until I couldn't understand what he was saying.

My chest tightened, stomach clenched. "Croc, that's enough."

"Did you cry like that? When you made your deal?" he asked, unaffected by Danny's pleas. "It's the same deal, isn't it? He wanted your body in exchange for not killing you. I want the hands he used to collect his payment. That's mutual. That's fair."

Danny's sobs dissipated into low moans.

"That's not how it works."

He turned away from me and crouched down, focusing on Danny. "Isn't it? Is that not how it worked when you had all the power?"

Danny nodded. "It is. I was wrong. I'm sorry. I'll do anything," he choked, "I'll do whatever—"

"I don't care how much you cry. You've got the same options she had. Do you accept my deal?"

Danny looked over at Gator's gaping jaws and gagged, then dry heaved, coughing and fighting to breathe as his wildly shaking hand crept toward its fate.

"No! Danny, don't!" My desperation rose, and I didn't think. All I knew was that I needed to stop it. "Croc, that's not how it works!" I shouted. "Not with us!"

He stood and spun to face me. "Why? Why is it different?"

"Because!" I fisted my hands. "Danny is an asshole! We're not! If we handle it like this, then we're no better than they are!"

"You act like it's my fault if Gator eats his hand."

"It is!" I snapped, flinging a hand out toward the scene behind him. "You're the one making him do it!"

"It's the deal," he said. "He accepted it."

"It's a fucked-up deal!"

Croc stared at me as my words echoed in the space between us. It was a bad deal. It wasn't a deal at all. It was coercion. It was forced. My lips parted on a breath, and moisture pricked at the corners of my eyes.

Croc stepped forward, enveloping me into his arms and securing me against his chest. "Exactly," he murmured, the statement for me and me alone to hear. "It wasn't a deal. None of them were deals, and you're not tarnished." He leaned back, just enough to meet my eyes. "That shame isn't yours, Willow. Your intentions were always pure."

He pulled away then, keeping one arm across my shoulders. "That's enough, Gator."

Gator closed his jaws and heaved a breath. "Oh, sweet baby frogs! For a minute, I thought I was really going to have to do it. Y'all haven't seen the things I have. That man digs in his ass like that's the path to freedom." He shook his head and turned back toward the water. "No, thank you. I'll stick with fish. They're cleaner."

Danny was white faced, sweating, and lethargic as he slumped back against the base of the tree.

"You're okay," Croc told him as he turned to lead me back in the direction we'd come. He squeezed me into his side and kissed my temple. "He's lucky you're human."