Bijou shook her head. “I feel like I’m being railroaded. I don’ recall anyone ever bein’ able to do that to me, not since I turned thirteen.”

“Someone needs to look after you,” Remy said. “Especially if you’re goin’ to run wild with my sister.”

Saria kicked him under the table. “I don’ run wild anymore, Remy. I’m a workin’ girl these days. I spend so much time takin’ pictures I barely have time to run this place properly or do guidin’.”

“Guidin’?” Bijou echoed. “You take tourists out in the swamp and bayous?”

“That’s how I met Drake,” Saria said. “I was his guide. Maybe you should take over my business. You could meet . . .”

Remy slammed his coffee mug onto the table. “Okay, that’s it. I’m drownin’ you in the bayou, Saria. I should have done it when you were born. I knew you were goin’ to be giving me trouble. Blue is not takin’ strangers into the swamp. I’d be shootin’ someone before nightfall.”

Saria leaned across the table and mouthed Bossy at Bijou.

“Clearly you don’ have enough to do, Remy,” Bijou observed. “Or you’ve been deprived of shootin’ someone for a long while now.”

“A little of both,” Remy said. “But now that I’ve got your sassy ass back in New Orleans no doubt I’ll have my hands full.”

“No doubt.”

“You’re really goin’ to make your home here?” Remy asked. “For good?”

Bijou nodded, her vivid blue eyes meeting his. “I’m tired of fightin’, Remy. I’ve made so many mistakes trying to be someone I’m not. I just plain don’ like the life, traveling, living in hotels, the bodyguards and constant paparazzi and crowds. I think for a while there, I felt as if I had to compete with Bodrie, which, of course, was impossible.”

“You have a beautiful voice,” he said, drumming his fingers on the table. Once more that restless, dangerous feeling was building. He could feel his muscles coiling, his body going still, as if at any moment he would leap on his prey. He was very aware of Saria sending him an uneasy glance. She was leopard and her senses would pick up the shift in his body instantly, going on alert herself.