“When we knew for certain the Merciers had to be involved. We were all over the swamp last night. The Tregres have two shacks on their land besides their home. The roads in and out are rarely traveled. No one is making soaps there or inserting drugs into the middle of them, Saria. You saw the property.”

She straightened up, looked him right in the eye and threw the towel on the floor. “Charisse is not capable of doin’ what you’re accusin’ her of, and in spite of the fact that Armande Mercier is a selfish bastard a lot of the time, he isn’t either. You don’t know them the way I do.” She stomped into the bedroom, caught up her only other pair of jeans and yanked them on. “I’m runnin’ out of clothes and need to go home.”

His heart stuttered. She was angry. Magnificent in her loyalty, but angry with him. Thinking about retreating. He stayed silent and picked up his jeans rather than pickg her up and tossing her onto the bed. His leopard roared for supremacy, eager for the chase, but Drake was much more cautious. Saria was a woman who went her own way. He had to be her choice, first and always. Her fierce loyalty had to be to him. She didn’t give loyalty or trust easily and yet she gave it to Charisse. There was something more going on here than he had first realized and he needed to dig a little deeper.

He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he dressed. She was pacing, all pent up restless energy, her anger driving her in spite of the exhaustion he could see on her face. When she crashed, she was going to crash hard. He took a deep breath to still his prowling leopard.

“Clearly I need to get to know Charisse better. If you stand for her, Saria, there must be a lot more to her than I know. Everything points to her. The scent expertise, the disturbing flower, the lack of scent at crime scenes, the opium, all of it, and yet in the face of all the evidence, you persist in believing in her innocence. I trust you and your judgment. If you think she’s innocent . . .”

“I know she is,” Saria defended staunchly. “Someone is setting her up to take the fall. Charisse wouldn’t know a setup anymore than she would be capable of being a drug dealer. She’s childlike in a lot of ways.”