She glanced at Drake and then looked away. “You have no idea what it was like growin’ up with her. Armande was desperate to appease her, so I came up with a plan. I told him if he used the product—we call it IDNS—basically for identification of nonscent—which wouldn’t allow even her leopard to scent him, most likely her leopard wouldn’t react or accept him, but he could tell mama he’d marked her.”

“Show her the scars on your back,” Drake snapped.

Saria glared at him. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“The point is, he hurt her,” Drake said.

“I know,” Charisse admitted in a low tone. “He told me. He cried. He said he could barely control his leopard—that his leopard went crazy on him the moment he was close to Saria. He couldn’t stop his cat from reacting to her. I hadn’t considered that and neither did he. Her leopard didn’t rise because she couldn’t scent his, and that made his leopard crazy. I should have known, but all I was thinkin’ about was getting’ Mama off his back.” She looked at Saria steadily. “I’m sorry. Armande was sorry too.”

“If your brother was so fucking sorry,” Remy snarled, “why did he go after my sister with a gun?”

Drake was very glad he wasn’t the one asking, but he would have if Saria’s brother hadn’t.

Charisse moistened her lips. “His leopard has been goin’ crazy lately and Robert’s too. It has to be the flowers, they must have been drinkin’ together somewhere in the swamp near the flowers. That’s the only explanation I can come up with. When I asked him, he shook his head and said he felt crazy inside.”

“Where’s Armande now?” Remy demanded.

“I don’t know,” Charisse said. “He went to bed around midnight, but I heard him leave again about five-thirty this morning. I was in my bedroom cryin’ and I heard him talkin’ on his cell phone and then he walked down the hall and paused by my door like he might come in and talk to me, but he didn’t. He went outside and I heard the car start up. I got up, went to Saria’s house lookin’ for her and then came here.”

“Was he acting abnormal last night?”