“But?”

“Gut feeling.”

“Okay. I’ll call it in right now. If anyone can find out anything, it’s Angela.”

“Thank you.”

He was almost back to the curb in front of Jackson Square.

Katie’s carriage was just pulling out again.

He ran hard. She turned to see him, smiled and waited.

He leaped up on the carriage to join her.

She introduced him to her group, this time six people from a medical convention.

She raised a brow to him in question, even as she started a history lesson for the group.

He leaned close and whispered to her.

“Fine dining tonight, my love.”

And he realized that though he had spoken lightly, he meant that last part.

She’d come to mean so very much to him.

Was it something like love?

He wanted to find out. But first, he had to stop the Axeman’s Protégé. Had to protect Katie.

That was the only way he would ever really get to know.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Wow!”

“Well,” Katie said lightly, “you said fine dining. I thought maybe I should dress the part?”

“Wow,” Dan repeated.

She smiled. She’d put on a simple, knee-length black dress, but the way it draped always made her feel confident. It was nice to feel admired. And surprising, but then everything about her relationship with him was surprising. She’d never have imagined in a thousand years she would have made a move on him...and realize that she admired him, and maybe they were both haunted by the past, along with souls from the past.

She’d known him only a few days. Yet he was suddenly the most important person in her life.

“You dress up well yourself,” she told him.

“Do I? Thanks!”

He was wearing a tailored shirt but open at the throat, a vest, and a casual jacket over dark trousers. He looked as if he might have stepped from the pages of GQ.

“Anyway, I think they’ll let us in wherever we go. And I know where we should start,” Dan said.

“And where is that?” Katie asked him.

“A place called Duffy’s Den. It opened recently and supposedly has NOLA power money behind it from famous restaurant owners who have been working in finer establishments for years.”

“And why Duffy’s Den?”

“It’s new. They had to do a lot of hiring,” he told her. “Also, Angela gave me a list of places where the Rodenberry couple had eaten recently. They went to Duffy’s Den two nights before they were killed.”

“What do we do if we see him?” Katie asked.