A Marked Man. Stella Cameron

was a good idea to have him keeping everyone’s feet on the ground.

      Pappy’s was busier than usual today, not that it was ever too quiet. Every few moments the front door opened to admit more customers. Then it opened and Annie came in. Carmen went to her at once and they shared a few words before she went directly into her office and shut the door.

      Max tensed. She hadn’t looked to see if he was there, but she probably assumed he’d be gone by now. He would hang around until his brothers drove away, then come back and talk to her. The tension in his shoulders relaxed. There was nothing to worry about.

      

      Not far from where Max sat, someone watched his reaction to Annie Duhon. Pleasure, the watcher thought, the good doctor felt real good at the sight of her. He wanted her—it showed in his face. How convenient.

      Chapter Four

      Gator Hibbs and his wife, Doll, proprietors of Toussaint’s one hotel, the Majestic, arrived at the table. He shifted his round body uncertainly and took off a battered, sweatstained Achafalaya Gold Casino baseball cap, revealing his sweating bald head. Doll stood behind him as if she were shy, which was anything but the truth from Max’s dealings with her. Nondescript, with fine brown hair held by a rubber band at the back of her head, Doll’s eyes were her one notable feature. They were incongruous. Light gray and wide, as if in perpetual surprise, they didn’t reflect a thing about Doll’s acerbic personality.

      “Hi, Gator, Doll,” Max said.

      “Nice day,” Gator said, fastening his attention on the rain-splattered windows. “I like this kinda day.” He winced and jerked—and Max figured Doll had elbowed her husband.

      “Y’didn’t have to do that,” Gator said, turning his back on Max. “What d’you do that for? Pokin’ me in the kidney like that. Me, I already got water troubles—you heard Dr. Reb—”

      “We come to talk to Dr. Savage,” Doll said, her eyes still wide open and blank. “He’s not interested in your waterworks, Gator. I hear tell he does the faces and stuff.”

      Max raised his eyebrows at Kelly and Roche and stood up. He tapped Gator’s shoulder. “Let’s find somewhere quieter.”

      “We can say what we got to say here,” Doll said. “Ain’t nuthin’ private.”

      “The hell it ain’t,” Gator said, and turned red. “Thanks, Doc. Appreciate your understandin’.”

      They moved outside under the covered entry. Gator shoved his hands in the pockets of his washed-out overalls and spread his feet to brace his weight. Doll stared at him.

      “Relax,” Max said. “Just tell me what’s on your mind.”

      “We’re real fair folks,” Gator said after a pause. “Give anybody anythin’, we would. Ain’t that right, Doll?”

      “Right.”

      “You can ask anyone in this town and they’ll tell you how the Hibbses is generous.”

      Max smiled. He felt sorry for the man. “You’re uncomfortable with whatever you need to tell me. You can’t say anything I haven’t heard before, so why not get it over with?”

      Gator took a deep breath and gave a bronchitic cough. “It’s the damp,” he said, indicating the rain beating into a layer of fog resembling ice vapor. “You did say your Miz Riley was only stayin’ one night?”

      “Yes.”

      “And she was goin’ to pay when she left this mornin’?”

      “She didn’t pay,” Doll said rapidly. “And extra days is extra pay. She’s takin’ up a room even if she ain’t sleepin’ in it.”

      These two didn’t amuse Max anymore. “When I made the booking, I told you to send the bill to me.”

      “You said it would be one night but check-out’s at eleven. We’re owed for two nights now—as long as she’s gone by tomorrow mornin’.”

      His throat tightened. “Miss Riley is still here?”

      Doll actually smirked. “Why don’t you tell us? What you do in private is your business, except if you try using us as a cover. Don’t make no difference to us if she’s stayin’ with you, now. But it makes more sense for her to get the rest of her things, don’t it?”

      Max couldn’t draw a full breath. “I drove her back to the hotel last night.” He didn’t want to think what he was thinking. “I saw her go inside. Perhaps she just forgot one of her bags. I’ll arrange to get it sent on.” He retrieved his wallet from a back pocket and pulled out some bills.

      Doll looked uncertain. “She didn’t clear any of her stuff out of the bathroom. And her rental car’s still parked out back of the hotel.”

      Chapter Five

      Annie would know those shoulders and that back anywhere. Looking at Max Savage from any direction was more than a pleasure, except when she didn’t want to talk to anyone, even him.

      The doors to Pappy’s swung shut behind her. Annie hovered, the hood of her jacket pulled well down against the rain, and considered backtracking. She still had a chance to get inside without being seen.

      With a cell phone clamped to his ear, Max turned and saw her. He must see her. That or he was looking right through her with an expression on his face that turned him into a stranger. Intense agitation—and anger—distorted his features. Annie breathed great gulps of air through her mouth. She half raised her hand to wave, but let it fall again. The intense, blue-eyed man who caught the attention of many women and left them trying to decide if they had seen him on the cover of GQ, had stepped out in a frightening disguise today. With a vague smile about her lips, Annie walked on and made to pass him.

      Fortunately, since he was on the phone she didn’t need to speak. And she wasn’t sure she could.

      Before she managed to escape toward the parking lot, Max caught her by the arm and smiled, with his mouth, not with his eyes. Some emotion made his eyes darker. He averted the phone mouthpiece and said, “Please give me a moment, Annie.” The downpour had turned the shoulders of his denim jacket dark. Rain plastered his black hair to his head and ran down his face.

      She nodded, but would rather leave without the inevitable questions about why she looked exhausted. When Father Cyrus drove her home early that morning, Joe and Ellie Gable had greeted her, Ellie with Annie’s cat, Irene, clutched in her arms. Irene was queen in Annie’s flat and never stepped outside. But the Gables had been awakened by the cat yowling at their back door.

      With an easy excuse that Irene must have slipped, unseen, out of the building when she left, Annie had lied to her friends. But no matter what else was on her mind, she never neglected Irene who had been asleep on the tumbled bed when Annie left.

      Someone had got in and let her cat out.

      No, this time she had been so agitated that she left a door ajar somewhere. That’s probably what happened.

      Twice since the episode at St. Cécil’s she had dozed, only to be jolted by visions from the nightmare. Cyrus had spent a long time with her that morning and inevitably, spurred on by the trust he fostered just by being himself, she had told him what was happening to her.

      Cyrus, who had probably never turned anyone away, promised her he would be there for her and that they’d get together again to see how she was doing.

      For the first time, the scenes had continued for seconds when she was completely awake. She turned her head from Max and closed her eyes. What did it mean? What was happening to her?

      Max’s grip tightened on her arm. “Spike, I don’t think anything has happened to her,” he said into his phone. “Yes, of course it’s possible. Sorry. Michele drove into Toussaint yesterday morning. She rented a car at the airport. I drove her back