“I see.” Weariness was overcoming him fast. Drake picked up her other foot. “You know most of these people. Who would you suspect? And who do you suppose Remy suspects? Because I got the feeling he was holding something back.”

“You’re probably right about Remy. He plays things close to his chest.” Saria yawned and covered her mouth. “I need to go to sleep, Drake.”

He took her hand to look at her nails, devoid of color. She’d probably never had a manicure in her life. His fingers stroked over hers. “Okay, honey, let’s get you into bed. But at least think about it. Whoever is doing this didn’t just start. Maybe they were cruel to animals. A bully in the play yard.”

He stood up, allowing the water to cascade off him, tugging at her hand so she stood as well. He released the plug to let the water out and lifted her onto the bathmat.

Saria reached for a towel, but he took it from her hands. “My turn.” He dried every inch of her as gently as he could, and then himself, before lifting her into his arms.

“I could get used to this.”

“You’re going to get used to a lot of things,” he predicted.

Her smile was drowsy. “You’re so sure of yourself.”

“I know when I’m good at things.”

She burst out laughing, a soft musical sound that tightened his groin. He drew back the comforter and placed her in the middle of the bed. Before she could scoot over, he stretched out beside her. It had begun to rain and the sound through the open French doors created an intimate rhythm on the balcony.

“Don’t you love the sound of rain?” she asked.

“Yes.” But it was her laughter he loved. He wrapped his arm around her waist and scooted her tight against him. “Where’s your knife?”

“My knife?” She echoed the word, her tone dripping with innocence.

He bit her shoulder gently. “I know you have it here somewhere. You sleep with the damn thing.”

Her laughter was taunting. It slid inside him and wrapped around his heart. “Does that scare you?”

“Hell yeah,” he said. “One of these nights you’ll get angry with me and . . .”

“Wait!”

Saria started to sit up and then retreated when he refused to move his arm. He pinned her with one leg draped over her thigh.

“What is it?”

“Lojos and Gage came home one day very angry, about two years ago. They’d been off trappin’, and I’d never seen them in such foul moods. They aren’t like that, you know? They laugh a lot and tease the way men often do, but Gage actually punched the wall outside and Lojos was like a bear with a sore tooth. At first I thought they got in a fight, but then I heard them talkin’ to Dash. Someone had gone along their trap lines and tortured the animals. Most were still alive, and the boys killed them to put them out of their misery.”

“What were they trapping?”

“You know nutria isn’t native to Louisiana. They came here from South America to fur farms and were released. No one knows if it was accidental or on purpose, but they’re impacting our wetlands adversely. A huge study was done to put in place a plan to control the population and we participate. But we don’t torture animals, Drake. There’s a huntin’ season, just like with alligators. We want the swamp to flourish. With oil spills and hurricanes and everythin’ else we have to contend with, almost all of us here conform to the regulations. And no one that we know would ever torture an animal for fun.”

“Did they find out who did it?”

She frowned. “That was the strange thing. There were no tracks.”

“And no scent,” he guessed.

“At the time, they weren’t admittin’ to me they were shifters, so if there wasn’t any scent, they didn’t mention it, but they didn’t want me goin’ out in the swamp by myself.”

Drake listened to the sound of her voice closely there in the dark, with the rain providing a musical background. There was an underlying hurt in her tone when she spoke of her brothers. The boys in her family had been close, but it was as if they hadn’t really noticed her until she got older. By the time they wanted to exert authority over her, she had taken firm control of her own life and resented their interference.

He rubbed his chin over the top of her head. “Would they have told Remy if there was evidence of a leopard as well as a human attack?”

“Of course. Remy’s the acknowledged head of the family and he’d beat the crap out of one of them if they held somethin’ like that back.”

“He didn’t try to beat you,” Drake felt compelled to point out.

“Remy would never hit me. None of my brothers would.” She was silent a moment and then half turned toward him to look at him, her eyes wide. “I had forgotten, but now that you say that, I remember Remy takin’ the switch from Pere and breakin’ it in half. I got in trouble for sneakin’ off at night.”

She talked so rarely about her childhood that he wanted to hear more. “Why’d you sneak off like that?”

A half smile touched her mouth. “I was angry with mon pere for gettin’ so drunk. He made a terrible mess on my floor and even the sofa. Pauline had made me the most beautiful cover. Our sofa was old and fallin’ apart and he ruined the cover. I knew I’d never get the stain out, so I threw a bucket of water on him where he was layin’ in the mess and stormed out. He was too drunk to catch me that night, but I went back a couple of nights later and he went to switch the tar out of me.”