"Liar," he charged mildly.

With his free hand he reached up and slid her glasses off, dragging them down her nose an inch at a time. When they were free, he turned them over and nibbled on the earpiece absently as he studied her in the pale white light.

Her bone structure was lovely, delicate, feminine, her features equally so, her skin as flawless as fresh cream. But she wore no makeup, no jewelry, nothing to enhance or draw the eye. Her thick, dark hair had been shorn just above her shoulders and looked as though she gave no thought to it at all, tucking it behind her ears, sweeping it carelessly back from her face.

Laurel Chandler. The name stirred around through the soft haze of liquor in his brain, sparking recognition. Chandler. Lawyer. The light bulb clicked on. Local deb. Daughter of a good family. Had been a prosecuting attorney up in Georgia someplace until her career went ballistic. Rumors had abounded around Bayou Breaux. She'd blown a case. There'd been a scandal. Jack had listened with one ear, automatically eavesdropping the way every writer did, always on the alert for a snatch of dialogue or a juicy tidbit that could work itself into a plot.

"What are you wearing these for?" he asked, lifting the glasses.

"To see with," Laurel snapped, snatching them out of his hand. She really needed them only to read, but he didn't have to know that.

"So you can see, or so the rest of us can't see you?"

She gave a half laugh of impatience, shifting position in a way that put another inch of space between them. "This conversation is pointless," she declared as her nerves stretched a little tighter.

He had struck far too close to the truth with his seemingly offhand remark. He appeared to be half drunk and completely self-absorbed, but Laurel had the sudden uncomfortable feeling that there might be more to Jack Boudreaux than met the eye. A cunning intelligence beneath the lazy facade. A sharp mind behind the satyr's grin.

"Oh, I agree. Absolutely," he drawled, shuffling his feet, inching his way into her space again. His voice dropped a husky, seductive note as he leaned down close enough so his breath caressed her cheek. "So let's go to my place and do something more… satisfying."

"What about the band?" Laurel asked inanely, trembling slightly as the heat from his body drifted over her skin. She held her ground and caught a breath in her throat as he lifted a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

He chuckled low in his throat. "I'm not into sharing."

"That's not what I meant."

"They can play just fine without me."

"I hope the same can be said for you," Laurel said dryly. She crossed her arms again, drawing her composure around her like a queen's cloak. "I'm not going anywhere with you, and the only satisfaction I intend to get is restitution for the damage your dog caused."

He dropped back against the Jeep in a negligent pose once more and took a long pull on his beer, his eyes never leaving hers. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I don't have a dog."

As if on cue, the hound jumped up into the driver's seat of the open Jeep and looked at them both, ears perked with interest as he listened to them argue culpability for his crimes.

"A number of people have identified this as your hound," Laurel said, swinging an arm in the direction of the culprit.

"That don' make him mine, sugar," Jack countered.

"No less than four people have named you as the owner."

He arched a brow. "Do I have a license for this dog? Can you produce ownership papers?"

"Of course not-"

"Then all you have are unsubstantiated rumors, Miz Chandler. Hearsay. You and I both know that'll stand up in a court of law about as good as a dead man's dick."

Laurel drew in a deep breath through her nostrils, trying in vain to stem the rising tide of frustration. She should have been able to cut this man off at the knees and send him crawling to Aunt Caroline's house to apologize. He was nothing but a liquored-up piano player at Frenchie's Landing, for Christ's sake, and she couldn't manage to best him. The anger she had been directing at Jack started turning back her way.

"What'd ol' Huey do, anyhow, that's got you so worked up, angel?"

"Huey?" She pounced on the opening with the ferocity of a starving cat on a mouse. "You called him by name!" she charged, pointing an accusatory finger at Jack, taking an aggressive step forward. "You named him!"

He scowled. "It's short for Hey You."

"But the fact remains-"

"Fact my ass," Jack returned. "I can call you by name too, 'tite chatte. That don' make you mine." Grinning again, he leaned ahead and caught her chin in his right hand, boldly stroking the pad of his thumb across the lush swell of her lower lip. "Does it, Laurel?" he murmured suggestively, dipping his head down, his mouth homing in on hers.

Laurel jerked back from him, batting his hand away. Her hold on her control, slippery and tenuous at best these days, slipped a little further. She felt as if she were hanging on to it by the ragged, bitten-down remains of her fingernails and it was still pulling away. She had come here for justice, but she wasn't getting any. Jack Boudreaux was jerking her around effortlessly. Playing with her, mocking her, propositioning her. God, was she so ineffectual, such a failure-

"You didn't do your job, Ms. Chandler… You blew it… Charges will be dismissed…"

"Come on, sugar, prove your case," Jack challenged. He took another pull on his beer. Dieu, he was actually enjoying this little sparring match. He was rusty, out of practice. How long had it been since he had argued a case? Two years? Three? His time away from corporate law ran together in a blur of months. It seemed like a lifetime. He would have thought he had lost his taste for it, but the old skills were still there.

Sharks don't lose their instincts, he reminded himself, bitterness creeping in to taint his enjoyment of the fight.

"It-it's common knowledge that's your dog, Mr. Boudreaux," Laurel stammered, fighting to talk around the knot hardening in her throat. She didn't hold eye contact with him, but tried to focus instead on the hound, which was tilting his head and staring at her quizzically with his mismatched eyes. "Y-You should be man enough to t-take responsibility for it."

"Ah, me," Jack said, chuckling cynically. "I don' take responsibility, angel. Ask anyone."

Laurel barely heard him, her attention focusing almost completely inward, everything else becoming vague and peripheral. A shudder of tension rattled through her, stronger than its precursor. She tried to steel herself against it and failed.

Failed.

"You didn't do your job, Ms. Chandler… Charges will be dismissed…"

She hadn't proven her case. Couldn't make the charges stick on something so simple and stupid as a case of canine vandalism. Failed. Again. Worthless, weak… She spat the words at herself as a wave of helplessness surged through her.

Her lungs seemed suddenly incapable of taking in air. She tried to swallow a mouthful of oxygen and then another as her legs began to shake. Panic clawed its way up the back of her throat. She pressed a hand to her mouth and blinked furiously at the tears that pooled and swirled in her eyes, blurring her view of the hound.

Jack started to say something, but cut himself off, beer bottle halfway to his lips. He stared at Laurel as she transformed before his eyes. The bright-eyed tigress on a mission was gone as abruptly as if she had never existed, leaving instead a woman on the verge of tears, on the brink of some horrible inner precipice.

"Hey, sugar," he said gently, straightening away from the Jeep. "Hey, don' cry," he murmured, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, casting anxious glances around the parking lot.

Rumor had it she'd been in some posh clinic in North Carolina. The word "breakdown" had been bandied all over town. Jesus, he didn't need this, didn't want this. He'd already proven once in his life that he couldn't handle it, was the last person anyone should count on to handle it. I don' take responsibility… That truth hung on him like chain mail. He leaned toward Frenchie's, wanting to bolt, but his feet stayed rooted to the spot, nailed down by guilt.

The side door slammed, and Leonce's voice came across the dark expanse of parking lot in staccato French. "Hey, Jack, viens ici! Dépêche-toi! Allons jouer la musique, pas les femmes!"

Jack cast a longing glance at his friend up on the gallery, then back at Laurel Chandler. "In a minute!" he called, his gaze lingering on the woman, turmoil twisting in his belly like a snake. He didn't credit himself with having much of a conscience, but what there was made him take a step toward Laurel. "Look, sugar-"

Laurel twisted back and away from the hand he held out to her, mortified that this man she knew little and respected less was witnessing this-this weakness. God, she wanted to have at least some small scrap of pride to cling to, but that, too, was tearing out of her grasp.

"I never should have come here," she mumbled, not entirely sure whether she meant Frenchie's specifically or Bayou Breaux in general. She stumbled back another step as Jack Boudreaux reached for her arm again, his face set in lines of concern and apprehension, then she whirled and ran out of the parking lot and into the night.

Jack stood flat-footed, watching in astonishment as she disappeared in the heavy shadows beneath a stand of moss-draped live oak at the bayou's edge. Panic, he thought. That was what he had seen in her eyes. Panic and despair and a strong aversion to having him see either. What a little bundle of contradictions she was, he thought as he dug a cigarette out of his shirt pocket and dangled it from his lip. Strength and fire and fragility.

"What'd you do, mon ami?" Leonce shuffled up, tugging off his Panama hat and wiping the sweat from his balding pate with his forearm. "You scare her off with that big horse cock of yours?"

Jack scowled, his gaze still on the dark bank, his mind still puzzling over Laurel Chandler. "Shut up, tcheue poule."

"Don' let it get you down," Leonce said, chuckling at his own little pun. He settled his hat back in place, and his fingers drifted down to rub absently at the scar that ravaged his cheek. "Women are easy to come by."