Leopard 05 - Savage Nature

glad for her. She honestly doesn’t have the best social skills, but her brother Armande makes up for it. Everyone likes him. He fronts the store and deals with orders and shipping as a rule and she designs the scents and runs the laboratory. Of course the gardeners tend the plants. They make a great team, although the greenhouse and hybrids are all grown by Charisse for scent.”
    “With an operation this large, they must make a good living.”
    “They ship all over the world,” Saria confirmed. “And Charisse is generous with the community. She poured money into the school and kept our little schoolhouse going so the children wouldn’t have to commute so far when the state was cutting the smaller schools.”
    She took the boat in to a small pier, securing it to the wooden structure. Drake wasn’t altogether certain the pier would take his weight, but Saria jumped out, dragging a large, rather ornate picnic basket and thick blanket with her.
    He followed her, conscious of the wood sagging ominously beneath him as he hurried after her. The ground was spongy, the soil a rich, dark color.
    “They must have acres of flowers.”
    “They have all sorts of plants. Many of them native to Louisiana, like bearded pink orchid, brown-eyed Susan, honeysuckle and blue sage. Others, not native, are carefully controlled, such as lavender, poppies, and of course there’s all kinds of plants and grasses, too many to name. Charisse had the gardeners give me a tour once. The schoolchildren come out once a year and tour the gardens and then see how perfume is extracted from the plants and made. It’s all quite interesting.”
    Drake was more interested in the trees rising up out of the lower marshes and the rake marks on them. Saria knew where she was going and followed a narrow trail to a flat spot up above the water line where she spread out the blanket and indicated he could sit.
    “You didn’t have to provide me with lunch, Saria.”
    Saria laughed as she opened the picnic basket. “No, I didn’t prepare lunch, although Miss Pauline is an incurable romantic and wanted me to tell you I did. She is certain the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. She did all this and wanted me to take credit.”
    “She should know you better,” Drake said, “no way would you take credit if you hadn’t done it.”
    “Not even to impress you?” she teased.
    “You know you don’t have to impress me. I was impressed the first time you spoke.”
    Her eyebrow shot up. “Spoke? Not my looks?”
    “There are a lot of beautiful women in the world, Saria, and you’re certainly one of them, but your courage and honesty is a prize beyond everything. That and your loyaltyont>
    “I don’ feel very loyal takin’ you out to the marsh,” she replied in a low voice as she handed him a bottle of cold water.
    “What were you supposed to do, Saria, let him keep killing? Sooner or later he’d kill someone you knew. Someone you love.”
    “What if it is one of my brothers?” Her hand trembled as she passed him a sandwich.
    “I think it’s safe to say that if it was one of your brothers, the rest of your brothers would know and they’d stop him. We tend to police our own.”
    “The reason the male leopard who marked me didn’ do it correctly might have been because it was a warning, not his leopard trying to get mine to accept his,” she pointed out.
    He took the sandwich with a nod of thanks and slipped his arm around her. “Saria, your leopard didn’t accept his. She didn’t rise to the surface looking for a potential mate. She didn’t want him. And that male leopard probably has nothing to do with the note at all. You thought it was a warning, but he would have stopped at raking your back. He must have done that because his leopard was in a fury, but he bit your shoulder hoping your female would override you.”
    “There’s a lot to this leopard business I don’ understand,” she said, leaning a little into him for comfort.
    “Give it time. We’re just getting started. Your leopard retreats and stays hidden for long periods of time. You’re close to the emergence, but not quite there, and believe me, if any male leopard was to push her, she’d fight back ferociously.”
    “What are we goin’ to do next?”
    “I want to see the marsh where you found the bodies and then I think I need to pay a visit to your brothers.”
    She went ramrod stiff. “I don’ think that’s a good idea.”
    “I’m not going to