“I …”
A second finger sneaked in. She pulled me closer.
“Um …” I tried to step away.
“Just where do you think you’re going?”
I thought of her bare back, skin as smooth as velvet, and how she must taste. I wondered how she’d respond if I gave in. How far things would go before I caught myself and remembered why I came to New Orleans.
Best to remember why I was here right now.
“Home. I’m taking you home.”
“I could get you in a lot of trouble,” she threatened, trying to play me. Even though I preferred girls who were a little more low-key, if I’d been a normal guy without some higher purpose, I’d have let her play me all the way out. “You’re here. I’m here. Why can’t we have fun?”
“You know why,” I said.
“You aren’t going to give in, are you?”
I shook my head. She picked up her bag and started for the other side of the bar. “Where do—”
“The bathroom. To change.” She pointed to her red leather pants. “Did you want to help?”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to help.”
“Jean Lafitte likes to hang out in the ladies’.” She flashed a wide smile. “Pirates. They never disappoint. Especially when I pretend they all look like Johnny Depp.”
“Fine. Go change. Don’t sneak out a bathroom window.”
“I said I’d go home with you and I will.”
I had no reason to trust her, but she didn’t seem like a liar. A sneak, most definitely, but not a liar. “Forgive me if I have trouble taking you at your word.”
“There aren’t any windows in the bathroom.” She growled in frustration. “You can check, unless you’re afraid of pirates.”
“It’s not like you couldn’t go in and come out a completely different person.”
Her eyes narrowed and she sat back down. “What did you just say?”
“I mean, you have a proclivity for disguises. There’s the shoes. And the eyelashes. The brown contacts. The outfit.”
She shook her head. “Did my dad tell you anything about me?”
“All he said was that you had … an uncanny knack with appearances.”
“An uncanny knack?”
In the span of a second, her face morphed back to its original form, her eyes to their original hazel. I was so fascinated by the transformation that I didn’t react. Big mistake.
She spoke through her teeth. “Who the hell are you?”
“I …”
“I just transmutated.”
When I didn’t react, she huffed in frustration.
“Regenerated, shape-shifted, whatever. Point being, I changed my appearance, and you didn’t freak.” Now she leaned forward. “One more chance. Who. Are. You?”
The music stopped. There was one long beat of complete silence, and the dance music became a lively piano riff.
Behind Hallie, the aged wood of the walls lightened. Lafitte’s used gas lamps instead of electric, but now the scent of grease candles filled the air. The smoke from the wicks grew thicker, heavy in the air.
The building’s structure remained, but the furnishings became more rustic and newer at the same time. Subtle changes—lack of wear and tear on the floors and walls, the clothes people wore. The features of those living in the past blended with those in the present, and neither appeared to notice the other.
I felt as if I’d been on a merry-go-round for too long. I stood perfectly still while the world rushed by, and it left me unsettled.
“It doesn’t know what to pick,” Hallie murmured under her breath. “Past, present, never future. Eeny, meeny, miney, moe.”
Men in loose white shirts with open collars sat along the bar, drinking and laughing. Seconds later, they were college girls with fruity drinks. Then they were both at the same time.
Hallie’s attention jumped from the rips to me, mistrust immediately marring her features.
“You see them.”
“See who?”
The accusation remained unsaid, but it hung there between us like frozen winter breath.
“Truth. Now.” She leaned forward again, gripping the edge of the table. “Why are you here, and what do you know?”
Chapter 6
Hallie
He’d gone all college professor–like, with his fingers steepled together. “Bear with me for a second, and give me a chance to help you understand.”
“Understand what?” The piano riff faded, replaced by a low, thrumming bass as things inside the bar returned to normal. “I can barely hear you over Jay-Z. Outside.” I slid off my stool and grabbed my bag.
He took my elbow, and when the crowd got thicker as we approached the side door, he moved his hand to the small of my back. We stepped out into the cold. I shivered before he maneuvered me to stand beside one of the industrial-sized warming lamps.