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I laughed. So hard I doubled over.
“I don’t think you’re grasping the magnitude of what I’m trying to tell you,” he said seriously.
“What I will be grasping are your man berries in a vise when I turn you over to my dad.”
“He knows who I am and where I’m from. He hired me to help you.”
“Dad knows who you are?” That straightened me right up. “And he made you my bodyguard? Because you’re really, really crappy at it.”
“I tracked you here, didn’t I?”
Touché.
“It was his cover for me. And you weren’t supposed to be leaving the house, so I wasn’t supposed to need to be good at it. But I put a GPS in your bag.”
I smacked him with my purse and then held it open. “Get it out. Now.”
After he removed the GPS and slipped it into his pocket, he looked at Lafitte’s, back at me, and then blew out a deep breath. “I’m really kind of like … a historian.”
poke 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.
