“Yeah, you and Jess. At the cemetery I thought, well, you two seemed to be together. More or less.”
“I guess more or less would define it,” Eric said. “I’m more into Jessica than she is into me. But I’m biding my time. She worries because she has a baby. Or a toddler? I don’t know. We never see him. I tell her I like kids. She tells me she doesn’t want her son having anything to do with Bourbon Street. I remind her that I work on Bourbon Street, and that I’m nowhere near it when I don’t have to be. I try to walk her home every night, even though it’s only seven blocks, but sometimes one of the others takes her instead. Gus or Shamus. Or Max, best bouncer in the Quarter. No one’s going to mess with him. I know she cares about me, just...not like I care about her. Not yet.”
“What about Sharon?” Danni asked.
“Sharon—or Sharon and Gus?” he asked.
“Are they a couple?”
“You’d have to ask them. Today was kind of an accident.”
“You went to the cemetery by accident?”
“Not exactly. Sharon had been talking about wanting to go. I talked to Gus and said we could go with her then have dinner somewhere nicer than usual and still make it to work on time. He was the one to suggest calling Jessica. Maybe he saw it as safety in numbers or something.”
Safety in numbers? she wondered.
“Danni!”
She turned around to see Jessica waving her over, a smile a mile wide on her face. “Coming,” she said.
As she walked over to join Jessica, she saw Sharon come in.
Sharon smiled at her and said, “Hey, Jessica told me she was hoping to sing with you, so I thought I’d pop in on my night off and cover her tables so she wouldn’t have to worry.”
“That’s really nice of you,” Danni said.
“The band’s ready,” Jessica said, joining them. “They said to do the Madonna first, then Jekyll & Hyde.”
“So we’re crashing right in, trying out both songs?” Danni asked.
“Tyler said it’s the way to do it,” Jessica said. She smiled. “We’ll be fine. I know them both backward and forward. I won’t let us fail, I promise.”
“Okay, then.”
The two of them hopped onstage. Danni suddenly felt as if something was chewing at the pit of her stomach. She wasn’t Jessica. It wasn’t that she lacked confidence, but her talent was for art. The thought of ruining something Jessica was so excited about was daunting.
Quinn was already onstage. He smiled and gave her a thumbs-up sign. She smiled back, studying him. At six-four, he seemed to tower over everyone else, and his eyes, she thought, were heartbreakers, his smile enough to give her the courage she needed.
Then she remembered that they were only there at all because people had died, and a murderer was still on the loose.
The music started, rousing her from her dark thoughts. Jessica sang the leads, and Danni did her part, glad she didn’t have to carry the songs on her own.
Jessica’s voice soared.
Danni missed a few notes and skewed the melody a bit here and there, but her confidence grew as she kept singing, and she was sure most of the audience didn’t even notice her mistakes, not with Jessica covering for her so beautifully.
And Jessica was clearly delighted to be doing what she loved. She seemed to be shining. Danni was sure she’d never seen her so happy.
The place had grown more crowded as they sang, and when Jessica stepped down from the stage, people rushed to her.
It was a truly gratifying moment, seeing Jessica so happy. Danni beamed, and when she looked at Quinn, she was expecting him to be smiling, too. But he wasn’t. He was frowning and looking toward one of the tables.
She turned to look in the same direction and saw that Jeziah had come into the bar. He was speaking to Father Ryan; Natasha was nowhere to be seen.
The band had moved into a number with Tyler on lead vocals. Danni hurried off the stage and over to the table.
“What’s wrong?” she asked anxiously.
“I found a kid roaming in the street. Just a toddler, really. Maybe two years old,” Jeziah said. “I’d just closed up, and there he was, wandering down Royal. I thought maybe he was from the French Quarter, and since Natasha knows everyone, I brought him here. She’s out on the street with him now.”
Father Ryan set a few bills on the table to pay for their drinks then stood. “You coming?” he asked Danni.
Quinn was watching them as he played, clearly ready to put down his guitar and lend a hand if necessary. Danni raised a hand to tell him that he didn’t need to worry. Then she hurried out with Father Ryan.
Natasha was a pillar of stillness as the Bourbon Street crowds swept by, people laughing, carrying their drinks, ready for a night of fun.