"TALLY, DO YOU HAVE a moment?"

Tally Addison turned at the sound of the man's voice. The owner of the Blue Note, where Tally sang four nights a week, stood in the doorway of her quasi-dressing room, looking more uncomfortable than usual. A tall, lanky man with a shock of carrot-red hair, Chuck Sommers was a kind, unassuming guy. Singing at the Blue Note was her passion, but didn't pay the bills. For that, she worked full-time for Chloe Matthews at Café Eros in Court du Chaud. "Hey, Chuck, sure."

Chuck came in and closed the door to the tiny room. He sat awkwardly on a stool close to Tally's dressing table. Even three days after Christmas, the Note was packed to capacity and Tally still had one set to sing.

"I'm selling the Blue Note," he said, his eyes shifting away from hers.

For a moment Tally couldn't believe what he was saying. It was too early. She made an effort to keep the disappointment out of her voice. "I thought you said you'd be here for another three years."

"I know what I said, but my daughter is going through a divorce and she lives over in the Florida Panhandle. I'm going to open up a restaurant there and she's going to manage it for me. I know how much you love this place. I thought I'd give you first crack at it."

"What is your asking price?"

When he told her, she felt her heart sink. "I appreciate that, Chuck. How much time do I have?"

"I can give you two weeks, and then I'll have to put it on the market. I'm sure sorry, Tally."

She was devastated. She couldn't lose this place before she had the chance to realize her ambition. "It's not your fault, Chuck. Your daughter needs you and you have to do what's right for your family. I fully understand."

After Chuck left, Tally sat in front of her mirror for a long time. She did fully understand what Chuck was going through. Tally and her sister Bree had dropped everything to care for their brother when their mother had abandoned him at fourteen. Family always had to come first.

It didn't help that her plan of owning, managing and singing at a place like the Blue Note would never be realized if she couldn't come up with the cash to meet the asking price.

Unless she found Captain Gabriel Dampier's treasure.

Sure, she could work elsewhere then hopefully purchase some other club, but this opportunity had fallen into her lap — now.

She'd been searching estate sales, pawnshops, junk shops and antique stores for anything and everything that had to do with the captain. She'd found so much stuff, her attic was filled to the rafters, but, unfortunately, no treasure map.

As a direct descendent of the infamous pirate captain, Tally had firsthand knowledge that a treasure did exist. The information had been handed down through generations. For as long as Tally could remember, her mother had talked about Dampier's treasure and the pirate himself.

In fact, her uncle Guidry Addison had willed his Court du Chaud town house, the very house where Gabriel had lived, to her and Bree. She and her sister had renovated the large town house into a duplex with both girls living side by side and sharing a porch.

Before her uncle had died, he'd told her many tales about the treasure, the voodoo curse on the pirate and the fact that he haunted the court, trapped there for all eternity.

She had two short weeks to find the map or the Blue Note would go to someone else.

She wasn't about to let that happen.

TALLY SURVEYED her little compact car stuffed to the top with Captain Dampier paraphernalia that she'd just picked up at an estate sale. She'd found tons of books and journals in the old mansion's library that she wanted to go through along with a compass and spyglass reported to belong to the pirate.

In life, the captain had never been given his due. She hoped that she could rectify that by setting up a society and museum to showcase and honor him. If she ever found the treasure. If she ever managed to buy the Blue Note.

Late for her shift, she had no time to unload her car. She locked it and headed for the café.

Café Eros was located in a two-level town house at the mouth of the alley that served as the entrance to Court du Chaud. With an intimate atmosphere, it comfortably seated about thirty people with a decadent lounge at the top level and a café on the lower level that included outside seating situated around a small nonworking fountain full of bright flowers. The inside and outside tables were still decked out in red and green as the Christmas holiday had just passed.

The court itself was graced by a piazza, a large square of tumbled stones purportedly handcrafted and built by the notorious pirate Captain Gabriel Dampier. It sat in the middle of the court complete with park benches and greenery to give the tenants some measure of peace on a hectic day.

The huge Christmas tree was still situated in the center of the piazza and wouldn't be taken down until after New Year's Day. It was also the spot they shot off the spectacular fireworks display that was a tradition every year since Tally could remember.

She went upstairs to the kitchen and grabbed an apron and tied it around her waist. Picking up a pad and a pencil, she headed out to start her shift.

By scrimping and saving for a few years, she'd been singing at the Blue Note and had amassed a small amount of money. But she knew it would not be enough to buy the club and no bank was going to take a risk on a twenty-three- year-old waitress with no credit. She couldn't even mortgage the Court du Chaud property, since she and Bree had already done so to make the needed renovations.

Everything hinged on the treasure.

Through the open window of the café, Tally watched Jack Castille approach with Chloe on his arm. They were laughing, lost in each other. For a brief moment, Tally wondered what that feeling would be like, and then it faded.

Love was the watchword for the whole court, it seemed. Chloe and Jack weren't the only victims of the Court du Chaud love bug. Frequent patrons to Café Eros and residents of the court had also succumbed over Christmas.

The week after Christmas only seemed to strengthen love run rampant. Love. Ha. Tally didn't believe in fairy tales and happily-ever-after. She believed in cold hard cash and getting ahead. She didn't label her plans as dreams; she thought of them as goals. Dreams were elusive and insubstantial. Dreams were for suckers.

CLOSE TO THE END OF HER SHIFT, Tally walked into the

kitchen where Chloe was busy making a dessert. Etta James's smoky vocals filtered through the café from the café"s state-of-the-art sound system and hung in the air.

"Chloe, can I borrow Vincent at the end of my shift?" Vincent was the eighteen-year-old homeless boy Chloe had hired over Christmas. "I need his help in moving some boxes from my car to my town house."

"Sure," Chloe said. "He's delivering some croissants to Madame Alain right now."

"Great. Did Jack leave?" Tally asked, looking around the kitchen.

"Yes, he had errands to run."

"He spends so much time here you should put him to work," Tally said.

"Yeah, about as much time as Christien." Chloe gave Tally a sly look.

Tally shrugged. "Christien likes your gumbo."

"It's not my gumbo he comes here for, Tally, and you know it." Chloe drizzled caramel sauce over a slice of praline cheesecake.

"It won't do him any good. I'm not interested."

"Yeah, right," Chloe said, turning to look at her.

"I may not be able to read minds, but I can read emotions and yours are pulsing a vibrant red right now."

"Okay." Tally threw up her hands. "He is hot. His accent is so smooth it curls my toes. And he's got the finest ass to ever fill out a pair of jeans — his brother should arrest him because it's so criminal. In fact, I want him to make me scream out his name. Satisfied?"

"Name the time and place, chère."

Tally closed her eyes at Christien's soft, sexy voice. Opening them, she glared at Chloe, but she only looked at Tally with laughing eyes.

Chloe picked up a plate and breezed past her, forcing Tally to turn around and face Christien.

"I need to deliver this dessert," Chloe said.

"Chloe..."

"I'll be right back." Chloe flashed a wide-open perky smile. But her eyes glowed like one of Satan's helpers. She raised her brows a couple of times then exited the kitchen. That left Tally standing in the middle of the room, ogling the Cajun stud who was leaning against the door frame as if he owned the airspace.

The man made her feel hot and bothered just by existing. Whenever their eyes met from across the court or across the table, the smoldering heat she'd seen in them startled her.

She silently appreciated his lean, rock-solid physique and his confident, I-don't-give a-damn stance.

The red cotton T-shirt he wore clung to his broad shoulders and tapered to a flat stomach, and his well-worn jeans were snug in all the right places, accentuating narrow hips and hard, strong-looking thighs.

There was a rugged edge about him, just enough to give her the impression that he would be a major handful in anything he did.