“See!” Everett pointed at him. “You’re still doing it! What kind of crazy story did you come up with now? That you have a split personality?”
“Even if I was acting strangely, that doesn’t give you an excuse to try to murder me!”
Everett sighed. “I didn’t intend to. But with the scandal with Dr. Guidry, and you having gone missing at the same time, it all got out of hand.”
Simon breathed a few times, not that it did much to calm him down. “How? How do you get from messing up one contract to trying to kill your friend?”
“The reporters had me by the neck with that scandal, and you weren’t there. I figured if I acted clueless, it might look like it was your fault, and when it turned out your brain wasn’t quite right, we’d say that was the culprit. That you’d gone off the rails a bit, but it’s fine, because we’d fix you. And then you went missing. You never called. I asked that woman, that damned Dr. Guidry, because you left with her, but she was mumbling something about you being gone. And I …”
Everett rubbed his face, shaking his head at the same time. “I don’t know why I did it. Why I said you died. Logical conclusion meets needed conclusion, I suppose. Somewhere in the back of my mind, it worked. A dead you would be the perfect scapegoat for the scandal. I took credit for fixing that funding contract, but if any other accusations surfaced, I could simply say it was you. And everyone only thinks the best of the dead, so nobody would fault Aries …” His voice hitched up.
“All for Aries,” Simon’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
“Wouldn’t you do the same?”
“No!” Simon spread his arms. “No, I wouldn’t try to kill my friend to save myself from a minor scandal!”
Everett gazed at him, mouth half open in shock. “You’re not yourself anymore.”
He wasn’t the impostor, no—that’s what Everett was alluding to. But he had changed as well. Aries was his baby, but in the end, it was just a company. It didn’t have a heart to break, feelings to give back. Simon would do almost anything in his power for it—but to kill? That was absurd.
“I might have changed,” Simon said. “But the only one who’s hurting Aries is you.”
Everett raised his chin. “So, that’s it, then. Do you want to bring me out in front of the cameras? Should I get my criminal look ready?” He extended his arms, holding his hands together in imitation of being cuffed.
“Everett, don’t do this.”
“Oh, quit it with the—”
The door nearly flew off its hinges as a vortex of bright pinks and greens swept into the room, accompanied by loud barking. A young woman with long blond hair, with the most ridiculous combination of a shirt with a flower pattern and a skirt in an entirely different, clashing flower pattern, barely stopped before she collided with Simon. A golden retriever jumped next to her, panting as its head whipped between Simon and Everett.
“Don’t do it,” the woman said. “Don’t arrest him yet. I need him.”
***
“He’s the Witch’s Heart.” Shanna spread out her arms, one toward Simon, one toward Everett, as if she could prevent them from going at each other. If that’s what they were about to do—she wasn’t sure, since Stan could only tell her that Simon had gone after Everett.
“I’m a what?” Everett blinked, drawing his head back. “Excuse me, who the hell are you?”
“Let me talk to him first,” Shanna said to Simon.
He stared at her as in a half-trance, eyes narrowing. The nerves in her stomach consolidated into a solid ball.
He’d forgotten her.
“What’s going on?” Everett addressed Simon instead.
“I’ve no idea,” Simon twitched, as if something in his eyes bothered him, but then still said, “Miss, please remove yourself. This is a serious matter—”
“Mymatter is serious!” As much as her heart sank—she knew it, she knew this would happen—it also refused to give up. She was so close to breaking this damn curse; if not for her, then for Gran. For Mom. For somebody else down the line. As Simon made a move toward Everett, she stepped in front of him and put her hands on his chest. “I’m dealing with him first.”
Simon opened his mouth, then stopped. He tilted his head as if finding her curious. “Forest princess,” he mumbled.
“What?” she whispered.
“Water nymph.”
“In case you’re not aware, miss, this man is not right in the head,” Everett objected from the side.
