Page 86 of My Sister is Going to Kill Me

“Of course you do,” Guy said warily.

All Liv could do was say it plain. “We’re going to tie you to the boat. For your safety.”

“What?!” Mandy said.

“For our safety?” Guy said.

“We’ll be sitting ducks!” Charlie said.

“No, you’ll be safe from each—”

“Let us alone.” Stefan spoke in a low, slow growl.

“This is totally unacceptable,” Mandy said.

Liv frowned. “We need to—”

“Let us alone,” Stefan’s voice intoned again. “What is it that will last? All things are taken from us, and become portions and parcels of the dreadful past.”

“I can explain—”

“Let us alone!” Stefan was practically shouting now. “What pleasure can we have to war with evil?”

“Is he speaking Dutch?” Imogen asked.

Thor squinted at the raving investor. “That’s Lord Tennyson. A poem from the 1800s about Odysseus. The lotus eaters.” Thor turned to Liv and Lucinda. “Weren’t you two talking about them?”

Liv gaped.

“What?” Thor said. “I spend weeks in the backcountry, just me and the bighorn sheep. I like to read classics. Is that a crime?”

Stefan stumbled away and continued spewing poetry, lurching down the beach and addressing his recitation to the black, shining river.

“Have you seen this happen with CareFree before?” Liv asked Devon.

“Quoting old English poems? This would be a first.”

“He drank five margaritas,” Liv said.

“I might have given him double shots,” Thor added.

Devon winced. “That isn’t recommended. But the CareFree won’t hurt him. I think mostly this is just his way of dealing with”—she waved her hand around, encompassing the darkened river, the looming canyon, their ragtag crew on the beach—“all of this.”

Liv remembered the message in Devon’s hat. This is my company, not yours. Was it possible Stefan and not Babette had written it? Had Babette’s lead investor killed her to take control of the company—and was he now cracking up after doing so?

“The lady has gone too far!” Stefan cried. “She disposes without care plans well-crafted, rips asunder that which all hold dear. Her violence has no place in this affair.”

“He’s right,” Katy said.

“About what?” Liv asked.

“Datura. I told you, she’s a demon goddess. A destroyer of false idols.”

“Great,” Imogen said. “He’s not nuts. He’s possessed by a devil plant.”

“Maybe someone should follow him.” Liv glanced over at Devon’s altar to make sure Stefan hadn’t made a snack of the datura plants she’d harvested. The white trumpets looked untouched. “And, Devon, those flowers? They shouldn’t stay out in the open.”

“You’re right. It was sentimental. But Babette wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt.” Devon moved to wrap the wilted flowers in a paper towel, tucking them into her pocket. Then she turned to PK. “Keep an eye on Stefan, will you?”