Chapter Twenty-Five #2
Liv dropped her eyes to the deadly flowers, trying not to let her surprise show. Her brain was whirring. Mandy had said she
wasn’t the biggest investor in CareFree. If one of Babette’s top executives thought she was . . . could that be the reason
Mandy had been threatened and Stefan hadn’t?
But Babette knew who the big investor was. Babette knew it wasn’t Mandy. The more Liv learned, the less the threats in the
hats made sense.
“I can assure you my sister is not working at that level,” Liv said. “What about Charlie? Does he know your lead investor?”
“No. Only Babette. I got the impression maybe even Stefan hasn’t met his boss in person.”
“That’s weird.”
“Honestly, it’s one of the reasons I stay away from the business side. It’s all foreign to me. But I know Stefan is our assigned
partner. For all intents and purposes, he’s our investor.”
Liv thought back to the cryptic exchange in the boat about their plans. “It sounds like Charlie has built a strong relationship with Stefan. One your sister might not approve of.”
“It’s for her own good,” Devon said. “To improve the management of the company.”
“This is my company, not yours,” Liv said softly.
Devon’s hand flew up to the brim of her hat.
“It’s possible Babette might feel threatened by our work with Stefan,” she acknowledged. But she still wouldn’t say precisely
what that work was.
Devon looked at Liv. “You and your sister, do you compete with each other?”
Liv weighed which version of the truth to offer. “No. We each . . . do our own thing.”
“But you’re close.”
Again Liv wondered what Devon was telling, or asking, her.
“We’re different.” Liv thought of all the times she’d hunted Mandy down in an airport and found her deep in conversation with
the new best friend she’d just met over Bloody Marys at the bar. How many times Liv had supplied her with a phone charger,
or clean socks, or on one particularly stressful jaunt through Morocco, a new passport.
“I was different too,” Devon said. “I was overseas at Oxford when my siblings started the company. I loved my research, the quiet focus of it, but it was hard to watch them launch and not be part of it. Babette had this huge vision to upend the beauty industry, and she and Charlie threw themselves into making it happen. They built the first entirely green supply chain in skin care, and Babette kept making refinements to ensure every ingredient in every product was pure. And yes, Babette pushed her employees hard, but she pushed herself hard too. She believed in her people. Cultivated them. She even paid for their home garden expenses. And Charlie found creative solutions whenever she went too far. Once, Babette fired a launch team on the spot when they ordered cage-farmed chicken sandwiches for lunch. Charlie hired them all back as contractors under fake names to get the product out the door. Her passion, his focus, their drive. They were a great team.”
“And you wanted in.” Liv didn’t mean to say it aloud. But she could see from Devon’s face that it was true. “I mean, I get
it. My sister and my dad, they’re tight like that. Is that why you joined the company? To be part of what they were creating?”
Devon gave her a quizzical look. “They recruited me. Gave me an equal stake and everything.”
But Liv knew stakes with family were rarely equal. And sometimes what worked with two could be shaken by three.
“Do you really think Babette would hurt him?” Liv asked. “Or you?”
Devon pulled a pocketknife and a camp towel from her day pack. She wrapped her hand in the towel and used the blade to carefully
separate a few of the closed datura flowers from their leaves. “I think she’s under a lot of pressure with the CareFree launch.
As is my brother.”
“But not you?”
“The stress I deal with is different. Take this plant.” Devon took a confident slice down one of the blossoms on the towel,
bisecting it cleanly. A clear, oily sap bubbled up, and when Liv leaned in for a closer look, the sweet smell of the flower—heady,
almost rotten—overwhelmed her.
“There are at least a hundred different ways to extract medicinal compounds from datura,” Devon said, “and ninety-nine of
them are dangerous or worthless for our purposes. Getting the science right, formulating stable compounds and delivery mechanisms:
It’s painstaking, deliberate work. It can be heartbreaking. But it’s cold pressure, not hot. It’s more about patience and
sticking it out than it is about punching through.”
Devon tossed aside the ruined flower. She folded the other blossoms into her towel, erasing them from view. Then she turned
away from the rainbow-flecked falls and scanned the rocks along the beach.
“Where is she?” Devon sounded tired. “I really thought she’d be here.”
“Babette and her guest must still be hiking down,” Big Pete called over.
He was helping Katy set up a water station on the far end of the beach.
Beyond them, Imogen was pointing her phone up the side canyon, while PK dabbed something on his face in a shadowed divot of rock, his body almost hidden by the rare slice of shade. “Or they stopped at the patio.”
“A patio?” PK looked up. “Do they serve mimosas?”
“Not quite. But it’s a pretty place, lots of shade, just a half mile from here. We’ll head up there shortly to wait and link
up with everyone. Anyone hiking to the river from the rim or from Thunder Spring has to pass through Deer Creek Patio.”
“Want me to come or stay with the boats?” Katy asked.
Big Pete looked at her. “Stay. The last thing we need is for someone to come by and raid our supplies.”
“Can I shoot some footage in the falls before we go?” Imogen asked. “I’m doing this mini feature on all the waterfalls, ranking
them from best to worst so people don’t waste their time.”
“Waste their time?” Liv asked.
Imogen waved at the stunning cascade behind her. “You know, with ones like this that are mid.”
Liv wasn’t exactly an outdoorswoman, but still. Some people didn’t deserve mermaids.
“If Babette isn’t here yet, could she be up at the patio?” Devon asked.
Big Pete nodded. “It’s the first decent stop for shade and water after the long hike down.”
“Which way?”
He pointed left, to a stack of crumbly sandstone slabs piled into a makeshift staircase, winding up the steep cliff and over
the waterfall.
They were all hot, and sleepy. But Devon’s face had shifted, taking on a grim determination Liv hadn’t seen before.
“This is still my sister’s launch,” Devon said. “Let’s see what she has planned after all.”