Jenny was alive! She was real, and whole, at least in body, and she was somehow now a shifter. What’s more, they were apparently much richer than Laura had ever realized was possible. She gathered the dazed little otter up and cradled her gently. “Are you okay?” she asked plaintively. How cruel would it be to get her sister back, just to lose her so soon?

Gizelle stepped forward with the towel she had the otter wrapped in previously. “There isn’t much room in one mind,” she said cryptically. “But your sister is still there.”

“I won’t let him get away with any of it,” Laura promised her armful of unconscious otter, wrapping the towel gently around it.

Tex gave Fred another shake, only needing one arm and a grip at the back of his neck to make him plead for mercy.

“Enough!” Fred croaked.

Laura could only imagine the restraint that Tex was showing, given the fury on his expressive face.

She could relate!

“I loved your Dad like a brother,” Fred explained to Tex sullenly. “But he got everything that should have been mine. He was a shifter, I wasn’t. He got your Mom. He got two beautiful daughters. He got the partnership at the firm. Sure, I got rid of them, but I raised you two like you were my own after that, or I would have, if you hadn’t gone haring off after high school. I set Jenny up at our firm when she graduated, and her thanks for that was getting a partnership offer that should have been mine.”

“If they offered her a partnership, Jenny earned it,” Laura snarled.

Fred ignored her, continuing his confession. “I knew that she was onto the insurance money before I got her text that she was going to be bailing you out again. I thought I could get her out of the way, and do with Laura what I’d failed to do with Jenny. She would confess her masquerade once it got hard to maintain, and I’d protect her and she’d be the grateful daughter I deserved.”

“Then why did you try to poison me with rattlesnake venom?” Laura demanded. “This is not the way to earn a daughter’s love, not that any of this was.”

Fred spread his hands innocently, and this innocence was more believable than his earlier show. “I had nothing to do with that. I didn’t try to hurt you until you gave me no choice.”

Laura didn’t want to believe him, but the latte was such a different attempt than the others that Fred had confessed to. And however twisted his motives, he had followed them.

“Where would I even get rattlesnake venom?” he asked. “It’s not like they sell it in the gift shop!”

“Then who did?” Tex growled. Laura could tell that it was taking all of his self-control not to flatten the odious man.

“It was probably my cousin,” said a new voice. Laura turned to see the man in sunglasses from the mainland bazaar she’d overheard mentioning Shifting Sands. He was walking up the steps from the beach with Bastian.

“Who are you?” Scarlet, Tex, and Laura asked together.

“I saw you on the mainland asking questions about the resort,” Laura added suspiciously.

Bastion explained, “He pulled up in a boat and demanded to see Scarlet.”

“My name is Sid,” the stranger explained, and his smile showed fangs that were just a little sharper and longer than they should have been. “My cousin Maryanne works here. I’ve come to bring her home.”

“Who the hell is Maryanne?” Laura asked incredulously. “And why should she want to poison me?”

“We don’t have a Maryanne on the staff,” Scarlet said with a frown.

Sid ran tired fingers through his hair. “She’s probably under an assumed name. She’s… not entirely right in the head. She has a habit of lying about who she is, fabricating these involved personas to be, fixating on people who are kind to her. She’s a rattlesnake shifter, which makes her little fantasies especially dangerous if they get disturbed.”

“Marie,” Tex said, in a strangled voice. “Marie thought I was her hero.” It was hard for Laura to blame her. He was the best-looking guy at the resort, during a world male beauty pageant, and he was sweet and gentle and perfect.

Scarlet frowned. “She said she was a genet. From France.”

“We’re from Arizona. She’s been missing from the home she’s supposed to be in for about six weeks, and needs to be on her medication again,” Sid said apologetically. “I’m really sorry for the trouble, I hope you weren’t hurt, ma’am.”

“I wasn’t,” Laura assured him, still mystified.

“You have some kind of proof of this?” Scarlet asked. “I am unlikely to release a member of my staff to a stranger on the weight of one person’s word.”

“I have paperwork from her doctor,” Sid assured her. “I can give you the number of her facility.”

“Please take her,” a familiar voice begged.

Laura looked at the side entrance of the pool deck to find that Juan Lopez was approaching, looking wild-eyed and nervous as he came through the arch of greenery. “She’s completely nuts! I can’t get her to leave me alone! Ever since I put that damned fire out, she’s following me around with goo-goo eyes, talking about destiny and heroes.”

Laura smirked. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving jerk.

Scarlet was rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Well, this certainly explains everything, even if it does introduce some new complications.” She gave Sid a hard look. “Presuming your paperwork checks out, I will release Marie - Maryanne - to your custody.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Sid said humbly. “I would, ah, appreciate it if we could leave the authorities out of things. She forgets that she’s poisonous, sometimes, and doesn’t understand consequences.”

“There is a report on file with the civil guard for the initial incident,” Scarlet said candidly. “But they tend to turn a blind eye to what happens out here. If they pursue an investigation, I shall simply tell them that it turned out to be a… misunderstanding.”

Sid nodded. “I think that’s an accurate summary,” he said wryly. “She really doesn’t understand what she’s doing.”

Scarlet was already turning away from him. “You, on the other hand,” she said in icy tones to Fred. “You are a problem.”

Fred was glaring sullenly at the ground. Tex helpfully tipped his head up. “It’s good manners to look at a lady who’s talking to you. I could escort him off the resort,” he offered suggestively.

“As tempting as it is to walk him off the cliffs, we will let the civil guard deal with him. I’m sure he’ll be extradited to the US for his crimes there.”

Tex looked disappointed, but brightened when Scarlet suggested, “Truss him up in the meantime. I don’t take attempts on my staff’s life lightly.”

Laura wasn’t sure when she had gone from guest to staff, but hearing Scarlet say it let a knot of tension unravel in her chest.

“Juan? Juan darling?” Marie’s - Maryanne’s - false French accent was light and airy above the island sounds of surf and rustling leaves. “Where aaaare you?”

Juan groaned and bolted for the stairs. “You haven’t seen me!” he shouted as he fled.

Maryanne did a double-take when she walked through the side door. “Sid!” she cried.

“I’m here to take you home, Maryanne.”

Maryanne pouted artistically. “But I was having so much fun!”

“You almost killed someone!” Sid protested. “Again!”

“She didn’t get hurt,” Maryanne whined. “It was all just pretend.”

Sid rubbed the bridge of his nose, much as Scarlet had earlier. “I told you that you can’t spit in people’s coffee. It’s bad! Let’s go home, kitten. I’ll help you pack up.”

“Oo,” said Maryanne. “I’ll show you my room!” Her French accent was completely gone. She took Sid’s hand willingly and tripped off with him towards the staff housing.