Page 16 of Dead Calm (Cold Case Psychic #38)
Friday morning dawned grey and gloomy. Hurricane Sophie was off the coast of New Jersey, hundreds of miles to the south, but the storm was so big that clouds blanketed the hotel.
From the front deck, Ten could see big waves pounding the shore.
He didn’t want the kids anywhere near the ocean.
As the day went on the waves were only going to grow more powerful.
The last weather report he’d heard mentioned strong rip currents and how several people in Maryland and Virginia needed to be rescued by lifeguards from the life threatening tide. The beach at Hurricane Pointe didn’t have a lifeguard, so he and Ronan were going to have to fill that role.
“Morning,” Ronan said, wrapping his arms around Ten from behind.
“Good morning,” Ten leaned back against his husband.
“We’re not letting the kids anywhere near the water.” Ronan sounded firm on the matter. He led Ten back inside just as it started to rain.
“I was just thinking the same thing. Now that it’s raining out, maybe the hotel will offer extra arts and crafts classes to keep the kids busy?” Ten asked.
“And the adults!” Ronan laughed. He picked up his masterpiece from the coffee table. “I’ve got real talent, don’t you think? Maybe painting could be my side gig?”
“You do have a lot of talent,” Ten grinned, pressing a kiss to Ronan’s neck. “But to be honest, it lies in another arena. One that can’t be exhibited for others to see.”
Ronan snorted. “Are you kidding me? If we released the tapes, I would be famous!”
“What tapes? You mean home movies?” Everly asked, walking out of her bedroom. Aurora and Wolf were behind her. Both girls had serious cases of bedhead and Wolf looked like he’d stuck his finger in a light socket.
Tennyson wasn’t touching that question with a ten foot pole. “It’s raining, so it looks like we’re going to have an inside day.”
“We’ll go have breakfast as soon as you guys shower and get dressed,” Ronan said. “Do you two want me to walk you back to your rooms?” He pointed back and forth between Aurora and Wolf.
“Yup! Let me go get my stuff.” Aurora ran back into the bedroom. Wolf was hot on her heels. Both kids were back a few seconds later, bulging backpacks in hand.
“I’ll be right back with Ezzie.” Ronan grabbed his keycard from the table and hustled the kids out the door.
“There’s something Daddy isn’t telling us about Kurt,” Everly said. “I’ll go take a shower so you can talk about it.”
“Do you know what it’s about?” Ten asked.
Everly didn’t answer, she’d already run back to her room. The door clicked shut behind her.
Ten had noticed there was something on Ronan’s mind the night before, but between the camp fire and getting the kids settled into bed afterward, Ten had been too tired to ask Ronan about what was bothering him.
The door beeped and Ronan walked inside carrying Ezra, who ran for Ten when Ronan set him down.
“There’s my big boy. Did you have fun at your sleepover with Lizbet?” Ten asked.
“Yup! Me watch Memo!” Ezra made a fish face.
“Do you want to watch him again?” Ten grabbed Ezra’s tablet and turned the movie on for him. “Stay here, me and Dad are gonna get dressed, okay?”
“’Kay,” Ezra said, already tuned into the movie.
When Ten walked into the bedroom, he was surprised to see Ronan’s suitcase open and his clothes neatly packed inside. He must have done that before he’d come out of their room. Ten needed to do the same thing.
“Hey, babe!” Ronan said, walking from the bathroom into their bedroom, dressed in his underwear. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.” He picked a shirt out of his suitcase and shrugged into it.
“Something about Kurt?” Ten asked.
“Yeah, how did you know?” Ronan pulled on his cargo shorts and zipped them up.
“When you came to the bonfire last night, I could see something was bothering you. I knew we’d talk about it when the coast was clear. What happened?”
Ronan sighed and took a seat in the chair across from the bed. “Before Fitz, Jude and I came out to the fire last night, we wanted to pop in to see how Lainie was doing. When we walked into the Taproom, she and Kurt were hugging each other.”
“Damn.” Ten shook his head. “I was hoping he wouldn’t be able to make bail. Did Lainie bail him out?”
“I don’t know. To be honest, I didn’t think to ask when he charged at us.”
“What do you mean charged at you?” Ten asked, his heart beating faster.
“When Kurt saw us, he stalked toward me and told us to stay away from Lainie. Which was exactly what I expected him to say. I asked him if he was ever violent with his girlfriend before coming to Rhode Island and he said no. I believed him. Then I asked if he ever felt like he wasn’t in control of his body or his thoughts and everything changed.
His entire demeanor shifted and his eyes darkened. In that moment he wasn’t Kurt anymore.”
“Wow,” Ten said. “Was it Walt?”
“I don’t know. Whoever it was told me that if I didn’t leave him and Lainie alone he was going to come after our kids. We all backed off at that point. Kurt seemed to come back to himself and walked back to Lainie, who wouldn’t even look at us.”
“After breakfast, I’m going to try to reach out to Walt and settle this once and for all.
Cope and I were talking about this situation yesterday and if Walt won’t go into the light on his own, he’s willing to use a spell to keep Walt from coming back to the hotel.
” Ten knew Cope only wanted to use his magick sparingly and was grateful his friend was offering his help with the Kurt situation.
“That sounds like a plan,” Ronan agreed. “I hate to say it, but I’m looking forward to getting out of here.”
“Me too. Let’s get the kids and go down to breakfast.” Ten walked into the living room of the suite and saw Everly dressed with her hair in a ponytail, sitting beside Ezra watching Finding Nemo. “Ready spaghetti?”
“Yup!” Ezra hopped off the sofa and ran to Ronan who scooped him up.
“I want another crepe today,” Everly said, reaching for Ten’s hand.
“You know what? You and Aurora have talked so much about them, I’m gonna try one too,” Ten said. He was only going to live once and it would be a crying shame if he didn’t try crepes before he met his maker.
Ronan hustled everyone out of the room and to the elevator. Ezra pushed the button and the doors opened for him. Everly pushed the button for the first floor.
When the doors opened, the lobby was in chaos. Someone, surrounded by uniformed police officers, was shouting and Ten could see the flashing lights of several police cars and an ambulance in front of the hotel. “What the hell is going on?”
The elevator opposite the one Ten and Ronan had exited opened and paramedics wheeled a stretcher out. Ten could see the person strapped to it was Lainie. She was motionless, her left eye blackened and her nose stuffed with gauze to stop it from bleeding. Dried blood crusted her lips.
Ten was speechless as Lainie was wheeled past. He felt Everly grab his arm and wrap herself around it. As soon as the stretcher was loaded into the ambulance, it pulled away. A police car followed behind it with lights and sirens blaring.
“This is your fault, O’Mara!” A familiar voice shouted. “If you’d have just minded your damn business, none of this would have happened. The officers on either side of Kurt pulled him toward the front doors, but he was having none of it. “I’m coming for you, Ronan! You hear me!”
Everyone in the lobby stared in shock as Kurt was dragged outside and loaded into one of the waiting police cruisers.
“What the hell happened?” Ronan asked.
“Jude went to talk to some of the officers.” Fitz pointed to the front desk, where Jude stood with two cops. He shook their hands and walked over to them.
“According to the cops, Kurt attacked Lainie in her room. Other members of the hotel staff could hear her crying for help, but the door was locked and no one could get in. One of them called the police for help. They had to use the battering ram to get into the room. Some of the officers and medics stayed upstairs with Lainie, while the others brought Kurt down to the lobby and tried to get a statement out of him. It devolved into a shouting match from there.” Jude shook his head.
“Is Lainie going to be okay?” Ten asked. He was too rattled by what he’d just seen to use his gift.
“Yeah, she’s got some bruises and most likely a concussion, but she’ll be okay. I have to imagine the court will revoke Kurt’s bail after what happened this morning.” Jude knelt down in front of Everly, who’d buried her face against Ten’s leg. “Are you okay?”
Everly pulled away from Ten. She nodded. “I was scared for Lainie. That man really hurt her.”
“Who, Kurt?” Ten asked.
“No, it was Kurt’s body, but he wasn’t the one in control,” Everly ran to Jude and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Let’s go eat and then we’ll figure out what to do next.” Ronan took Ten’s hand and led him into the dining room.
Ten could see the other kids were sitting with Cope and Jace at a table in the back.
“Yeah, good idea.” He followed behind Ronan as he walked to their table.
Ten’s head was still spinning from everything that had happened this morning.
Guilt swamped him. If only he’d tried harder to get Lainie to see reason, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.
From what Everly said, it was clear that Kurt wasn’t the one hurting Lainie and Ten was done playing games with whoever was. After breakfast he was going to settle the score and get that spirit out of the hotel come hell or high water.