Page 24 of Bad Seed

Wiley poked his little brother’s shoulder, trying to lighten up the moment. “If you’d been born ugly, you wouldn’t have these problems.”

“Famous last words from the brother who had two women on his ass who came close to ruining everything with Linette,” Brendan said.

Wiley grinned. “Yeah, there was that.”

“I’m going to get this statement typed up,” Aaron said, and walked out.

Wiley stayed behind. “And I never got to thank you for getting Ava up to Mom’s house the night of the wreck.”

Brendan smiled. “It was my pleasure. She’s the funniest, smartest little thing, and she quotes Mikey Pope every other sentence.”

Wiley sighed. “Yeah. We know. We get a nightly doseof it, and she is smart. Don’t know where she got it. God knows Corina didn’t have a brain in her head, and whatever Clyde’s mental capacity was, he’d long since soaked and fried it with booze and drugs.”

“She’s spent the first five years of her life observing everything because nobody told her anything. She took all of it in, and sorted and filed it into that little brain of hers until we came along and gave her permission to bloom. That’s what love does,” Brendan said.

Wiley was speechless. Brendan never had a lot to say in family gatherings, but when he did, it always mattered. It humbled him enough that it took him a few moments to recover. “Well, however it happened, I’m grateful for her presence in our lives.”

“Me too,” Brendan said. Then his phone buzzed. He glanced down at the message that appeared. “Sean is at my house. As soon as I sign my complaint, I’m heading home. I’ll be set for security before the day is over.”

***

Justine Beaumont was holed up in the penthouse, scrolling through social media sites, destroying her fifteen months of sobriety by drinking cola liberally laced with whiskey, and eating the peanut butter and jelly sandwich she was having for lunch. It wasn’t her food of choice, but it was all there was in the penthouse kitchen, and she would die before she’d ever order food from room service again. She had installed the localdelivery-service app on her phone and was already planning to order her food from the local eateries, have it delivered to the concierge at the hotel, and make them bring it up.

Her father had the audacity to try to talk to her again last night, but she wasn’t having it. She was still furious with him and had locked herself in her room. When he came up for the night and knocked on her door, she didn’t respond, so he sent her a text, telling her they needed to talk about ground rules that had to be obeyed if she were to stay with him here.

Her answer was brief and to the point.Go to hell.Then she turned up the sound on the TV and left it on blast all night just to ensure he got no sleep at all, unaware that he wasn’t taking this lying down.

***

Larry went to his suite and called his ex-wife, Karen. The call rang and rang until he thought it was going to go to voicemail, then suddenly she picked up.

“Dammit, somebody better be dead for you to call me at this time of night,” she snapped.

Larry didn’t mince words. “I’m sending Justine back to Dallas. You can deal with her, or not. But I’m finished. She’s caused so much trouble for me at this job that half the hotel staff are about to walk off the job. One employee is verging on filing sexual harassment charges against her. I’m not asking your advice.I’m just giving you a heads-up about what’s heading your way.”

“She’s not living with me!” Karen shrieked.

“Then she’s on the fucking streets. After all the shit she’s caused here, I have no doubt she’d make a good hooker.”

Karen gasped. “How dare you say that about your own daughter?”

“She’s your daughter, too, in more ways than one. We’re no longer married because you couldn’t keep your pants on around a man, and she can’t keep her hands off them. She even took a knife to one of the employees. I’m sending her back to Dallas. What she does after that is on her.”

Karen was screaming, “Larry, don’t you dare—” when he disconnected, then went to take a shower, while his ex-wife had a meltdown of her own because she knew something about their daughter that neither Larry or even Justine was aware of.

The last time they’d sent her to rehab, the psychiatrist on staff had asked for permission to run some psychological tests on Justine. Karen agreed without a thought, but the diagnosis she got later blew her mind. It explained so much and, at the same time, was as good as a death sentence to every dream she’d harbored for their child.

According to the tests, which they’d run twice, their daughter ticked off every aspect of a narcissistic psychopath. She had no reactions to other people’s pain ortragedies. Showed no emotion to anything that did not directly involve her, and when disciplined at the center, or had privileges taken away for infractions, she went after the people who delivered those decisions. She’d cut one doctor with a knife, and locked one of the cooks in a freezer for refusing to give her second helpings, and showed no remorse for what she’d done.

That was when Karen walked out. She turned her back on her husband and her daughter, and knew it was selfish and brutal, but she knew it was also the only thing she could do to keep from becoming her daughter’s next victim, because it had been Karen who’d driven Justine to rehab, and it was Justine who was cursing her name as she walked out.

***

Larry’s alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. He was up, dressed, and having breakfast in the dining room by seven. Usually, he ate and left without paying any attention to the staff, but after all that had occurred yesterday, he could tell they were uneasy at his presence, so he went out of his way to thank them for a coffee refill and praised the light-as-air biscuits with his meal.

He made a point of visiting every shop in the hotel, commenting positively on their displays, and then did a walk-through in the spa and gym area, speaking to attendants to make sure they had everything they needed. It was something he should have been doingregularly, but he’d taken the Serenity Inn for granted, assuming a well-oiled machine ran itself. And it had, until his daughter threw sand in the gears.

He stopped by Liz Devon’s office and knocked, this time waiting for approval to enter, and then opened the door.

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