Page 30 of Dead Evil
Everly hopped up on Ronan’s now vacant side of the bed. “Are you sure Agatha Louise will be okay?”
The name of the formerly possessed doll gave Ten goose bumps. “Devin will take such good care of her, just like he does with all his other dolls.” What Ten wasn’t going to tell Everly was that Devin was going to put the harmless doll back on display. He was going to create a new exhibit featuring Agatha Louise’s adventures in Salem. Of course he wasn’t going to tell the public that the doll was no longer haunted. He’d mentioned raising admission costs, since the story of the doll hand landed on the national news.
“Yeah, I suppose she’ll be okay. I still wish I could have kept her.”
“Me too, honey, but she belongs to Devin.” There was no way Agatha Louise was coming into his house. Ten and Ronan had been in perfect agreement on the matter. Ronan had taken Devin aside and explained that no one else knew the doll was demon-free and that he could make a fortune displaying her after her kidnapping and exacting her revenge. Barrymore and Shackleton both survived, so the doll’s revenge wasn’t technically complete, but it was as good an ending as there possibly could have been.
Both men had been hospitalized at Salem Mercy. Barrymore for three days and Shackleton for nearly three weeks. He’d needed bypass surgery and the doctors didn’t think it was wise for him to travel back to Iowa to get care. Jude and Ronan had made several jokes asking where the Salem Mercy killer angel was when they needed him.
As for what happened in the auditorium, neither man was talking. They’d been peppered with media requests, as had Ronan and Jude, but no one agreed to any interviews. Ten had a feeling both men were going to write tell-all books and use what happened with Agatha Louise’s demon to fundraise.
Lastly, after Shackleton was released from the hospital, he put out a post on social media saying that King of Deliverance had decided against starting a chapter in Salem. Ten and Ronan had high-fived each other over the news.
“Are you looking forward to our vacation at the beach?” Ten asked. This time, Fitz and Ronan had been in charge of booking the hotel, so there wasn’t a repeat from last summer where Jude had booked them into a no-tell motel on the coast of Maine that looked like it came out of a Stephen King novel, murdered ghosts included at no additional charge.
“Yeah! Daddy showed me pictures of the beautiful hotel and I can’t wait to meet Sophie!” Everly hopped off the bed. “I gotta figure out which unicorn stuffie to bring on the trip. I’m gonna FaceTime Aurora and see what she’s bringing.”
Ten handed Everly his phone and went back to packing. He was glad there would be another little girl for Everly and Aurora to make friends with on the trip. Ten wondered if Sophie had a little brother Ezra’s age. Time would tell.
In the meantime, Ten had eighteen hours to go before he was on vacation time.
THE END
