Page 12

Chance

M y phone burned a hole in my pocket, its contents the cause of my tense shoulders and the few more grey hairs I’d found this morning after my conversation with Dakota. She’s come bearing gifts of eggs, bacon, pancakes, and coffee, with a side of bittersweet hope. If this was just some elaborate, sick joke, heads were going to fucking roll.

One hand was tapping anxious fingers against my thigh while my nails on the other hand were being bitten down to small, painful nubs. That tiny bite of pain helped to ground me, assuring me that I wasn’t dreaming, but also reminding me that my life so far was one tragedy after another. I couldn’t get my hopes up, yet every cell inside my body, every atom of my being was screaming for my hunch to be true.

Please, please, please…

‘Chance, chill. Rhodes will be here soon, and then we can get some answers, I promise,’ Ashe soothed, cupping my hand in hers to halt my nervous tapping.

‘What if it’s not her?’ I asked in a tight voice.

‘The likelihood of it being her is already practically non-existent, Chance. Don’t get me wrong, I hope it’s her, but I doubt it. We can only ask and put the matter to bed.’

‘I don’t want to put it to bed. I want answers. I want to fucking find her, goddammit.’

‘I know, but stressing and making yourself bleed isn’t going to change the outcome of this conversation. Get your hands out of your mouth. Maybe pace a bit if you’ve got too much energy, but stop hurting yourself.’

My inhale was stuttered, and the release was just as shaky. Still, the oxygen helped to clear my head enough to realise that she was right. As soon as I removed my nails from between my teeth, my feet were moving. Back and forth I paced, my boots digging into the mud and leaving deep grooves. I was wearing a new path right in front of the service building, but I couldn’t care about that. I didn’t think Rhodes would mind anyway. He seemed like an easy-going guy.

The sound of his beat-up old truck rumbling down the dirt road had me freezing in place, my head snapping up to watch as he ambled closer. By the time he had parked in his spot behind the building, I was about ready to jump in and drag him out if necessary. Did he have to drive so damn slowly?

He sauntered over to us at a leisurely pace, hands stuffed inside his pants pockets, a thoughtful expression on his face. He didn’t seem to see us, too lost inside his head as he walked by with barely a head nod to acknowledge us. We trailed behind him, and I gritted my teeth at how slow he was being, like he had all the time in the world and we weren’t about to ask him a potentially life-altering question.

Finally, he unlocked his office door and we pushed inside. Ashe and Gloria each took a seat on the couch that took up one of the walls, and Rhodes settled in behind his desk, which seemed to be strewn with some sort of organised chaos. Messy though it may have been, I did notice how that mess was segregated and kept within its allocated space. There were a couple of armchairs off to the side, as if they were stored out of the way only to be dragged in front of the desk if they were needed. I chose to ignore them in favour of standing. I didn’t think I could sit. I was practically vibrating with anxious energy, my hands shook with adrenaline, and my stomach twisted itself into knots.

I opened my mouth to demand answers, but Ashe beat me to it, shooting me a look that spoke louder than words ever could. Sit down and shut up before you piss him off and he won’t want to talk.

I didn’t sit, but my jaw slammed shut with a clack of my teeth, causing both Ashe and Gloria to wince. Rhodes merely studied me, seeing way more than they should. I felt the probe of them on my soul, and I wanted to scream and shout, and thrash about to shake him off.

‘Thank you for seeing us,’ Ashe began. ‘This is a bit of a sensitive topic.’

Rhodes’ confusion was plain on his face, but he didn’t back away from the discomfort of the moment. Instead, he seemed to embrace it. ‘I’m a sensitive guy. I’ll be as delicate as I can. Now, does someone want to tell me what I’m trying not to break?’

‘It’s about the woman you saw,’ Ashe said, but he only nodded, waiting patiently for us to continue. He already knew this conversation was about her, just not the reason why. ‘Did she tell you her name?’

‘Yes, but I’m not sure I should divulge that information until someone explains to me what this is about.’

It was a noble sentiment. If only it didn’t make me want to wring his neck to squeeze out the information we were seeking.

‘Right, well, the description you gave to Blake and Dakota was similar to a woman we knew who went missing about seven years ago,’ Ashe finally explained.

‘Oh,’ Rhodes muttered, a frown pulling low to shadow his eyes. It made their dark blue take on an almost black hue, his pupils more difficult to differentiate from his irises. ‘She said her name was Kali.’

I stopped breathing. I think we all did, but I was too focused on his words bouncing around in my head and the ringing in my ears to pay much attention to anyone else.

Kali… she was alive?

‘Chance,’ Ashe’s voice drifted through the fog, slowly bringing the world back into focus. ‘Breathe, Chance. Breathe.’

My mouth opened and closed for a beat without any results, but I was eventually able to gasp in enough air to kickstart my brain, which sent me swaying in a dizzy spell as soon as the oxygen hit.

‘That’s it. Let’s get you in a chair, Chance,’ she said, uttering words of comfort as she led me to one of the armchairs. I fell into it, the armchair creaking with the sudden weight, and my ass smarted when it hit something hard. Still, it was nothing compared to the sheer agony burning through my veins. It was like my entire body was unravelling and then being sewn back together by threads made of fire.

‘Fuck me. You think it’s the same Kali?’ Rhodes asked, one hand tangled in his hair as his face paled significantly. If he wasn’t sitting, he might have keeled over. I knew the feeling. ‘Do you have a picture?’

I nodded numbly, fumbling around my jeans until I felt the opening of my pocket and pulled out my phone. My fingers were trembling so hard, however, that Ashe pulled it from my grasp before I could drop it and punched in the passcode – I’d have to ask her later how she knew what it was, the sneaky bitch – and pulling up a picture. I could see the screen clearly from my vantage point, and couldn’t help but wince at the stinging in my eyes as she pulled up the one of me and Kali together, beaming smiles on our faces as we stood in front of my van. I’d just bought the thing and had it custom painted to include the team’s logo. She’d been so proud of me.

Ashe placed the phone, screen up, on the desk in front of Rhodes, and his face paled even further. He took a deep breath, then his eyes locked onto mine, the truth shining through, only marred by his own emotional reaction to this revelation, before he even said the words out loud.

‘That’s her. That’s Kali.’

A wretched sound echoed throughout the cramped space, and it took a moment to realise it was coming from me. All the grief and anger and longing I’d felt since Kali’s disappearance came to a head as I slid from my seat and collapsed to the floor.

Ashe and Gloria surrounded me and wrapped their arms around my frame as if their embrace could hold together the pieces that threatened to peel away. I couldn’t hear anything above the buzzing in my head. I couldn’t think beyond those words of confirmation bouncing around inside my skull. I couldn’t see beyond the picture on my phone, still lit up with our smiling faces like it was only yesterday that it had been taken.

Kali was alive? She’d been alive this whole time, practically down the road?

I couldn’t fucking breathe.

‘Why?’ I asked, the sound of my voice barely audible. I didn’t know if that was because my lungs weren’t working properly or my ears were too fuzzy.

‘I’ll tell you what I know as soon as you regulate your breathing, okay? It’s…’ Rhodes paused, mulling over his words with a frown. ‘Just… I don’t want you passing out on my floor. I’d have to call an ambulance, and it would be a whole thing.’

He waved his hands about like the mere thought was causing me stress, but I could see that he was merely trying to diffuse the situation. Surprisingly, it was working. I focused on the way his hands fought to stop clenching into fists, like he was actively trying to relax himself and seem uncaring when he was anything but. Whatever was going on between him and Kali, he cared, and that was enough to bring me back down from the brink.

If she was still capable of making everyone fall in love with her, then she was still the same Kali I knew. My Kali.

No, not mine. She would never be mine.

The reminder was like a bucket of ice water drenching my emotions, and it was enough to push me that last sliver of a gap towards calm. I found, however, that instead of levelling out my emotions, I was completely numb. The ringing in my ears was still present, but it was more of a background noise that allowed me to hear and process what the others in the room were saying. Gloria was suggesting we call the police, Ashe was still whispering words of comfort to me while stroking back my hair, and Rhodes was trying to placate Gloria, saying he’d just come back from the police station this morning.

‘You reported her?’ I asked him, my voice hoarse but steady. I coughed a bit, and a water bottle was thrust in front of my face. I took it gratefully, chugging it down quickly, then refocused back on Rhodes. He was eyeing me with concern, but I could also tell he was eager to get this conversation over with.

‘I told them about a woman I thought might be lost and potentially in trouble. I gave them her description and her first name to look through the missing persons database. I guess we should all be expecting a call to say they found a potential match.’

I released a long breath as I processed his words. ‘All right. Okay. So she’s alive, but there’s something you’re not telling us,’ I prompted, earning a grim look in response.

‘She’s tight-lipped, but she’s definitely in some sort of trouble. She debated asking me for help, but she said it was too dangerous and she didn’t want me getting hurt. I told her I didn’t care about that, but she was adamant. She said something about the danger reaching beyond death, but I don’t even know what that means.’

Gloria cursed. ‘It’s him. The entity that’s responsible for the drownings. She’s somehow caught up in it, isn’t she?’

She shared a look with Ashe, and they came to some sort of unspoken understanding, one that Gloria did not like. Not at all. She hated it so much, in fact, that she stormed from the room, hands yanking at her hair and a growl stuck in her throat.

Ashe turned to me, her eyes uncharacteristically hard, yet still shining with understanding and compassion. ‘Don’t mind Gloria. She’ll come around, she’s just scared. This entity has really freaked her out. We’re going to see this investigation through, Chance. I promise.’

‘Can someone please explain to me what’s going on?’ Rhodes cut in, and I realised he had risen from his chair to start pacing behind his desk.

‘We ran into a snag in our investigation yesterday,’ I began. ‘Gloria is a psychic, and she caught wind of something paranormal. We were following her directions when we practically drove right onto a fresh crime scene. It was another drowning victim. I think the police are starting to catch on after so many that they aren’t mere accidents.’

‘You think there’s a serial killer in town?’ he asked in a voice pitched higher in his shock.

‘We believe there is an entity that has somehow figured out how to interact with the living, and is killing them,’ I said bluntly, deciding it was best to just rip the band-aid off rather than beat around the bush. I studied him closely as I watched for his reaction, and he didn’t disappoint. He fell back into his chair, pushing it away from the desk with his weight and almost falling off, but he scrambled to catch himself just in time.

‘So, what, you’re saying some dead guy is killing the good people of Klamath County? A freaking ghost?’

‘Ah, you’re a sceptic. That’s okay. Most people are,’ I said, and I couldn’t quite hold back the derision in my tone. The majority of people didn’t want to believe, so they turned a blind eye to the uncanny, explaining it away with logic that made them feel better. People feared what they didn’t understand, and it had always bugged me that no one ever really tried to understand in the first place. It seemed Rhodes was one of these people.

And here, I’d had such high hopes for him.

‘I’ve never seen a ghost, nor have I seen any evidence that they exist, so you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t immediately believe you,’ he deadpanned, and I felt a little guilty for jumping down his throat. He had every right to want proof before throwing his lot in with the likes of us. I forgot that, sometimes.

Ashe jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow and I cleared my throat. ‘Right. Of course. We can provide that, if it would help,’ I offered.

‘Please. If Kali is trapped by some homicidal spirit, I want to know. I want to help.’

‘Trapped…’ I mulled the word over in my head as if it would somehow make sense. ‘But if she was trapped, how could she have been by your house?’

Rhodes blinked. ‘Come to think of it, she wasn’t technically on my property. I’ve only seen her twice, but both times she was in the trees separating my land from the neighbour’s.’

‘What if that’s the hub?’ Ashe asked me. ‘What if she physically can’t move past the property line?’ Then she turned to Rhodes. ‘Do you know who owns that land?’

He shook his head, his lips pursed into thin, white lines. ‘No. I’m sorry. I know someone owns it, and I see them coming and going sometimes in an old SUV, but I’ve never actually seen them.’

‘Then that’s where we start digging. We find out who owns that land, and maybe we can get Kali out of there.’

‘We can’t go to the police with this, can we?’ Rhodes asked, worry lining his face and ageing him significantly. He really did care about Kali, didn’t he?

‘No, we can’t,’ I confirmed. ‘They can’t help us. Not with this.’

He took a steadying breath, then met my eyes with a determination that matched my own. ‘I want to help. In any way I can. Just bring me up to speed with this whole paranormal shit. I can be the one to put myself out there if it’s dangerous, too. My life is less important.’

‘Whoa, hold up. Why would you say something like that?’ Ashe asked, her tone laced with both anger and concern.

He shrugged, and through his relaxed demeanour, I could see the lines of tension running through him. Whatever it was, it was bugging him, but he didn’t want anyone to know it. ‘I’m already dying. Only have a few weeks left to live, so I may as well make the most of it. If I can give my life to save someone else, then I will.’

I slumped back in my chair, seeing him in a new light. ‘Shit, man. That’s… rough.’

‘It is what it is, and I meant what I said. If this is really as dangerous as you think it is, then let me be the cannon fodder. I want to help. I want to help her.’

I huffed a small laugh, the irony of the situation not lost on me. ‘You too, huh?’

I tilted his head, confused. ‘Sorry?’

‘He means you’ve got feelings for Kali, just like him,’ Ashe explained, and Rhodes’ eyebrows disappeared beneath his bangs.

‘Even I was a little bit in love with her,’ Ashe said, though she was mostly joking. Everyone loved Kali. She was just that kind of person. It was impossible not to.

‘I’m… shit. Do you want me to like, back off or something?’ Rhodes floundered.

‘There’s nothing to back off from,’ I admitted, a little sulkily. ‘She married my brother.’

‘Wait, the one out there? The one who married that Dakota chick? How…?’

‘Kali was legally declared dead earlier this year. She’s been missing for seven years. Blake moved on,’ I said, though I couldn’t quite contain my feelings on the matter.

‘Oh, shit. This whole thing is one big mess, huh?’

‘Yeah. No kidding.’

‘So you were in love with your brother’s wife?’ he asked me, but there was no judgment in his tone, merely curiosity.

‘She was my friend before they even met,’ I defended myself anyway. ‘My feelings for her were present long before they were introduced.’

‘And they were that strong that they never faded,’ he surmised. ‘That shit’s heavy as fuck. Damn, man. I’m sorry. Did she know?’

I shook my head. ‘No.’

‘He thought he was doing what was best for her by letting Blake steal her out from under him,’ Ashe said, her disapproval obvious and something that we had argued over a lot when Kali had first started dating Blake.

‘Shouldn’t we tell him?’ Rhodes asked, unsure how to proceed with such delicate information.

‘ No ,’ I practically shouted. ‘No, we can’t tell him anything. Not yet. He and Dakota just got married, and they’re not exactly big believers in the paranormal. They would just get in the way, and poor Dakota… I’m not sure how she would react if she knew Kali was still alive. I mean, technically, she and Blake are no longer married since her death was made official, but that’s a whole can of worms I’d rather stay firmly closed until absolutely necessary.’

‘Okay. Understood. I won’t tell them anything unless you give the go-ahead.’

My smile was more genuine, even if it was still tight. ‘Thanks.’

‘Why don’t we start by showing me that evidence, then, yeah? Get me up to speed with what we’re dealing with.’

‘You’ll have to come with us. Mikey keeps a record of everything on the computers. He’s our tech guy, but he’s a bit shy, so we’ll need to go to him,’ Ashe told him, and he nodded his understanding.

‘Yeah, I figured as much. He seems pretty skittish, from what I’ve seen.’

‘You don’t know the half of it,’ she joked. ‘Even with us, he still gets shy sometimes, and we’ve been friends since we were teenagers.’

I trailed behind them as we left Rhodes’ office, Gloria falling into step beside me as soon as I stepped out.

‘You heard all of that?’ I asked her.

‘Yup.’

‘You good?’

‘No, but this isn’t about me. If Kali is in trouble and needs our help, then that’s what we’re going to do. She’s been stuck for the past seven years, Chance. I’m not so much of a coward that I’d leave her to suffer any longer.’

‘I know. I never said you were.’

‘But you were thinking it,’ she muttered.

‘No, I wasn’t,’ I argued, and I was being honest.

She sighed, her shoulders slumping as if the weight of the world was crushing them. ‘I’m scared, Chance. And not even for me. Ashe… she jumps into dangerous situations like it’s nothing. I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep her safe here. Not with this. Not against this entity.’

My steps halted as I turned to face her full-on and look her in the eyes. She needed to see how serious I was. ‘I’m not going to let anything happen to her. If you heard anything Rhodes said in there, you’ll know he offered himself up to do the dangerous shit. Even he’s trying to protect us, and he doesn’t even know us, let alone owe us anything.’

She nodded, but I could tell it was more of an action rather than an agreement. ‘We’ll see. I don’t have a good feeling about this at all, Chance, but I don’t know what else can be done.’

And then she was walking off, hurrying to catch up to her wife before they knocked on Mikey’s door.

She was right, though. This was the most dangerous situation we had ever found ourselves in. Emotions were high, people were dying, and Kali was alive.

Fuck. Kali was alive.

I’ll save you, Kali. I promise. No matter what it takes, I’ll get you out of this mess, I swear it.