Page 27

Chance

M y mother’s face was purple by the time she was done screaming at me. Oh, wait, she wasn’t done. She was still going.

‘How dare you bring your hocus pocus nonsense into their relationship? And how dare you bring Kali into it, too? Why can’t you just leave them be? Hasn’t your brother been through enough? Kali is gone, and she’s not coming back. Don’t you sully her name any further, and stay away from Dakota. She deserves far more than the likes of you shoving Kali in her face, and in such a horrific manner. I don’t even want to see your face again, Chance. You are a disgrace, and are no longer a part of this family.’

Wow.

I was speechless. Some part of me withered and died at finally being cut off, but it was so small now that I didn’t care. I simply pushed it to the side and glared down at the woman who had birthed me yet was treating me like shit on her shoe.

‘Fine,’ I agreed. It would make my loss hurt less. If it would even hurt her at all, which I doubted. She hadn’t loved me in a long time, and apparently, she was done pretending now, too.

Her face bloated with building anger as she tried her best to hold it in. Couldn’t even let her own son see her lose her cool, but then again, I wasn’t her son anymore, was I? I hadn’t been for a long time.

It seemed that both of us had expected this outcome sooner or later, and now that it was done, there was no reason for her to stay. She blew out a long breath, sniffed haughtily in a way that reminded me of Florence and had me physically recoiling in disgust, and stormed off down the driveway. Calvin had joined her for the short walk, but had stayed behind to loiter at the edge of the driveway, letting his wife do what he’d been begging her to do for years. He tossed a smug little grin over his shoulder, then followed her before she could disappear around the tree.

Smarmy bastard. Good fucking riddance.

‘Sorry to say this, man, but your mom is a bitch,’ Rhodes said as he came up behind me, peering over my shoulder at their retreating backs.

I sighed. ‘I know. And she’s not my mother anymore.’

‘Good,’ he grunted, then clapped me on the shoulder. ‘You deserve better.’

I hummed my agreement, no words needed as I closed the door and headed back inside the house. Mikey was at the kitchen table, multiple laptops spread out as he monitored the readings still coming in from the devices we left outside. So far, we had surmised that they were picking up on multiple energy readings, as in a shit load of ghosts wondering the neighbouring property. It wasn’t a good sign, and we were worried we had a serial killer on our hands. One that had gotten Kali.

I tried not to think too much about it, the overwhelming emotions it brought on distracting me from my purpose. I had one thing left to do, and it was to figure out who it was that killed her and hand it over to the police. They wouldn’t accept our readings in court, but they would accept an anonymous tip. It would help if we had a little more evidence to back up our claims, because ‘there’s lots of ghosts ’ would just get us dismissed and laughed out of town. It was something we were used to, but this was too important to fuck up because of sceptics who wouldn’t take us seriously.

Ashe and Gloria had joined us earlier this morning, but they were still off in their own world and practically ignored us men while they continued whatever argument that had them so enraptured. I’d caught snippets of it, but nothing I hadn’t already heard before. Gloria was more adamant than ever that we all leave, claiming the dangers of this case weren’t worth it. Ashe was more adamant than ever that we stay now that Kali was involved.

There was more to it, but I didn’t try to eavesdrop. This was between them, and I knew from past experiences that if I tried to get involved, I’d just make things worse. So, Rhodes and I joined Mikey at the table to let the married couple bicker in privacy.

Mikey didn’t even glance up when we joined him, his eyes glued to the screens and the information on them.

‘Anything new?’ I asked as I settled into the seat to his right, Rhodes taking the seat opposite us.

‘Not much. There have been a few fluctuations, particularly with the thermometer readings, but other than that, it's been a steady influx of data.’

I chewed on my bottom lip as I read the readings for myself, noting the influxes he was referring to. They were bigger than I expected. Much bigger. The temperature outside was around eighty degrees. The temperature around the spirits dipped down to a range of around sixty to seventy degrees. These were dipping close to freezing temperatures, and my concern over the power this particular entity wielded was growing at an increasingly rapid rate.

‘That’s not just a few fluctuations,’ I pointed out. ‘And they’re coming from two different places.’

‘What?’ Mikey asked, immediately scanning the data for what I had seen. His eyes widened comically when he finally caught it. ‘Holy shit. How did I miss that?’

‘What did you find?’ Rhodes asked, leaning forward excitedly.

‘There’s two of them,’ I informed him breathlessly. This was… I didn’t know if it was a good groundbreaking discovery or if we were in for a whole world of hurt.

‘Two? I thought you said there were dozens?’ Rhodes asked, his face scrunching in confusion.

‘Dozens of spirits, yes, but the strong entity that we encountered last night seems to have a friend,’ Mikey elaborated.

‘Is it a friend, though?’ I mused out loud. ‘They rarely show up in the same place at the same time. It looks like one is chasing the other.’

‘Holy shit. No way. That’s epic.’

‘It’s something,’ I acknowledged.

Another knock banged on the front door, and we all jumped. We had been so engrossed in the data and what it could mean that we had stopped paying attention to our surroundings.

Rhodes groaned and leaned back in his chair, tilting it back to balance on its rear legs like a petulant child. ‘That had better not be round two with Mommy Dearest.’

I started to rise, but sat back down when I heard Ashe move by instead, her focus still on Gloria as they continued to bicker back and forth.

‘Jesus, babe. You need to chill out. I’m just answering the damn door,’ she threw back before we heard the door open. Then her confused, ‘Dakota?’

‘Hey, um… I need to speak with Chance.’

'In here!’ I called out, already scooting my chair back again to get up. I greeted her in the doorway, Ashe scooting past to get back to her argument with her wife.

‘What’s up, Dakota?’

‘I saw her again.’

My eyebrows shot up to hide beneath my hairline. ‘You did?’ She nodded, her lips pursed in a grim line. ‘Alright, come on in and tell me everything.’

Mikey looked up when I led her through to the kitchen, his face flushing a bright red shade as soon as he clocked that there was a woman nearby. One that wasn’t gay, even if she was married to my brother. He’d reacted the same way to Kali once upon a time, and I suddenly wondered if that would still be the case, even though she was dead.

‘Sit,’ I ordered, pulling out the chair I’d just vacated and ignoring the death glare Mikey sent my way for putting her so close to him.

‘You look a bit pale,’ Rhodes observed, also standing. ‘Are you all right? Do you want some water, or something?’

‘Water would be great, please. If it’s not too much trouble,’ she said, giving him a small smile.

He scoffed. ‘How is getting a glass of water trouble?’ he muttered under his breath in disbelief. I felt a similar way about socialite manners. Most of them were thinly veiled jabs that exuded entitlement, but Dakota had never meant them in that way.

He passed her the glass, and she gave him a grateful smile, then proceeded to chug most of it down in the most unladylike manner, a trickle of liquid escaping from the sides to dribble down her chin. I grinned. She wouldn’t dare do something like that in front of my mother, and I was pleased she was letting her guard down around me.

‘Okay,’ she said, like she was gearing up to reveal something earth-shattering. ‘When I got back yesterday, Blake had left me a note. He’s struggling with the idea of Kali being alive and close by, but I haven’t had the chance to tell him otherwise just yet. He said he’s gone fishing to clear his head… but that’s irrelevant,’ she waved off her last comment.

‘Go on,’ I urged when she didn’t immediately continue.

She took a deep, shuddering breath, clearly spooked, and I was more curious than ever what had gone down between her and Kali.

‘Anyway, Mallory came to check on me and I showed her the note-‘

‘We know,’ Rhodes deadpanned, earning a confused look from Dakota. ‘She just left. Tore Chance here a new one and basically disowned him.’

‘No basically about it,’ I corrected with a shrug.

‘Wait, what? What the fuck?’ she exclaimed, offending on my behalf. It was nice of her, but unnecessary.

‘It’s whatever. She told me what you told her, and she was mad at me. Nothing new,’ I waved this side conversation off, ready to get back to what really mattered. Kali.

‘That’s… I’m sorry, Chance. I didn’t mean for that to happen,’ she apologised.

‘She didn’t say anything about Kali showing up today, so I’m assuming that happened after she left?’ I blatantly redirected, refusing to talk about something as unimportant as my mother.

‘Oh, um. Yes. She had folded the note and put it in her cardigan pocket. When she left, it sort of just, uh, flew back inside and landed at my feet. At first, I thought it was just the wind, but when I put it on the table, I saw Kali standing there in the mirror again. She scratched out Blake’s signature.’

I froze. Why would she do that?

‘Do you have the note?’ I asked, careful to keep my tone even.

She nodded, then dug around in her own pocket before producing a folded-up piece of paper and handing it over to me.

Sure enough, it was a note written in Blake’s handwriting, a jagged hole replacing where he had signed his name. I read through it a few times, just to be sure I was reading it right. It didn’t make any sense. He had never run off like this before. Sure, he was known for his fishing trips after a big case, but he didn’t just abandon people while on vacation. This wasn’t like him, and something wasn’t adding up.

‘He just left?’ I asked her.

‘He took the car, too.’

I reared back, like my shock was a physical slap to the face. ‘What the fuck?’

Her lip quivered as she looked down, avoiding our eyes. ‘I know,’ she whispered.

‘This isn’t… I don’t… Fuck, Dakota, I don’t know what to say. He’s never…’

‘I know. This isn’t like him. And I got a phone call from the police right after Kali scratched his name out. They said they wanted to ask me some questions, but they didn’t say what it was about, just that it was something to do with a case they were working on. I’m supposed to go down to the station tomorrow.’

‘Hang on… Wait… Stop.’ I held up my hand as if I could ward off what she was saying, and the thoughts that were now swirling around in my head, but she kept going as if I hadn’t spoken, too lost in the memory of what had happened to hear me.

‘I think she’s mad that he remarried. She looked so fucking sad. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want her to hate me, but Blake has every right to move on, you know? But now I’m afraid he hasn’t let her go. Why would he marry me if he was still struggling with losing her?’

I heard what she said, but it didn’t sit right. Kali would have wanted him to move on, to find love and keep living his life. She wouldn’t have been upset that he’d done just that. In fact, she probably would have loved Dakota.

I’m afraid he hasn’t let her go…

The words echoed around inside my skull, right alongside all the new information. All the ghosts. Kali showing up. Blake disappearing. The police…

No. Oh, no. Oh fuck, please… No…

‘Are you okay, man?’ Rhodes asked, alarmed. ‘You look like you’re gonna be…’

I didn’t let him finish his sentence before I rushed from the room, straight to the bathroom, where I bent my head over the toilet and emptied the contents of my stomach into the bowl.

When I concluded that I needed to have a little chat with my brother, my stomach lurched again.

When I realised I knew exactly where to look for him, the force of my heaves were so strong that I almost passed out.

It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t. It didn’t make any sense. I had to be wrong, there was no other option.

So why did it did the pieces slot so perfectly into place?

‘Shit, Chance. Are you okay?’ Ashe asked from the doorway. With my face pressed against the toilet seat, I turned my head to look at the small gathering just inside the door. All five of them were staring at me like I’d lost my mind, but it was Mikey’s expression that really cinched it for me.

I wasn’t the only one to come to the conclusion that I had.

Fuck.

‘All right, everybody out,’ Rhodes ordered with a clap of his hands that made me wince. The sound drilled through my skull to hit every part of my brain that was suffering from what couldn’t be true, yet logic said otherwise.

Gloria obeyed, dragging a reluctant Ashe behind her, leaving Rhodes, Mikey, and Dakota behind.

I wiped my mouth and sat back, leaning my head against the wall as they studied me, but it couldn’t be helped. I need confirmation. I needed the truth.

‘Dakota, go back to the campsite.’

‘But-‘

‘No, Dakota. Go back and wait there.’

Rhodes, seeing her protest brewing, wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gently manoeuvred her away, leaving just me and Mikey left. We listened as Rhodes convinced Dakota to leave, promising her he’d tell her if something happened, and then the door snicked shut behind her. I heard her footsteps walking away on the gravel of the driveway, pausing for a moment like she was debating the action, then continuing, and I breathed a sigh of relief that she wouldn’t be around for this.

My stomach revolted at the taste of bile in my mouth, and when Rhodes came back in, I asked if he had a spare toothbrush I could use. He ran upstairs and came back with an unopened toothbrush, some toothpaste, and a bottle of mouthwash, each of which I took gratefully.

Both men kept me company as I rinsed out the bad taste from my mouth, but I stayed in the bathroom in case the conversation we were about to have made me sick again.

I had a feeling it would.

Mikey surprised me by bringing it up first. ‘It can’t be him, can it?’

‘Him? Him who?’ Rhodes asked, his gaze darting between us as his brow twisted in confusion.

‘I fucking hope not.’

Looking a little green himself, Mikey nodded, grim understanding darkening his entire aura. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘I need to know,’ I admitted.

‘Need to know what? What have you two figured out?’ Rhodes pushed for his own answers, and I realised it was probably a good idea to let him know. If I was right… fuck, I didn’t want to think it, but if I was, then I might not be returning. Not tonight. Not ever.

Mikey’s breath hitched before a sob tore loose, and he was suddenly wrapping his long, lanky arms around my much taller and thicker frame. Tears soaked through my shirt in seconds, and I returned the hug with just as much fervour.

‘Shit, guys. You’re acting like this is a last goodbye,’ Rhodes commented, and I watched as realisation his and his eyes widened in shock. ‘Oh…’

‘I’m so fucking sorry, Chance. I’m so sorry. You both deserved better,’ Mikey whimpered into my shoulder. ‘None of this should have happened. If it is him,’ he pulled back to look me in the eyes, the depth of this betrayal echoing between us, ‘make him pay.’

‘Make who pay? What the fuck is going on?’ Rhodes demanded, his voice rising in pitch as his anxiety and frustration bled through.

I didn’t answer. One shared look with Mikey told me he wouldn’t force me to say it out loud. He would handle it because I was very likely about to confront the man who murdered the love of my life.

My brother.