Page 28 of Ghost Girl

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, hispupils 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 boughtthe 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 fuckingbreathe.

‘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 activelytrying 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.’

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