Page 62 of Ghost Girl

‘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.

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