ghost [k. parker]

• CHAPTER 14 •

CHAPTER 14: poker

"YOU THINK I DON'T SEE YOU, HUH?" Kai muttered in a dangerous whisper. Roma couldn't reply with Kai's hands still clasped around her throat- she had clawed at him, scratching down his arms to the brink of drawing blood, all to no avail. Then in a desperate attempt, she grabbed the first book she could reach off the shelves behind her and brought it with a vengeance to Kai's face.

Malachai Parker was less than impressed; surely she had more dignity than to assault him with a book? The things people would resort to staying alive.

"There's no need for that. I can forgive and forget if you just tell me what the fuck it is you're doing."

Although his words were calm, he'd used his spare hand to collect both of Roma's fighting fists and pin them above her head. She was trapped and she was exhausted and she wanted to go home. Wherever that was. What was the worst Kai could do, kill her? That was barely a threat to her- in fact, she was bored of dying. So, she stopped struggling.

"Good girl."

His grip on Roma's hands didn't slacken, but his allowed a little extra breathing room for her throat. She took quiet, gasping inhales but otherwise said nothing, looking Kai dead in the eyes as she did so. Her pride wouldn't allow her to beg him to let her go, or plead with him. He couldn't really hurt her in any way that mattered. The last time he tortured her she hadn't been so accustomed to pain; there was nothing he could say or do that would make her lose her upperhand.

"Now, tell me why you're here. Tell me what you want, what you're looking for." This demand didn't faze Roma- Kai had been clever enough to realise that Roma was upto something, but he hadn't figured out exactly what- Roma intended to keep it that way.

She took in a deep breath, fully aware that it could be her last before Kai killed her again, and quietly said to him, "I'm sorry, Kai, but I can't tell you that."

His eyes flitted back and forth across her face, analysing the unflinching resilience displayed upon it. "What the fuck do you mean?"

"I mean that you would hurt me."

He didn't understand, he really didn't. "I hurt you all the time. I'm hurting you now! Roma, I- I've slit your throat before- you're not making sense!"

In this frenzy his hand had let go of her throat and Roma used the little freedom she had to rest her head on the shelf behind her; perhaps she couldn't tell him the how but she could divulge a little of the what.

"I just want to go home Kai. If...if we could go home, do you think we would still be around each other," she phrased the question carefully, not wanting to insinuate the two were some kind of dynamic duo.

Kai was surprised by the question, and showed it by releasing her hands. He weighed up what he could reply with, what her original question even meant- he was getting more confused by the second.

"No," he lied.

Roma let out a large sigh that Kai couldn't quite decipher. Then she let out a little laugh which was even more baffling in the current situation. "Would you hurt me if I had something you wanted?"

Their acquaintanceship had progressed passed the need for Kai to torture petty things out of her. "How bad do I want it?"

"Very badly."

"Yes." It was the truth.

And like that, he confirmed what she had already known. Which is why she had to apologise for the course of action she had decided to take. "I'm sorry, Kai."