Page 45 of Phantom’s Mate

That desire had kept her here all this time—and now she could fulfill it. Her purse, with the locket and the letter, was just across the road, in the real world, hidden in the underbrush.

But she was here because she was keeping herself here. Because she’d never believed she deserved love, never let anyone break down her walls.

No one except Nick, who’d taken on some of her pain, at the cost of his own soul.

Brittany opened her eyes, tears running down her face. Deep inside she could feel the connection to Nick, a heat in the middle of her chest like a blazing sun. And leading away from it, she saw a faint blue light like a strand of a spiderweb, leading off down the road.

She knew Nick was at the other end of it. Angry and feeling alone, just like she’d always felt, even though he had people who loved him, just like she’d had. And he needed more, just like she did.

She walked down the road to the edge of her darkness. Nick had told her once that a ghost didn’t necessarily need to be attached to a place.

They could be attached to a person.

Well, she was attached to Nick. And she was going to help him, whether he wanted her to or not.

Chapter 21

Jax’s compound was an abandoned farm, surrounded by forest. There was an old barn that looked like it had been turned into a rough communal living space; a ruined farmhouse; and a couple of other outbuildings.

Nick could see some recent repairs, but the whole place looked like it would blow to pieces in a high wind. The kids were dirty and unkempt, and their mothers looked tired and dispirited.

He didn’t have much time to look around, though—they were in the middle of some kind of crisis.

A military-style transport truck had just pulled in, and two men were being unloaded out of the back, chained and under guard. Nick recognized them as panther shifters from Raines’s old crew—this crew. One of the soldiers guarding them was carrying the artifact case.

Jax stood in the middle of the open area between the buildings, arms folded, his face stern. At the sight of him, that familiar rage flared up in Nick.

Kill him.

But he didn’t have a way. Not yet.

The men around him seemed angry and restless; the women and children were hanging back around the edges, looking scared.

“Bring them into HQ,” Jax said, and turned and walked into the largest of the outbuildings. The guards followed, along with several other men Nick remembered from when he’d been undercover.

From the looks of things, a couple of Jax’s guys had tried to make off with the artifacts. Tired of living in squalor, probably.

The women started herding the children into the barn. A few of them were crying; one woman tried to run out to the prisoners, and the other women held her back, talking softly to her.

Nick followed the men into the headquarters building. One of his goals was to get the artifacts back for Titan. He had to keep track of them.

And of Jax.

The place was sparse—a big desk, a few chairs, a filing cabinet, and wooden crates against the wall that looked like they held weapons.

Jax was standing behind the desk, arms still folded. Closer up, Nick saw that Jax had lines of strain around his eyes. No surprise; Raines’s crew had been full of psychos when he was alpha, and his death had probably sent half of the survivors over the edge.

Nick scanned the area. Nothing he could use quickly enough against Jax, even if he moved it with his mind. And he had to have a way to get the artifacts out. Maybe he should wait to see where Jax hid them.

Best to let things play out.

The prisoners were brought up before Jax. Nick figured the guards would make them kneel, like Raines always ordered, but they didn’t, and Jax didn’t seem to expect it.

The place was dead silent, no sound but the thud of boots and the jangle of chains. The captive men looked desperate—which was no surprise.

In this crew, betrayal had always meant death.

Not that they didn’t deserve it, for everything else they’d done. If Jax had them executed, Nick wouldn’t shed any tears.