Page 42 of Phantom’s Mate

“Yeah. That would be nice.” Tentatively, she put her arms around him and hugged him.

Normally, they would melt into each other, but this time she felt him stiffen. Britt pulled back slowly, the pit of her stomach getting cold.

“Nick, I know there’s something wrong. What happened?”

He bit his lips, but dammit, he still wouldn’t look her in the eye. He said, “I don’t think we should do this anymore. I mean, I’ll help with the PI stuff, but we can’t be… together.”

She’d sensed it coming since he walked into the room, but she still felt like she’d been smacked with a two-by-four. Too stunned for it to even hurt yet.

“Why? Is it because of my negative ghost energy?” Or was it just something about her?

“No, of course not,” he said. “But you’ll be moving on soon. We’ll find your sister, you’ll deliver your message, and then your hot pool boy angel will come and take you to your margarita heaven. You don’t want any other bonds holding you here.”

Like him? She said in a small voice, “Don’t I get to decide that?”

He didn’t answer.

She wanted to be brave, like she was during their date, and tell him exactly how she was feeling right now. But remembering all the things she’d told him then took her courage away.

Instead, she felt hot with humiliation. This was why she never opened up to people. Because whatever she had to give, they didn’t want.

Nick said, “You have your path to follow, and it’s going to be great. And I have my path. My mission.”

Was that what this was about?

“You mean your revenge against Jax? Your cold-blooded murder? I don’t understand. Who is that going to help? Why is that more important than us?” She exploded in frustration. “Why can’t you just let it go?”

Nick turned on her. “You’re a fine one to talk about letting go,” he snarled. “You’ve been keeping yourself in this little circle of Halloween hell for two years because you can’t let go!”

That stung. “Well, I didn’t have a god come along and set me free, now did I? I thought you might be the one to do that.”

He gave a bitter laugh. “Well, I’m sure as fuck not a god. Or an angel. Like I said, you’re the only person who ever mistook me for one.”

She said softly, “No. I told you. You’re my hero.”

“I’m not anybody’s hero. When are you going to figure that out?”

She just shook her head. She could feel the anger rising up in him, that rage that he just couldn’t let die. She didn’t know what else to say.

Nick went on as if something had burst inside him. “I failed at everything I did. I was a good agent, until I blew my cover and got myself killed. I was a good second to Brandon, until he lost control of the crew and they fell apart. I had to take Ranger down. Me. Because Brandon wasn’t there.”

He paced the tiny room like a caged beast. “Brandon failed me. And because I was alone, I got killed. I called him at the end, and he didn’t fucking come.”

Britt flinched at the pain in those words. “He did come.”

“Not soon enough!”

She said, “I thought you loved Brandon.”

Nick punched his fist into the wall. “I do! I did! He was like a brother to me, even though I knew he never felt the same about me as he did about his home crew.”

“But he did come for you,” Britt said. “And he took down Raines because he killed you.”

“Yeah. And look what he got. Everything. A mate. A new crew who will do anything for him, and for each other. He and Kitty will have cubs some day, and a big happy family, and I have nothing.”

Britt said in a small voice, “You have me.”

He looked straight at her, and for a moment she saw something flash through his eyes. Something naked and needy.