to take the fall for this heist, even. I had no problem framing Claude.
He deserves it.
Behind me, my guys all rushed at the pair, just like I did.
From where he knelt, Claude shot flames at the guys, but my crew was all wearing our fireproof gear. My guys didn’t even bother to use magic to shield themselves this time, just went at him like animals.
We were getting desperate.
I watched my crew out of the corner of my eye, saw Claude’s haughty expression change to grim determination, which meant he realized his flames had done nothing.
Good.
My fist bashed into the side of Ginny’s face and, as I watched her head snap sideways and heard her groan in pain, I felt like the tide was about to turn.
But hope was ripped away when Ginny snapped her fingers and next to her, a figure coalesced out of thin air. A man—a ghost. Not my father.
This specter was tall, with long hair and a scar on his chin that gave him a pirate vibe. His ghostly clothes clung to him, a white-collared shirt and black slacks that were so generic he could have died any time in the past century.
“Meet my other boyfriend, Hales.” Ginny’s sentence wasn’t even finished before the ghost lunged for me.
The fucking psycho was with a dead guy? I didn’t have time to even think of a sarcastic remark about that as I ducked to the side and then tried to skirt around them, adrenaline rushing through my head in a way that made me feel high.
A ghost? No wonder they’d fucking found us. That damn ghost could have been trailing us the entire time.
Wait, wouldn’t Dad have seen him? I wondered. Wouldn’t I?
I didn’t know enough about ghosts and how they fucking worked—I’d only ever interacted with Dad, only ever said hello to a ghost in a graveyard once before that—but the fact that they had a ghost on their side made this shit twice as dangerous. We had to get out of here, and fast. We couldn’t face the fiery tube we had used to get down to the vault. We’d be sitting ducks for possession tucked inside a tube of flame, all too easy for him to force us to roast ourselves—we had no choice. My crew and I had to go through door number two and hope that whatever was behind it was better than the way we’d snuck in.
I heard thundering footsteps behind me. It had to be the guys since I was still so close to Claude and Ginny.
But none of my crew were Darklights. They couldn’t see the full spectrum of light the way that I could. My guys couldn’t see the ghost. They didn’t know about that threat yet.
I opened my mouth to warn them. But then I felt a frozen hand touch my shoulder and sink beneath my skin.
Cold flooded my veins and I shrieked as I felt the ghost enter my body. It was like sliding into a bathtub full of ice cubes and getting shoved into a contortionist box all at once as my consciousness was crammed into a tiny corner of myself.
“Hailstorm!” Evan yelled, his voice tight with concern as he caught up to me. “What’s wrong?” My brother’s best friend whipped me around and, as he did, I saw Andros’ huge fist shatter Claude’s nose with a punch that sprayed blood like a garden hose. The old bastard slid to the ground, not just to his knees this time—he face-planted on the cement floor.
Good. I hoped the asshole got brain damage.
“Hey!” Evan pulled me toward him again as Andros turned to Ginny to do the same thing to her. The huge man’s chest heaved with anger. Older and bigger than the rest of my crew, Andros was also hardened. He’d done real time. He knew exactly what we’d face if we got caught, which is why, even though he clenched his jaw and grimaced at the thought of hitting a woman, he still raised his hand—
But my legs shot forward—faster than I’d ever run in my life—and my body swooped in front of the bitch just in time for Andros’ giant fist to connect with my face instead of Ginny’s.
Pain sizzled through my nerves like lightning bolts.
Holy shit!
I watched shock and regret register on Andros’ face. His square jaw tightened and his normal frown got even darker. “4-H?” he asked.
I didn’t respond. I just attacked him—because I’d become a puppet on a string. The ghost inside my