Page 101 of Ghostly Touches

Jonah throws his hands up and looks behind him. “You want to shower together? Save some water?”

“If you don’t get out of my sight…” Viktor snarls.

Jonah walks out of the kitchen with a laugh. Willow chuckles as she moves around the space over to the refrigerator. I don’t waste any time as I begin to rummage through the drawers. There has to be a map here. There’s always a map at each safehouse that marks where the ripples are. Once we have a direction, we’ll head there immediately. I know one is close.

Behind me, I hear Viktor’s grunt of disapproval.

“Is all of this fresh?” he asks.

I look over my shoulder to see Willow staring into the refrigerator. She grabs a jar then nods.

“Yup.”

I straighten, suddenly concerned. There shouldn’t be a refrigerator full of food here. There should be freeze dried food or more gruel.

“Should we be here?” Kwil asks. “If there are other Ghosts in the area, we need to leave.”

I don’t disagree but looking at the exhaustion on Viktor’s face and hearing the weariness in Kwil’s voice tell me that my men are running on empty. Long nights full of fighting and long stretches of time in the car are taking their toll. Back in the Third Realm, we’d at least get a reprieve from all the killing.

“We’ll stay for a few hours. We’re only here to collect supplies and get some real rest in. Then we’ll head out.”

“I’ll go keep an eye out for any unexpected visitors,” Viktor states, turning around.

I turn with him and place a hand on his shoulder. When Viktor looks at me, I choose my words carefully. The other night, I’d scouted with him, afraid if we allowed him to go out on his own, he’d miss something. The last time we let him scout on his own, he didn’t notice three Ghosts approaching the house until it was nearly too late. No need to risk it again.

“Let Kwil go out tonight. You deserve some rest.”

“I’m fine.”

Viktor and his pride…

“You were up last night with me, and I know you weren’t sleeping well in the car today. Kwil got some rest last night—”

Willow snorts behind us.

I ignore her and continue, “You deserve some down time.”

“You don’t trust me, do you? The other night when the others arrived I—”

“No, it has nothing to do with that.” It’s exactly that.

At Viktor’s scowl, I brace myself to pull rank. His glare shifts to behind me before he grunts and shakes off my hand.

“Fine. I’m going to find some extra clothes for us in one of the rooms upstairs,” he grumbles before taking off down the hall. “And I’ll grab the extra cash from the safe.”

I stare after him, surprised at how easy that was. When I turn to look back at Kwil, I find him staring at Willow, who’s suddenly very curious about everything in the refrigerator.

“I’ll be outside,” Kwil excuses himself and silently leaves the room.

I turn my attention back to finding a map. Behind me, Willow continues to rummage through the refrigerator, pulling out ingredients for what I assume will be dinner.

“We don’t have time to cook.”

“You worry about finding what you need, and I’ll worry about everyone else, okay?” Willow snaps.

Her tone surprises me. I turn around, concerned that something’s wrong.

“What’s bothering you?”

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