How to insert value of a query into a variable in Shell Script?

I have JSON in a file nomes.txt .

JSON is:

{"p": { "nome": ["josé","Maria", "carlos","Artur"] }}

I want to throw the query value of it into a variable.

Show the results:

#!/bin/bash

ns='cat nomes.txt'

echo $ns

for ((i=0; i<=4; i++))
do
        echo $ns | jq -r ".p | .nome[$i]"
done

But when I try to do something more elaborate I can not.

I want to play the value of the JSON caught in the variable but it will not.

#!/bin/bash

ns='cat nomes.txt'

echo $ns

for ((i=0; i<=4; i++))
do
        aux=$ns | jq -r ".p | .nome[$i]"
        echo "O nome $i é $aux"
done

The value for $aux is null.

How can I transfer the value to the aux variable?