A second later the glass above them exploded, and a projectile went skidding across the floor. It spun in a crazy circle, and Ghost's heart stopped as he saw it was a grenade. His eyes connected with Griz, and they both dove into the side hallway.

The explosion was deafening, a white flash searing through the air. When the percussion faded, they both staggered to their feet. Half the back wall of the clubhouse was gone as was the ceiling to the second floor.

There was debris everywhere, some of it smoldering.

Ghost scrambled across it, clawing his way to the other side of the pool table. Both Boo and Jessie were lying on their stomachs, Boo covering her, protecting her, half buried under the debris.

Ghost scrambled to dig them out, with Griz stumbling up to lend a hand.

"Jessie! Jessie, are you okay?" Ghost shouted frantically, his own voice sounding deaf in his ears. All he could hear was a large roaring noise. He clawed his way through the debris and everything seemed in slow motion. He couldn't lose her. Not now.

Griz pulled Boo off her, and Ghost rolled Jessie over to her back. She began to cough, and he grabbed her up hugging her to his chest.

"Thank you, Lord."

She pushed back on him. He watched as her lips moved, and he knew she was saying something, but with his hearing messed up by the explosion, he couldn't hear a word.

He studied her, his eyes moving over every inch, checking to make sure she was okay. He determined she must have had the wind knocked out of her. Her forehead was cut, blood oozing from it, but it didn't appear too deep.

"You okay, baby?" he asked, cupping her face and brushing her hair back.

Finally, his hearing started to return. Slow at first, like the sounds were coming down a long tunnel. But he could make out the words, distorted as they were.

"I'm okay. Are you hurt?"

He shook his head. "I'm good.

Griz was rousing Boo, who was moaning, holding his head.

"You took a blow to the head by that two by four, Boo," Griz told him.

"Fuck, that hurts."

Jessie pulled at Ghost's vest. "Tink and Hammer! They're outside."

Griz looked at Ghost. "Blood and Yammer, too. Let's go."

Ghost looked back at her. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. They may need help."

The two of them moved toward the door, but the men were already tearing in through the rubble, trying to see if they were hurt.

"We're all okay," Griz shouted to them.

"Tink. Is she okay?" Jessie asked, looking up at Blood.

He squatted down in front of her. "Yeah, babe. Hammer's with her. She's fine. Are you okay?"

"I think so." Her eyes took in her arms and legs, looking for wounds. Then they moved to Blood. "You're bleeding." He glanced down.

"Just a knick. I'm good. You're the one that needs a bandage." He pointed at her forehead.

She reached up to touch her head, pulling her hand away and seeing the blood on her fingers. Before she could comprehend that, Ghost bent and scooped her up in his arms carrying her to the bar that, surprisingly, was still standing. He sat her ass on the bar top and nodded toward the hall.

"There's a first aid kit in the closet."

Blood moved off to get it.

Ghost ripped a piece of the bottom of his tee shirt off and pressed it to her forehead.

"Ghost, your shirt. You ruined it."

"Think that fucking matters? Look around, sweetheart. The place is blown to shit, and you're worried about my shirt?"

Blood chuckled. "Maybe she got knocked in the head."

She glared at him. "I'm fine. It's just a scrape." Then she looked at Ghost with a pouting face. "I didn't even get to fire off one round."

Ghost and Blood burst out laughing.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

After a long day of dealing with a fire department and police department that responded to the gunfire and explosion, then getting the prospects started boarding the place up, as well as a long meeting that involved a phone call to the DKs to set a meeting for retaliation, Ghost finally brought Jessie home, and she was so happy to be there.

They were out on the terrace, watching the planes land as the sun set. He stood behind her, his arms folded around her shoulders. His mouth at her ear, he said softly, "When that blast went off today, I thought I'd lost you. Never been so scared in my life."

She nodded, reaching up to squeeze his forearm, feeling safe in his arms. "Me, too. We were all so lucky. I'm so grateful no one was hurt. I'd feel responsible. I feel to blame for all of this."

"No, babe. You're just an excuse, a pawn. Hatred between clubs is deep and goes back a long way. You did nothing to start any of this."

"Still, I feel like maybe I shouldn't have come here. I wanted to find you, but I've been nothing but trouble to you."

He turned her around. "Look at me. That's bullshit. Get it out of your head. I'm glad you came. Glad you found me. And I don't want you to worry. We're gonna take care of this. Understand?"

She looked up into his eyes, and his strength melted into her. She nodded, "I know. I just wish I'd told you everything right away. Maybe things would have been different. Maybe none of this would have happened."

"You don't know that, brat, so don't drive yourself crazy wondering what if."

She nodded, but it was easier said than done. "I just want you to know there's nothing else. There's no more secrets. I promise I won't ever keep anything like that from you again. Do you believe me?"

He searched her eyes. "I believe you, Jess."

"Good. Thank you." She went into his arms, pressing her head against his chest and felt his hand at the back of her head. He kissed the top of her head, holding her. And then she heard his voice, soft and serious.

"There's something I need to tell you. Something I've wanted to tell you for a long time."

She nodded, perhaps knowing what was coming. He was going to finally tell her that big thing that he said would drive her away when he revealed it. Well, at least after her talk with Skylar, she felt a little more prepared and hoped she handled it well.

"Okay," she whispered.

"Do you want to sit?"

She shook her head, her hair brushing across his jaw. She felt him take in a long, slow breath.

"Jessie, I've been lyin' to you about something, and I need to come clean." He blew out a breath. "Shit, it's so hard for me to tell you this."

"Just say it, Ghost," she encouraged in another whisper, her head still buried against his chest.

He blew out another breath. "I'm the one that talked Robert into that recruiter's office."

"What?" She pushed back to look at him. That was the last thing she expected him to say.

"You remember the day Robert went to enlist?"

She nodded. "Yes. Why?"

"I went with him."

This was news to her. She frowned. "You did?"

"Yeah. I was supposed to enlist with him."

"You were?"

He nodded. "Remember back then how he practically idolized me? I don't know, maybe you were too young to know that."

"He did. We both did." She felt his arms tighten in a quick squeeze.

"He'd been out of school for a year or two and just sort of floundering for what to do next. That's the summer I found the club."

"The MC?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I knew. Immediately. Everything just sort of...clicked into place for me."

"I didn't know."

"I kept it from you. Your mom, my dad, no one knew, except Robert."

"Robert knew?"

He nodded. "And I knew he'd follow me. Whatever path I led him down, he'd follow, if for nothing more than to have my back, even if it wasn't right for him. And the club wasn't right for him. Robert was always more the hero type. That's why the military was perfect for him. He got to save people. He got to stand up for right. That wasn't me."

"That's not true," she protested. "You saved me. So many times."

He squeezed her again, snorting, "Saving you from a schoolyard bully? That's not exactly the same thing. I was never cut out to be anyone's white knight."

"You were to me."

He looked off at the horizon for a few minutes, his head turned toward a plane landing in the distance. He was quiet for a few minutes. When he spoke again, she heard the emotion in his voice, as if her words had affected him.

"Maybe. Anyway, I knew I couldn't let him follow me down that road. I had to make sure he took the path he was always meant to take."

"The military?"

"The military. Maybe you don't remember, but he used to talk about it all the time."

"I didn't know. It was such a shock when he signed up."

"I was supposed to go with him that day, to the recruiter. I knew he wouldn't sign up if I didn't sign up with him." He paused, and she could sense he was struggling with his next words.

"And?" she prompted.

"So I went with him."

"You did?"

"When it was time to sign on the dotted line, I told him to go first. So, he did."

She swallowed, pain knifing through her. "You didn't do it, did you? Obviously, you didn't."

He shook his head.

"You just hung him out to dry."

He didn't deny it.

"Once he signed, I told him the truth, that I never had any intention of signing up. I knew, even then, that my life was drawn to a different path, one that never would have been right for him. He needed to take the right path. I made sure he did." He paused, staring at the ground, perhaps reliving the moment. "He'd felt so betrayed."

When she didn't respond, his eyes lifted to hers. She knew her eyes must give away the pain she felt.

"You look like you just found out Santa Claus isn't real. Or maybe that I'm not the knight in shining armor you made me out to be. I'm not, Jess. Hell, I never had been. And maybe it's time you open your eyes to that. You're not a child anymore."

"No I'm not. So why don't you explain it to me."

"I thought I'd been protecting him. Thought I was doing the right thing. I couldn't let him join the MC. And that's the road I was headed down. I couldn't let him follow me down that road." He shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe I was wrong...maybe if I'd kept him with me, I could have looked out for him."

She pushed away from him, spinning as fury consuming her. "He trusted you."

Ghost nodded, his jaw locked tight.

"All this talk about him wanting to have your back, what about when he needed you to have his back? You could have saved him. If you had been there with him, you could have saved him."