"What?" More sirens, joined by flashing lights.

"In the sky." Rowdy's shoulders bunched. He tunneled his fingers into his hair, and his jaw loosened. "Son of a bitch..."

A fire truck pulled up to the club just ahead of them. Another was already there. Firefighters launched into action.

A small crowd milled outside, some sitting on the curb, others bent double coughing. An ambulance blazed onto the scene, but they didn't see anyone injured.

"She wouldn't," Rowdy said. He grabbed Logan's arm. "She wouldn't."

Acid burned in Logan's gut. His jaw clenched so tight that his temples throbbed.

Smoke poured from the shattered windows of the upper floor of the club.

Most of the damage appeared to be in the back of the building. From the look of it... "A bomb."

Furious, Rowdy jerked Logan around.

"Pepper would never do anything like that, so get that idea out of your head right now." Then, breathing fast and hard, his expression bleak, he sank back.

"Jesus, what if she was inside?"

"No." Logan couldn't bear that thought. At the moment, his brain felt almost numb. Possibilities chewed on his conscience, each one worse than the one before.

He had to think. He had to figure out what to- Rowdy lurched against his door, trying to get it open, but Logan hit the locks.

Turning on him, Rowdy shouted, "She could be in there! She could-"

Logan's cell rang.

Both men stalled. Logan jerked out the phone and opened it on the first ring.

"Pepper?"

"Logan." Her voice was high and shrill. "Oh, my God, Logan."

"Where are you?" He scanned the area, looking for her, praying he'd find her.

"There was an explosion."

He heard the trembling of her voice.

He heard the shock. She needed him to take over, and that's exactly what he'd do. "It's okay now. Tell me where you are."

"There were people inside," she continued, as if she hadn't even heard him. "Music and noise and I was...a guard was ready to frisk me, and then he was going to take me in to see Morton."

"So you're still outside?" Was she even now being watched by Morton's men? "Is anyone with you?"

"The guards all ran off. At first, I wasn't sure what had happened, but then someone mentioned...a bomb." She choked. "I don't know if anyone was hurt. I don't know if Morton is still alive."

"It'll be okay, I swear." He could hear her breathing, but she said nothing.

Going with sudden inspiration, Logan said, "Pepper, Rowdy wants to talk to you. Don't you dare hang up on me, honey. Do you understand? I'm giving the phone to your brother."

Rowdy grabbed the cell from Logan, saying in a rush, "Are you okay?"

Rowdy hesitated, nodded, and as he slumped back in the seat he closed his eyes. "Thank God."

"Tell her to come to us." Logan continued scanning the outskirts of the area. Reese approached from the other side of the devastation, walking, staring in amazement. He looked as stunned as Logan felt. "This is dangerous, Rowdy.

Too damn dangerous."

Reese faded back into the shadows, out of the main flow of the milling throng.

Rowdy hesitated, maybe thinking of a way to keep Pepper safe from one and all.

The sense of menace amplified, the pressure built inside Logan. "We can't linger here, damn it. She's a sitting duck.

If anyone sees her-"

Making up his mind, Rowdy sat forward. "I'm with Logan, in his truck.

You need to come with us."

Rowdy shushed whatever argument she gave-if indeed, she argued. Logan couldn't be sure.

"We'll be safe, both of us, but not if you don't get your ass over here, right now."

Logan kept watch while Rowdy told her where to find them.

"No, stay on the line," Rowdy said, "until I see-"

And just like that, she appeared across the street, hovering behind a bus stop shelter, her gaze watchful.

Again Rowdy tried to get out of the truck. Logan cursed as he held him back.

Considering Rowdy's size and the added strength of his emotion, it wasn't an easy feat. "People will recognize you! Stay put, and tell her I'm coming to get her."

Rowdy relented. "Logan is coming for you, hon. I'm in the truck waiting. Don't you dare budge an inch."

"Get behind the wheel," Logan told Rowdy before leaving the truck and jogging over to Pepper.

She stood there, her hair tossed by the evening breeze, her expression wounded but her stance defiant.

In his lifetime, Logan had faced injustice of every kind. He'd dealt gently with rape victims, survivors from random shootings, the bereaved, the insane, evil and immorality.

Nothing and no one had ever leveled him like this.

As he got closer to Pepper, she took a step back, then planted her feet again. "If you hurt my brother, I swear I'll-"

Logan grabbed her up against his chest, crushing her close, his face in her hair, his hands opened against her back.

She didn't exactly return his embrace, but she didn't shove him away, either.

"Logan?"

He had her, and he'd be damned before he let her go again. To reassure himself that she wasn't injured, he held her back, smoothed her hair, searched over her.

She released a broken breath. "Don't you dare think that I-"

"We have to move. You can explain everything later." He turned with her tucked close to his side.

"Nothing to explain."

"Fine." With so much confusion surrounding the area, no one appeared to pay any attention to them. But that didn't mean they were safe. Hell, no.

He feared a sniper, another bomb, even an ambush.

Reese didn't approach the truck, but then, he'd have enough sense not to once he saw everything unfolding. Rowdy had the truck idling as he waited for them.

Logan tucked Pepper into the middle of the bench seat, then got in beside her.

"Drive."

With the truck already in gear, Rowdy asked, "Where?"

"Out of here for now." He fastened Pepper's seat belt, then his own. She didn't fight him when he took her hand.

Rowdy glanced at them both before carefully turning the truck and driving away.

Pepper took an audible breath. "I need the stuff out of the car."

"Forget it." Logan wanted only to get her as far away from the area as possible.

She didn't appreciate his consideration. "No, you forget it! It's important."

"I see you're recovering from your shock." Now that he saw her unharmed, all his worry coalesced into rage. She could have been killed. She would have been killed. "What you did, coming here like this, it was incredibly reckless."

"Yeah, well, if you hadn't-"

"You cleared out my motel room?"

Rowdy asked with an abrupt interruption.

That redirected her anger. "Yes, including the bimbo you left in the bed!"

Watching the road, Rowdy turned a corner and said, "She was a very nice girl." And then, "Everything is in the trunk of my car?"

Deflating, Pepper crossed her arms and glared at Logan. "Yes."

If the situation weren't so dire, Logan could have appreciated the irony. He'd wanted Pepper to get Rowdy. Now he had Rowdy, but all he could think about was keeping Pepper out of harm's way.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Where is the car?"

"I parked it two blocks north of the club, in the lot of a pawn shop. The keys are under the passenger seat."

"Anything...incriminating inside?"

She turned dagger-eyes on him. "You mean, since we're such heinous criminals and all that?"

In the face of her hostility, being reasonable wasn't easy. "I didn't say that."

"Not in those exact words, maybe. But you thought it all the same."

He gave her a quelling look that she tried to ignore. "We'll clear all that up very soon. But for now, I meant is there anything that could be used to trace you?"

"No, I just felt like visiting Rowdy's most recent conquest for some small talk. I mean, what better way to get my jollies, right?"

Rowdy whistled.

"Your sarcasm isn't helping anything."

"You're lucky all you're getting is sarcasm!"

Counting to ten didn't help. "What kind of car is it, Rowdy? I'll send Reese to take care of it."

After Rowdy gave him the make and model, Logan withdrew his cell. "You any good at losing a tail?"

He checked the rearview mirror. "Are we expecting that?"

"No. But be prepared just in case."

He called Reese.

Reese answered with a blunt, "I saw.

What do want me to do?"

He couldn't believe he'd doubted Reese, even for a second. "For now, get out of there without being seen."

"I left when you did. Want me to meet you somewhere?"

Knowing his friend wouldn't like it, and aware of both Rowdy and Pepper listening in, Logan said, "Not just yet, but soon."

Rowdy's shoulders eased a little. Did he really distrust Reese that much? Or had he still been worried that Logan would betray them?

Not likely. He wanted to do many things to and with Pepper Yates, but betrayal was permanently off the list. "I have to sort this out, and it'll be easier to slip away unnoticed if I do it alone."