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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.”
“Baby.” He reached for her, but she stepped back, as if his touch was poison. And perhaps right then, to her, it was.
“I can’t even bear to look at you,” she hissed. As the words came out of her mouth, all his warnings flooded over her. He’d told her this would change things. That this would change everything. That this would destroy them. She shook her head, tears spilling over her lashes. He was so right about that. This had changed everything. And maybe it had even destroyed them. It felt like it at that moment.
She took a step back, her brain scrambling for what to say, what to do. She glanced toward the road before returning her eyes to his. He didn’t miss it.
“You’re thinking of leaving, aren’t you?”
She stayed silent, her eyes locked with his as she felt her heart breaking in two.
“Aren’t you?” he repeated with a little more bite.
She nodded, giving him the truth he’d always asked for. “Yes.”
He ran a hand through his hair, stepping away. And then he whirled back to her. “You want to leave, I can’t blame you, and I won’t stop you, but before you do, before you go, I have something to show you.”
She shook her head. What could he possibly have that she would want to see now? But then Skylar’s words came back to her.
Give him a chance to explain fully. Hear him out.
“Please, Jessie,” he asked quietly.
She found herself nodding once. “All right.”
He led her inside, and surprisingly stopped in front of his computer, hitting some keys until he had pulled up what appeared to be a saved file. He clicked on it, and an email popped up. Then he stepped back, nodding toward the screen.
“I saved this. You should read it.”
She frowned at the screen. “What is it?”
He lifted his chin toward the computer. “You’ll see.”
And then he walked away. Going to stand in front of the wall of windows, his hands in his pockets. Her eyes followed him, and then, as if draw by a magnet, they returned to the screen. She sat in the chair and started at the top.
Billy—
