The Keeper (Silent Phoenix MC #5)

Chapter 12

TWELVE

PIPER

Ivy & Piper’s Guide to Life Rule Number Thirty-Three:

Pick your battles wisely.

“ I f she hadn’t fallen, would you have told me?” Dane asked from the opposite end of the couch.

I fidgeted with the sleeves of my dress, guilt and fear churning in my stomach. “I—I don’t know,” I admitted, unable to meet his eyes. “I wanted to. God, Dane. I wanted to tell you so badly.”

He exhaled sharply and dragged a hand through his hair, frustration evident in every line of his body. “Why didn’t you?”

“Because I was terrified,” I said, wrapping my arms around myself. “That, and I didn’t even know your last name until today.”

“You could have gone to the club.”

I shook my head. “I couldn’t remember the name. What was I supposed to do? Put out an APB for every Dane with a motorcycle? Even if I had remembered, showing up alone and pregnant at a clubhouse didn’t seem like the safest option.”

“No, you’re right,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose with a groan. “Sorry, I just hate how I’ve missed out on so much already.”

I lowered my head to hide the tears welling up in my eyes. “I swear I was working up to telling you before I got the call about her fall, but I didn’t know how you’d react.”

“You really thought I wouldn’t want her? That I’d walk away?” he asked, moving closer.

I took a shaky breath and forced myself to meet his gaze. “I never knew my father. He took off before I was born, and the thought of Avery going through that too…”

“Hey,” he said, reaching out to brush a tear from my cheek. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

It was the same thing I’d said to him the night we met, and that, coupled with the feel of his hand on my face, broke past my defenses. “You don’t hate me?”

Dane chuckled. “Darlin’, I don’t think there’s anything that could make me hate you. Hell, if I could go back, there are a lot of things I’d do differently to prove it to you. But I can’t. Best I can do is be here for Avery now. For both of you. That’s what I want—to be the father she deserves.”

“I need more than that,” I said, my voice betraying a tremor. “I need to know you’ll still be here even when it gets hard.”

Dane’s eyes softened, and he shifted closer, his large frame dwarfing mine on the couch. He cupped my jaw in his rough hand, forcing me to look him in the eye. “Not going anywhere. I know I’ve got a lot to prove, but I swear to you, I’m in this for the long haul. All I’m asking is for the chance to be a part of her life.”

As much as I wanted to throw myself into his arms and trust everything would work out, I couldn’t shake the lingering uncertainty. Bridging our world with his came with an entirely new set of risks.

“I want that, too,” I said, trying to focus on our daughter rather than the heat radiating from his body. “But I’d be lying if I said your lifestyle didn’t scare me.”

A flash of hurt crossed his face before he masked it. “You’re talking about the club.”

My gaze dropped to the patch on his kutte. “That one-percent patch tells me you’re not exactly on the right side of the law. Avery’s safety is everything to me, and I don’t know how to shield her from?—”

“From what I am?” Dane finished, his hand falling away from my face .

I reached for his hand. “Hey, I didn’t mean it like that.”

His eyes hardened, and he pulled back. “You think because I wear this patch, I can’t be a good father? That I’d put our daughter in danger?”

“No, that’s not…” I trailed off, blinking back fresh tears and struggling to find the right words in my exhausted, overly emotional state. “It’s just—I’ve worked so hard to give her a stable, safe life. I can’t risk that, Dane. I won’t risk that. Not even for you.”

He stood abruptly, pacing the small living room. The pain in his eyes made my chest ache. “You think I’d put my daughter at risk? Christ, Piper.”

“But how can you guarantee her safety?” I asked, padding over to his side. “What happens if?—”

“If what?” he demanded, backing me up against the wall. “If the feds come knocking on your door? If a rival club tries to start shit? If a deal goes south? You think I haven’t considered a million and one scenarios just like that since learning she’s mine?”

Aware we were both emotionally raw and needed sleep, I placed my palm on his chest, hoping to soothe his wounded ego. “I want us to be able to co-parent peacefully, for Avery’s sake,” I said carefully.

“Did you just offer to co-parent our daughter with me?” he asked. His low voice was tinged with anger and hurt, but the intensity in his gaze was sending conflicting signals to my brain.

I swallowed hard. “Um…yes?”

He threaded his fingers through my hair with a dark chuckle before tugging my head back. “Is that what you think I’m interested in, baby—some new-age, bullshit term divorced couples use to make themselves feel like they’re still a team? Do I look like that kind of guy to you?”

“I—”

His mouth came down over mine, hard and demanding. I gasped, my hands flying up to grip his shoulders. His tongue slipped past the seam of my lips, claiming me with a possessiveness that made my knees weak.

We had so much left unresolved and so many issues to work through. But the feel of his body against mine, the taste of him on my lips, overrode all logic, and I kissed him back .

Dane growled low in his throat, his hands roaming down my sides to grip my hips. He lifted me easily, and I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist. The hard length of him pressed against the seam of my underwear, wrenching a strangled moan from my throat.

“In case I didn’t make myself explicitly clear earlier, I’m not fucking interested in co-parenting or custody arrangements,” he rasped against my throat, nipping at the sensitive skin. “Is that what you want, huh? To keep me at arm’s length so you can play house with another man, only seeing me when it’s my turn to have Avery?”

“No.” I rocked against his erection, whimpering when his teeth grazed my collarbone. “That’s not what I want.”

His breath was hot against my neck. “Then what do you want, Piper? Tell me.”

I shuddered against him, trying to collect my thoughts into something resembling a complete sentence. What did I want? As much as I ached to tell him to take me to bed and leave the problems for future Piper, we couldn’t fix this with sex. Sex had gotten us into this mess in the first place.

With more than a bit of reluctance, I pulled back to catch my breath. “I want you. I want us to be a family. But I’m scared. I’m scared Avery will get hurt.” I swallowed before admitting, “I’m scared I’ll get hurt.”

Dane’s eyes softened as he set me back on my feet, his hands still gripping my waist. “I get it, darlin’. I’m scared, too. This is all new territory for me.”

“According to the back of your kutte, you live in Lubbock. How do we even begin to make this work when we live five hours apart?”

He pressed his forehead against mine, his breath mingling with my own. “We’ll take it one day at a time. You don’t need to have all the answers tonight. You just need to trust me.”

“And the club?” I asked, desperate to silence the nagging voice in my head, which sounded a hell of a lot like my mother.

“The club is part of who I am, Piper. Once you’re in, you’re in. I can’t walk away from this life,” he said before pausing. His brow creased as though he were carefully weighing his following words. “But family comes first over everything, and I swear to you, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep stuff with the club separate from us. ”

It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was a start. The tension coiled tightly in my chest began to unravel, replaced by a tentative hope.

I let out a slow breath. “Okay. I think I can work with that, but I want to take things slow. For Avery’s sake.”

“Baby, nothing about us has ever been slow,” he drawled with a lazy smirk.

My cheeks warmed, and I twisted my thumb ring to keep my fingers occupied… To stop myself from latching onto his kutte and losing myself in his kiss again. “True. But this time around, we’ve got a lot more at stake. This is going to be a big adjustment for us all, and I don’t want to make it more complicated than it needs to be.”

Dane nodded, his expression growing serious. “No, you’re right. We’ll do this at your pace.”

Relief washed over me, quickly followed by exhaustion. I stifled a yawn and glanced at the clock to find it was after midnight. I had gotten into the habit of going to bed when Avery did and couldn’t recall the last time I’d been up this late.

“Been a hell of a day. Let’s get you to bed,” he finally said.

Too exhausted to argue, I let him lead me down the hall to my bedroom, suddenly self-conscious of the dirty clothes strewn across the floor and the disorganized stack of books taking up space on my nightstand. I had planned to clean it all up, but there never seemed to be enough hours in the day. I kicked off my boots and twisted my arm behind my back, struggling to reach the zipper on my dress.

“Turn around,” he commanded, sweeping my long hair over my shoulder before sliding it down.

I shivered as his fingers grazed my bare skin. Every nerve ending in my body sparked to life at his touch despite my exhaustion. I turned to face him, clutching the front of my dress to keep it from falling.

“I should, um...” I gestured vaguely toward the bathroom. “Get ready for bed.”

“Need help?” he offered.

My tongue darted out to wet my dry lips. “I thought we were taking things slow.”

He moved closer, his large frame crowding me against the dresser. “We are. Doesn’t mean I can’t admire the view, though, darlin’.”

Keeping my eyes on him, I slipped my arms out of the sleeves of my dress before letting it pool at my feet. While comfortable with the ways my body had changed since having Avery, I was painfully aware I didn’t look like I had the last time he saw me naked. My arms moved back up to hide the stretch marks and baby weight I was still carrying.

Dane’s dark gaze raked over me, lingering on the soft swell of my breasts spilling over the top of my bra before dropping down to the curve of my hips. When he noticed my arms crossed protectively over my stomach, a look of something like understanding crossed his face.

He reached out, gently grasping my wrists and pulling my arms away. “You’re even more gorgeous now than I remembered,” he said, his calloused hands tracing the marks on my skin.

His lips brushed over mine in a tender kiss, and I melted into the warmth of his body. Unlike the encounter in the living room, this kiss was slow and sweet. When we broke apart, I was light-headed and second-guessing my decision to take things slow.

“Why don’t you go ahead and get ready for bed?” Dane suggested. “I’ll be here.”

Slipping into the bathroom, I rushed through my nightly routine and changed into an oversized T-shirt. When I returned, Dane was studying the framed photos lining the bedroom wall. I climbed under the comforter, sinking into the mattress with a relaxed sigh.

“I wish I’d been there the day she was born,” he said, pointing to the picture of me holding Avery in the hospital, my face a mix of exhaustion and pure joy.

My chest tightened at the wistfulness in his voice. “I wish you had been too.”

He sat down on the edge of the bed, taking my hand in his. “What was it like?” he asked, stroking my knuckles with his thumb.

I let out a shaky laugh. “Honestly? It was intense—sixteen hours of labor. I was exhausted and in so much pain. But the moment they placed her on my chest...” I trailed off, emotion clogging my throat. “It was like the whole world shifted. Nothing else mattered except this tiny, perfect human we’d created.”

Dane listened while I recounted the details of Avery’s birth—how tiny she was, how she’d gripped my finger with surprising strength, and the overwhelming love I’d felt the moment I held her in my arms. A yawn caught me by surprise, and I covered my mouth before apologizing.

He released my hand before getting up. “Don’t apologize. It’s been a long day. You should get some rest.”

Panic seized me when he turned to leave. The thought of waking up alone, of this all being some elaborate dream, was too much to bear.

“Don’t go,” I blurted, hating how needy I sounded.

“Not going anywhere but to the couch,” he said, jerking his thumb toward the doorway.

“Stay.” I patted the space beside me. “Please.”

He hesitated, his lips pressed together in a slight grimace. “Fucking hanging on by a thread here, Piper. You sure you want me in your bed?”

I wasn’t sure of anything anymore, but I knew I didn’t want to be alone. “Please,” I repeated. “Just to sleep.”

Dane searched my face for a long moment before shrugging off his kutte and draping it over a nearby chair. My breath caught as he pulled his T-shirt over his head, revealing tattoos that covered almost his entire back. I forced my gaze away when he unbuckled his belt, focusing instead on smoothing imaginary wrinkles from the comforter.

He switched off the lamp and slid in beside me, the mattress dipping beneath his weight. I rolled onto my side to face him. Even in the darkness, I could make out the conflicted emotions playing across his face.

“This okay?” he asked gruffly, his arm hovering uncertainly above my waist.

I nodded and scooted closer, letting out a shaky breath as his arm settled around me. The warmth of his skin against mine sent a shiver down my spine.

“You cold, baby?” he murmured, pulling me tighter against his chest.

“No,” I whispered, my fingers tracing the muscular line of his bicep. “Just...overwhelmed, I guess.”

Dane’s hand came up to cup my cheek, his thumb brushing away my tears. “Sleep, Piper. I’ll still be here when you wake up. I promise.”

Exhaustion tugged at me, and I drifted off before jerking awake seconds later. “Don’t leave me again, Dane. I can’t survive it. Not again.”

His arm tightened around me, his voice a low rumble against my ear. “Never again, darlin’. I swear it. You’re mine—both of you—and I’m never letting you go.”

I nodded against him, feeling the steady thrum of his heartbeat beneath my cheek. The rhythmic sound and the warmth of his body slowly lulled me toward sleep. Before I drifted off completely, I felt Dane press a soft kiss on my forehead.

“I love you, baby,” he murmured so quietly I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it.

I tried to fight the fog settling over me and failed. Maybe I’d never woken up because men like that only existed in books.