The Keeper (Silent Phoenix MC #5)

Chapter 26

TWENTY-SIX

PIPER

Ivy & Piper’s Guide to Life Rule Number One:

Never let a man break up the band.

I folded one of Avery’s sweaters and added it to the cardboard box on the floor of her bedroom, trying to ignore the tension knotting my shoulders. The movers would be arriving first thing in the morning, and I hadn’t even made a dent in my bedroom or the kitchen.

When Dane proposed and asked us to move to Lubbock, a month had seemed like more than enough time to get everything squared away. It didn’t help that Avery’s new favorite pastime was going behind me and unpacking the boxes faster than I could pack them. Thankfully, Dane had taken her with him to run some last-minute errands this morning while Ivy and my mom helped me finish.

“You know, there’s more than enough room in the moving truck,” I said, glancing at Ivy as she loaded Avery’s books into a box. “We could probably squeeze in your stuff, too. You’re always saying you don’t want to live in the city forever. Now’s your chance to make it happen.”

She shook her head, her long, icy blonde hair falling across her face. “We’ve been over this,” she said, donning her therapist’s voice. “As much as I would love to stowaway in your suitcase, I can’t uproot my whole life and leave my patients high and dry.”

“Don’t think of it as uprooting. It would be more like…transplanting to better soil. Your own practice soil, perhaps.” I forced a smile, but it felt brittle on my lips.

We’d lived within a half-hour of each other since junior high. Even if we didn’t see each other often due to our work and life schedules, we were at least within easy driving distance.

Ivy’s bright blue eyes met mine, filled with a mix of affection and exasperation. “You’re completely ridiculous, you know that?”

“I’m persuasive,” I countered, tossing a stuffed giraffe at her. She caught it deftly, a small smile tugging at her lips.

“You’re going to be fine without me,” she added, holding my gaze. “You’ve always been stronger than you think.”

There was that word again.

Strong.

I swallowed hard, looking down at the half-packed box next to me. The weight of the last two years pressed down on my chest. “I’m scared,” I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. “Scared that the nightmares won’t ever go away. Scared that I’m jumping into a marriage and a brand-new life without a safety net.”

Ivy set down the book she was holding and moved to sit beside me on the floor. “How are the therapy sessions going?”

“They’re…” I trailed off, deciding how to best describe them before releasing a shaky breath. “Intense. Dr. Carlson says I’m making progress, but some days, it doesn’t feel like it. The nightmares are still there, vivid as ever. I wake up in a cold sweat, my heart racing, convinced it’s happening all over again.”

“Trauma affects everyone differently. Just because you’re struggling doesn’t mean your relationship is doomed to fail. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.” She reached over and squeezed my hand. “Be kind to yourself, and don’t be afraid to lean on the people who love you when you need to. Like Dane.”

Deep down, I knew she was right. But the thought of voicing my fears out loud and adding to his already full plate when he was grappling with his own demons felt wrong .

As if reading my mind, she asked, “Has he been sleeping any better?”

“No,” I replied, my nose stinging with the threat of tears. “When he does, he tosses and turns, mumbling things I can’t quite make out. More often than not, though I wake up to find him on the couch with Avery curled up against his chest. She’s become his little security blanket.”

I twisted my engagement ring around my finger, a nervous habit I’d developed over the past month. “He told me they found pictures of me inside Isaac’s house. But I feel like there’s more to it that he’s not telling me. Like maybe he gave me a watered-down version because he didn’t want to upset me further. Why else would he be acting the way he is?”

Ivy’s lips pressed together, her eyes darting away from mine for a split second. That subtle tell was all the confirmation I needed. She knew more than she was letting on.

“What is it?” I demanded, my voice sharp. “If there’s something else, I deserve to know.”

She hesitated, seeming to weigh her next words carefully. “You’re right. It was more than just some photos. He had hidden cameras all over your house. There were videos and images of you in private moments, completely unaware you were being watched.”

Nausea rolled through me in sickening waves. How had he gained access to my house? He would have needed to know both the gate code and the passcode to disarm the house alarm. To override everything remotely, he would have needed my phone, which was even less feasible than him knowing the codes.

“That’s…that’s insane,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “He couldn’t have…”

Ivy bit her lip. “Supposedly, he had detailed floor plans for both your house and your mom’s. I think he also had notes on how to bypass the security system.”

I stared at her, a chill running down my spine despite the warm afternoon. “And how exactly do you know all this?”

She looked down at the hardwood floor before meeting my gaze again, clearly uncomfortable. “I overheard some of the guys from the club talking. I’m so sorry, Piper. I can’t even imagine. ”

I felt disgusted, violated on a level I couldn’t even comprehend. The thought of Isaac—or anyone, for that matter—having intimate access to my life without my knowledge or consent made my skin crawl.

And now those videos and images were out there, being discussed openly by the bikers at the club. Were they being passed around, the subject of crude jokes and lewd comments?

Bile burned the back of my throat. “Oh god, how many people have seen them?”

“As far as I know, only Dane and Carnage know the full extent of what was in Isaac’s house,” Ivy rushed to assure me.

“And they told you instead of me?” I asked, my voice rising with each word.

She grimaced before shaking her head. “GQ and Duke told me. But they haven’t actually seen anything themselves.”

I held up my hand, momentarily distracted from the horror swirling inside me. “Back up. GQ and Duke? What in the what?”

A faint blush colored Ivy’s fair cheeks. “We’ve kept in touch since Motorcycles, Mobsters, and Mayhem. But it’s nothing. I mean, they live in Lubbock, and I’m here…”

“All the more reason to come with us then,” I said, mustering a wan smile before gesturing around the room. “I really think we could fit you into one of these boxes if we really tried.”

She laughed softly, bumping her shoulder against mine. “Speaking of, do you think your mom’s back yet from picking up more packing tape? It’s been over an hour.”

I pulled my phone from the back pocket of my jeans to check her location, expecting to see her still at the office supply store. But the blinking dot on the map showed she was indeed back at home.

“It says she’s here, but where’s our tape?”

Ivy quirked an eyebrow suggestively. “Maybe she was going to bring it but got...distracted by a certain silver fox who can’t seem to stay away?”

I wrinkled my nose, even as a tiny part of me was glad for the momentary levity. “Please don’t make me think about my mom’s sex life. I’m still trying to come to terms with the fact that her high school boyfriend is the president of a biker club. ”

“Well, he seems to be finding any and every excuse to drop by lately, so it’s not crazy to think he’s looking to rekindle an old flame.”

I shrugged. “She’s been very tight-lipped about the whole thing, says she’s too old for a relationship at this point.”

“Too old?” Ivy scoffed. “Please. She’s only fifty! That’s like the new thirty these days. Think about it. You’re past all the bullshit body insecurities women deal with in their twenties and thirties. You know exactly what you want in the bedroom, and you’re not afraid to ask for it. Perfect age to get a little friends-with-benefits action going?—”

I groaned. “Ew, I don’t want to walk in on that! Could you maybe sneak over there and grab the tape? I’ll love you forever.”

“You already owe me forever for helping you clean up that awful diaper blowout when Avery was a newborn,” Ivy retorted with a grin. “But fine. I’ll brave the potential awkwardness for you. But when I get back, we are definitely brainstorming bachelorette party ideas.”

Dane and I still hadn’t decided whether we were going to do the big white dress affair or go down to the courthouse. We already skipped a few steps by having the baby before the love and marriage bit.

Still, I forced a smile, not wanting to dampen her enthusiasm. “Deal.”

Minutes later, the front door chirped, signaling Ivy’s return. “Please tell me they weren’t doing it on the kitchen table,” I called out jokingly as I turned.

But the playful smile quickly slid from my face. Derek stood in the doorway, one gloved hand fisted in Ivy’s hair, the other pressing the gleaming blade of a knife to her throat.

“Derek? What...what are you doing?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady despite the icy fear flooding my veins

His expression was unsettlingly calm, almost bored, as if this were a normal day at the bakery and not a hostage situation.

My heart seized in my chest, adrenaline flooding my system. I held up my hands in what I hoped was a non-threatening gesture, my mind racing. Dane wasn’t due back until the afternoon, and with my phone in the kitchen, there was no way to alert him to the very real danger we were in .

“Where’s my mom?” I asked, fighting to keep my voice steady. “Is she okay?”

His lips curled into a smile that sent a chill down my spine. There was no warmth, no hint of the easygoing guy I’d worked with for years. Just a cold, calculating emptiness.

“She’s a bit...tied up at the moment.” He chuckled at his own morbid joke.

Ivy’s eyes met mine, and I could see her training as a psychiatrist kicking in as she tried to reason with him. “Derek, you don’t want to do this. Whatever’s going on, we can talk about it. Just put the knife down, and let’s figure this out?—”

He pressed the tip of the blade into her throat until a bead of crimson welled up in a thin line. “Shut up,” he stated, with no inflection in his tone. “You sit there and play like you’re some expert on the human mind, but I know what you really are.”

Ivy winced as he dug the knife tip deeper into her flesh. “And what is that exactly?” she asked, her voice trembling slightly despite her attempt at calm.

Derek leaned in closer, his lips brushing the shell of her ear. “I’ve been watching you just as closely as I’ve watched Piper, but don’t waste your time trying to psychoanalyze me, Doc. I needed to know what kind of influence you had over what belongs to me.”

He turned his empty eyes to me, sending a fresh wave of terror coursing through my body. “Do you know what kind of person your best friend really is, Piper? She’s a slut. While you were at the hospital with Avery after her fall, Ivy was back at her place, fucking two bikers in her hot tub. The model and the cowboy.” His lips twisted in a cruel smirk. “You just couldn’t decide, could you?”

She paled but said nothing, a muscle ticking in her jaw. My stomach churned with revulsion, and I wanted to throw up, knowing he’d given himself front-row access to our personal lives.

Instead, I focused on the knife at her throat, trying to figure out a way to get us both out of this alive. The lower half of my body was hidden behind a couple of stacked boxes. I pressed my hand to my chest in feigned shock before slowly sliding it down toward my abdomen, where my .38 Special was strapped in a hidden holster around my abdomen .

I wasn’t confident I could draw and fire before he hurt Ivy. I had to keep him distracted long enough for me to retrieve it. “Derek, if you had feelings for me, why’d you wait until now to say something?”

His cold gray eyes bore into me. “I gave you every opportunity, Piper. Every chance to make the right decision. But you still chose a fucking biker over me.”

“If you wanted a relationship, you could have just asked me out like a normal person. We could have?—”

“Could have what?” he interjected. “Played house? Pretended like anything about our relationship would be normal?”

He laughed, a chilling sound devoid of humor. “You would have strung me along for a few dates until someone better came along. No, I had to take matters into my own hands. I even killed for you. And did I get so much as a thank you?”

Killed for me?

“You shot Timothy because he was hurting me. That’s what you said,” I whispered, my mind refusing to accept that the entire thing had been staged. That he’d put me in the situation so he could play hero…just like Dane said.

“Killing him at the bakery wasn’t part of the original plan,” he said with a casual shrug. “But he touched what belongs to me, forcing me to go off-script.”

“Why?” I demanded, my voice shaking with barely contained rage and fear. “Why would you do this?”

His lips curled into a macabre imitation of a smile. “For you. I’ve spent years putting in the work. Leaving you your favorite chocolates on the days you were on your period. Complimenting you on how beautiful you looked, even when you were exhausted and had flour all over your face. But you never appreciated any of it.”

I thought of the note left in my locker. “But how…how did you know when I was on my period?”

“I cloned your phone,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “It was a necessary evil. You were so private, and I needed to know your every thought, every picture you took, and every message you sent. Right now, I know you’re in your fertile window.”

His eyes flicked down to my stomach before meeting my gaze again. “I was the second person to know you were pregnant with Avery. Not that I was happy about that piece of news.”

“You...you’ve been watching me for years?” I finally managed, my voice sounding distant and hollow to my own ears.

“Of course I have,” he replied, sounding almost affronted I would question him. “I thought you were making progress, but then you went to that book convention and fucked some idiot biker you just met.”

He’d followed me to Houston.

I slipped my hand beneath my shirt, curling my fingers around the grip before inching it out of the holster. My eyes met Ivy’s, silently communicating I would get us out of this, no matter what it took.

But Ivy, having dealt with her share of unstable psych patients, gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head, warning me not to make any sudden moves.

Swallowing hard, I forced myself to meet Derek’s cold, empty gaze. “If you were the one watching me, then why frame Isaac?”

A slow, sinister grin spread across his face. “I needed you to call off your guard dogs. Get them to stop sniffing around while I put the rest of my plan in motion.”

“Dane won’t let you get away with this,” I warned, keeping the gun hidden beneath my shirt. “He’ll throw everything into hunting you down. The entire club will?—”

“Oh, I’m counting on it,” Derek interrupted, sounding amused. “Unlike your big dumb animal, though, I’m not an idiot. I never make a move unless it’s airtight. And my insurance policies are firmly in place.”

He adjusted his grip on the knife, and Ivy let out a pained gasp.

“Ghost took every piece of evidence out of Isaac’s house. With all of it in his possession, it looks like he’s got quite the obsession with you. His fingerprints are all over that note left in your locker, and I have video proof he was inside Isaac’s house.”

My blood ran cold as the pieces clicked into place with sickening clarity. Derek had orchestrated all of this, framing Dane for everything to get him out of the way.

“Once you found out what he was doing to Avery, you confronted him and he snapped?— ”

“Avery?” I cut him off, raw panic seizing my chest. “What did you do to my daughter?”

Surprise flickered across his face. “Your fiancé really has been keeping secrets, hasn’t he? I have to say, he did not react well to the video. Now that I think about it, none of them did. Strange to see tough bikers break down like scared little boys.”

“What did you do?” I repeated, my voice shaking with barely contained fury even as tears blurred my vision. My mind raced with scenarios, each one more sickening than the last.

“Nothing much,” Derek said with a careless shrug. “Before you invited a biker to live with you and went all Fort Knox with your security system, I used to sneak into her room for a little playtime.”

“What did you do to my baby?” I demanded again, freeing the gun from beneath my shirt.

His lips curled into a cruel smile. “I held a pillow over her face just to watch her struggle for air. It’s funny how that fight to live is ingrained in us from such a young age. She fought so hard, tiny fists flailing, little legs kicking. All for nothing, of course. She never stood a chance against someone like me.”

White-hot rage coursed through my veins, momentarily eclipsing the icy terror. In one fluid motion, I raised the gun and aimed it at his head, my hands surprisingly steady.

“You don’t have it in you,” he taunted, positioning Ivy in front of him like a shield. The blade pressed harder against her throat until a thin rivulet of blood trickled down her pale skin.

My finger tightened on the trigger as I thought of Avery in this very room, fighting to breathe while I slept unaware down the hall.

I met Ivy’s terrified gaze. Mindful of the knife against her throat, she gave me a subtle nod, encouraging me to take the shot. But I couldn’t. Not without hitting her.

“Sweet, innocent Piper. Always needing to be protected and coddled. You’ve never had to get your hands dirty. Not like me.” Derek pushed Ivy’s head forward and ran the blade across her throat.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Her blue eyes went wide with confused shock, and she brought her hands up over the wound before dropping to her knees with a gurgled cry.

I could hear myself screaming as I pulled the trigger, the gunshot reverberating off the bedroom walls. He jerked back as the bullet tore through his shoulder.

I’d aimed for his heart but missed by mere inches.

He lunged at me as I fired again, the bullet lodging in the doorframe where he’d been standing. We crashed to the floor in a tangle of limbs, both of us wrestling for control of the gun.

“Finally decided to grow a fucking backbone!” he snarled against my ear, trying to pin my arms beneath his legs. “Sadly, it won’t do you any good now.”

His face hovered inches from mine, his eyes wild and crazed, spittle flying from his curled lips. “Dane had to kill you and Ivy to keep you from going to the police. It’s a fucking shame, but no one’s really surprised that a biker would commit such an act of violence. And then to go after your mother…tragic. Don’t worry. I’ll step up to adopt Avery, ensuring she’s as safe as I want her to be.”

“You’re not getting anywhere near my daughter,” I gritted out, fighting to maintain control of the gun with every ounce of strength I possessed.

“Sweetheart, with the connections my family has, I could have custody of the brat today if I wanted it.”

I couldn’t get the gun up, but that didn’t stop me from firing two rounds into his thigh and another into his stomach. He roared in pain and anger before knocking the gun from my hands and sending it skittering across the hardwood. Not that it mattered. It was empty.

Knowing what would happen to Avery if I failed kicked my maternal instincts into overdrive. I fought him like a feral animal—biting, kicking, clawing at any part of him I could reach. Ivy had grabbed one of Avery’s blankets and was holding it to her throat while dragging herself over to where her phone lay on the dresser.

Determined to keep Derek distracted long enough for her to call for help, I arched up and sank my teeth into the area between his neck and shoulder.

His hand closed around my throat, squeezing mercilessly, and cutting off my air supply. Black spots danced before my eyes, but I bit down harder until the sharp, coppery tang of blood flooded my mouth.

“You crazy bitch!” Derek hissed, punching my side with his free hand. “What happens when you get tired, huh? You can’t fucking do this all day.”

I could feel his blood seeping through my clothes. Four of my five bullets had struck his body. I just had to hold on long enough for him to die from blood loss.

My lungs burned for oxygen, and my vision dimmed at the edges, but before I could succumb to the encroaching darkness, Derek was suddenly and forcefully yanked off my body. I sucked in a ragged breath before rolling onto my side, coughing and spitting blood.

“She’s got me, you piece of shit motherfucker!”

I blinked hard, my vision clearing enough to see Dane had Derek pinned against the wall by his throat. His feet kicked wildly from where they dangled above the floor as he clawed at Dane’s hands, his face turning a mottled purple as he fought for air. But Dane’s grip was relentless, fueled by a blind, all-consuming rage I’d never witnessed before.

There was an audible crunch, and then Derek’s body went limp, his head lolling at an unnatural angle as he crumpled to the floor in a lifeless heap.

Head still spinning from lack of oxygen, I pushed myself across the blood-slicked hardwood, trying to find Ivy. The acrid stench of gunpowder and blood mingled in the air, making my stomach churn.

Dane reached me in an instant, his face a mask of rage smoothed into concern as he caught sight of my battered form. He grabbed my shoulders, keeping me grounded and viscerally present despite the chaos.

“Don’t move, darlin’,” he instructed urgently, the timbre of his voice revealing his own barely constrained panic.

“I need to get to Ivy,” I managed through clenched teeth, my voice hoarse from screaming and the stranglehold Derek had had on me. Sharp, blinding pain lanced through my torso when I attempted to push myself up, knocking the air from my lungs and forcing me back down.

“Piper, need you to look at me,” he insisted, his hands gentle yet unyielding as they held me down. “Carnage is getting Ivy to a hospital?— ”

“My mom,” I said with a strained groan. “You have to check on my mom.”

Dane’s brow furrowed as he inspected my side. “Nails has your mom. She’s okay, but he’s taking her to a hospital just to be sure, okay? Fuck,” he muttered, his fingers probing gently under my shirt where warm wetness clung to my skin. “I can’t tell how deep these are.”

He brushed over the spot Derek had struck me with his fist, causing my vision to go black for a second.

“Stop,” I whimpered, batting his hand away. “It’s his blood. Not mine. The bastard just hit me. We need to check on Ivy and my mom.”

Had I said that already? I couldn’t remember.

His expression shifted, the grim lines deepening. “Baby, you’ve been stabbed.”

“No,” I argued, hissing out a breath when he lifted me in his arms. “Don’t leave Ivy here with him. I need—” Whatever I intended to say next faded into a choked gasp as a wave of dizziness washed over me, and my vision tunneled into darkness.