Page 72 of The Keeper

The muscle in his jaw flexed. “I’m a monster, sweetheart. Have been since long before you came along.”

I shook my head, tears spilling onto my cheeks. “No. No, you’re not. The Dane I know is kind and gentle. He takes our daughter to the park almost every afternoon and buys me flowers just because. That’s the man I—” I caught myself before I could say it. I couldn’t think of a worse time to admit I loved him, especially when I still wasn’t convinced I hadn’t been dreaming the night I heard him say it. “That’s the man I know.”

Something flickered in his eyes—a hint of the warmth I was used to seeing. But it was quickly swallowed by cold darkness.

“That man can’t protect you,” he growled. “He can’t make sure those fuckers never lay a hand on you again.”

“And this version of you can?” I challenged, finding a shred of backbone. “By what, torturing them? Killing them? How is that going to help me feel safe?”

His nostrils flared on a sharp inhale, and for a moment, I thought he might lash out. Instead, he scraped a hand over his face as if trying to wash away any trace of emotion before taking a step back.

“You think I don’t see how you flinch whenever someone touches you? How you can barely sleep through the night without waking upscreaming?” he asked, his voice strained. “It’s killing me to see how this is tearing you apart. And knowing that bastard’s still out there…”

Dane’s shoulders sagged, and he leaned against the wall, suddenly looking exhausted. “You want to know why I can’t let this go—why I have to handle it myself?”

I nodded, hardly daring to breathe.

“Because I can’t lose you too,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

The raw grief reflected in his eyes gutted me. I reached out, wanting to comfort him, but the anger still pulsing off him in waves held me back.

“What happened with Levi wasn’t your fault,” I said, lowering my arm back to my side.

He huffed out a bitter laugh and shook his head. “People keep saying that, but I could have done a hundred things differently, and he’d still be here. My brother wouldn’t have gotten divorced and fucked off to Colorado.” He absently ran his knuckles along his jawline.

“Way I see it, I can sit back and watch you suffer, or I can do what needs to be done. You may not like it, but this is who I am, Piper. The parts of me you’ve seen before? That was just the surface. This—this is the real me.”

“The real you,” I repeated. “And what exactly does that entail? Because I need to know what I’m getting into here, Dane. No more secrets.”

He closed the distance between us. “It means I’ll tear the entire fucking metroplex apart and break every single law to find the man responsible for hurting you,” he said, his hand coming up to rest against the base of my throat. “And when I find him, I’m gonna make him suffer in ways that’ll have him begging for death long before I’m done.”

“How?” I asked, leaning into his touch as an involuntary shiver worked through my body.

Dane cocked his head to the side, clearly caught off guard by my response. “Well, I’ve always been partial to slow slicing. Slip the tip of the blade just beneath the surface of their skin, carving off bits of flesh a little at a time.

“From there, you move onto the limbs. I’ll probably start with his hands, removing every finger that touched you, joint by joint. Since there’s no way to know which fingers touched you and which ones didn’t, I’ll have to take them all,” he said, watching me closely. “When it comes time for the final cut, I’ll go for the head, making sure mine is the last face he sees while he chokes to death on his own blood.”

The cold certainty in his voice should have terrified me, but instead, a perverse sense of excitement coursed through my veins. The idea that this man—this dangerous, powerful man—would go to such lengths to protect me and our daughter called to something dark inside me. A wave of heat spread up my throat, and I clutched at his kutte, wanting to erase the remaining distance between us.

Dane’s eyes darkened as he took in my flushed cheeks and heaving chest.

“That turn you on, baby?” he murmured, applying just enough pressure to the sides of my throat to make my pulse race. “Knowing what I’m willing to do for you?”

I swallowed hard, unable to deny the heat pooling low in my belly. “It shouldn’t,” I whispered, even as I pressed closer to him.

“But it does,” he growled. His muscular thigh slipped between my legs, and I ground against him, seeking the friction from the denim. “Tell me, Piper. Tell me how it makes you feel.”

My breath hitched as his free hand skimmed down my side, coming to rest on the curve of my hip. “Powerful,” I admitted, my voice barely audible. “Safe.”

A predatory smile curved his lips. “It’s in our nature. The need to protect…to possess,” he said, his open mouth trailing over my jaw and down the column of my throat. “To punish anyone stupid enough to touch what’s ours. And make no mistake, baby. You’re mine.”

Dane’s teeth grazed my pulse point, sending goosebumps spreading across my skin. His words should have angered me, should have made me want to push him away and remind him I wasn’t something he could claim for himself.

Instead, I tipped my head back and bared my throat to his mouth before whispering, “Prove it.”

TWENTY-THREE

GHOST

---