Page 82 of The Keeper

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and rocked back on my heels, still trembling with rage and nausea. “Safe? Did any of that look fucking safe to you?”

Isaac hadn’t been some kid with a crush. He was a sick fuck who had gone to great lengths to get close to Piper, methodically stalking her for years.

He knelt beside me. “They’re safe now because they’ve got you. We’ll figure out the rest, but right now, we gotta move before someone notices we’re here.”

I nodded numbly and got to my feet, forcing myself to focus on the task at hand. We took every shred of evidence that could potentially link back to Piper or Avery.

We did one final sweep of the house to ensure we hadn’t missed anything. As we headed for the door, I paused, my gaze drawn back to the bedroom where Isaac’s body lay. Something didn’t sit right. The entire thing felt too neat, too convenient.

“You coming?” Carnage called from the doorway.

I shook my head, unable to shake the nagging feeling. “Give me a minute.”

Ignoring the stench, I entered and began methodically searching every inch. Under the mattress, behind picture frames, inside drawers. My fingers probed along the baseboards, looking for any loose sections.

Nothing.

There was no smoking gun. No closure. No sense of relief. Instead of suffering the way he’d made my girls suffer, Isaac had taken the easy way out and OD’d, robbing me of the opportunity to send him to the Reaper myself.

Maybe that was why it didn’t feel like it was over.

TWENTY-FIVE

PIPER

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

Don’t wait for perfect.

Ientered the living room to find Dane slumped in the armchair with Avery curled up against his bare chest. His arms were wrapped tightly around her little body as if protecting her from nightmares.

Since finding the man responsible for robbing the bakery dead of an apparent overdose two weeks ago, this had become their nightly routine.

Almost as soon as Dane’s eyes drifted shut, he jolted himself awake again with a panicked gasp. He refused to let himself sleep, and aside from telling me they found pictures of me in Isaac’s house, he refused to discuss anything about that night.

With a sigh, I padded over to where he sat, brushing a strand of hair from his brow before reaching for Avery. “I’ll take her. You should try to get some sleep.”

Dane’s arms reflexively tightened around our daughter in a silent plea not to separate them. My throat constricted at his unspokendesperation.

“Hey,” I whispered, blinking against the sting of tears. “She needs to sleep in her own bed. And so do you.”

He reluctantly let me take her before settling back against the chair. “I’m fine.”

There was nothing fine about his clenched jaw and the dark circles rimming his eyes, but I wouldn’t waste my breath arguing. My vision blurred, and I turned away before the tears spilled over onto my cheeks.

I carried Avery to her room, gently laying her in her crib and tucking the teddy bear Dane got her in beside her. She stirred briefly, little fingers clutching the stuffed animal before she stilled.

As I quietly closed the door behind me, Dane’s low voice drifted down the hall from the living room. It sounded like he was on the phone, but he was speaking too softly for me to make out what he was saying.

My stomach clenched when he stepped out onto the front porch, and I wrapped my arms around myself, fighting back a fresh wave of tears.

A small, traitorous part of me wondered if he was talking to another woman. He hadn’t touched me since the night they found the rental car. I’d spent the last week racking my brain and replaying every moment, trying to pinpoint what had gone wrong.

Was it the role-playing?

The fact that I was on my period?

I didn’t know, but I couldn’t keep living like this. I needed answers.

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