Page 90 of The Keeper

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 gunshotreverberating 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.

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