Die For Me: A Novel of the Valentine Killer (For Me 1)

“No.” Ronnie pushed her glasses higher on her nose. “You need a prescription. Doctors would have access. Nurses.”

“Hot damn.” Now excitement had entered Dane’s voice, too. “We might be able to track the bastard through the drug.”

Veronica nodded.

“We’ll start a check, trace down the distribution—”

Katherine grabbed his arm. “Valentine never drugged his victims. They all came with him willingly.” Her eyes were on Savannah’s body. “He seduced,” she whispered. “He didn’t drug.” That wasn’t the way he’d worked in Boston.

“This killer is drugging his victims.” Ronnie pulled out another body from a second locker. Unzipped the bag. Katherine took a sharp breath when she saw the woman’s dark hair. Was that Amy Evans? Yes.

Ronnie was still talking. She used her magnifying glass and said, “Same injection spot. Same drug. Same high dose.” Ronnie’s gaze turned to Dane. “Both victims were unconscious when the killer took them.”

“What about Lancaster?” Dane demanded. “Did he have the same injection mark?”

Ronnie shook her head and moved away from the slabs. She walked toward a sheet-covered body that waited on a table in the middle of the room. “I’ve got his tox screen running now, a rush order, but I checked thoroughly, and I haven’t found any sign of an injection on his body.”

Katherine turned and walked toward that table. She stared at Trent’s covered body. A tremble shook her.

“I did notice something different, though.” Ronnie’s voice was contemplative. “The angle of the attack is different with him. The knife plunged into him deeper, harder. There was a hell of a lot more force used in this kill.”

“Because he was angry,” Dane said, coming to stand by that table, too.

Trent’s face was covered by the sheet. Katherine didn’t want to see his face.

Not again.

I’m sorry, Trent.

“Valentine was angry,” Dane said again. “That’s why the wounds were harder. He was pissed off.”

At Trent.

At me.

Ronnie cleared her throat. “There are the exact same number of slashes on the arms of all the victims, the pattern is perfect.”

“Because it’s the same pattern that Valentine has on his arms,” Katherine added. She’d seen those scars, touched them, so many times and not even realized…“He suffered, so he wanted his victims to feel the same pain he felt.”

She had no doubt that Trent had felt plenty of pain before he died.

“We need to talk to the profiler,” Mac said. “If our perp is drugging his victims, then his MO has changed.”

Katherine turned away from Trent’s body. The scent in that place was making her sick. No, just being there, so close to the victims…

They’d all suffered too much. And for what? Because Valentine had marked them for death.

But why them…and why not me?

“Katherine!” Dane called her name as she rushed for the door.

But Katherine just shook her head. She needed air. She was suffocating in there. She pushed past the doors, didn’t wait for the elevator but rushed up the stairs.

Then she was outside. The back lot was all but deserted, and she sucked in deep gulps of air.

A hand wrapped around her shoulder. She knew the touch instantly. Dane.

She didn’t turn toward him. “I want this to stop.” What did they have to do?

“The drug is the biggest break we’ve had. We can track its distribution and run the bastard down.”

“He didn’t drug his victims—”

Dane caught her chin and forced her to look at him. “That was three years ago. Maybe something happened to him. Maybe he has to drug them in order to get them under his power. Whatever the reason, this is the break we need. We can find him.”

She couldn’t get those dead bodies out of her head. She would never be able to get them out. “He’s always watching,” she said. Her gaze darted around the parking lot. “He knew about me and Trent, so he killed Trent. He knows about us, Dane.” Dammit, she’d been so selfish last night. Wanting to be with him because he made her feel alive.

Even though just being with her could make him dead.

Katherine shook her head. “He said I should stay away from you.”

“And that’s exactly why you’re staying close to me. That bastard doesn’t get to dictate to you. We’re not playing his game.”

Yes, they were. Didn’t Dane realize it? With each body they discovered, they were just running blindly behind Valentine.

“I don’t want you to be the next victim in the morgue,” she said, and suddenly Katherine was the one holding on to him. Her nails sank into his arms. “I don’t want that, do you understand?”

Not when she’d just started to care for him. He’d broken through her wall, and she didn’t want him to die because of her.

“He’s not going to catch me unaware. I’m the one who’s going to catch him.”

So confident. So determined.

She wanted to believe him, but she was afraid.

What if…

Dane kissed her. Hard. Deep. “You’re not losing me, and I’m not going to let you go.”

“I want you to stay at the station,” Dane said as he checked his weapon. He was going to head back to Trent Lancaster’s place and make sure the techs hadn’t missed any detail. The more he learned about his victims, the more he could potentially learn about Valentine.

“No.” Katherine’s voice was quiet and determined and damn well not saying what he wanted to hear.

She was seated in his desk chair. He leaned over, caging her with his hands. “I have to know that you’re safe.”

“I can’t keep hiding.” Her chin lifted. Sexy. Strong. But driving him crazy when he just wanted to protect her. “He’s never tried to hurt me, don’t you get that? If Valentine wanted me dead, he could have just stabbed me in the heart at the gallery.”

That wasn’t the visual that Dane wanted in his head. But he knew she was right—he’d thought the same thing.

He had the opportunity. Plenty of time. Valentine could have easily killed Katherine before Dane arrived.

“I’m not going back to the safe house. I’m not going to hide at the station all day.” Her gaze was clear. “Hiding won’t draw him out. My being out there, walking around where he can see me—”