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

“Usually at least four hours,” was Katherine’s quiet response. “That’s what it took him before, in Boston.”

Dane grabbed his arm. “She’s alive. We just have to find her.”

The lines on Mac’s face were deeper. His eyes wild. “How?” Fear cracked the word. “The crime techs have been crawling all over this lot. They aren’t finding anything.”

“Video surveillance,” Dane said, thinking fast.

“That camera has been out of commission for three weeks,” Mac said, his shoulders slumping. “Ronnie left after the shift change. No one was out here. Captain had ordered all hands out to the Oakland scene. No one saw a damn thing.”

Dane’s phone rang. He yanked it out, not bothering to look at the caller ID. “Black.”

A woman’s scream echoed on the line.

His blood turned to ice. Then he flipped his phone around and stared at the ID—the call was coming from Ronnie’s phone.

The bastard wasn’t making his before-death call to Katherine this time.

“Let her go,” Dane roared.

Mac’s eyes widened. “Ronnie!”

The scream on the line choked away.

Her phone. Dane mouthed the words. Mac’s head jerked and he hurried away, immediately yelling for the tech team to put a track on Ronnie’s phone. They hadn’t been able to track it while it was turned off, but now they could hit the cell towers and try to get a lock on the signal.

“Don’t kill her,” Dane said, lowering his voice and talking quickly now. “Let Dr. Thomas go. Just leave her and walk away…”

Laughter. The sound was grating. He was clearly using a voice distorter. Then he spoke. “She’s not my usual type.” The voice was as distorted as the laughter. “But I was feeling pretty pissed at you f**king police, so I decided to get some payback.”

Mac huddled with the techs. They’d triangulate that signal. They’d find her.

“Why else would you call me if you didn’t want me to find you? You want us to stop you.”

Silence. No denial.

“So just save us all some time and tell us where you are.”

“It’s not your turn yet. Don’t worry, you’ll be dying soon.”

The line cut away.

“Dane?” Katherine touched his arm.

He stared at Katherine. “He’s hurting her,” he said in a whisper. He didn’t want Mac to hear.

“We’ve got Ronnie!” Mac was too busy yelling to hear anything that Dane said. Dane spun and saw Mac rushing toward him.

“The techs tracked her! The signal came from around Fifty-Fourth and Millway!”

He knew Millway was filled with run-down and vacant houses. The perfect place to dump a body.

“We’re searching every house there!” Dane shouted to the men who were jumping to obey him. “Every single one!” The DA was there, standing in the background. He could work out any warrant issue. “Dr. Thomas is one of our own, and we’re bringing her in alive!” Dane still didn’t mention her screams. He just turned with the crowd and hurried toward his car. Katherine was with him every step of the way.

Every man and woman there knew Ronnie’s life was on the line. They had to find her.

Before her screams were forever silenced.

“They’re coming.”

The smell of blood clogged Ronnie’s nostrils. Her blood.

The phone was on the table beside her.

“I have to move quickly. There’s no time to waste.”

The knife lifted.

“I’ll be long gone when they find your body.”

She wasn’t ready to die. She and Mac…they had plans. They’d talked about getting a house together, and one day maybe even having a kid.

I don’t want Mac to find my body.

Ronnie tried to talk behind the duct tape but could still only manage weak grunts. The long, terror-filled scream that had ripped through the room moments before—

It hadn’t been hers.

It had come from the crazy bitch with the knife.

Because the voice distorter was gone now. And even though she couldn’t clearly see the killer, Ronnie could hear the woman perfectly.

Not Valentine.

“As if I’d let the victims actually talk.” A low laugh came from the killer. “They might give the game away that a woman was holding them, not Valentine.”

Now she understood why fentanyl had been in the victims’ blood. Because a woman had been taking them, and the killer had needed to disable her victims.

She couldn’t charm and seduce the way Valentine had in Boston.

Not f**king Valentine.

But she was about to die, and no one else would learn the truth.

The knife had just started to descend toward Ronnie’s heart when she heard it. The faintest creak of a door opening. The bitch froze.

“They can’t be here,” the killer whispered. “Not yet…”

Someone was there. Hope exploded inside Ronnie, making her light-headed.

Or maybe the feeling was just due to the blood loss.

She didn’t care. She just needed help. She tried screaming, but her mutters barely broke through the tape.

The bitch had spun around. She had her knife in her hand, and she was heading toward the stairs. As she stalked away, Ronnie started struggling with the ropes once more. The drug had worn off more, but because of her injuries, her arms were nearly useless.

But with blood coating her wrists, maybe she could just turn her hands and slide out of the ropes.

She didn’t see the bitch anymore. The woman had gone up the stairs.

A faint breeze blew over her skin.

Goose bumps rose on her flesh. There’d been no breeze before.

She could smell fresh air over the cloying scent of her blood.

More tears filled her eyes.

Then a hand pressed against her cheek. It was gloved. The hand wiped away her tears.

Ronnie jerked.

“Shh…” It was a soft rumble of sound. “I’m not here to hurt you,” a man’s rumbling voice said.

Then, squinting, she saw the flash of a knife, and knew his words for the lie they were.

Valentine?

“What did the killer say?” Katherine asked as they sped toward Millway.

Dane’s hands had a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. He kept his eyes on the road as he answered, “He was just jerking us around.” Jerking me around.

“Are you sure he has Ronnie? Are you sure she’s still alive?”

The cop cars weren’t going in with sirens wailing. It was the same approach they’d tried when looking for Amy Evans. Just as before, they were afraid they’d spook the guy. And if he got spooked, he’d kill.