Die for Me: A Novel of the Valentine Killer Read Online Free PDF

her head as she met his eyes. “I will help you.” Firm. “That’s why I came to the station. Why I told you to contact Sean.” Her stare didn’t waver. “I’ve already let Ross know that I won’t be leaving town.”
    His captain would be shit-eating-grin happy over that news.
    Her eyelids flickered. “Believe me, I want Valentine stopped as much as you do.” Her laugh was bitter, broken. “More than you do, okay?
More.
I want the guy caught and locked in a cage for the rest of his life.”
    Bloodthirsty.
    “So I’ll be staying here, Detective—”
    “Dane.” Not just detective. They were going to be working together, working
very
closely together, and he wanted her calling him by his name.
    She blinked and nodded slowly. “I’ll be here, Dane. This time I won’t run away.”
    He realized that this Katherine wasn’t the same as the broken woman in the photograph. Determination tightened her features and kept her back straight.
    A fighter.
    Good. She’d need to be.
    He’d wondered just what kind of woman Valentine had lost his heart to. Now he knew.
    And Dane realized that he’d been right about Katherine all along. She could be a very dangerous woman indeed.

    Dane returned to Katherine’s house that night and watched her from the shadows. Now that he knew her relationship to Valentine and with one woman already in the morgue, he couldn’t bring himself to leave her unguarded.
    There was just something about Katherine Cole…
    She was working her way right under his skin.
    Was this the way it had been for Valentine? The question whispered through his mind. Had Valentine met her and not been able to get her out of his head?
    She’s in my head.
    If he weren’t careful, the situation could be deadly.
    Headlights lit the area as another car approached. The vehicle slowed and then braked at the end of Katherine’s drive. Dane tensed, then saw a guy in a three-piece suit hurry out of his fancy sports car.
    He ran a hand over his face. He hadn’t expected Katherine to have a date, but it looked like the lady had planned a night out on the town. For some reason, the sight of the jerk in that overpriced suit pissed him off. Katherine, dressed in a form-fitting black dress that hugged her body like a sweet glove, smiled at the bozo when she opened the front door and even let the guy kiss her cheek.
    Bastard.
    Dane wrote down the bastard’s tag number and called it in while he trailed them to a high-end restaurant. In less than five minutes, he knew that Katherine’s date was Dr. Trent Lancaster, a local shrink.
    Jeez, a shrink? He’d never liked the head case doctors. They analyzed everything to death.
    The guy’s hands were a little too clingy as he led Katherine toward the restaurant. And Dane realized he was gripping his steering wheel a little too tightly.
    Just a case. Just a case.
Breathing deeply, he forced his hands to relax. Then he pulled out his phone and called Mac. One ring. Two. The shrink and Katherine disappeared into the restaurant.
    Mac answered on the third ring. Dane could tell by the background noise that his partner was still at the station. Perfect.
    “Run a check for me,” Dane said without bothering to identify himself. “Find out every bit of intel you can on Dr. Trent Lancaster.” His fingers tapped against the steering wheel, and he kept his eyes on the restaurant’s entrance.
    One of Katherine’s lovers had been a killer.
    Was another?

    This wasn’t working. Katherine forced herself to smile at Trent. He was talking about an article he’d written, something about behavioral regression, and she wanted to just drop her head and bang it on the table. Hard. Over and over.
    Not working.
    Had she really thought she might be able to sleep with Trent? That tonight would be the date that finally took their relationship to the next level?
    Her body was so amped up that she felt as if every muscle trembled, and her eyes couldn’t seem to stop searching the room.
    Someone’s