Die For Me: A Novel of the Valentine Killer (For Me #1)(54)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Harley was groaning.

“Or you can run back to that house, and maybe you’ll get there in time to save your detective.”

Her heart was beating so fast her chest hurt. “What have you done?”

“I learned from my last mistake. I’m not going to leave evidence behind again.” He shook his head. She almost caught a glimpse of his jaw. Almost. She wanted to see the face that he’d been hiding behind. “That’s just messy when you leave your work behind. Nothing will be taken away from that house.”

She glanced over her shoulder. She could just see the roof of the house at 5207 Oakland.

“I’d say you have about two minutes. If you do go in that house…” Valentine paused. “Please be out before then. I don’t want you to die.”

Her cheeks were numb. “A bomb?” That demolitions training he’d had in the military. Oh, God, he would know how to rig the place to blow. Two minutes…it made sense. He’d set something to explode.

Her hand stopped shaking. “I’ll save them all.”

He stiffened. Jerked up and to the left.

She fired.

The bullet sank into his shoulder.

The knife fell to the ground with a clatter.

Before she could fire again, Valentine lunged toward a small row of trees on the right, heading for a little patch of woods that separated the subdivision from the edge of the swamp just a few yards away. He left a trail of blood behind him.

I shot him.

She rushed forward. “Captain!”

Blood trickled down his temple. There was a giant gash on the side of his head. More blood on the sidewalk. Valentine bashed his head in. That had been the thud she heard.

But the captain was still alive. Still breathing.

Katherine glanced at the woods. She could run after Valentine. He was hurt. This was her chance to get him. Her chance.

But her gaze went back to the rooftop of that house. Two minutes. Less than that now. If Valentine hadn’t been bluffing, if there were explosives set to go off…

She shoved back to her feet and ran for the house. “Get out!” Katherine screamed as she raced toward 5207 Oakland Way. Some cops were already running from the house. They’d heard her gunshot. Her gunshot seemed to have drawn everyone’s attention. Good.

She lifted the gun into the air. Fired again.

“Get out!” Katherine screamed. “The house is a trap! It’s going to—”

A cop tackled her. Some uniform that she’d never met before. Her body slammed into the ground, and he twisted her wrist until the gun fell from her fingers.

“Get the f**k off her!” Dane’s voice. Dane. Then the cop who’d tackled her was tossed to the side. Dane caught Katherine’s hands and pulled her up against him. “Baby, what the hell?”

“Valentine. He set the house to explode!” Her gaze flew over his shoulder. “Get them out!”

“Out!” Dane snarled into his transmitter even as he lifted Katherine into his arms and started running away from the house. “Extraction now! The house isn’t secure!”

The cops began to rush away from the house. Katherine twisted, trying to see the front of that place. More uniforms rushed out. There was Ross, leaping out of the front door, and then—

An explosion shattered the windows. Glass flew through the air as a wave of heat burst from the house. Flames. Bricks. Chunks of wood.

And Katherine was flying, too. She and Dane hurtled in the air and crashed down hard on the earth.

Dane was over her. His mouth was moving, but all she heard was her heartbeat. Only heard—

“Katherine, are you all right? Dammit, say something!”

She put her hand to the ground. Felt blood trickling down her cheek. “Did everyone get out?”

His lips tightened. “I don’t know.” He pulled her against him. Held her tight.

She looked back at the inferno. Nothing was left of the house. Just a shattered husk that was blazing.

“The captain’s down!” The cry came from John.

Katherine jumped to her feet. The world swayed for a minute. Dane grabbed her. “Take it easy.”

There was no easy. “Valentine. He attacked your captain!”

Dane’s eyes widened.

“I saw him. I shot him…”

“You killed Valentine?”

She shook her head.

“I need some help!” Marcus yelled. “Get me an EMT!”

Katherine and Dane both rushed toward his cry. The profiler was crouched over the captain. Harley’s eyes were closed. His chest barely seeming to rise.

“He must have been tossed in the explosion,” Marcus said, his voice rough. There were deep scratches and cuts on his arms. It looked like he’d been tossed through the air, too.

“No,” Katherine told Marcus, “he wasn’t.”

Then sirens were screaming. The EMTs who’d been just a few blocks away—held back as a precaution while the cops stormed the house—were racing to the scene.

“He ran that way,” Katherine said, pointing to the trees. Night had come too quickly, but the inferno lit up the edge of the woods. “He was bleeding. If you get the dogs, you can track him. He tried to kill the captain.”

Ross had come up behind her. Blood trickled down the side of his face. “Katherine, how did you know the place was gonna blow?”

Dane was sending cops into the woods and calling for the dogs.

She backed up so the EMTs could work on Harley. “Valentine told me. Said I had a choice to make. I could save the captain or the men in the house.”

Ross’s eyes narrowed. “He set us all up to die?”

“It wasn’t about you.” Valentine hadn’t cared about the lives that he would take. “He didn’t want to leave evidence behind.” She swiped her hand over her eye, over the cut on her eyebrow that was sending blood down her cheek.

Ross gave a grim nod. “I’m joining the search.”

His shirt was smoldering and bloody. Heavy patches of blood covered his shoulders. He barely seemed to be standing on his feet. “No, you need help!” Katherine turned and called for an EMT.

But when she glanced back, Ross was gone. He’d vanished into the woods.

Katherine’s breath huffed out. Ross needed treatment, but she knew that, for him, the job always took priority.

She stood there in the midst of the chaos, and her gaze swept the scene. So many were injured.

Another ambulance hurried onto the street. She counted at least a half dozen cops who were bleeding and burned. One guy had a broken leg, one a broken arm, both from their impact with the ground after the explosion.