Free Die for Me: A Novel of the Valentine Killer by Cynthia Eden

violence, I believe, encouraged the darker instincts within Michael.”
    He came toward me, flashing a wide smile. “Hi, I’m Michael. Michael O’Rourke.” His eyes were so green. “And I think I’m in love.”
    “To truly understand him, we have to look at Michael’s origins.”
    Katherine fought to keep her breathing slow and steady.
    “Michael O’Rourke grew up in a single-parent home. His mother was a drug addict who sold her body whenever she needed some cash. She generally forgot about her son, and when she did remember him, she spent her time slapping him around.”
    That didn’t match up with the story Michael had originally told her…
    My mother? She died when I was just six. Such a beautiful lady, inside and out. She had the biggest smile…but one night, a man came for her. He attacked her in an alley. She was just going to get groceries for us. He was high on drugs. He killed her quickly, so she didn’t suffer—or at least that’s what the cops told me.
    “When he was twelve, Michael’s mother overdosed. He was the one who found her body.”
    Her funeral was beautiful. So many flowers. Roses were her favorites, too. She loved them just like you do. I like to think she was smiling down from heaven when she saw those roses.
    “No father was ever in the picture,” Marcus continued. His nasal tone was like nails on a chalkboard. “I doubt his mother even knew his name.”
    My father took care of me until I was nineteen. Then he passed away. A heart attack. But if you ask me, I think his heart stopped the day my mother died. He loved her so much…as much as I love you, Kat.
    Her palms flattened on the smooth surface of the table. She’d believed everything Michael had said about his life. Why doubt him? Falling for him had been so easy.
    Because he’d been perfect.
    “Michael O’Rourke probably began torturing and killing animals when he was a small child.”
    She remembered how Michael had seen a man kicking a dog one day and rushed over. Stopped the man. Demanded, “
How would you like to be kicked?
”
    He’d
never
liked to see animals hurt. Her eyes narrowed as she stared down at her hands and saw her memories.
    “He is a sociopath. Not able to form any sort of lasting relationship with anyone or anything. He suffered so much abuse as a child that he now believes the only way humans actually express emotion is through abuse. So when he attacks his victims, he’s both showing his control, his complete dominance over them, and he’s also showing…well, the only emotion that he can.”
    Her back teeth ground together.
    I love you, Kat. I didn’t think it would be possible to care about someone the way I do for you. But you’re different. You make me want to be better. To be someone else.
His warm green eyes had stared into her own.
Marry me. Let’s start over, together.
    “I suspect he originally approached Kat here…”
    She flinched at the name. “
Don’t
call me that.”
    “Is that because Michael did?” Marcus asked.
    “You know he did.”
    “Just as I know he approached you because you fit his victim profile. You were the perfect victim for him. Right hair, right eyes, right age.” He paused. “Right past.”
    Her gaze snapped to his.
Don’t talk about that. Don’t go there.
She would share what she knew about Valentine, but her own wounds—the wounds that had come long before she ever met Valentine—those weren’t open for the world to poke and prod for their pleasure.
    “The women he targeted were all damaged.” Marcus’s eyes weren’t looking away from her. They were trying to look
into
her. “You could have been his perfect prey, but he didn’t kill you. He didn’t put you on his table. Didn’t slice into your arms twenty-one times and then drive a knife into your chest—”
    “
That’s fucking enough
.” Dane had dropped his neutral expression. His gaze was blazing as he jerked Marcus’s chair back. Marcus stumbled, nearly falling to the