Under Your Scars

The FBI first labeled the narrator a serial murderer after he had killed three people. His body count keeps climbing, and once it reaches fifty-two, the authorities have given him a new name: the Silencer.

He explains why he never stopped. A single final bullet could have ended his killing spree, and he insists that pulling that trigger would have been a service to Meridian City. Instead, the cry for help of an angel held him back, and that same night he took three lives for her. From there the numbers climb steadily, moving from three to eight, eight to twenty, and on through twenty-one and twenty-three.

Elena Young is the heroine of his story, but in hers he is the villain. The book is set up as a tale in which the villain wins the girl, even at a terrible price.