Page 113 of Girl Betrayed

“Maybe he is. If that’s the case, we’re on to him, and he’ll slip up sooner or later. They all do. And we’ll be there to stop him when he does.” With that, he shrugged on his jacket and headed out her front door.

“Where are you going?” she asked, following him out onto her porch.

“Back to the lab to meet up with my team, see if they’ve found anything new to add to the profile. I’ll keep you in the loop. You do the same.”

She stood there, watching his taillights fade into the distance before going back inside. Jake was right where she’d left him. He sat at her desk, staring at her laptop screen. It was frozen on a still of Claire, her features paralyzed with fear.

“Richter’s gone,” she said, walking over to join him at the desk.

“I heard,” Jake replied, getting to his feet the moment she sat down. “I’m going to go check on Claire.”

“I just checked on her.”

“Well, I’m going to check again.”

“Jake, I know you didn’t want her to watch the video, but she begged me. She didn’t want to be in the dark anymore.”

“You think that’s why I’m pissed?” He huffed a laugh. “That’s not what this is about.”

“Okay, then what?” She stood up, too. “Jake, just talk to me.”

But he shook his head and walked out of the room.

97

Dana stood in her office,blinking at the empty space where Jake had just stood.

She’d been expecting a fight.

Not getting one hurt worse.

She was used to butting heads with him, but this was different. It was like he was giving up, and that wasn’t like him. It was clear he needed space, but there wasn’t time. This case was more important than either of them, and they were running out of time.

The sun had set; it was reaping hour.

Dana found Jake on the porch. He was drinking out of a coffee mug—like she didn’t know it was filled with bourbon. She’d seen the bottle he stashed above the fridge. And how it held less and less each day. She took the mug, downed a sip to confirm her suspicions, then poured the rest over the porch railing.

Jake muttered a swear. “That’s Blanton’s Special Release!”

“And?”

“And it costs too much to dump into your shrubs.”

“Well, the time for brooding into your bourbon is over. We have a killer loose in D.C., and it doesn’t seem like anyone else is doing anything to find him, so I need your help.”

“Dana, can we not do this now?”

“This is precisely the time to do this. You’re pissed so just tell me why so I can fix it and we can move on.”

“Move on?” he scoffed bitterly. “Trust me there is nothing more I’d rather do.”

“Jake, what’s going on? Why won’t you just talk to me?”

“Because, you’re just going to say something to convince me you’re right, because you’re always right.”

“About what?”

“Everything. Nothing.” He sighed heavily and raked a hand down his face. She could see the fatigue lining his eyes when he finally looked at her. “You pushed her too far today, Dana.”