Page 64 of Girl Between

That hadn’t been what Dana was expecting. “Is she okay?”

Jake turned to look at her, his glare teaming with accusation that made Dana hate herself for even asking the question.

Of course, Claire wasn’t okay. She was locked up, awaiting trial. Dana knew that. Her question had really been, had something changed? Normally, she and Jake had a shorthand that ensured she wouldn’t have to spell such things out. Distance had evidently deteriorated that courtesy.

“Nothing’s changed,” Jake said, finally understanding. “The hearing starts soon.”

“I know that,” Dana replied.

“And?”

“And what?” she pressed.

“And you’re coming.”

“Jake, if that’s why you came here?—”

“You’re damn right that’s why I’m here. You need to be there.”

“Why?” Dana demanded. “What good will it do?”

“I know what it’ll do to you if you’re not there,” he said, his voice tight with anger.

“I don’t know that being there is better.”

When Jake spoke again, his voice was so hard the words sounded like they’d been dragged through gravel. “You’re not the only one she betrayed, Dana. But I’m still going to be there.”

She looked at him, unsure of what to say. They’d been through so much together. Lost so much together. It should’ve brought them closer, but instead it’d built an impenetrable wall.

Dana knew she was the one who’d laid the first bricks. But without them, she feared she’d fall and never stop falling, into whatever was on the other side of grief and loss and pain.

She feared it was a bottomless pit she couldn’t climb out of.

She’d done it once before, just barely, after losing her parents. But this … somehow, this hurt worse.

Dana knew Jake had experienced everything she had in their last case. Hell, he’d been through much worse in his life. But she wasn’t as strong as him. God, how she wished she were, but despite the light that people like Marjorie saw in her, Dana felt the pull of darkness more than anything else. And until she could conquer it, she needed her fortress, even if that meant keeping everyone else out. Including Jake Shepard.

Dana searched Jake’s rigid features, desperate to find a way to make him understand, but she was out of time. He was already pulling up to the towering white marble façade of Hotel Monteleone. Her door was whisked open by a white jacketed bellhop who greeted her with the revery of a bygone era. She was ushered through the heavy brass doors into the regal marble interior. Inside the lobby she turned back, looking for Jake.

He was handing his keys to the valet, hoisting his go-bag over his shoulder. Dana flashed to the image of her own go-bag, just a few floors above. Jake had been the one who taught her to always have it ready. Now, she wondered if he regretted it, considering the last time she’d used it was to escape him.

61

Jake followedDana through the two sets of brass double doors and up the steps into the grand two-story foyer of Hotel Monteleone. The moment wasn’t how he’d envisioned it.

He’d been to the ornate New Orleans landmark before, but this wasn’t the homecoming he’d imagined.

Dana’s footsteps echoed her sharp annoyance through the empty lobby as she crossed the checkerboard of pink marble. Jake trailed a step behind, trying to keep his simmering anger in check. He watched Dana pass under the sparkling crystal chandeliers to wait for her elevator.

The Monteleone was a massive hotel, but as luck would have it, Jake’s room required him to take the same bank of elevators as Dana. They stood side-by-side in tense silence, gazes cast upward as the numbers slowly ticked down from the 14thfloor.

Dana fidgeted, chewing her fingers as she waited. Catching the terrible state of her nails softened Jake a bit. He knew he’d added to her nervous habit. But his preoccupied thoughts vanished when the elevator doors rolled open to reveal a coffin of dark wooden panels within.

At least that’s how it appeared to Jake.

He hated elevators. Any confined spaces, really.

They instantly brought him back to the claustrophobic days spent underground in his RRD missions with the 101st. They’d spent so many hours in the dark that when they emerged into the desert, Jake thought the sunlight would permanently blind him.