Page 21 of Girl Between (Dana Gray FBI Mystery Thriller #5)

Dana stood in the ornate kitchen of the Goldsmith-Godchaux house, staring into her over-steeped teacup. She’d lost track of time again, swallowed by memories of Claire. It was always the little things that brought her former protégé drifting back to the forefront of her memory.

A cup of tea, an inside joke, the smell of Thai food …

Dana had come to New Orleans to move past the painful memories, but it seemed escaping D.C. had done little to help her escape her haunted past.

Her last case had cost her so much. It had broken something drastically in Claire, and Dana bore the aftershock.

A part of her had broken, too.

The ill-fated night at Jake’s cabin hadn’t been that long ago, but Dana had a sneaking suspicion no amount of time could heal her trauma. She knew from experience some wounds scarred too deep.

An annoying vibration in Dana’s pocket pulled her from her forlorn memories. Rolling her eyes, she knew it was Jake even before looking at her phone. She was tempted to turn it off, but that would only make him more paranoid.

Honestly, she was surprised the stubborn FBI agent wasn’t already on a flight after she’d forgotten to check in. It was the first time she’d failed to honor his ultimatum.

I understand why you’re going to New Orleans, Dana. But I need to know you’re okay.

She’d agreed to send him proof of life via daily texts. Thanks to the time difference between Paris and New Orleans, she usually awoke to a text from Jake, thanking her for the continued peace of mind.

But this morning when she woke in a strange bedroom, her phone nearly dead—most likely due to the incessant amount of phone calls, voicemails, and texts from Jake—she knew she was in for a grade-A ass chewing once they finally connected.

She’d fired off a quick text after returning her phone to her charger in her suite at her hotel hoping to calm his nerves, but it seemed it was too late for that according to the text she’d just received.

Jake: Time’s up. Expect a visit. I’m sending an old Army friend to check on you. His name is Flynn.

“Great,” Dana muttered to herself. One overbearing babysitter was enough. She didn’t need Jake’s Army minions reporting on her. She’d come here to escape him as much as Claire.

Their last case had made Dana cross a line with Jake she wasn’t sure she could handle. She’d known full well what she wanted when she’d shown up at his door that night. But she hadn’t been prepared for the inevitable next step.

Dana loved Jake. At least as much as she could love anyone.

Her heart had suffered so many losses at such a young age, she’d gotten it into her head that she was better off alone. Alone her heart was safe.

But inevitably, Jake and Claire had found a way in. And being betrayed by Claire had destroyed Dana so completely she felt beyond saving. Certainly, beyond loving.

How could she ask that of anyone when she was too shattered to find a way to love them back?

For the longest time Dana hoped for someone to share the burden of life with, and now that she had, she found it overwhelming. If losing Claire had wrecked her this much, the thought of the same happening with Jake … it was too much to bear.

She’d been wrong to seek companionship. Now, all she desired was freedom from the painful shackles her life had given her.

Expecting things might be different with Jake or anyone else was a fool’s errand. And Dana was no fool.

It’s why she’d run from D.C. Only distance could save her from herself and the temptation of Jake Shepard’s bed. Distance and her work.

At this point, it was all she had left to give—her skills as the world’s foremost occult librarian.

It was a way forward. Maybe not a brave one, or the best one. But it was the only one she knew.

That’s why she silenced her phone and returned to her research. There was still much work to be done here. And Dana had no plans to leave until she finished what she’d started.