Page 36 of Girl Between (Dana Gray FBI Mystery Thriller #5)
“Hello?”
Jake was unprepared to hear Dana’s voice on the other end of the phone. He’d taken her recent radio silence as punishment for sending Flynn to check on her. He knew she’d be pissed, and he knew better than to do it again, but it didn’t stop him from worrying.
With each unanswered text his unease grew. The tiny seen notification next to his unreciprocated messages offered a modicum of comfort, but Jake needed more.
The silence between them was threatening to become a chasm, stretching wider each passing day. Unwilling to let it become a void he’d be unable to cross, he’d picked up the phone to call.
He’d planned to leave his rehearsed message on her voicemail, but his mind went blank the moment Dana’s voice greeted him.
“Hello?” she asked again. “Jake? Can you hear me?”
“I’m here,” he said, pausing to clear the sudden tightness in his throat. “I wasn’t expecting you to answer.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure? It’s five in the morning in Paris.”
“I’m in Nevada,” he answered .
Dana was silent for a moment. Her voice tense, careful when she spoke again. “Your mother?”
“She’s fine. Better, actually.”
“Your father,” Dana guessed. “Did you find him?”
“It’s a long story,” Jake answered, not wanting to get distracted. “That’s not why I called.”
“If you called to check up on me?—”
“Dana, we had a deal. You’re the one who broke it.”
“I’m not a child, Jake! I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Flynn is a good guy,” Jake argued.
“You mean Detective George?” she corrected.
“Yeah. Old habit. He was Flynn when we served. Hard to call him anything else.”
“Jake, you sicced a cop on me because I forgot to text you. You understand how insane that is, right?”
He scoffed. “Since when do you have something against cops?”
“That’s not the point, and you know it. I asked for space. This is the opposite.”
“I need to know you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” she said.
“You don’t sound fine.”
Dana sighed, exhaustion edging her voice when she answered. “It’s been a long night, Jake. Can we not do this?”
“If not tonight, when?” he asked, not bothering to hide his frustration.
“I don’t know, maybe when I haven’t spent the night at a crime scene.”
“What were you doing at a crime scene?”
“Why don’t you ask your good friend, Flynn or George or whatever you call him?”
Jake tried and failed to keep the hurt from his voice. “You decided to work his case?”
“I didn’t decide anything,” she snapped.
Jake huffed a bitter laugh. “Typical.”
“Excuse me? ”
“I just find it convenient that you need a break from our life in D.C. but have no problem doing the same thing in New Orleans with people you don’t even know.”
“Jake, I’m only going to say this once. What I do with my life is up to me. And if I do end up working with George, you only have yourself to blame, considering you inserted him into my life.”
“Because you forced my hand!” Jake yelled.
“Well guess what, I’m fine so you can stop worrying about me.”
“I know you, Dana. You’re not fine, and the more you keep saying it, the less I believe it.”
“Talking to you is infuriating,” she groaned.
“Likewise.”
“Then why don’t we end this conversation before we say something we’ll regret?”
“Wait,” Jake begged. “I didn’t call to fight with you. I want to talk about us.”
“Jake, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. There is no us.”
“That’s a lie and you know it. The past four years we spent together weren’t a lie. They meant something to me, and I know they meant something to you, too. In all the time I’ve known you, I’ve never known you to be a liar. Don’t start now.”
The sound of Dana’s agitated breathing was her only answer. Finally, she spoke. “You’re right … I’m sorry. Of course it meant something. But I don’t know what it means now.”
His throat worked at the honesty in her voice.
He wished he could just reach through the phone and hold her.
She was so close, yet so far away. But he was getting through to her.
Maybe for the first time since he woke up and found an empty bed where she should’ve been.
“That’s okay,” he urged. “We don’t need to have all the answers right now. ”
He was afraid if he pushed her, he’d lose what they’d spent the last four years building. Jake spoke softly. “We just have to be willing to figure it out together, Dana. That’s all I’m asking.”
“I know,” she said.
“Can you do that? ”
“I-I think?—”
A sharp rapping sound interrupted whatever she’d been about to say.
“There’s someone at the door,” Dana said.
Jake’s hackles rose. It was almost midnight in Louisiana. Who would be visiting Dana at this hour? “Put me on speaker and look through the peephole before you answer the door.”
“I am,” she said in that annoyed tone that Jake found endearing. He could almost see her eyes rolling.
The phone filled with rustling and the sound of locks being unbolted.
“What are you doing here?” Dana asked whoever was at the door.
The answer came in the familiar voice of Jake’s old Army buddy. “Sorry, I know it’s late. I just wanted to check on you.”
“George, you didn’t have to do that.”
“I know. But I wanted to,” he replied in that same tone Jake had heard him use to charm everyone he’d ever met.
Unwilling to let his charismatic friend tear apart all the progress Jake had just rebuilt with Dana, he spoke up loudly. “Flynn?”
His friend’s laughter filled the room. “Jake Shepard? Is that you?”
“Oh. Sorry, Jake,” Dana said as though she’d completely forgotten he was still on the line. “George is here.”
“I can hear that,” Jake answered.
“I should go,” Dana said.
“Don’t let me interrupt,” George argued. “I just came to check on our girl.”
“No, it’s fine,” Dana said. “We were finished.”
It took every ounce of willpower Jake had not to argue with that statement. Especially after hearing George say ‘our girl’ like he had some claim on Dana. Instead, Jake said, “We can finish our conversation tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Dana agreed. “Goodnight, Jake.”
“Goodnight,” he said, and the line went dead.
Jake stared at his phone, wondering not for the first time if sending another man into Dana’s orbit had been a mistake.