Page 61 of Girl Between (Dana Gray FBI Mystery Thriller #5)

Dana gripped the door as Jake drove like the devil was nipping at his heels. The streetlights whizzed by, illuminating the storm brewing in his eyes. She watched them darken from worn denim to starless night. They were as turbulent as the sky he’d flown across to get here.

Now that Dana was sitting next to Jake, she didn’t know what to say.

Their time apart hadn’t been that long, but it’d opened a chasm between them that she didn’t know how to navigate.

She couldn’t help being pulled back to their very first encounter. Back to when she’d thought Jake Shepard was nothing more than an overbearing suit with no depth.

Dana knew better now, but that did nothing to help her bridge the simmering silence building between them as he drove back toward the heart of the French Quarter.

As she fretted about what to say, she reverted to old habits, anxiously biting her nails. It was Jake’s hand on hers that pulled her back to the present. Electricity zapped through her the way it always did when they touched. For a moment their eyes locked.

“Jake, why are you here?” she asked .

“I thought that was fairly obvious.”

“You know I prefer facts over conjecture.”

“I’m here for Claire.”

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 facade 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.