Page 68 of Girl Between (Dana Gray FBI Mystery Thriller #5)

The world was still dark when Dana dared to crack her eyelids again.

Slowly, the shadows sharpened into shapes. A desk. A couch. Her bed. She was back at Hotel Monteleone.

Vague memories filtered through the dusky light illuminating her hotel room.

Jake, sliding into the backseat with her. His warm arms protectively holding her as the squad car ferried them away from the crime scene.

Jake, carrying her inside the hotel and up to her room. The gentle way he’d tried to get her to talk, only for her to push him away so she could hide her tears in the shower.

She pressed a hand against the tightness building in her chest.

Her fingers met foreign fabric. She paused, searching her memories. This isn’t my shirt.

She let her fingers trace the buttons of the pale blue dress shirt as she breathed in the scent. Familiar. Comforting. Jake.

It hit her all at once. This wasn’t her room. It was Jake’s. And she was wearing his shirt .

Her eyes sought him out, landing on a masculine slumbering shape.

There he was, Jake Shepard, asleep and shirtless, upright on the couch. A sliver of moonlight illuminated his scarred muscles, his Army tattoo standing out even in the shadows.

Dana fought her sudden urge to go to him. To ask him to make her forget. Like he had the last time they shared a bedroom.

But that’s what brought her to New Orleans to begin with.

And she knew better than to sneak up on Jake Shepard. Every inch of the man was a deadly weapon.

His suit jacket was draped neatly over the back of the sofa and his posture was relaxed, but that didn’t fool her.

His eyes might be closed, his breathing steady, but she knew he’d purposely angled the couch to face the door.

The slightest movement and his sixth sense would spring into action, his finger on the trigger of his Sig Sauer before an intruder could blink.

Dana let the protective gesture wrap around her like a warm blanket. After spending most of her life training herself not to rely on anyone, she hated that Jake’s overbearing presence soothed her. That she wanted him there. That he knew it.

Despite everything she’d said and done, she had her very own brooding gargoyle to keep the monsters at bay.

But he couldn’t tackle them all. Not when she battled demons immune to bullets. Ones who fed on her fears and tormented her mind.

Some had snuck their way in, others she’d invited. Still, she couldn’t quiet them. Not when they all said the same things.

Nothing good can last.

People always leave.

You’re better off alone.

It’s why she didn’t let anyone in. When she did, there were always devastating consequences. That’s how she’d ended up here, wasn’t it? Hiding in bed, instead of helping solve a murder?

Dana closed her eyes again, trying to block out the image of Claire .

Not Claire, she reminded herself. But it might as well have been. The guilt she felt made Dana see the girl everywhere. But she knew it didn’t matter. The Claire Dana had known was gone now, and there was nothing she could do about it.

It was a sad truth she’d learned long ago. Whether by choice or not, in Dana’s life, she was always the girl left behind.

She tried to wrestle the thought away, but it took hold, pulling her back into the grasp of a restless slumber.