Page 89 of Girl Between (Dana Gray FBI Mystery Thriller #5)

Dana raced the darkening sky, the rumble of thunder nipping at her heels. She reached the precinct stairs as the first fat raindrops began to fall.

She walked into the station, head held high. After her altercation with Taurant, a renewed focus settled over her.

She’d come to New Orleans to outrun her past. But every day, some part of it caught up with her. She was done fighting it. She was done being pushed around.

Dana was smart. Strong. Capable of being an asset to this newly assembled team. And they needed to know it from day one.

There were friendly faces everywhere. Officers Neville and LaSalle, Dr. Lena Cruz, Detective George, Agent Richter, and even some not so friendly faces, Dana noted, spotting Dr. Landry among the mix. However, one face was missing. She scanned the busy room, but Jake was nowhere to be found.

A pit formed in her stomach, but she squashed it. Spotting the BAU unit chief, she strode across the room, shoulders back. “Dr. Dana Gray, reporting for duty,” she said, extending her hand to Agent Creed.

The young FBI agent pushed his glasses up his slender nose and stood tall. Even on his tiptoes Dana would still have him by two inches, but she knew height had nothing to do with capability, so she didn’t hold it against him.

“SSA Creed,” he said, an echo of prepubescence still clinging to his voice. “You’re late.”

“Had to wrap up my current position. Won’t happen again.”

Agent Creed nodded. “You missed the briefing.” He waved George over. “Detective, get Miss Gray up to speed.”

“ Doctor Gray,” Dana corrected.

“Right,” Creed said, his attention already back on his phone.

“Where were you?” George asked, after dragging Dana to the watercooler.

“Tying up loose ends with NOSA. What did I miss?”

“Creed might be young and unconventional, but he gets shit done,” George said. “He’s got a whole team of analysts running every file we’ve digitized through a program they wrote specifically for this case.”

“What does that mean?”

“In theory, it’ll create a custom database from the parameters you gave Lena.”

“We’ll be able to pinpoint the number of victims?”

“Exactly,” George said. “And by cross-referencing missing persons, we might get hits on who these Jane Does are.”

“That’s great. Identifying the victims will help us paint a clearer picture of our unsub.” Dana scanned the room again. “Where’s Jake?”

“He was here for the official sign off, but Creed made it clear it’s essential personnel only from here on out.”

Dana balled her hands into tight fists against the unexpected anxiety rising in her chest. She’d worked cases without Jake before. She told herself this was no different.

You haven’t worked an active case without him.

Dana shut out her annoyingly accurate subconscious, but the damage was already done.

Jake had been by her side through the last four high profile FBI cases.

In fact, she was confident she wouldn’t have survived any of them without him.

They were partners. They brought out the best— and sometimes the worst —in each other.

But there was no denying that they always had each other’s backs.

Or he used to.

This time, she’d be going it alone. Well, not exactly alone, she reminded herself as she looked around the crowded room. But still, doing this without Jake made her feel like she was walking into a dark forest without a flashlight.

Dana resisted the urge to text him. Not being part of the case was one thing, but he wasn’t even in the building. Last night she’d asked him to stay, to be her plus one to Cadie’s wedding. He’d heard her, she was sure of it.

Was it too little, too late?

The only thing she knew for certain was that his absence was affecting her.

She wanted him here. Acknowledging that was more than she’d bargained for.

She shook herself from her baseless worries. Now wasn’t the time. “What else do I need to know?” Dana asked, ready to dig in.