Page 37 of Girl Between
“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.
