Page 30 of Girl Lost
But as she looked at Tori’s hopeful face, she realized that maybe, just maybe, she needed this connection more than she wanted to admit.
“I appreciate that so much, but let me grab a hotel for tonight. I just need a little time to decompress on my own. But I’ll definitely take you up on that offer tomorrow, okay?” If she stayed that long.
“All right, all right,” Tori said. “I’m holding you to that.”
They exchanged cell numbers, and a second later, her phone chimed with Tori’s address.
“There’s a code to open the front door and another for the alarm.” Tori rattled off both codes. “Can you remember, or should I—”
“I’ll remember.” Especially since the letters of the four-digit code spelled “Luna.”
“Now hit the showers ’cuz, girl, you smell like a fire and gym sweat combo.” Tori thwacked her on the rear.
“Ow!” Luna laughed. “I’m going.”
She grabbed her duffel and made her way to the locker room. The gym wasn’t the only thing remodeled. A long mirror stretched across the wall above a wide counter, reflecting the soft, diffused light from the overhead fixtures. Below the mirror, four sinks lined the counter. A few scuff marks marred the walls, and the faucets had a slight tarnish, but it was a space that felt comfortable.
And the best upgrade? Instead of one huge, disgusting communal washroom with that weird brown slime forever growing in the corners, there were private shower rooms. Nothing fancy, though. Single stalls with draw curtains, towel hooks, and porcelain tile changing benches.
The steaming water sluiced over her aching muscles, and Lunalet her shoulders slump. What was she even doing here? She was walking a dangerous line, getting close to the people she’d left behind. One lunch with Stryker. That was all it was supposed to be. In and out.
Except ... she had missed her friends here. Her family.
All these years, she’d convinced herself that walking away from Millie Beach was the right thing to do. That running was the only way to protect herself. Wasn’t that what everyone did when backed into a corner? Her own father had done it. A man whose face she’d never seen, whose voice she’d never heard. He’d disappeared before she was born, leaving her fifteen-year-old mother alone and pregnant.
Her mother’s family had turned their backs too. “No daughter of ours,” they’d said. So much for unconditional love.
Without support, her mother had been left to figure it out alone. Luna remembered the parade of men who came through their lives. Her mom’s desperate attempt to fill the void her father had left. One man after another, each promising to be different. Each leaving another crack in her mother’s heart that she’d try to seal with alcohol.
Luna’s throat tightened at the memories. Those men with their wandering eyes, their lingering touches when her mother wasn’t looking. The nights she’d lock her bedroom door and push her dresser against it, just in case.
By eight, she’d learned to steal. First food when the refrigerator was empty, then whatever she wanted. It wasn’t like her mother noticed, lost in her own haze of pills and booze. The day she got caught shoplifting had been both the worst and best day of her life.
The judge had looked at her record, at her home situation, and instead of foster care, offered her Stryker’s Warrior program. One last chance. She’d taken it.
Funny how darkly ironic it all was. That despite her promise to never be like her mother, history had repeated itself. Pregnant at sixteen, abandoned by the boy she loved. Except, she’d believed sheand Corbin would make it work, that they’d build the family she never had. Instead, they’d all run from the weight of their actions.
But now, back in this place, surrounded by familiar faces and old memories, she felt that familiar itch. The urge to run, to disappear again before anyone could hurt her.
Before she could hurt anyone else.
But first, she had a case to solve. A missing girl to find.
11
AS LUNA SCRUBBED AWAYthe sweat and smoke, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d never be fully grounded,never be at peace,until she learned what happenedto the daughter she’d given up.
Which meant she had to find Stryker. He held the key to everything. She’d signed the papers and handed her baby girl to Stryker. Trusted him to find a good home, a family who could give her daughter the life she never had. A life free from the abuse and neglect she’d known as a child.
She’d told herself it was for the best. That it was the only way to protect her baby girl. But the truth was ... she’d been running. Running from the pain, the guilt, the overwhelming responsibility of motherhood without Corbin by her side. And she’d paid the price, every single day, with a gnawing emptiness that no amount of fieldwork or fabricated identities could fill.
Okay,enough navel gazing.The shower felt great, but had she even washed her hair? She couldn’t remember. She did it again, just to be sure. She stepped out of the shower, toweled off, and coveredher burn with a fresh bandage. She dressed in simple black jeans and an olive-green linen button down.
At the nearest sink, she opened her cosmetics bag. A few spritzes of surf hair product to enhance her natural curls and a dab of perfume because, man, she still smelled like a campfire. To finish, she swiped on a bit of blush and mascara and told herself it had nothing to do with being with Corbin tonight.
“Nice,” someone said behind her.
Luna looked in the mirror at the teen who’d just entered. She was tall, with a swanlike neck and short, spiky hair. All sharp angles that matched the harsh stare. She wore combat boots and jeans with so many rips she was practically wearing none at all.
