Page 68 of Girl Lost
“Yes, sir,” Corbin said.
This pride, this insistence on handling it all within the FDLE, wasn’t just arrogance. It had to be a man stripped bare by the brutal reality of Carlie’s death, clinging to the only semblance of control he could still grasp. He couldn’t undo the horror, but he could dictate how they hunted the monsters responsible. It was the only way a man in his position could possibly feel like he wasn’t utterly and completely powerless.
“I want to hear from you end of day,” Tinch said.
“Yes, sir.”
As the commissioner walked away, Corbin leaned against the wall. He closed his eyes. Took a deep breath, then regretted it when his ribs burned.
All he needed was a chance. A chance to make things right. To prove that he wasn’t doomed to repeat his father’s failures as an officer. The evil they now faced was more horrific than anything he’d encountered before, and he needed experts.
He needed his friends.
If Commissioner Tinch didn’t want an interagency task force,he’d have to form one himself. He pushed off the wall, ready to begin the work of assembling his team. Corbin turned back to the morgue doors. Through the small window, he could see Dr. Santos covering Carlie’s body with the sheet.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, because for a moment, just a fleeting instant, he could have sworn he smelled his father’s favorite whiskey. Could almost hear the man’s mocking laughter echoing in the sterile hallway.
Corbin shook his head, banishing the phantom. He had work to do. Lives to save. He’d failed Carlie. Failed the other girls. But he wouldn’t fail again.
24
LUNA STOLE A GLANCE AT CORBINas he navigated theearly morning traffic, heading to the Kingdom Gym.
Last night’s near-kiss replayed in her mind. What had she been thinking? She wasn’t thinking, and that was the problem. A moment of weakness, nothing more. Thank goodness Corbin hadn’t kissed her. What a disaster that would’ve been.
She’d carved out a life separate from him and everything in Millie Beach. She couldn’t let a moment of misplaced nostalgia undo all that. One kiss, and it all could’ve come crashing down.
Colleagues. That’s what they were now. Nothing more, nothing less. It had to be that way. Lowering her defenses wasn’t an option, no matter how her traitorous heart sometimes whispered otherwise. The trust between them had crumbled long ago, and her focus had to be on finding her mentor and her daughter.
Trinity’s medical records might hold the answers. If she could just get her hands on them.
She’d exhausted every method searching for the baby she’d given up. Discreet inquiries, classified searches, quiet favors called in from old contacts. Anything louder risked exposure, not just for her butfor the daughter she was desperate to find. And yet, she hadn’t gone to Stryker first. That part of her life stayed locked away, buried beneath years of regret and choices she couldn’t undo. Admitting she was looking meant admitting she regretted giving her daughter up in the first place. And if she never found her? She wasn’t sure she could face that either.
But without Stryker, she had nothing—no leads, no answers. Just a hope that had started to feel more like a punishment.
Corbin pulled into a parking spot and cut the engine. He glanced her way. “You good? You seem ... distant.”
Was she? Luna refocused. The case. That was where her energy needed to go.
He waited, one eyebrow raised in question.
“I’m fine. Let’s get to work.”
She pushed open the door and stepped out, rolling her shoulders to shake off the weight of old choices she couldn’t undo.
The automatic doors of the gym hissed open. Thuds of fists against heavy bags and grunts of exertion filled the air. She swept her gaze over the gym floor, taking in the mix of police officers and at-risk youth working side by side even this early. Stryker’s vision, still alive and thriving in his absence.
Corbin reached the top of the stairs and glanced back at her. “Coming?”
Yeah, she was coming. But where was she going? Back to a life she’d left behind? Back to the man who’d broken her heart and the friends she’d abandoned? Wow, she was really off her game. Mind spinning in a thousand directions. That was what happened when life got complicated.
He waited, one hand on the railing.
“Coming.” She pounded up the stairs.
Corbin held the door to the office open for Luna.
Tori and Harlee stood near a bank of monitors, talking to a man with his back to her. Tall, with broad shoulders that stretched the fabric of his tailored shirt. Dark hair, a touch of wave.
