Page 93 of Girl Lost

“He?”

“God,” Elizabeth said in a breath of disdain. “He lets innocents suffer. Lets children die. Where’s the justice in that?”

Elizabeth’s pain was real. Her desperation was justified in her mind. But she was wrong. So wrong.

But Stryker sensed there was still good in her. He had to reach her.

“You see kids like Carlie. Like Trinity.” Stryker swallowed the bile rising in the back of his throat and continued. “You see their mistakes, their struggles, and you think they’re beyond saving. Lost causes.” He paused. “You know the story Jesus told. About the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine to find the one lost sheep. That’s what we do, Elizabeth. That’s what we’re called to do. Even one lost sheep is worth finding. Worth bringing back to the flock.”

She shook her head.

“You’re brilliant, Elizabeth. You’re capable of amazing things.” Stryker glanced at Forest, then spoke, his tone low, just loud enough for Elizabeth to hear. “Don’t waste your talent on this. Don’t let your father drag you down with him.”

“He’s not dragging me down,” Elizabeth said. “This was my idea, Mr. King. My vision.” She rolled her chair closer. “I went to Yale with a man named Everett Reeves. He understood. He sawthe potential. He helped me secure the funding, the resources, the ... connections we needed to make this happen.”

Reeves.

Summer’s adoptive parents.

He’d placed Luna and Corbin’s baby girl in the arms of Patricia Reeves, her husband Everett looking over her shoulder.

“It’s about saving lives, Mr. King,” Elizabeth said. “Don’t you see? My father ... he’s trying to save me. He’s trying to save us all.”

Forest placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulder, leaning close to Stryker’s ear. “And your sacrifice is a small price to pay for the greater good.”

32

CORBIN STARED AT SUMMER,his thoughts skidding out of control. Parents? Summer’s parents. No, it couldn’t be. Impossible. Yet,as he scrutinized the young woman standing before him,that spark of recognition the first time Summer walked intothe room slapped him in the face.

He’d dismissed it then, telling himself he was seeing Carlie. But no, it wasn’t Carlie’s features he’d seen. It was Luna’s.

Not Luna now, not the hardened agent. This was seventeen-year-old Luna, all fire and defiance. The girl who’d stolen his heart all those years ago.

Eighteen years. A lifetime. And the girl was staring right at him.

His daughter.

He dragged in a slow, deliberate breath. The sterile white walls of the room seemed to waver, the steady beeping of the heart monitor blurring into the background noise. He gripped the metal footrail of the hospital bed.

Think. Process. Don’t let emotion takeover.Years on the force had drilled that into him. Except ... this wasn’t a crime scene. This was ... family.

Luna’s hand found his, fingers intertwining. He didn’t pull away.He needed her warmth, that familiar touch, to anchor him. Her eyes, wide and disbelieving, met his. She looked at Summer, her expression a mirror to what was going on inside him.

Luna pulled Summer close. He followed, his arms circling both of them, a tangle of limbs and a lifetime of what-ifs compressed into a single, awkward embrace.

He released Summer and asked, “How? How do you know?” Corbin’s voice betrayed him there at the end.

“Stryker told me,” Summer said. “I’ve been an intern here for over a year. My parents, Everett and Patricia Reeves, they donate so much money to the clinic that Dr. Forest couldn’t exactly say no when they insisted I work here.”

“And that’s how you know Stryker?” Luna asked.

“He and Trinity came in for appointments all the time after I started. We sort of became friends. He said he knew my parents, and I told him I’d found out I wasn’t biologically their daughter when I studied genetics. I mean, it’s not that hard to figure out when your blood types don’t add up.”

Corbin glanced at Luna, and she suppressed a small smile.

Summer’s eyes darted to Trinity in the hospital bed. “Anyway, I’d see them at least once a month, sometimes more. Trinity always complained about being here so much.”

“Every single time,” Trinity confirmed, a weak smile crossing her pale face.