Page 15 of Girl Lost (The King Legacy #1)

AS LUNA SCRUBBED AWAY the sweat and smoke , she couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d never be fully grounded, never be at peace , until she learned what happened to 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 covered her 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.

The teen folded her arms and leaned against the counter. “New transfer?”

Luna capped the mascara tube. “I’m sorry?”

“Clearly you’re a cop, but I ain’t seen you around here before. Figure you just got a transfer.”

No one ever pegged Luna as a cop, and neither did this girl. She obviously just assumed any adult in the gym was law enforcement. The challenge in the girl’s sharp gaze said she was exerting power. Showing Luna she wasn’t afraid of her, or any authority figure for that matter.

Luna recognized that defiant light. That desperate need to prove she didn’t need anyone’s help or approval. Because she’d worn that same impenetrable armor herself, all those years ago. Still wore it, if she was honest.

“No. No transfer. Honestly? I can’t get out of here fast enough.” She dug around in her makeup bag and pulled out an unopened tube of shimmery lip gloss and offered it to the girl. “This looks like your shade. I never wear it. Want it?”

The teen eyed the makeup. Probably weighing the desire to own it against the debt she might owe for taking it. “So, what? You tryna buy me as a narc?”

Luna chuckled. “Not even a little bit, believe me. Here.” She rolled the tube across the counter. “I’ve had it for a while and never even opened it.”

After a second of hesitation, she took the tube. “Thanks.”

“What’s your name?”

“Liv. You?”

“Luna.” She rummaged through her bag. Without looking up, she said, “First time I owned makeup of any kind, I was twenty-three.” She hadn’t planned on wearing eye shadow but found a palette with enough colors to stay talking to Liv.

“I told myself I didn’t like makeup. Didn’t want to wear it.

Truth was ... it was a luxury I couldn’t afford.

” She dabbed a brush into a shimmery cream base layer and took her time brushing it on a lid.

“I mean, every penny counts when you’re in this place, am I right? ”

Liv’s eyes snapped to Luna’s in the mirror. “No way. You were—”

“A student here. Yeah. One of the first.” Luna nudged her makeup bag to Liv. “Take whatever you want. I don’t use 90 percent of what’s in there. Actually, how about this...”

She dug out a few things—mascara, the lip gloss she’d worn today, two hair ties she slipped on her wrist, and that one very special contouring brush, a CIA special issue with a core of hardened steel disguised as soft bristles, because this girl did not need a concealed weapon.

She slid the bag over to Liv. “All yours.”

Liv’s mouth fell open. Eyes glued to the designer bag and brain probably calculating how much she could get for it. “How do you know I won’t sell it?”

“So sell it.” Luna shrugged. “It’s yours. What do I care?”

The makeup rattled as Liv dug around with a finger. She pulled out a blue eyeliner pencil. “Why?”

“That color? I know. Someone talked me into it—”

“No, I mean why would you give this to me.”

Luna leaned her rear against the counter to face Liv. This was the moment she so often worked to reach with her assets. The moment she earned their trust.

But Liv wasn’t an asset. She was a teenager court ordered to live here or go to a juvenile detention center.

Same as Luna nearly ... wow, was it really almost twenty years ago?

“Look, I don’t know your story, but if you’re a student here, I can imagine.

I’ve been where you are. Someone did something nice for me, and I’d like to do the same. ”

Liv closed the lid and zipped the bag with a delicate touch. “I won’t sell it.” She scooped it up. Two protective hands held it to her stomach like a mother protecting her unborn baby. “It’s the nicest thing I’ve ever owned. Probably the nicest thing I’ll ever own.”

“That depends.”

“Yeah? On what?”

“Where your focus is.”

“My focus is on getting outta here ASAP.”

“See, that’s the problem. This place will give you everything you need to survive.

Out there...” She lifted her chin in the general direction of the outside world.

“You learn to survive on the streets. In here you learn to survive beyond the streets. You get an education that you won’t get out there. ”

“I get that. But my friends—”

“True friends want what’s best for you. They’ll wait while you do your thing.

If not, they aren’t your friends.” Luna nudged Liv with a soft elbow.

“Meanwhile, follow the rules. Finish high school and read your Bible. Make friends with the LEOs working out here. Stay out of the streets, and most of all ... stay away from boys.”

Liv looked down. Her long lashes hid her eyes. “That’s the easy part.”

“Why’s that?” Luna asked the question she already knew the answer to.

Liv’s sharp shoulders hunched forward in a half shrug.

“No, really. Why’d you say that?”

“Guys ain’t interested in me. Not like that.”

“That’s only going to make it harder.”

Liv’s brow furrowed. “That don’t make no sense at all.”

“Guys might not be looking at you right now, but one will come along. He’ll pay attention to you.

Make you feel new things. Secure. Understood.

Appreciated. Things you probably missed out on as a kid.

Things that will make you do almost anything to not lose that feeling.

And you’ll be so wrapped up in how you feel, you’ll make decisions that could derail your life. ”

“That what happened to you?”

“I mean ... yeah. Sorta.”

Liv rattled the two-hundred-dollar vanity case. “Don’t seem like it messed you up too bad. You’re doin’ all right.”

“Don’t mistake the value of this”—she tapped the bag—“for the value of this”—she patted Liv’s heart with a flat palm.

Liv bobbed her head once. “I think I know what you’re gettin’ at.”

“And remember that ‘guys’ aren’t the same as men.

Men are responsible, trustworthy, loyal.

They provide for their families and stick by your side—you know what?

I’m lecturing.” Speaking about all the things she thought Corbin had been, but then he’d walked away from his responsibility.

Dumped her. Like a guy, not a man. “Just ... stay in line and work the plan. Listen to Stryker. He has your best interests in mind.”

Liv released a puff of air. “Seems like the only one he cares about is that one girl who keeps running off. Like, she don’t even want to be here, but he keeps chasing after her. Findin’ her and draggin’ her back.”

“What one girl?”

“That girl with the frizzy hair. Can’t keep her here.”

“Why’s that?”

“Oxy. It’s got her so wrapped up she can’t think about nothin’ else. Always popping. Second night here, she got all itchy and slipped out to score.”

And Stryker was chasing after her? His rules were pretty strict.

You break them, and you’re headed back to face the judge.

Could this have something to do with why he’d been kidnapped?

She wanted to pump Liv for more information, but she had to play it cool.

They’d decided not to tell the students that Stryker had been kidnapped.

“So what’s the deal? Who’s this runaway Stryker keeps chasing? ”

“How would I know? When I’m not in school, I’m stuck here scrubbing toilets and being forced to do, like, ten thousand sit-ups and push-ups a day.”

The response was more bravado. Trying to make it sound like this place meant nothing to her. Luna let it slide. “What’s she here for?”

Liv chewed the skin around her thumbnail. “I don’t know. Same as all us, I guess.”

Shoplifting. Fights. Prostitution. Drugs. “Street life.”

“Uh-huh. Like I said, she keeps running off, though. Disappears for a few days, then Stryker walks her back in like nothing happened. Then I wake up in the middle of the night to see her sneaking out, then it’s the same thing all over again.”

“And Stryker just keeps going after her?”

Liv’s head bobbed. “Five, six times already. It’s weird cuz he’s way stricter with everyone else. But it’s like he knows her, you know? Like, knew her for a long time, before all of this.”

This was not like Stryker. He’d always said, if they didn’t want to be in the program, they could leave. Return to the streets. Or juvie, in most cases.

Why was he so persistent with this one runaway? It had to be more than just the program. Had he known her before? Maybe she’d been through something ... something that made him feel especially responsible for—

Luna’s heart stopped. For a moment, she was too paralyzed to speak.

Was it possible?

No.

But then ... maybe, just maybe.

She had to force herself to slow her breathing. Keep gathering intel. Find out for sure . “This girl,” she asked. “How old is she?”

“Ain’t like I carded her. How should I know?”

Luna almost rolled her eyes at the attitude but refrained. “If you had to guess.”

“I dunno.” She sucked air through the corner of her mouth until it squeaked. “Sixteen ... seventeen? We’re taking driver’s ed together. She said she was behind because she’d missed so much school.”

Or maybe eighteen. The age her biological daughter would be. “Missed school why?”

“Seriously, I’m so not her record keeper.” Liv blew out a long breath. “I guess her parents died or something. I don’t know! Look, I got my own life to worry about.”

She’d annoyed Liv with all the questions about another girl and asking none about her. Luna had to press further, at least a bit. “What’s this girl’s name?”

“I barely talk to her. It’s Tristan or ... Treasure ... No wait. Trinity. Yeah, that’s it.”

Trinity.

She rolled the name over and over.

“So this girl ... Trinity, you said?”

Liv nodded.

“What’s she look like?”

“Dark hair. Dark eyes.” She scanned Luna toe to head. “Kinda looks like you, actually.”

She clenched her toes together. A trick to avoid showing how fast her heart raced at Liv’s words.

Could it be? The one reason she was here...

A teenage girl. And Liv said Trinity looked like her. But if she was Trinity’s mother, where was her adoptive family? And why hadn’t Stryker told her? Why hadn’t he said her biological daughter was in the Warrior program?

All these years, she’d dreamed about the life her child lived without her.

Loving parents who threw her elaborate birthday parties.

Who tucked her into bed at night and read her stories in a room especially decorated for her.

Who drove her to school and kissed her goodbye.

Who provided for her so that she had clothes and food and never had to search for her next meal. Who kept her safe and protected.

But maybe ... maybe she’d been wrong.