Page 52 of Vanishing Point
“Well, Eric, this might be the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.”
Some of that smug melted off his face. “What did you say?”
“You heard me.”
“And I want you to repeat it. Word for word.” He stood, using his height and his overmuscled, compact body to create a threat. Looming over her, the table between them.
Two responses warred within her. The old one where she said nothing, kept her eyes downcast, and prayed he stopped.Prayedhe would just stop caring anything about her and leave her to her survival.
Then a new one, where she held his gaze, said all the reckless things cluttering up her mind, and took whatever he dished out.
“This is the stupidest—”
He lifted the table and hurled it so that it crashed into the wall, one of the legs knocking against her knee on its way.
She swallowed down the yelp of pain and she didnotlook down. “—thing you’ve ever done.”
“You know I hate that word, Vi.” Becausehisfather had called him stupid.Hisfather had beaten him, and she’d let that sympathy keep her for far too long in a terrible, dangerous situation. She thought she could break the cycle of abuse.
He madesureshe thought she could, she realized in retrospect. He’d known how to use the sob story of his childhood to keep her tricked and trapped.
“I do know,” Vi said. “That’s why I used it.” Then she squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for the backhand. The stomach punch. Whatever horrible blow was coming.
When nothing happened, she opened her eyes. Eric was still hovering above her.Smirking.His hand was in a fist, reared back and ready to do damage. But for the time being, he was just watching her.
He got off on the fear. On the cowering. And she’d given him that, year after year. Always convincing herself it was self-protection.
Maybe it had been. Maybe if she’d stood up to him then, she’d be dead, and Magnolia would have never been born, and Thomas…
It was an alternate reality worse than this one. This one where he’d somehow gotten the postal inspector tokidnapher. She looked at Dianne. “Why are you doing this?”
Eric looked over at the woman. “You know, Dianne here is a perfect example of what a womanshouldbe to the man who loves her. Loyal. Willing to go above and beyond to make her man happy.” Eric reached out, ran a hand over Dianne’s hair.
Like they were intimate. Like he cared. She might have even believed it if she believed he was capable.
“Once you’re out of the way, we’re going to get married,” Dianne said, wrapping her arm around Eric’s waist. She looked down at Vi like that was some kind of great injury. “If you hadn’t come up with that connection to Texas, we might have let you go. But…” Dianne shrugged as if this was all Vi’s fault.
The fact she’d let him make her feel at fault for so long burned like acid in her gut. “You have a new wife lined up, then. Congratulations. Enjoy hell, Dianne.” She glared at Eric. “So why aren’t you killing me and getting it over with?”
Eric leaned in close, some horrible mix of sneer and grin on his face. He smelled like beer and sweat and it made her want to retch.
“Do you know how long I can draw this out?” he said. “How much I can make you hurt and suffer forweeks? And no one.No onewill find you.No onewill stop me. I never would have killed you, Vi. I would have loved you and taken care of you forever, but then you left. You brought this upon yourself.”
The fact he could evenpretendhe had loved her baffled her. “Do you really believe that?”
“If you’d learned how to be a better wife, I wouldn’t have had to hurt you the way I did. If you’d kept it to yourself, not tried to drag my entire precinct into it, everything would have beenfine. If you’d stayed, we could have worked things out. But you ran. So now you have to pay.”
But he’d had all this time. All this space. And still, she was sitting here breathing.
“I’m going to torture you, Vi,” he said, seeming to get immense physical pleasure just from saying those words. “As long as I can draw it out. We’re in the middle of nowhere—thanks for the idea, by the way. I couldn’t have found anywhere as isolated as Bent County if I tried.”
She knew he meant it as a threat, but it sent a bolt of hope through her. She was still in Bent County. That meant she still had a chance. A hope.
Because Thomas would find a way. She knew he’d find a way. Maybe he’d be too late, and that would be horrible… He’d blame himself. He’d…
No, she had to do everything in her power to stay alive. To survive whatever Eric did. If she gave Thomas enough time… She would not be the corpse he found. Shewouldn’t.
“No one’s saving you from me, Vi.” Eric grabbed her by the neck, squeezed until she was struggling to suck in a breath.“No one.”
