Page 72 of Vanishing Point
She kicked away, holding on to the gun for dear life, scrambling back and away, and it took until she was free of his weight to realize Eric wasn’t fighting. He was utterly still. Blood oozed not just out of his head, but out of his shoulder now as well.
Everything went to chaos then. Both front and back doors crashed fully open, and Thomas charged through the back, his gun drawn. He was kneeling next to her in a flash, helping her to her feet.
“Vi. Are you—”
“You’re bleeding. Thomas. Oh my God.” There were rivulets of blood going down his left arm. She reached out as if to do something about it, but she didn’t know what.
But Thomas was looking beyond her. At the body a uniformed sheriff’s deputy was crouched over.
“He killed her,” Vi managed to whisper. “Choked her. I thought maybe she was still breathing at one point, but…”
Thomas’s gaze moved back to her. “It’s all right,” he soothed. She held on to that gaze, the blue, steady gaze of the man she loved.
Because she’d survived.
“Ambulances are on their way. You’re all going to need one,” Laurel announced grimly.
“Is he…still alive?” Vi managed to ask, though her gaze never left Thomas.
“For now. Let’s focus on getting you out of here. Both of you.” Laurel looked at the front door, then the back. Both with lifeless bodies. She grimaced but nodded for the front. “This way.”
It wasn’t lost on Vi that even while his arm bled and bled andbled, he was trying to shield her from seeing Dianne’s body again. But she saw it.
Dead. No doubt dead.
Butshewasn’t. Somehow, Vi had survived this. This awful thing. She let Thomas lead her outside, surprised to find it almost pitch-black, with only spotlights from police cars in different areas that allowed her to see what was going on.
She could hear sirens in the distance. Ambulances. Thomas needed one. Hell, she probably needed one, but…
She turned to Thomas, and she wanted to crumple, but she didn’t let herself. She did let herself lean though. She leaned her forehead into his chest. “You found me.”
He held on to her with his not-shot arm. “I may never let you out of my sight again. Vi, I am so so—”
She pulled back. Fast enough it hurt him and her, and she’d be sorry about it later. But for right now? “No sorrys. There was no way of guessing Dianne was mixed up with Eric.” But she saw the expression on his face. She had a feeling it would take a while to convince him of it.
But shewould. Shewould. Because this was over.
Somehow, she’d survived. Because she’d believed she would, because she’d found her strength and fought, because she’d believed in him.
And now it was over. Really over. The kind of over that meant they got to live their lives without fear. Without envelopes showing up or having to worry.
If Eric lived, he’d go to jail for Dianne’s murder. She’d testify a million times over to make sure of it.
And if he didn’t…
Well, then she’d live in peace knowing she’d finally fought for herself.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Thomas was furious.
First, the paramedics had insisted on splitting them up. They’d determined Thomas needed to ride in the ambulance but let Laurel drive Vi to the hospital. Thomas would have told them to go to hell, but Laurel took over and Copeland restrained him.
Okay, not his finest moment. He’d ridden in an ambulance with a very dead Dianne Kay, while Copeland and Jack Hudson had ridden in an ambulance to watch over Eric Carter.
Thomas had been admitted to the hospital, poked and prodded, all of his demands and questions ignored. When he tried to refuse surgery, one of the nurses—whom he’d gone to high school with—told him to shut up.
He supposed it knocked some sense into him. And since Laurel was able to come update him on everything before the surgery, he supposed that helped too.
