Page 54 of Vanishing Point
“We’ve got everything set up to do that immediately once we get word.”
It was something and it wasnothing, because it didn’t find Vi. And the wheels of justice moved far too slow when peoplewere in danger. He walked away from the table again, needing to move. Just…move. He narrowly missed stepping on a mangled little stuffed animal.
His heart just cracked in two. He picked it up off the floor. “Mags can’t sleep without it,” he muttered. Franny had taken Magnolia back to the ranch, and they had plenty of stuff out there to get Mags through the night. But…
Laurel held out a hand to take the stuffed animal. “I can drive it out to—”
But Thomas didn’t relinquish the lamb. “No, I’ll do it.”
“You’re going to exhaust yourself, Thomas.”
He knew Laurel was worried about him. “I have to do it. I have to see… I just have to.”
Laurel swallowed. He could see the emotions in her eyes, and hehatedit. They’d worked too many cases together where the people in trouble were people they loved.
They’d never failed before. He wouldn’t fail now. “I’ll head out now. Keep me updated.”
“Thomas…” But Laurel didn’t say anything, and Thomas didn’t wait around to hear what she had to say.
There was nothingtosay. He’d overlooked something. He hadn’t been observant or diligent enough, and who suffered? Not him. Vi.Again.
He could try to believe she’d left of her own accord. He could try to fool himself into thinking he’d deliver the lamb stuffed animal, and Vi would just be at the ranch. He wished with all his might that she was just tired of him, his overprotectiveness, and…anything.Anythingthat could make this about leaving him and not about being hurt or in danger.
He could suffer through anything else as long as she was okay. He told that to himself, to God, to whatever deities wanted to listen, as he took the long, lonely drive out to the Young Ranch.
But when he pulled up, he hadn’t convinced himself of anything. He knew something was deeply wrong, Vi was in danger, and he didn’t know how tofixit.
So what good was he?
With lead limbs, he got out of the car and trudged up to the front door, lamb in hand. The door flew open before he was even up the porch stairs.
“Is there any news?” Franny demanded.
“I’m sorry, no,” Thomas managed, though his voice sounded mangled even to his own ears. “I just wanted Mags to have this tonight.” He held out the lamb.
“Tata!” She squealed happily from where she’d been playing with blocks on a rug in the living room. She pulled up on the couch onto her feet and then toddled over to him. He stepped inside so she didn’t try to come out. She reached up for him, for her lamb, and he handed her the stuffed animal, picked her up in one fell swoop.
It was worse than being shot.
Worse than anything he’d ever experienced. Her excitement at seeing him, the way she leaned into him, held on, happily babbled to him. When he’d failed her mother, failedher.
Still, he closed his eyes, held on and squeezed tight. “I’m sorry, sweets,” he whispered. “But I won’t stop until she’s home.”
VI’S THROAT BURNEDfrom where Eric had choked her. It made every breath in and out painful.
He was good at that. Always had been. And he’d used it—those hurts and pains no one else could see, that were minor enough to suffer through, as a reminder.
No one crossed Eric Carter.
But shehadcrossed him. Maybe she hadn’t been able to put him behind bars, but hertryinghad been enough that it had forced him to agree to the divorce or risk getting out who he was.
She had lived almost two years without him. She’d had a child, and since he hadn’t brought Magnolia up, she was almost certain Eric didn’t know about her.
That, and Thomas, and her cousins and her friends—new and old, all worked inside her to remind her that she would not fall back into the trap of thinking Eric controlled the world.
She wouldn’t go down cowering. She wouldn’t go down at all. She would swing and swing and swing, until Thomas found her.
And she shoved aside a niggling fear he wouldn’t get here soon enough. She sat in her chair, breathed as easily as she could with the burn in her throat.
