Page 55 of Vanishing Point
On the terrible off chance she didn’t escape this, at least everyone would know she’d gone down fighting. This time, she wasn’t running away.
She looked from Eric to Dianne and decided that, if nothing else, she was damn well going to get some answers.
“I still don’t understand how you two connect.”
“We met at a law enforcement conference in Fort Worth,” Dianne said with a little smirk. “Four years ago.”
Four years.Vi could only stare at Dianne for a moment, and really the smirk made it clear what she meant by four years.
She wanted to laugh, and then thought…what the hell? She let it fly, earning arrested glares from EricandDianne.
“So, you were cheating on me?” She laughed again. All his talk about love and devotion and… Wow. Justwow.
“Maybe if you weren’t such a frail little sad sack I wouldn’t have had to,” Eric shot back.
“Burton introduced us. Eric and I bonded over law enforcement, because I wasn’t too stupid to finish school,” Dianne said.
But the barb didn’t land for a number of reasons, mainly because suddenly Eric’s attention was on Dianne. And it wasnotgood.
“Shut the hell up,” Eric said, giving her a hard shove. She stumbled back a little but caught herself on the wall. Eric followed, hulking above her while she pressed herself against the wall. “What the hell is wrong with you? Are youstupid? You don’t give the hostageinformation, you useless waste of space.”
“I’m sorry,” Dianne whispered. Not so smug and happy with herself now.
But he stood there for ticking minutes, menace and violence shimmering in the air around them. Dianne looked at the ground, looked like she was trying to melt into the wall.
Finally, Eric relented. He turned away from her, grabbed a gun that had been propped up in the corner.
“I’m going to go see what I can hunt up for dinner.” He dramatically waved around his giant gun. He aimed at Dianne for a moment, cocked his head.
Vi held her breath, and if she wasn’t mistaken, Dianne did too.
“You better shut your mouth, Dianne. I don’t want to have to hurt you again, but you’ve made a lot of big mistakes the past few days.”
“I’m sorry, Eric.”
He grunted, lowered the gun slowly. Then shrugged. “I should be able to get some deer or elk. You better be ready to butcher and cook when I get back.”
“I am. I will. I’ve been practicing.”
“You see, Vi,” Eric said, turning to her. “A man provides for the woman he loves, and she makes his dinner. He provides. She supports. Why could you never learn that?”
Vi thought of all the dinners she’d made. Reheated. The lunches she’d packed. The breakfasts she’d gotten up early to make from scratch, so he didn’t get mad. So he didn’t hurt her.
Only now that she was out of it, with the help of Mags and therapy and Thomas and her cousins did she fully understand…
It would have never been enough. She could have been perfect in every way, and he would have found fault. Becauseshewas not the problem.
He was.
Once Eric was gone, Vi studied Dianne. Could she get through to her now that Eric was openly threatening her?
Based on Dianne’s frantic scrubbing of the kitchen counters, Vi didn’t think so. But maybe Vi could show her the truth.
“He gave you that black eye.”
Dianne ignored her, but her only chance of actual escape, at least before the police managed to track her down, was to get through to Dianne. “Do you think you can do everything right and he’ll stop? Because he won’t. This will be you.” Vi pointed to herself with both hands, since her wrists were zip-tied together.
Dianne looked down at her haughtily. “I don’t believe that.Iknow how to learn a lesson. See? I made a mistake and he didn’t hit me, did he? He gave me a warning. Because he knows I can get better.”
