Page 1 of Vanishing Point (Bent County Protectors #1)

Detective Thomas Hart was exhausted, and the last thing he wanted to do was go to a child’s birthday party.

But he’d promised. And maybe the fun and innocence of a birthday party could wash the gross feeling of the case he’d worked today off him.

He was sure Allen Scott had killed his wife, but so far the evidence was minimal.

If he didn’t drum up something soon, they were going to rule the death a suicide.

Thomas shook it off, or tried, as he pulled to a stop in front of the Delaney-Carson house out by the Delaney Ranch outside of the Bent city limits. The party was clearly already in full swing.

Years ago when his dad had gotten transferred to Arizona, his parents had wanted him to move with them. There were police jobs in Arizona, and he’d been young and unencumbered. Why not try something new, somewhere where the population didn’t skew old and rancher?

But he’d liked working at Bent County. He just hadn’t been able to fathom leaving. Sometimes home was just home, no matter who was around.

So, when his parents had left, he’d stayed.

In the early days, he’d been a little lonely.

For a variety of reasons. But these days, he had more friends that were basically family clamoring at him than he knew what to do with.

He felt like he was always on the hook for a party.

Birthdays, christenings, holidays. A never-ending onslaught.

Some he could weasel his way out of, but not this one.

Sunny Delaney-Carson was his goddaughter.

He grabbed the gift bag out of his back seat and then got out and walked up the drive. He was greeted at the door by a very skeptical seven-year-old in a sparkly blue dress, and it was somehow his life that he knew which Disney princess it correlated with.

“What is it?” she demanded, pointing at the gift bag.

Thomas held it up a little higher, because knowing Avery, she’d just shove her hand in there and yank it out. “I think the birthday girl is supposed to open it and find out.”

Avery gave him a look, the kind of look he’d seen often enough from her mother. Disparaging disapproval. “She’s two .”

“And when you were two , you loved pulling all the paper out of the bag.”

A dark-haired girl, Fern Carson-Delaney, Avery’s cousin who was only a few months older than Avery herself, skittered over.

She whispered in Avery’s ear, then the two disappeared.

No doubt to do some mischief, though Thomas never understood how Vanessa Carson and Dylan Delaney had created a child so shy.

But the world was a strange place, especially in Bent, Wyoming.

After weaving through more kids, exchanging greetings with more Delaney-Carsons and Carson-Delaneys, he finally made his way to the girl of the hour.

Sunny had Laurel’s blond hair, an ability to exude as much mischief as her father, and unflagging energy at just about all times. Thomas still couldn’t imagine what had possessed Laurel to have another one.

On sight, Sunny flung herself at him, so he lifted her and gave her the twirl he knew she was hoping for. She gave a squeal of delight.

“Here you go, Sunny bunny. Happy birthday.”

She settled down with the gift bag, and just like her sister had a few years back, got more enjoyment out of playing with the tissue paper than finding out what was at the bottom.

“If it’s a musical instrument, or anything that makes noise, I’m kicking you out,” Laurel said in greeting.

“I take it that’s been a theme?”

She scowled around the room. “Traitors. All of them.” Then she looked at him, the scowl turning into more of a worried frown. “You look tired.”

He knew she was weaseling for work information, not actually commenting on his appearance. But he pretended like he didn’t know that. “I won’t comment on how you look then.”

She rolled her eyes. “Tough case?”

“You’re on maternity leave. No police talk, remember?”

The scowl returned. “Come on. I’m getting you some food.

” She led him around kids and toys and all sorts of things strewn about the packed house.

In the kitchen was a spread of sandwiches and chips and salads.

He loaded up a plate, because Laurel would fuss otherwise, then sat down at the kitchen table and chatted casually with Laurel and her husband, Grady, who was holding their sleeping newest addition, Cary.

Thomas put in a good hour before he started to think about making his excuse to leave. A few couples with younger kids had already made their escape. But Laurel gave him the perfect out.

“You know, Thomas, I have this friend. She lives over in Fairmont. She’s just so funny and—”

Thomas drained his plastic cup of the grape soda he didn’t particularly like and stood. “Well, that’s my cue to leave.”

Laurel scowled at him. “She’s nice.”

“I’m sure she’s great. I don’t want you setting me up, Laurel.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re a nosy boundary-pusher?” Grady offered lazily, Cary still asleep in the crook of his arm. He grinned at his wife.

Laurel turned the scowl on her husband, but then back to Thomas again. “You’ll never find someone if you don’t put yourself out there.”

“Maybe I don’t want to find someone.”

Laurel gave him a look—much like the disdainful one her daughter had aimed at him when he’d first arrived. It made him smile. But not so much he also didn’t make a break for it.

But Laurel followed. “Tell me about the case.”

“No.”

She groaned. “I know they gave Beckett my spot. If you’re working late, it’s a doozy.”

“It’s fine.” He made it to the door.

“Is it because Beckett’s a lousy detective?”

It was Thomas’s turn to give her a disparaging look, though he recognized what this was really about. “You worried he’s going to keep it when you come back?”

She smiled sweetly, but he’d seen her give that smile to enough criminals for Thomas to know it wasn’t kind . “He can try.”

Thomas laughed. “Take it easy, Laurel. Enjoy that last month.”

She grumbled something, but he made it outside. Fresh air. Blessed quiet. Now he could go home and sleep. And he’d been right, all in all. All that family, those kids, birthday cake and happiness had washed some of the ugliness the case they were working on had left on him.

He drove off the Delaney-Carson property and headed home.

He’d lived above the post office for years, but last year had finally sucked it up and bought a house.

It was small, fit for a single guy who wasn’t a spring chicken anymore.

And it helped to not live over a business when he was trying to sleep off a night shift.

But it meant driving back through town, to get over to the residential area he lived in. He drove down Main, but slowed as he spotted a woman standing outside the general store, peering into the windows.

The store was closed, and the area around it was dark. He doubted she was trying to steal anything but it was hard to know for sure. He parked his car, then got out. He heard a baby crying, and realized the woman was holding a bundle.

He approached, thoughts of burglary turning into concern.

The woman turned as though she’d heard or sensed someone approach, the squalling baby in her arms. He saw the fear in her expression, so he stopped his forward movement and didn’t step any closer.

He didn’t recognize her, and as a lifelong resident of Bent, and a police officer in Bent County for over a decade, he knew most of the locals.

He held up one hand in a kind of surrender, used the other to pull his badge out of his pocket. “I’m a local police officer, ma’am. Can I help you with something?”

None of the fear left her face. In fact, she looked even more tense. But there was something…familiar underneath all that anxiety. He squinted, stepped a little closer without meaning to—but the light was better the closer he got.

“Vi?” He didn’t mean to say it out loud, because he was certain he must be…

making things up. It had been something like fifteen years since he’d seen Vi Reynolds.

And maybe she’d occupied most of his growing-up years, and still that soft first-love place in his heart, but there’d be no reason for grown-up Vi to be here now.

She’d left Bent a long time ago, and she didn’t have any family left nearby that he remembered. Maybe some cousins or something, but not in Bent, and no one she was close to. Or had been.

But…

“Thomas,” she said after several quiet moments ticked by. “You… You look different.”

“God, I hope so. I think I weighed a buck ten soaking wet the last time I saw you.”

She laughed at that, shifted the baby onto her other hip. But that tension didn’t leave her. Not fully. Maybe because the baby was still whimpering. But she didn’t say anything else.

“Uh, so, are you visiting?” he prompted.

“Um.” She looked back at a car parallel parked—poorly—a few yards away. It had Wyoming plates. “I moved back a little while ago. I… I’m living out closer to Sunrise. My cousins have a ranch.”

Thomas nodded, not sure what to do with this very strange trip down memory lane. But her baby was crying, and she was standing outside the closed general store. “Can I help you with something?”

“I just… Mags is running a bit of a fever, and I ran out of Tylenol. I thought the general store was open until six.” She gestured helplessly at the store.

“Not anymore. Closes at four on Sundays.”

“I should have checked.” She smiled thinly. “That’s what I get for thinking I know things. I guess I’ll drive up to Fairmont. Surely something there is open?” she asked, a little desperately.

The baby was inconsolable, and Vi looked like she wanted to melt into the concrete. Thomas glanced around. “Yeah, you’ll have a few options, but hey, just wait here one second, okay? Just one minute.”

She frowned but nodded. Reluctantly, he could admit.

Still, she nodded. So he jogged around the back of the store.

His friends Zach and Lucy were staying in the apartment above with their two-year-old while their house out in Hope Town was getting a new addition for their upcoming new addition. Surely they’d have something on hand.

V I R EYNOLDS FIGURED as far as rock bottoms went, she’d already reached hers. So running into her ex-boyfriend while she looked like a bedraggled sea witch and Magnolia screamed her adorable little head off wasn’t going any deeper in the rock bottom department.

It was just icing on the garbage cake of her life.

And still, this was all better than what she’d managed to drag herself out of. She reminded herself of that, almost every single day.

Magnolia wriggled and did that awful head swinging thing that usually ended with them both crying when head smacked into head.

“Come on, baby. I know you’re miserable, but now I am too, if it helps any.

” She tried to hum a lullaby as she bounced Magnolia, who was as exhausted as she was cranky from the fever.

Vi tried to offer Mags quiet reassurances, but her throat was getting too tight.

She should just get in her car and drive.

What could Thomas possibly manage to do?

Thomas Hart.

God, she’d loved that skinny little goofball.

He wasn’t skinny anymore. No, he looked very…

sturdy. And that baby face had aged. Same blue eyes, but the face had that…

rugged Western look about it. Broad shoulders that had once housed a skinny frame now looked more filled out.

His hair was cut short, so the color was some indistinguishable light brown, and his eyes…

Well, they were the exact same. It sent a pang of longing through her—for a simpler time, for a time before she’d made so many mistakes.

Why did he have to be hot now? Instead of just cute and sweet?

Well, he probably wasn’t sweet anymore. He was a cop. He’d pulled out a badge. Just the thought made her tense. She knew how that went, didn’t she?

She squeezed Magnolia tighter. “Let’s run, Mags,” she muttered. She even took a step back to turn and go, but Thomas reappeared before she could even get her keys out of her purse.

He was holding a box of children’s Tylenol. He held it out to her. It was opened.

Why would he have access to children’s Tylenol? Opened at that? Did he have kids? Oh, God, he probably had a parcel of them with some beautiful, skinny, smart, perfect mother who didn’t run out of medicine.

He took the bottle out of the box, pulled one of the little syringes they gave out at pharmacies for oral medication for babies. He unwrapped it. “How much?” he asked, like he did this all the time.

She found herself absolutely speechless at the idea of him married with kids, which was ludicrous since she’d been married for a time. And had a child.

He smiled at her gently. “I’m friends with a ton of people with babies.” He didn’t ask, but she could feel the question in the air.

Is she yours?

Vi hugged Mags a little tighter.

“My friends live upstairs,” he said. “They’ve got a kid, so I know how it all works. How much?”

She told him the correct dosage for Magnolia’s weight. She watched him expertly fill the syringe with the right dosage, then hold it out to her. But she had both hands supporting Mags, so then he offered it to the baby.

Mags leaned forward a little and took the medicine. She’d always been a good medicine taker, probably because she’d been so sickly those first few months. But she was healthy now.

They were both healthy and safe. And no matter her failures, that was all that could matter.

Except in this moment, Vi’s high school sweetheart was feeding her baby medicine. On a dark street in the middle of their hometown.

Vi wished she could travel back in time. For a blinding, painful moment. She’d take their breakup moment over this one, and that had been…

Awful. Gut-wrenching. Because no amount of being foolish and eighteen and desperately in love with each other had allowed their dreams for a future to match.

What would her life have been like if she’d compromised?

The question nearly took her out at the knees. She’d crumble under the weight of all those what-ifs if she gave this any more time. “Thank you. Thank your friends for me. I really have to go.”

He handed the now-empty syringe and box to her. “They insisted.”

She swallowed at the lump in her throat. “Thanks.”

“Any time.”

He stepped back. Once. Twice. “Hope I see you around, Vi.” Then he turned and walked away.

She did not return the sentiment but noted he didn’t drive away until she did.