Page 16 of Vanishing Point (Bent County Protectors #1)

Laurel nodded. “No, it’s not going to be easy to prove, but that doesn’t mean we won’t give it our best shot.

We’ll try to get some information on the number, to start.

I want you to screenshot that message, text it to me.

I’ll forward it to Thomas after he’s done with his current case, or you can.

I know he’s got a file of these from when we first got those pictures. ”

Vi nodded, but she didn’t act right away. Maybe Thomas hadn’t told Laurel everything. Maybe Laurel didn’t fully understand. Even if she used we like they were all in this together.

She forced herself to screenshot it, forward it to Laurel’s number. She’d forward it to Rosalie in the morning too.

“I’ll have Thomas call the postal inspector. Maybe something about this can connect everything.”

Vi tried not to pull a face. She just hated all this being passed around, but it had to be. It had to be.

Laurel didn’t ask too many questions. At first Vi was relieved, but she got more and more tense about it as she started to realize it was because there was already a file. All about her and her ex-husband. Because of the pictures. Because of the postal inspector. Because of…

She stopped the negative thought spiral. Any becauses were due to Eric . And she had to remember that.

But Eric was still the crux of the problem.

“The thing is, even if you connect it to Eric, it doesn’t matter. He has his whole precinct under his thumb. He’s so great, so brave, his ex-wife must just be crazy. He even got his lawyer to somehow make it look like he filed for divorce and I contested it.”

Laurel was quiet for a moment, nodding slowly. “All of that may be true, but if he’s mixed up in this federal case about mail fraud, he’s crossing lines no amount of influence can fix for him.”

“Are you sure about that?” Vi asked, not certain how that question sounded to Laurel. Because to her ears it felt as derisive and scoffing as she felt. Which wasn’t the right attitude, she knew.

But it had been years . Why should she believe something could change?

Because you’re here. Alive and happy. In love with a great guy who’s protecting you.

As it so often did, that truth and hope felt too dangerous to believe in.

Laurel studied her, like she didn’t quite understand the question. “I know justice doesn’t always work out, but—”

“There’s no buts to that. Sometimes, no amount of doing the right thing gets anyone justice.

I did everything you’re supposed to. Maybe not right away.

Maybe I didn’t get out when I should have, but when the abuse got to a certain point, I called the cops.

I wanted to press charges. He made me out to be the villain, and nothing ever stuck to him. I know what cops can do.”

Laurel didn’t say anything right away. She didn’t even look mad or pitying. There was a kind of resigned sadness to her sigh. “Fair enough. Are you worried that Thomas would do the same thing?”

For a moment, just a moment, it seemed her whole world tilted. The idea of Thomas shaping everyone’s thoughts and feelings about her. That all this would just disappear, and everyone would think of her as Eric had portrayed her.

But even as the picture took shape in her imagination, she couldn’t imagine Thomas doing any of it. It was still just Eric, poisoning her life here.

Because she knew better than to believe in someone wholeheartedly. She knew better than to think happily-ever-afters were real or easy. But she also knew Thomas Hart.

“No. I know he wouldn’t. I just…”

“Good. I’m glad to hear it,” Laurel said firmly. “Now, I don’t expect you to trust the rest of us point-blank, but Thomas has been a friend of mine for well over a decade. He’s my daughter Sunny’s godfather. He’s a great cop and a greater guy.”

Vi knew all this.

“I have never seen him so happy as he’s been the past few months. Or so protective of…anyone, and he’s a pretty protective guy. He talks about your daughter like she hung the moon.”

And even though Vi knew that last little bit, it still had tears welling in her eyes.

“I can’t pretend to know what it’s like to be victimized by your own husband, but…there are people in my life who I loved, who turned out to be the opposite of what I thought they were, and I know what that does. It makes it hard to trust people.”

“I trust Thomas.”

“Good. And I hope somewhere along the line, you learn you can trust the rest of us too. Anyone who’s got Thomas’s back, has yours.

I can promise you that. He’ll call me a busybody, but oh well.

Maybe I’ll just accept I am one. If you let all of us get to know you, the way Thomas would like us to, then we’d all have your backs because of you , not just Thomas. It’s just what we do.”

Vi realized this wasn’t about the case so much anymore. “He told you I don’t want to come to the baby shower.”

“It’s my brother’s baby shower,” Laurel said, a bit ruefully. “So, it’s not like he was spilling state secrets. It was more an RSVP conversation thing. And, because I’m an excellent detective, I deduced that wasn’t exactly his preference.”

“No. It wasn’t. But it’s…a private matter.”

Laurel’s rueful smile didn’t change. She didn’t get offended, or at least she didn’t show it if she did. She looked down at her phone. “Thomas is almost here, so I’ll get out of your hair and let you guys talk. You’re probably exhausted.”

Which was when Vi realized Laurel hadn’t brought that up just because she’d seen the opportunity. Or at least, not only. Laurel had brought it up to spend more time here. Time until Thomas got back.

Something about that had Vi saying something more vulnerable than she liked to get with veritable strangers. But, she supposed, if she loved Thomas she had to stop letting everyone he cared about be a stranger.

“It’s hard. To…let people get to know you when you’re still learning not to hate yourself.”

Laurel took a deep, careful breath. Her smile was kind, but a little sad. “Fair enough, Vi. Fair enough.”