Page 2 of Vanishing Point (Bent County Protectors #1)

Thomas didn’t consider himself a stick-in-the-mud. He’d learned in his years as a deputy and then a detective that, sometimes, a few rules had to be bent.

But if he looked Vi Reynolds up in the county’s computer system, he definitely wasn’t bending rules for the right reasons. Just to satisfy his curiosity. Which wasn’t right.

But he hadn’t been able to get the other night out of his head.

He knew fifteen years changed a person. Hell, he was hardly the guy he’d been at eighteen. Being a cop had changed him, hardened him in some ways, matured him in others. No doubt Vi had gone through her fair share of growing up and maturing in fifteen years.

But she’d seemed sad. Beat down. More than just because of a screaming baby. Like life had been considerably unkind.

Which shouldn’t matter to him. They hadn’t kept in touch. He didn’t know her anymore. Hell, she had a kid and probably a husband.

But the interaction had settled inside of him, like yet another regret when it came to her.

Now she was back, or near Sunrise anyway, where she’d always claimed she didn’t want to be.

He hadn’t been able to leave back then—in high school he’d worked hard to complete a program to go to community college for free. He’d had a plan to move straight into the police academy once he turned twenty-one. He hadn’t been able to afford to go anywhere else.

Vi’d had big dreams and a full ride to Clemson. Premed. Get out of small-town Wyoming. Get away from her parents’ constant fighting. Build her own big, beautiful, amazing life.

He had loved her, wanted her to have all those things, but he knew he didn’t fit in her plans. The end had been hard, but he’d always been pretty certain it was the right thing for both of them, no matter how hard.

Over the years, when none of his relationships had worked out, he’d always wondered what might have been different if he’d been able to find a way. Move almost across the country with nothing in his pocket, make something work.

But mostly, he felt he’d ended up right where he should, so how could he regret the choices that had led him there?

“Going to stare at that screen any longer?”

Thomas looked up from his laptop to his current partner, standing in the doorway of their shared office.

Copeland Beckett was a rare out-of-state transfer. Most Bent County deputies were homegrown, or at least from Wyoming, and that meant those in charge tended to be Bent County natives and tended to promote from within their community.

But when Laurel had gone out on maternity leave again , Sheriff Buckley had decided Copeland—what with his big-city experience in Denver—should take her place in the detective bureau.

Bent County was growing, and with growth came more complicated cases. Thomas wouldn’t be surprised if by the time Laurel got back, they’d have to be a three-person department.

Thomas liked Copeland well enough, though he was a bit…unpredictable. There was definitely what Thomas could only describe as big-city energy pumping off the guy. He wanted action. He wanted results.

Thomas didn’t have the first clue how he’d wound up in Bent County, but Copeland wasn’t one to spill about his private life, unless it was about his superficial, social one.

Thomas wasn’t sure how Copeland and Laurel would get along. But that was a problem for later.

For now, he dealt with Copeland just fine, and he had indeed been staring too long at an empty search screen.

“Did you get the coroner report yet?” Thomas asked, ignoring Copeland’s question.

“No.”

Damn it. “Regardless of if the report is ready or not, let’s see if Gracie will take a meeting with us tomorrow.”

“I can give her office a call right now.”

Thomas waved him away. “She’s Laurel’s cousin. I’ll do it.”

“Is Laurel related to everyone?”

Thomas might have found the disgust in Copeland’s tone funny if he could find any humor in this case. Before he could pull out his phone to call Gracie, Vicky, currently working the desk, poked her head into their office.

“Rosalie Young here to see you, Hart. Want to see her or have her come back some other time?”

It wasn’t unusual for a private investigator to want to talk to him.

He’d had meetings with Rosalie over the years since she’d been working for Fools Gold Investigations out of Wilde, and any other PIs who worked there.

Usually Rosalie scheduled them in advance, but answering questions for a PI sounded a hell of a lot better than dealing with his current predicament. “You can send her in.”

Vicky nodded and left.

“I’ll call Gracie. If it needs the Bent native touch, I’ll let you know.” Then Copeland followed Vicky out. Not five seconds later, Rosalie entered.

And seeing Rosalie Young in person made it all click. Maybe it was the red hair, maybe it was just bound to be a memory that popped back eventually.

The Young family were those cousins of Vi’s who lived in the area. Rosalie and Vi hadn’t been close. They weren’t the same age. He knew they hadn’t been close because he’d known Vi’s life in and out, back then.

But Rosalie had an older sister. Thomas couldn’t remember her name for the life of him. He still didn’t think Vi had been close with her either, but it was possible he didn’t remember everything from fifteen years ago.

Besides, Rosalie did indeed live out by Sunrise, on a ranch with her sister. Which sounded a lot like what Vi had said the other night.

“Vi mentioned she ran into you the other night,” Rosalie said, making herself at home in his office as she so often did. Quinn Peterson, the head of Fools Gold, tended to hire women like her. Brash, unafraid, and tough as nails.

“I didn’t realize…” He didn’t often find himself completely speechless these days. He’d been through a hell of a lot. But he really had no idea how to deal with this situation. “I guess I forgot there was a connection.”

Rosalie smiled thinly, but she didn’t say anything to that, which wasn’t like her. Usually she said whatever the hell she wanted.

“We’ve got a little issue out at the ranch.

Vi’s…a little uncomfortable with cops. I’ve been trying to get her to let us bring in some help, but I didn’t know you two…

knew each other. Until she mentioned it.

I think she’d trust you. Anyway, can you come out to the ranch tonight? I know it’s a drive, but…”

“Somebody in trouble?”

“ I think so.”

“Vi?”

Rosalie popped right back to her feet. She never did sit still long. “Just come on out, huh? Audra will make a cake or some cookies or something. She’s a hell of a baker.”

Right. Audra was the older sister’s name. He didn’t think Vi and Audra had been close, but maybe he just didn’t remember. Didn’t really matter. “If someone’s in trouble, you don’t have to bribe me with cake, Rosalie. I’m an officer of the law.”

She studied him for a second, then smiled a little. But she definitely wasn’t herself. “You’re a good guy, Hart. We’re gonna need one of those.”

V I FELT ALMOST human again. Magnolia’s congestion was finally starting to clear up and she was sleeping better, so Vi was too.

She’d even gotten a shower with Magnolia down for the night.

And now that she was clean and Mags was sleeping, Vi could actually go downstairs and eat dinner with everyone.

She didn’t know what she would have done without her second cousins. It had been a crazy, last-ditch effort to call them up out of the blue last year—people she’d only seen at funerals and family get-togethers even when she’d still lived in Wyoming.

And they’d taken her in, very few questions asked.

They’d given her not just a home, but a place first to hide, then to heal, and finally to bring her baby home to.

They’d kept her going through Mags’s stint in the NICU, and when they’d finally brought Magnolia home, they—along with their fourth roommate, Rosalie and Audra’s cousin on their mom’s side—had fed her, taken turns with nighttime feedings, ensured that not only Magnolia thrived, but Vi did too.

They’d become her best friends in the world, her family, her support.

The other night had been the first time in months she’d felt overwhelmed, and that was only because Franny had been away on her book tour, Audra had been at some women-in-agriculture meeting, and Rosalie had been off on a case.

Vi didn’t let herself get self-recriminatory about not being able to handle it all on her own. The old Vi would have blamed herself, called herself every terrible name in the book, and known she was an utter failure as a person and mother.

But new Vi—the woman who was going to be strong for her baby girl and find a life after the horrible things she’d been through—had accepted that everyone, especially mothers, had bad nights when their babies were sick.

Maybe they didn’t all run into their hotter-than-they-were-in-high-school ex-boyfriends when that happened, but…

She paused on her way down to the dining room, as she had multiple times over the past few days when Thomas had popped into her mind.

It was so strange. She didn’t trust cops. She’d made that mistake in so many blinding colors, and had vowed to never, ever let herself fall into that trap again.

But this was Thomas . It was hard to imagine him as a cop, as a detective, even though that had always been his plan. He’d been one of the sweetest guys she’d ever known, and that was a direct contrast with the police officers she’d had dealings with over the past few years.

Well, she supposed she could have a fun little fantasy where he was that hot, not a cop, and she was anywhere near capable of rekindling some old high school flame. Because it was only ever going to be a fantasy .

She shook her head, started heading for the dining room again. The doorbell rang almost at the same time she was about to pass the front door.