Page 24 of Vanishing Point (Bent County Protectors #1)

It felt like nothing considering the pain she was in, but positive thinking . It could be something, in the right moment.

Once on her feet, she carefully did a shuffle turn to face Eric. Her entire head throbbed. Her shoulder was a dull ache. Her throat still hurt from where he’d choked her.

Part of her wanted to say something snarky. To just keep fighting back. But she knew eventually he would snap, and she’d be dead. For every day this dragged out, it was another day Thomas might find her.

Maybe he didn’t know Eric was here, but he knew the postal inspector was the last person to see her. He had to know that. Between him and Laurel and Copeland, and Rosalie no doubt, they were going to find her.

So she had to stay alive, but that didn’t mean she’d cower. She met Eric’s dark, empty eyes, chin up, no matter how everything ached.

“Now that you ruined sitting for yourself, you can just stand.” He turned to Dianne. “Clean that mess up. Then bring me a sandwich.” He stalked out of the room, into a hallway that must have led to a bedroom and a bathroom.

Dianne scurried over to pick up the pieces of broken chair. Vi pretended to move out of the way, when what she was really doing was trying to hide a piece of debris that might help her.

She shuffled back, taking a small splinter or two with her, and Dianne was apparently worried enough about making that sandwich that she didn’t see them.

Once Dianne was in the kitchen, pulling food out of bags and a cooler, Vi just kept shuffling back until she reached the wall. She leaned against it.

She breathed until she had stilled some, until her vision calmed. Everything was going to keep throbbing no doubt, so she ignored the pain.

And focused on the nail in her hand. There was no way to bend her fingers or hands to get the nail to push against the plastic of the zip ties. She did everything she could, even as the plastic bit into her skin. But it was no use.

Okay, so that doesn’t work. Doesn’t mean it was pointless. She looked down at the two shards of wood, then back up at Dianne. Who now had a full sandwich on a paper plate. She didn’t so much as glance Vi’s way as she rushed into the hallway.

Murmured voices, a shout, but Vi couldn’t pay attention to it. She crouched and picked up the pieces of chair. She examined them. One was flimsy. Any kind of pressure on it and it would snap. But the other had some decent thickness to it, though it was a little sharp.

What the hell did she think she was going to do with these sad items?

Something. I’m going to come up with something.

A crash sounded from the other room. No thuds followed, so Vi assumed Eric had just thrown something, not hit Dianne. She knew the sounds all too well.

Vi straightened, just in time for Dianne to come rushing out. She kept her back to Vi, but Vi could see the woman’s shoulders shake, like she was crying. Still, it was a silent cry.

Eric didn’t appreciate tears.

She started putting the food away, back to Vi.

“Are you going to knock me around if I sit on the ground?”

Dianne looked over at her with a sneer. Her eye was bloody, along with the tears, and it gave Vi a full body shudder. “I guess you’ll have to risk it and see.”

Which didn’t feel like too big a risk considering the woman was hurt and crying, and no doubt knew she would get worse if she left a mess in the kitchen and Eric reappeared.

So carefully and slowly, Vi lowered herself to the ground, using the wall behind her as a kind of balance.

With the zip ties around her ankles, she could only either keep her knees up at her chin or slide them out in front of her.

Carefully, so her legs would hide the chair debris, she straightened her legs and leaned against the wall.

It wasn’t the most comfortable sitting position, but it was better than standing.

Dianne was sniffling in the kitchen, occasionally eating the tiniest bite of food. And Vi just…didn’t understand. This woman had been a professional in a law enforcement job. Maybe Vi didn’t know what her childhood had been like, but on the outside she seemed like a strong, successful woman.

And she was letting Eric knock her around. Why? Why did he just get to do this? What made a mean, vicious man so powerful?

It didn’t make any sense. Maybe she could see why Eric had targeted her, manipulated her, but she’d been vulnerable and desperate to find something solid , and he’d pretended to be just that.

But this woman was none of those things. So how ?

“Don’t you want to stop this?” Vi demanded. Undeniably angry —not even at Dianne, but at this whole situation and that one mistake years ago had upended her entire life to bring her here. Kidnapped and injured, even after finally clawing her way out.

And now, because he’d found some new woman to manipulate and torture, she was sucked back into this hell.

But that woman wasn’t tied up.

“You can walk right out that door. You can grab that gun and stop him. Why are you crying and taking it when you can get the hell out?”

Dianne stood very still, her back to Vi. And for a moment, Vi felt a surge of hope so big, so deep that tears sprang to her eyes. Maybe she could get through to Dianne. Maybe she could end this right here. Right now.

But Dianne didn’t move, didn’t speak, so Vi wracked her brain for the right thing to say. What would have gotten through to her if she put herself back there?

It was deflating, because she wasn’t sure anything would have. She’d been so certain it was her punishment for the mistakes she’d made. It had only been saving Magnolia that had become bigger than that shame. And only after she’d gotten out did she realize none of it was her fault or her shame.

But that didn’t mean she could give up on Dianne.

“I know you can do this,” Vi said. “ I did it. And it took everything I am.” And a bigger purpose. But if she thought about Mags anymore right now, she’d just lose it. “But you’re…you’re in such a better position. You can take him down, Dianne. We can stop him from hurting us and other people.”

“He has the bullets,” she muttered. “And two more guns in there.”

Which wasn’t a no . Vi’s heart was beating against her chest, almost like she’d run a marathon. “We can outsmart him,” she whispered. “I know we can.”

Dianne finally turned to face Vi. Her eye was bloodshot, likely from a blow. A trickle of blood came from the corner of her mouth. But Vi didn’t see any kind of fight in her eyes.

“He loves me,” Dianne said, as if under some kind of spell. “And once this is over, I won’t be getting on his nerves anymore. It’ll go back to the way things were. And we’ll be happy. Once you’re out of the way, we’ll be happy.”

“Is that what he told you?” Vi shook her head, and it was impossible to keep the tears in check right now. “He doesn’t. He doesn’t love anyone or anything, including himself. He’s broken, Dianne. And if someone can save him, it’s a trained professional. Not us.”

“I have saved him, and I will again.”

“No. You won’t. He won’t go back to the fake guy who talked you into loving him. He didn’t hit me until I was married to him, did he tell you that? We dated for almost a year, and he never once laid a hand on me. Not because of me . Because of him .”

Dianne rolled her eyes. Some of that fight was coming back, but only against Vi. Not for them.

“Dianne, you do not have to live like this. You are a postal inspector . The cops will help us. Everyone will—”

“Just shut up, or I really will knock you around. And I’d be happy to end it all.” She looked at the gun in the corner, as if considering it, even though she’d said the bullets weren’t in it. “Right here, right now, not drag it out. So I can get on with my real life.”

Which was enough of a threat for Vi to keep her mouth shut. And she went back to thinking about her sad little weapons and what she could possibly do with them.

Legs free, she could run. Arms free, she could fight.

Someway. Somehow. Because Dianne might still be a victim of Eric.

But Vi wouldn’t be.