Page 6 of Vanishing Point (Bent County Protectors #1)

He was a cop. She had sworn off cops. If there were any signs from the universe, it was that his chosen profession was one she couldn’t trust or be comfortable with.

She’d changed her mind the very next day. Mostly because Audra, Rosalie and Franny wouldn’t let up on it and this would shut them up.

But also because she couldn’t get the story of him being shot out of her head. Because yes, back in the old days she’d believed in silly things like dimes and seeing 11:11 on the clock were her late grandparents saying hello.

And she wanted to find something to believe in again. Nothing about that felt safe.

Except it was Thomas Hart, and he’d always been her safety net. When her parents had been screaming at each other, when the divorce had gotten nasty, when her stepmother had overstepped, or one of mom’s boyfriends had gotten…handsy.

Thomas had always been the safest place she could find.

So she went to a movie with him. All these years later, she’d gone on a date with her first boyfriend.

And when he’d kissed her cheek before dropping her off, she had wanted so badly to have this kind of normal again.

She didn’t know who else she’d be able to have it with, because the thing about Thomas was she’d known him for years .

She’d loved him, hard and long. He’d been her first. They’d had their fights, disagreements and dramas, but he’d never been mean to her. He’d never hurt her. A foundation existed there.

He took her and Magnolia on a picnic on a particularly nice day. He even came to a dinner at the ranch, dealt with Franny, Audra and especially Rosalie asking him the most ridiculous questions. But he handled them all good-naturedly.

And when she’d walked him out to his car that night, he’d kissed her. Really kissed her and told her that he was sorry for everything that had happened to her, but he was damn glad she was back in Bent County.

On Valentine’s Day, he’d had to work, but he’d sent her flowers and Magnolia a teddy bear. The next day, he took her out to a fancy restaurant in Fairmont.

When she’d let him sweet-talk her into going back to his house for a while, she wondered if maybe fate just got lost sometimes. Or to balance some karmic table, you had to go through the unthinkable to get…this.

But every time she saw his badge, or his gun, or someone called him detective, she got that cold feeling of dread and told herself she was going to break it off.

She didn’t. Weeks went by and she didn’t. She told herself there’d be a sign, that was when she’d know it was time to go.

But he never bad-talked Rosalie or Audra or Franny, never resented the time she spent with them or Magnolia.

He wasn’t perfect. He was terrible with time management, almost always late to pick her up on their dates.

Sometimes if work called during a date, he got distracted.

Or if a case was particularly frustrating, she might not hear from him except for very rote texts for a day or two.

But the thing was, he was never mean. Never cruel. Not to her or anyone around them.

Because while Eric had kept a lot of his horrible traits under wraps until they were married, there had been signs she hadn’t recognized when they’d been dating.

Separating her from her family, making it clear he didn’t like them.

Making sure his criticisms were carefully wrapped up in pretending to care about her.

Pulling the silent treatment, then love-bombing her into oblivion.

He hadn’t physically hurt her until after the I dos had been said, when she’d felt trapped into trying to make it work for far too long.

So Vi kept vigilant. She waited. For the commentary or criticism to start. For it to feel familiar. For her apprehensions about what being a cop did to a guy to be true in Thomas.

They weren’t.

She didn’t know what to do with falling in love with him all over again, with watching him be amazing with Magnolia. And every time she told herself to stop this ridiculousness, she wondered why.

Why shouldn’t she have a great boyfriend who was so good with her daughter?

Why shouldn’t Magnolia have that kind of positive male influence in her life?

Magnolia deserved the world , and Vi had already made so many mistakes that might negatively impact her, how could she not want everything for her baby?

Besides, if it didn’t work out, if the cop thing became a problem, Magnolia wouldn’t even remember.

Vi convinced herself of that.

And still, months went by. Thomas never showed any “true colors,” and Vi fell more and more in love with him by the day. He became part of her life again, and part of Magnolia’s, and the one thing she kept waiting for—him to push her to talk about her marriage—didn’t come.

One night, curled up together on the porch swing after a family dinner and putting Magnolia down together, she wasn’t that shocked to hear him say the words, I love you, Vi .

For a second, it felt like they could erase fifteen years.

But they couldn’t.

“You’ve held off saying that because you want to know about my marriage.”

There was a pause. “Ouch,” he said, with a self-deprecating laugh. “Didn’t know I was that transparent.”

He wasn’t. Not really. But she knew him.

“You don’t have to tell me,” he said.

She knew he meant it. He wanted to know, but he wasn’t going to manipulate it out of her. It just wasn’t him , and as much as she still doubted herself sometimes, she could never find the well of distrust within her to not trust Thomas.

So she took a deep breath, and did the unthinkable. She went back to where it all began.

“He never hit me before we got married.”

Thomas was very still. He didn’t say anything. Just watched her with those patient eyes. Kind eyes.

Because didn’t it mean Eric won again if she didn’t believe any man could be kind, just because she’d had rotten taste in the man she’d agreed to marry?

“I always feel like I have to start with that.”

“You don’t have to defend yourself to me, Vi. I’ve seen…plenty,” he said after considering that last word. “I know it’s not simple.”

She nodded a little, grateful for that. An open-mindedness, even if it reminded her that not everyone who responded to domestic calls had that kind of empathy or ability to see a gray area.

“And he was good at…charming some people. My mom loved him. My dad didn’t, but you know my dad.”

“He’s not going to like anyone who touches you.”

She snorted a laugh. There was this strange, stabilizing comfort in the fact that he’d known her before . That maybe, just maybe, he saw her as the Vi she’d been back then. And she wasn’t that girl anymore, but she liked to think she was getting back some of that old confidence and strength.

“Yeah. In fairness, my stepmom didn’t like him either.

But my friends were split. And it’s not like he’s the reason I dropped out of premed.

I couldn’t pass those stupid chemistry classes.

Sometimes I think, that’s really where it started.

I’d felt smart and successful and important my whole life, and I couldn’t make it through my freshman year requirements and keep my scholarship. ”

It still burned. Even after all these years. What a failure she’d made of her chance at something…great.

“I dropped out of Clemson. We couldn’t afford it without the scholarship.

My dad and stepmom wanted me to get into a nursing program, so I did.

But I felt…like a failure. And that made it more of a struggle than it needed to be.

Especially when it came to taking the licensing tests.

I just…” It still hurt. The way one failure had started a domino effect of self-doubt and no self-esteem. “I was too scared to take them.”

“You’d make a great nurse, Vi.”

He said that like she still had some kind of chance at something like that. And the craziest part was believing him. Maybe…maybe she could go back to school. Maybe she could be a nurse. Wouldn’t that be a great thing for Mags to grow up and see?

“Maybe,” she said, because she didn’t want to get excited about it until she figured out the logistics. She wasn’t young anymore. She was a mother. And she still had to tell this awful story.

“I coasted for a long while. Waitressing and just, honestly? Getting more and more depressed. I isolated myself from my friends, from my family, because I felt like such a failure. And then I met Eric. He seemed like a great guy. Funny and fun. And really into me. I felt like I needed that. Someone who didn’t look at me and seem disappointed. ”

He didn’t have to say anything to know he wouldn’t have been disappointed in her. Then or now. But he hadn’t been there, and she’d felt surrounded by people who thought she’d failed.

“He really pursued me, and it made me feel…special. Which I hadn’t felt in years. I look back and I think…he knew just who to target. Someone who needed an ego boost. Someone who’d be grateful for any positives.”

“That is generally how it goes,” Thomas said quietly. Not passing judgment. Just agreeing with her. And still, with her curled up against him, his arm tight around her, like none of this changed anything.

God, she hoped it wouldn’t.

“He was like this up-and-coming SWAT team guy, and he didn’t need a successful girlfriend.

He needed a wife who would support him. So, when he asked me to marry him, I figured I’d throw myself into that.

His schedule was crazy. His work demanding and stressful.

He used that excuse a lot. Once we were married.

Once he started hitting me. I knew it was wrong, but I felt like if I gave up, it was another failure. ”

Thomas’s palm rubbed up and down her arm, and for the first time while going over this she didn’t feel shoved back into that place. Of helplessness. Of failure. She could actually look back on it as a past version of herself. A victim, yes.

But now she was a survivor.

“So what changed?” he asked gently.