by Raven Snow
Rowen crossed the room and went to the window. She pulled back the curtain just a little. It was dark out tonight. Clouds obscured the stars and moon. Rowen had to press her hands and forehead up against the glass to look out onto the street. Her eyes adjusted just in time to see a cop car rolling by. “There go the cops.”
Margo looked up from the television. “Good. Keep watching. Figure out how long they’re going between check-ins here. It’s important that we don’t let them get away with slacking off on this, I think. Ben should know if his men aren’t taking their jobs seriously.”
Rowen felt herself rolling her eyes as she let the curtain drop back into place. “You can come over here and monitor things if you really want to. I’m going to bed.”
“I don’t need to be standing at the window. I’m here for my own protection, remember?”
“I think you’ll be all right.” Rowen didn’t push the matter though. She turned as her husband came into the room carrying his own mug of tea. “I’m going to bed. You coming?”
“Hmm?” Eric sat down in the recliner. “Oh, no. I don’t think I could go to sleep yet. You go on. I’ll be up in a little while.”
“Seriously?” Rowen couldn’t believe that she was the only one here who was exhausted. Eric had gotten as much sleep as she had.
“See?” Margo took another long sip of her tea. “I told you that you were getting old.”
“You say that like it’s an insult. And I don’t know how many times it’s going to take me repeating it for it to get through to you, you’re older than me.”
Margo rolled her eyes like Rowen was exaggerating somehow. “Go to bed,” said Eric, changing the subject. “You need to get some sleep.”
“So do you.”
“And like I said, I’ll go to bed in a little bit. It was a long day. I just want to unwind.”
“Here here.” Margo raised her mug and clinked it gently against Eric’s.
“Fine.” Rowen clicked her tongue, calling Chester over to her. He came trotting to her heels. At least he would go to bed with her. “No one come crying to me when you’re too tired to go to work tomorrow.” She headed upstairs.
A hot shower was in order. Rowen took one and nearly fell asleep on her feet. Her muscles were all nice and relaxed by the time she climbed into bed and pulled the covers up around herself.
The pillow was soft beneath her head, and Chester was a nice warm presence on top of her feet. She snuggled into the mattress, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. Sleep came easily.
Rowen wasn’t sure how long it had been before she woke up. She also wasn’t entirely sure why she had woken up. All she knew was that she had jolted from sleep and was sitting up in her bed. Chester was jumping off of the mattress, barking as he ran to the door. Was it him barking that had woken her up?
Chester was usually a pretty chill dog. Sometimes something would set him off. He was still a dog, after all. A noise from downstairs at an odd hour or a loud sound outside sometimes upset him. When Eric or Rowen came in later than usual, he might come running, barking aggressively until he saw who it was.
Rowen’s first thought was that Margo was bumping around downstairs or in the guest room. Chester was an old dog. He might have forgotten they had company.
“Chester,” said Rowen, speaking firmly and trying to call him back to the bed. “Chester, quiet!” It was hard to hear anything over all that barking. She was still half asleep and having a hard time getting her bearings.
Rowen looked to her husband for help but found that side of the bed empty. The memory of leaving him downstairs came back to her. She had gone to bed alone. How long had she been asleep? Was he still downstairs watching television with Margo? What time was it?
Rowen was squinting in the dark, trying to get a good look at the digital clock when she heard another noise. She couldn’t quite place it. It was a loud bang followed by a shriek. The shriek sounded like Margo.
That got Rowen out of bed. She threw back the covers and sprang from the mattress. Rowen’s heart was pounding so hard that she could hear the blood rushing in her ears. It was difficult to stay upright. If she had been thinking more clearly, she would have grabbed her phone from the nightstand. As it was, she could only think of getting downstairs, of reaching her family.
Chester was released from the room when Rowen opened the bedroom door. He nearly tripped her as he rushed by her on the stairs. Rowen heard another shriek and a thud. It sounded like a piece of furniture had toppled.
Rowen was a few steps from the bottom when Eric and Margo appeared. She nearly ran right into them, Eric reaching the base of the steps just as she was. He had one hand tight around Margo’s bicep. He was pulling her along and she stumbled against him, her eyes wide and staring at the front of the house. “Go, go, go.” Eric pushed Margo ahead of himself and towards Rowen. “Get away from the windows.”
Rowen saw red on Eric’s sleeve. “Is that blood?”
“Go!” Eric gave them both a shove. Clutching at her cousin, Rowen was herded upstairs. They stopped on the landing, all tumbling to the ground around each other. Downstairs, Chester was still barking.
“Chester!” called Eric. “Chester, come here!”
Rowen still had no clue what was going on. Was someone downstairs? What had just happened? Were they still in danger? “Chester!” She let her voice join in with her husband’s. Of course, he didn’t come. He was too busy trying to defend the house from whatever had just happened. “Chester!” Rowen began to rise to go downstairs and get him, but Eric caught her by the arm.
“You’re not going down there,” Eric said firmly. He was holding Rowen so tight she was sure her forearm would bruise.
“What’s going on?” Rowen demanded.
“Chester!” Eric shouted again, ignoring her. “Chester! Come here now!” He used an unusually deep and demanding voice. He rarely used that sort of tone with Chester, which paid off. The barking stopped and Chester came slowly up the stairs, head down and tail tucked low. Eric immediately grabbed him by the collar. “Come on,” he told everyone. “Who has their phone?”
“Mine is in the bedroom,” Rowen stammered.
The bedroom was where Eric led them. He shut the door behind them before they released Chester. Together they all sat on the floor while Rowen retrieved her phone from the nightstand. “What happened?”
“Call the police,” said Eric breathlessly.
Rowen knew when to prioritize. She wanted answers, but she could see that now wasn’t the time to demand them. She called Ben. It felt like the fastest way to ensure someone got there immediately.
It took a couple of rings for Ben to answer. “Rowen?” he answered, voice slurred and drowsy like he had just been sleeping.
“We need the police here now. Something happened.”
That sobered Ben quickly. Rowen could hear the creak of bedsprings as he sat up. “What? What happened?”
“I don’t know,” Rowen admitted. “There was a lot of noise.”
“Someone fired a shot through the window,” said Eric.
Rowen felt a cold chill run through her, but she managed to relay that information to Ben in case the phone’s receiver hadn’t picked it up. “Someone fired a gun through the window.”
“I’ll be there soon,” Ben said, speaking in a rush. In the background, Rowen could faintly hear Rose’s voice inquiring something. All of this had probably woken her up. Ben’s reaction to it had to be alarming, especially so soon after all that had happened with Margo. “Don’t go to the door until you hear police sirens outside. Don’t answer it until someone on the other side reads you their badge number.”
“Okay.” Rowen hung up. She wasn’t sure that was what she was supposed to do, but she was too worried about Eric and Margo to stay on the line. “What happened?”
“Someone… Someone—” Margo had to pause and take a deep breath. She was clearly shaken. “Like Eric said, someone shot through the window. That’s what it sounded
like anyway. The glass broke. They fired twice, I think.”
Rowen was proud of the way Margo regained her composure. She was sitting up straight, alert. They weren’t out of danger yet, and now that the initial shock had worn off, she seemed very aware of that. She wasn’t panicking and locking herself away in a bathroom. She had family to stay close to this time.
“Are you all right?” Rowen remembered the blood on Eric’s sleeve suddenly. She reached for his hand so that she could angle his arm to see it better.
Eric winced and looked startled by his own reaction. He looked at his shirt sleeve. With his free hand he pulled it up to his shoulder. “Oh.”
“Oh, God.” Margo sounded like she might be sick, but she didn’t turn away. She leaned in closer. “Are you all right?”
“I- I think so?” It was Eric’s turn to start stammering. “It doesn’t… I mean, it hurts some, but I feel okay.”
“That’s probably adrenaline.” Rowen tried to leap to her feet, but both Eric and Margo grabbed a hold of her. “Let me go! I need to get some towels or something.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Eric said firmly.
“It’s not safe,” said Margo at the same time. She looked around as she held on to Rowen. After a moment, she reached up onto the bed and yanked off a pillow. She ripped the pillowcase off. “Here.”
It would have to do. Of course, Rowen wasn’t sure what it would have to do. She wasn’t used to wound care.
Eric took the pillowcase and brought it to his own arm. Rowen winced and Margo sucked in a breath through her teeth. Eric didn’t look too bothered. “I think a bullet must have grazed me. It looks worse than it is. There’s just a lot of blood.”
“That’s usually not a good sign.” The idea of a graze had put Rowen’s mind at ease, but not by much. “Let me see.”
Eric shook his head and pressed a finger to his lips. He didn’t have to say anything. His meaning was clear. Now really wasn’t the time to worry about that. They needed to keep quiet and listen carefully until the police came.
It felt like ages before Rowen heard the police siren outside. It couldn’t have been all that long, though. She remembered that there had been a patrol passing by the house since they had come home. A lot of good they had been tonight.
A knock came on the door downstairs. Chester started barking again. He had been sitting nearby this whole time, head low. He had no clue what was going on.
Rowen glanced around at the others and started to rise. Eric grabbed her arm again. “No, I’ll go.” He was still scared. They all were.
Rowen grabbed at her husband as he stood and began to move toward the door. “No, you won’t. You’re sitting right here. You’re hurt.”
“No-” began Eric, but he was cut off as Margo pushed past the both of them.
“Stop it. I’ll go.” She was heading out the door before anyone could say anything to stop her.
Rowen and Eric both scrambled to their feet and headed after her. It was a bit of a shoving match as they both tried to make it downstairs ahead of the other. Near the base of the stairs, Rowen won but at the cost of shoving him rather hard into the wall. She had to stop to make sure he was okay. “God, I’m sorry.”
Eric hissed in pain and grabbed his arm. He still waved her on ahead.
“Who’s there?” Margo called.
“Officer Gilbertson,” said a voice on the other side. Rowen hurried over to try to remind Margo to ask for his badge number, but she was already opening the door. Fortunately, it did indeed seem to be a police officer on the other side. He was young, with a round face and big blue eyes. He looked incredibly uncomfortable standing there on the doorstep. “We were told something happened?”
From the halting way he spoke and his nervous posture, something told Rowen that what he had been told had not been particularly kind. Ben would probably have some choice words for him. At least that was what he was probably afraid of. Even though he hadn’t been any help before now, Rowen wasn’t actually sure he had done anything wrong.
“Yeah, I’ll say something happened.” Margo was already a decibel below flat out shouting. She probably wasn’t helping the man’s nerves. Even if Ben wasn’t angry, Margo was furious enough for the both of them. “That maniac shot through the window! Twice! Where were you, huh? Why did anyone have to even call you? This is a quiet part of town. You should have heard the gunshots and come running!”
“Um,” began the young officer. He looked from Rowen to Margo. “Well, we’re here now. My partner is checking around the house. Is everyone all right?”
“No!” snapped Margo. “Everyone is not all right! We were nearly killed.” Margo motioned back to the stairs. “He was shot!”
The officer’s eyes widened at that. He stepped past them and into the house uninvited. “Where are they? Who was shot?”
Rowen made a point to keep her voice as level and calm as she could manage. “It’s my husband, and he’s over here.”
The officer hurried over to Eric, though Rowen wasn’t sure how much he would be able to do. Did they give police medical training? Were they capable of basic first aid? At least it didn’t seem like Eric was in any sort of life-threatening danger. Still, the sooner he got help, the better.
Rowen tried to hover out of instinct, but Officer Gilbertson made her take a step back. Rowen did as she was asked, though she wasn’t particularly happy about it. A moment later, she felt a hand slip into her own. She looked up and saw Margo. Her cousin gave her a tug. “Come on. Sit down with me over here.”
There wasn’t a whole lot else to do at the moment. Rowen went with Margo and took a seat on the carpeted steps. Together, they settled in to wait for others to get there. Ben would be coming soon. Rose would probably be with him. That meant the rest of their family wouldn’t be far behind. God, this was going to be a long night. She had really hoped to finally be able to get some sleep.
Rowen was brought out of her thoughts as arms wrapped around her. Margo had pulled her into a tight side-hug, her head lolling sideways to rest on her shoulder. “I’m really sorry.”
“Sorry about what?” Rowen genuinely wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for at first.
“I didn’t even think. I thought someone was after me and I was right and I didn’t even think about what that meant. You invited me to come stay with you, and I just did it. I didn’t even think about how it might put you and Eric in danger. I-”
“Oh, shut up.” Rowen put an arm around her cousin, giving her a squeeze and returning the hug. “This isn’t your fault and you know it. I’m sorry we didn’t do a better job of keeping you safe.”
“That’s not your fault and you know it.” Margo sighed and pulled away. “This is a nightmare.”
“We have to figure this thing out. And we have to figure out somewhere safer for you. You were super right, apparently. I shouldn’t have made you leave the police station.”
“You didn’t make me, really. I was getting the idea that I was, maybe, overstaying my welcome. They weren’t going to let me stay another night.”
“I hate to say it, but I’m not sure you can stay here either.” Rowen scrubbed her hands across her face, trying to clear her head. There was a lot that had just happened, and she was still trying to wrap her head around it. “Not that you’re not welcome. I’m just afraid it wouldn’t be safe.”
Margo nodded. “You can’t stay here either,” she added quickly. “What if he thinks I’m still here? What if he comes back and something happens to you and Eric?”
“Well, he knew you weren’t at your trailer any more. Clearly, he’s paying enough attention to your location to know when you move.”
“That’s not good enough. You can’t stay here.” Margo didn’t seem like she was willing to let it go.
Eric would probably have his own reservations about staying. Rowen sighed. She hated the idea of leaving home. She loved her home. After everything exhausting that was going on, there was no place she would rathe
r be. “Fine,” she relented. “I guess I can ask Rose if we can stay with her. Ben will be there at night. That will probably make whoever this is think twice.”
“That’s a good idea, but I’m not going.”
“What?” Rowen turned to look at her cousin. “What do you mean? Of course you’re going.”
Margo shook her head. “I nearly got you killed tonight; you think I’m going to put Rose in danger on top of that?”
“But Ben will—”
“Nope.” Margo crossed her arms over her chest. “No, I’m not doing it. Don’t even try to argue with me. I’m a grown woman. I can decide where I want to go.”
“Apparently, you can’t. This is stupid, Margo. There’s no reason to endanger your own life here.”
“You think I want to endanger my own life? Who do you think you’re talking to? I have no intention of making myself an easy target. I’d rather not be killed, thank you very much.”
That calmed Rowen a little bit. Margo was right. Rowen knew her well enough to know that she would never risk her own life on purpose. She loved her family, but she wasn’t so selfless she would throw herself on a sword for them. “What’s your plan then?”
“I don’t have one yet.” Margo frowned and bit her bottom lip. “I’ll figure something out, though.”
“Well, we should probably think on that while we’re waiting for everyone to get here.” With a groan, Rowen laid back on the steps. They poked her hard in the back, but it was nice to be lying down regardless. Her heart was still pounding. She hadn’t realized just how hard it was pounding until then. “God, I’m never going to get any sleep, am I.” She inclined her head to look at Margo. “And you didn’t even get any sleep.”
“I’ll get some sleep once I’m back in the police station break room. I’ll figure out where I’m going after that.”
Chapter Ten
Things slowed down, though not for very long. It felt like mere seconds to Rowen. One minute she was sitting on the steps with Margo, eyes drifting shut and head lolling back. The next moment she was snapping awake to the sound of sirens.