The First Death (Columbia River, #4)(58)

Rowan hated him.

“He wanted to meet with West,” Ivy said as they dashed down the few steps into the garage. “I told him no, and he threatened to take him away.”

“That makes no sense. He never cared before and gave up his rights.” Rowan let Thor in the back seat as Ivy went around to the passenger side. Ivy clutched the bat with both hands, her knuckles white. Rowan let Iris, who was still on the phone, climb in after Thor. Then Rowan slammed the door and got in the driver’s seat. “Tell them it’s her ex-husband,” Rowan said, buckling her seat belt and starting the car. “He’s threatened to take her son.”

“I have a restraining order,” added Ivy as she sat, still gripping the bat. “Last time he came he said he had a gun.”

Rowan’s hand hovered over the garage door opener on the visor by her head as she tried to process Ivy’s words. “He threatened you with a gun? And you bought baseball bats? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wouldn’t buy a gun with West in the house!” Ivy shouted at her. “I can barely shoot one even after the classes I took. Do you think I could fire at a person? They’d take it away from me before I could squeeze the trigger!”

Rowan hit the garage door button, put the car in reverse, and held her breath, her eyes locked on the door that led to the kitchen. The opener’s motor seemed deafening.

If he’s in the house, he’ll hear the garage door opener.

Does he have the gun?

The motor above their heads rattled and groaned, slowly sliding open the big door.

So. Slow.

Thor’s panting filled the car, and Rowan flicked her gaze between the rising door in the rearview mirror and the door to the kitchen, praying for no one to open that door and shoot at the windshield.

“I don’t understand why he suddenly wants West,” Ivy whispered. “He’s ignored his son all his life.”

In the back seat, Iris told the dispatcher the man might have a gun and they were about to back out of the garage. She turned and looked over her shoulder. “Go, Rowan! It’s high enough!”

Rowan agreed and stepped on the gas. The car shot out of the garage. A loud thump and crack sounded as something large hit the right rear fender. Ivy screamed, and Rowan hit the brakes.

I hit him.

“Don’t stop!” Ivy shrieked.

Rowan twisted in her seat, trying to see out the windows into the dark, thinking she’d seen a flash of a male silhouette to the side.

Are there two men?

No one was visible in her mirrors or out the windows.

It had to be one man.

“Go! Go!” shouted Ivy. She slammed the bat on her lap.

“I don’t want to back over him!”

“Fucking run him over!”

Sirens sounded and flashing lights filled the street.

“They’re here!” Iris told the dispatcher. “Tell the police we’re in the car in the driveway! And we might have hit the guy.”

Two patrol units blocked the driveway. “Turn off the car!” one officer shouted.

Rowan turned it off and held her breath, watching the officers in her mirrors. Their weapons were drawn and pointed at the back of the car.

No. Pointed at the ground behind the car.

“Drop the weapon! Drop the weapon!”

Ivy shoved her bat to the floor.

“They’re not yelling at us,” Rowan said, trying to steady her voice. Ivy was panting, her face wet with tears. She covered her eyes and started to shake.

“Thank God West wasn’t here.” Her voice cracked on his name.

Rowan watched in the rearview mirror as one of the officers holstered his gun and bent over behind the car while two other officers covered him.

She let out a shuddering breath as Thor shoved himself between the front seats, trying to get to Rowan. She scratched his head. “Shhhh. Good boy.”

It’s over.



An hour later, Rowan was still on edge.

Ivy’s ex was on his way to the hospital. The officers wanted him medically cleared before they took him to jail. He’d appeared to have a head injury and possibly a broken leg. Ivy had refused to get out of the car or look at the man. Rowan and Iris had identified Adam as he lay on the ground behind the car, moaning in pain and cursing Ivy. A small pistol had been found near one of the tires.

He was very, very drunk.

Rowan leaned against the counter in Ivy’s kitchen, too worked up to sit down. The sound of breaking glass they had heard had come from West’s bedroom. Adam hadn’t entered the house through the broken window, possibly because it was so high. Instead, he’d come around the side of the house, probably when he’d heard the car or garage door. Rowan believed he’d lunged at the trunk area of the sedan, trying to stop them, and been knocked to the ground.

If she’d backed up any farther, she would have run him over.

At the moment part of her wished she had.

After the three sisters had given statements, Rowan had called her father and asked him to come get Ivy. He’d hugged his daughters and cursed Adam as he led Ivy out the door. Then Iris’s boyfriend had shown up and taken her home.

Police and a forensics tech were still in the home, processing the broken window and the vehicles, including Adam’s truck, which had been found two blocks away. Rowan paced in the kitchen, staying out of their way and waiting for them to leave. She had looked in the bedroom and shuddered at the glass scattered over a racetrack on West’s floor.