was trembling as she picked up Scooter’s discarded coat and tossed it into the small tiled mudroom off one side of the foyer where they were standing.
“I’ll hang mine, if you don’t mind,” Quintin said, suiting his actions to the words. “Now let’s go. I’m starving.”
He looked up suddenly, and Kat instantly backed even farther into the shadows, her heart thundering. Had he seen her? Apparently not, because he set his hand on Skyler’s shoulder and repeated, “Let’s go.”
“Get your hands off her,” David said.
Quintin seemed surprised, but he only smiled. “Just remember, everyone on good behavior. Everyone. We keep close together, like a good family, and no one gets hurt.”
They left the entry hall and moved into the kitchen, and Kat was left alone with her roiling thoughts.
She felt frozen, paralyzed, but she knew she had to get past that. Her mother had kept them from knowing she was in the house for a reason: so she could save the family.
Or so she could live when the invaders massacred the rest of the family.
No. That wasn’t going to happen. She would find a way to make sure of it.
She prayed silently for strength. What the hell should she do? How was she supposed to get help in the middle of a blizzard?
She couldn’t wait until the weather calmed down, because Quintin and Scooter were waiting for the same thing. Then they would no doubt steal one of the family’s cars and get back on the road.
And before they went on the road…
They would kill her entire family. They hadn’t hidden their faces. They had blithely offered their names. Of course, they might have made up the names they had given, but she didn’t think so. The most likely scenario was that they would have dinner, savor the warmth of the house and then kill her entire family.
She turned and hurried silently down the hall to her room. She tried her cell first, but she wasn’t at all surprised to discover she had no service. She hesitated, then quickly tried the landline. But either the wires were down or their unwelcome visitors had cut the lines.
Think, she commanded herself. There had to be something she could do.
She could run, but where?
Oh God, it was all up to her. And she was in a panic, failing…
She drew a deep breath.
She could not—would not—fail.
She must be in a state of delayed shock, Skyler decided. She should be paralyzed, either entirely mute or screaming, but instead she was talking, moving, almost normally. They all were, thanks to that basic instinct for survival that kicked in no matter how dire the circumstances.
The singer on the CD that had gone on playing in the background moved on to “O Holy Night.” She had wanted peace so badly before but now…
Now she just wanted everyone to live.
“What the hell is that stuff?” Scooter asked, staring at one of the serving dishes.
“Bacon and cabbage, to go with the corned beef,” David said sharply. Bless him, he was actually bristling at the insult to her cooking, despite the circumstances.
“Don’t look like bacon,” Scooter said.
“It’s more like Canadian bacon,” Frazier said. “It’s the Irish tradition to have bacon with the cabbage.”
“Cabbage is worse than bacon,” Scooter said, wrinkling his nose.
“Taste it. All the flavors mix together. It’s good,” Skyler heard herself say as if she were coaxing a five-year-old. “Brenda, would you pass the potatoes, please?”
She could do this. They all could. It was the only way to stay alive. Because if they didn’t stay calm and pull this off…
At least, she prayed, Kat would survive.
As Scooter reluctantly accepted the bowl of cabbage, Skyler dared a glance at David. His jaw was locked, a pulse ticking at his throat. His eyes touched hers, and they were filled with humiliation. He had failed to protect his family. He wanted to do something.
She shook her head. No.
“Hey, you’re right. This shit is good,” Scooter said.
“My mother does not put shit on the table.” Jamie bridled.
There was silence for a moment; then Scooter grinned. “Sorry. It’s just that…been a while since I’ve eaten a family dinner.” He set his fork down suddenly. “I can’t do this.”
“You can’t do what?” Skyler demanded, her heart racing. He couldn’t sit and eat with them when he planned to shoot them all in a few hours?
“Leave it,” Quintin said.
“Come on,” Scooter protested. “The kid could be dead.”
Quintin frowned, then swore in exasperation. “The kid could be a cop.”
“No, he’s not,” Scooter insisted.
“What kid?” Skyler demanded, feeling as if she were about to explode, as if she were choking and stars would burst in front of her eyes before the total darkness of death descended.
Surely they couldn’t mean Kat?
“What kid?” David breathed.
Quintin waved his fork dismissively. “Nothing for you to worry about, buddy.”
Skyler was surprised to see David lean forward intensely. “Haven’t you guys ever been in a blizzard before? If you left someone out there in this, he’ll die. A few years ago, one poor old woman died after the storm. She froze to death just trying to get her mail.”
Scooter looked at Quintin. “The kid is no cop,” he insisted. “I don’t want anyone to die if I can help it.” Then, as if realizing that he was sounding too soft, he added, “But don’t any of you forget we’ve got guns, and we’ll use ’em if we have to.”
“Mom first,” Quintin reminded them very softly, and Skyler lifted her head to stare at him. He laughed suddenly. “Look at the little lioness. You think it would be worse if I threatened one of the children. For you, yes. But for the kids here…You think they’d want to go on living, knowing they got you killed?”
“Ah, it’s all clear to me now,” Paddy said suddenly.
“What’s clear, you old Mick?” Quintin demanded.
“Why, that you were abandoned by y’er blessed mother,” Paddy said.
“I wasn’t abandoned,” Quintin snapped back. “The drunken bitch died. Maybe you should watch it, Mick. You could be next.”
“Speaking of abandoning people…” Skyler cut in. “Have you abandoned someone outside?”
Quintin grinned. “You want us to bring in our buddy and put the odds even more in our favor?”
There was no way she could hide the confusion that filled her when she added that thought to the mix.
“That’s all right. You’re good people,” Quintin said surprisingly.
“I want to get the kid,” Scooter said stubbornly.
“The food will get cold,” Quintin said. “And how do you propose we get him?”
“Those two get him out of the car and carry him in,” Scooter said, indicating David and Frazier. “You sit here with your gun trained on Mom and they won’t make trouble.”
“The wind is blowing like a son of a bitch,” Paddy noted.
“So it is,” Quintin said. “Go get