The Last Noel by Heather Graham

could tell from their footsteps that they were outside Frazier’s room, Kat dared to open her door and peek around the jamb. Her brothers were looking her way, and their eyes grew big when they spotted her. She shook her head in warning, and they nodded almost imperceptibly.
    She held up her phone and mimed dialing, hoped they understood, then mouthed, “I love you,” and slipped back inside her room, shutting the door carefully. A moment later she heard them coming back down the hallway.
    Suddenly the phone clutched in her hand let out a beep. She froze.
    â€œWhat was that?” Scooter demanded, and she realized he was right outside her door.
    â€œWhat?” Jamie asked.
    â€œThat noise,” Scooter said.
    â€œWhat noise?” Frazier demanded, sounding impatient. “This is an old house. It creaks and groans all the time.”
    â€œIt wasn’t any fucking old-house sound,” Scooter snapped. “It was a beep. Now come back here and open that door.”
    Frazier did his best to stall. “That door?”
    â€œWhat are you, stupid? Yes, that door. Open it.”
    Kat could hear their voices, even though she had dived into her closet and hidden as best she could behind the clothes, scrunching into a corner and pulling an old comforter over herself.
    â€œGet in there,” Scooter snapped to Jamie and Frazier.
    Her heart pounding, afraid her every breath was a thunderous gasp, Kat cowered as far back as she could go and listened.
    â€œDon’t you two pull anything,” Scooter warned.
    â€œWhat are we going to pull?” Jamie demanded.
    Kat heard a thump and realized Scooter had gotten on his knees to look under the bed.
    â€œWhat the hell do you think you’re going to find?” Frazier demanded.
    â€œWhose room is this?” Scooter asked, ignoring Frazier’s question.
    â€œMy sister’s,” Jamie said. “When she bothers to show up.”
    â€œBut she didn’t show up?” Scooter asked.
    â€œHave you seen her?” Frazier asked in return, sounding aggravated by the question.
    â€œShe’s in love,” Jamie said. “She went away with her boyfriend.”
    â€œYeah?” Scooter said, doubt still evident in his voice.
    â€œWill you hurry up and look wherever you’re going to look?” Frazier queried impatiently. “Your crazy friend is down there with my family and my girlfriend, and he’s going to start thinking something’s wrong if we don’t get back.”
    â€œOpen that closet door,” Scooter said.
    Jamie snorted derisively. “Why? You think the bogeyman is in there?” he asked.
    â€œDo it!” Scooter yelled. He sounded tense and on the edge of hysteria.
    The door opened.
    â€œNothing here,” Jamie said impatiently, although he had to know she was there.
    She heard footsteps on the floorboards outside her refuge. Scooter?
    â€œI heard something,” Scooter snapped.
    â€œI bet I know what it was,” Jamie said. “You must’ve heard one of the smoke detectors. The battery’s probably going or something.”
    â€œA smoke detector?” Scooter said doubtfully.
    â€œYeah, look. There’s one right there. On the ceiling.”
    â€œI dunno,” Scooter said. “Make it beep again, kid.”
    â€œI don’t know how to make it beep,” Jamie argued.
    â€œThen figure it out,” Scooter said. “Figure it out.”
    Â 
    Quintin rose, his gun in his hand.
    David stayed seated and did his best to remain calm, but the other man had a firm grip on his weapon, and it was clear that he knew how to use it. He’d used it before, David was certain. There was something in the man’s eyes. A coldness. A complete lack of conscience.
    He liked to be amused. Entertained. And right now they were entertaining him. He didn’t want to think what would happen when that stopped.
    Quintin was starting to look nervous, David