One of them licked at the snowflakes on its snout with its pink tongue. Their throats buzzed in unison before the first barked harshly.

Maggie briefly checked on Holly. She’d taken a few paces back to the couch. ‘Slowly.’

The first dog darted forward and snarled at Maggie.

‘Stay!’ she snapped.

But the dog lunged, its teeth piercing her jeans and clamping onto the flesh above her left knee. She yelled and instinctively struck the top of its warm, wet skull with her fist, but it didn’t release her.

Maggie pulled out her snubbie and fired it into the ceiling. Plaster dust puffed over her as the reverberation pushed the sound out of her right ear.

Two of the dogs ran from the room, but the one at her leg held on.

‘I’ll shoot them all!’ Maggie shouted to the man she assumed was hiding in the kitchen. Her voice was deafening in her head.

The other two dogs immediately re-entered the lounge and were joined by another. They made a beeline to where Holly was standing behind the couch.

‘Shoot them!’ But despite the dog’s teeth fastening tighter Maggie hesitated as she pointed her weapon. She trained the barrel beside its ear and fired at the floor.

The dog flinched but still didn’t let go.

She heard a shot from behind her and a canine howl. Two of the dogs scampered out of the room again but the agony as the dog chewed at her meant she could only focus on making it stop. She put the barrel against its cranium.

A movement in front of her.

Maggie looked up and saw the obese man enter with his double-barrelled shotgun and point it at her face.

But the discharge came from behind her.

The man’s shoulder whipped back, and he cried out. His face was mortified as he slumped against the doorframe. ‘Fucking… bitch.’

Briefly, the whole room came to a standstill, but then the pain kicked back in. Maggie looked down and saw the dog gazing up at her, her blood all around its jaws. It had let go and turned to its master.

The man bent over and dropped to his knees. ‘Jesus.’ He hinged slowly forward until his face was against the floorboards.

The pit bull scuttled to him, nudging its head against his.

Maggie glimpsed Holly standing with her Browning still pointed. Her face was set in an expression of revulsion. Another dog was cowering in the corner, one of its ears bloody and ragged from the first shot Holly had fired.

‘Is he dead?’ Holly kept the gun on him, her hand trembling.

‘No, I’m fucking not!’ he gasped. ‘Get off.’ He swiped at the first dog with his arm, and it vaulted him to join the others outside.

Maggie rushed forward and snatched the shotgun from his grip. He didn’t put up any resistance. She could see Holly’s bullet had taken a chunk out of his shoulder. ‘You clipped him.’

‘Call me an ambulance,’ he said to the floor.

Maggie pocketed her snubbie and hefted the shotgun. It felt so heavy. ‘I got both barrels aimed at your head.’ She shakily directed it at the rug though. She didn’t want to even risk it going off at him. ‘You OK, Holly?’

‘No,’ Holly eventually replied.

‘You injured?’

‘No.’

Maggie knew Holly was in shock. ‘Come stand next to me.’ Maggie didn’t shift her attention from the wounded man. The dog in the corner growled low as she heard Holly’s footfalls approach but it was more a grumble of pain. Out of the side of her eye she could see Holly’s trembling hand holding her Browning; she put her fingers on the barrel and pushed it down. Maggie didn’t want her pulling the trigger again by mistake. ‘Why did you try to kill us?’

‘Call me a fucking ambulance!’

The other dog sloped out of the room.

‘Not until you tell me.’

‘I’m bleeding out.’

Maggie looked beyond him. She could hear the dogs scratching about in the hallway. ‘Call them off.’

He coughed harshly at the floor.

‘If they come through that door again, I’ll use your shotgun and you’re likely to get some as well.’

‘I can’t call them off.’

‘Then crawl forward towards me, slowly.’

He groaned as he lugged his heavy frame.

Maggie nodded at Holly, and she quickly slammed the door and returned to her position beside her. ‘Who are you?’

‘You already know that. And I know my rights.’

Maggie exchanged a confused glance with Holly. ‘We’re not cops.’

‘Yeah, right.’

‘Sooner you answer the question the sooner you’ll get medical treatment.’

‘You can’t do that,’ he exclaimed indignantly.

‘Name.’ Maggie could feel the exposed bite burning.

‘Connor Welch.’

‘Suzanne’s husband?’

‘Brother.’ He squeezed out a low moan.

‘Why did you try to kill us?’

‘You gonna let me die in front of you?’ His voice was suddenly feeble.

Was it an act? ‘You’d be surprised what we’re capable of. It’s your choice. We can plug the phone back in and get you a medic or we can sit this out.’

‘Phone rang twenty minutes before you arrived. Guy said… said you were undercover cops.’

‘We’re not cops.’

‘Who the fuck are you then?’

‘Tell us which guy.’

‘Don’t know. Just said it was a friendly warning,’ he croaked. ‘That I should be prepared.’

‘So what have you got to hide from the police?’

He didn’t answer.