Chapter 7: The Barn at Night

The bolt cutters went through the barn lock at two in the morning.

I heard it from the farmhouse, because I hadn't slept since Brent's headlights.

I was up and dressed with my father's pistol before the second snap.

Hattie slept in the spare room with her boots on.

I put a finger to my lips as she sat up, and she nodded and took the wrench.

Out in the yard the moon was bright.

Three men stood at the barn door, holding flashlights low.

Appraise lit beside each of them.

Carrying: bolt cutters, a sack, a tire iron.

Intent: stealing.

Carrying: a crowbar.

Intent: stealing.

The third man carried a phone, and the screen glowed with a message I could read from the porch.

It was from Brent.

Get the fuel first. She'll be too scared to stop you.

I felt something cold and clear go through me.

He had paid them.

I walked down the porch steps.

"That's my fuel," I said.

They all turned.

"Whoa," said the nearest man, and raised his hands. "Lady, we were told nobody lived here."

"Who told you?"

"Guy in town. Said the place was empty. Said there was money in it."

"There's no money in it," I said. "There's a gun in it."

The man with the crowbar laughed.

"You're not going to shoot anyone," he said.

I raised the pistol and put a round into the dirt between his boots.

The sound was enormous.

For a second nobody moved.

Then the crowbar man lunged, and I learned something about my own body.

My arm went up, and my knee went in, and the crowbar clanged against the barn wall, and he was on his back with the wind knocked out of him.

I didn't remember deciding any of it.

[Level 4. Skill unlocked: Brace.]

The words flashed and faded, and my legs went steady and heavy under me.

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