Chapter 5 - The Midnight Breach
The attack came at two in the morning on a moonless Tuesday.
The perimeter alarm on the southern fence line shrieked through the silent house.
I was already awake, sitting in the dark of my study with the Winchester resting across my lap.
I grabbed my two-way radio and clicked the transmission button.
"Clifford, talk to me," I ordered, moving swiftly toward the security monitor panel.
"We have three vehicles cutting through the south pasture," Clifford's voice crackled back, tight with adrenaline.
"They just drove through the wooden fencing."
Julian had brought the syndicate's muscle to the farm to take by force what he couldn't steal with a pen.
"Keep the boys back," I instructed Clifford.
"Do not engage unless they fire first."
"I am calling the sheriff."
I dialed the local precinct, but the dispatcher informed me that deputies were at least twenty minutes away.
We were entirely on our own.
I watched the grainy night-vision cameras as six heavily armed men approached the main house.
Julian was leading them, holding a crowbar and pointing aggressively toward my front door.
He honestly believed an old man and a few ranch hands would cower in the dark.
I unlocked the heavy oak front door and stepped out onto the porch, racking a round into the chamber of the Winchester.
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The metallic clack echoed loudly across the silent driveway, stopping the intruders dead in their tracks.
"You have exactly five seconds to turn around before I start dropping bodies on my wife's favorite lawn," I called out into the darkness.
