Free Defiance (The Defending Home Series Book 1) by William H. Weber

face down the government and see them blink. It’s a humiliation they don’t soon forget.”
    “I’m afraid we can’t afford to lose anyone in order to keep watch,” Dale said. “Which means Colton will need to be propped up by one of the front windows and given a pair of binoculars and a walkie-talkie.”
    “That’s something we can do,” Brooke said, motioning to Ann.
    They left and Dale watched them walk away, hoping that everything they were doing in the end would help keep them safe. It was bad enough that Clay had been shot by one of their own. But what Dale hated most was how quickly the situation had spiraled out of his control. He was a man who searched for order in everything that he did and now he was facing a powder keg just waiting to explode.

Chapter 15
    Zach
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    Z ach reached Pueblo, Colorado on his journey toward Interstate 25 and noticed the town was far more active than Canon had been. A handful of cars were on the road, navigating through intersections without bothering to stop or even slow down. Small groups of people were also moving in and out of broken store windows. But it wasn’t electronics they were after. What good was a stereo without power?
    On the other side of the boulevard, he watched a patrol car pull up to the store, lights flashing. At once, those pillaging inside came scurrying out like cockroaches, running in every direction.
    Zack quickly turned off East 4 th Street and into a suburban neighborhood. While he felt comfortable the cops weren’t out looking for him, he also figured there wasn’t any point taking chances.
    He cruised down narrow streets, punctuated by small two-story houses with pointed roofs. He made three more rights before settling on the one he would burglarize. If there was one thing he knew for damn certain, he wasn’t going to make it to Encendido driving an ambulance and dressed in a hospital gown.
    Climbing down from the cab, Zach gripped the back flap of his gown to keep from flashing the neighborhood. He might not keep to the law, but at least he intended to keep his dignity.
    A quick eye up and down the street revealed a distinct lack of activity. Either folks were hiding or they were already dead.
    Circling around the back of a small white house, he went straight away to the sliding glass door. It was locked and he swore. A large, inviting rock sat less than five feet away, but without any shoes, shattering the glass would only slice open the soles of his feet. He opted instead to hop the fence, trying two more adjacent houses, before he found an unlocked back door.
    Pushing his way inside, he crept through a narrow laundry room, his nose hit at once by the smell of fabric softener. The odor was pleasant, reminding him of the home life he’d lost so many years ago. Lori had said she loved him, had said she’d never leave him, and yet she had committed the ultimate betrayal by going to the cops and telling them everything she knew. It didn’t seem to matter that he’d only robbed those banks up in Colorado so that Colton would have a shot at going to university. To provide his son the kinds of opportunities that had never been open to him. Lori would have argued Zach’s lack of job prospects was his own fault and she would probably have a point.
    He’d lied when they’d first met in Denver, told a young and beautiful university sophomore who said her name was Lori that he was studying banking, not even sure such a course even existed. That was the life of a con man, wasn’t it? You bent the truth in every which way and the more you believed your own lie, the more others did too. By the time they were married and had a son on the way, it was too late for her to just up and leave. He’d locked her down as thoroughly as Florence Supermax had done to him.
    All that mattered was a steady source of income to keep them afloat, and Zach had taken up the challenge, knocking off convenience and liquor stores with the same