Page 8 of Shielding Aubree

The man answered back. Arguing that he didn't have to, that he's an American National and didn't have to follow the law.

Everything had gone about as well as it could until the woman lifted a hand from the console.

Aubree had seen the video over and over. It played on the local news and had become viral on YouTube given the connection to the sovereign citizen doctrine that the two suspects had repeated over and over.

Pushing herself up from the toilet, she made her way over to the bed and dropped down onto the surface of it with a groan.

She laid her head down and tried to turn off the part of her brain that stored that particular memory, but it was no good. She might be missing half a day, but it wasn't the memory of her brother's death at the wrong end of a snub nose revolver fired into his neck. They heard the shot, watching the flare of light from the barrel of the gun and then they heard her brother cry out before the bodycam pointed up at the sky. The last words he said were twisted up in the blood rushing up and out of his veins.

And those criminals?

The reason they gave for drawing a gun on her brother? Killing him?

Well, the boyfriend had a warrant for unpaid child support.

He thought he'd end up going to jail for it and his new girlfriend? She didn't want to pay to bail him out.

So the best thing to do, she said, was trying to scare off the 'fucking pig.'

Aubree rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling above her head.

It was seven feet away from her face.

She knew it, having asked the question before agreeing to stay at The Refuge.

If it had been a top bunk or something like that, she didn't think she could get to sleep at all.

Having that much clearance over her head meant that she could at least fall asleep.

Staying asleep, now that was a different thing.

The pill she'd taken to get through the car ride to the campus had worn off a long time ago and she'd avoided taking another just for bed.

It had been a while since she hadn't been under its calming influence, but she knew she needed to try.

That was another thing she couldn't take with her when she went back to work.

Sedatives.

Closing her eyes, she wrapped her arms around her pillow and curled up on her side and willed herself to sleep.

Ruben didn't lookup when the door to the office opened up. He didn't need to know who it was coming in.

To access the room with the files, you had to have a code.

So whoever it was coming into the office in the dead of night was someone who belonged there.

"Up late?"

He smiled, at least a half of one. "Hey, Brick."

Brick was what they called Drake Vandine, the man who ran The Refuge, and yes, his boss.

Brick pulled out the chair beside him and sat down. "I saw the light on and came by. I knew it was you based on your code to access the records room."

Ruben looked at his boss. "Is there a problem?"

Sitting back in the chair, Brick held his hands up as if he was warding off Ruben’s words.

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