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rough and wore a black woolen balaclava. Adelaide had read enough to
know that while burglars were often not violent, a criminal who knew enough to
cover his face, bide his time and premeditate his actions knew he had nothing
to lose.
    Do something, you idiot!
    Snapping into gear, Adelaide grabbed the crystal vase
sitting on the bench and hurled it at her attacker, flowers and all. Water
splashed over his face and into his eyes. Instinctively he let her go and
lifted his hands to his face to wipe the liquid away.
    On bare feet, Adelaide raced out of the kitchen and headed
to her bedroom. She kept her uncle’s gun in a box in the bedside drawer. She
wasn’t even halfway there when the burglar grabbed her by the hair.
    She screamed in pain as she felt many roots snap in his
fist. He slammed her into the wall again.
    “This is the last time I’ll ask. Next I’ll just keep hurting
you until you scream out what I want to know,” he said venomously. “Where is
it?”
    Adelaide didn’t pretend to herself. She wasn’t built for
torture. She cried when she stubbed her toe or nicked her finger with a knife
while cutting vegetables. Adelaide was not a weak woman, but she was not one to
withstand physical pain. And since she certainly couldn’t answer this man’s
questions, she wasn’t going to hang around. She no longer wanted her gun or to
defend her house. She just wanted to escape.
    “Okay,” she panted, buying herself a few precious seconds
while her brain whirled. “Okay, I’ll tell you.”
    The man still grasped her shoulders painfully tightly, but
they were facing each other now. She opened her mouth, pretending to gather
herself for the big reveal, and kneed him as hard as she could in the balls.
The man winced, losing his breath, but he didn’t fall down.
    Adelaide remembered her Uncle Mark teaching her some
self-defense in her teenage years once, when he’d been on leave. He’d shown her
not only how to hurt a man in his crotch but how to follow through with a
strong head butt.
    Your skull is one of the strongest, hardest places on
your body, Addy. You only do this in an emergency, sweetness, but it’s
important to know these things.
    Before her attacker could gather himself, she bashed her
head into his face. Pain exploded through her skull and rang in her ears, but
he released her and fell to the floor. Faster than thought, she turned and
fled. She raced back down the hallway. In one quick swoop she gathered her
handbag and keys. Adelaide dug a hand into her purse and pulled out her phone.
About to dial 9-1-1, she paused just for a moment and looked over her shoulder.
    Her attacker lay on the ground, dazed, his eyes closed.
Gathering every inch of her courage, she took a few steps closer to him and
pulled his balaclava up. He had a split in his forehead and a trickle of blood
ran down from it, smeared from the woolen mask he’d been wearing. He was beefy
and Caucasian with brownish-blond hair. Too scared to hang around much longer,
Adelaide tapped the button for her camera on the screen of her phone.
    She snapped a picture of the man where he lay. Turning back
around, she flew out the door and into her driveway. It was only as she climbed
into the car that she noticed her feet were still bare. For a second she pondered
going back inside to get her shoes.
    Are you insane? With a giant man in there wanting to beat
answers out of you that you don’t have? What planet are you on?
    Adelaide jammed the key in the ignition and turned it on.
Burning rubber, she peeled out of the driveway and sped away.
    It took a few minutes for her heart to stop racing and for
her breathing to slow back down to normal. She hadn’t felt terrified, but as
time ticked over and she started to shake, Adelaide realized she must have
been.
    Absolutely petrified.
    Finally she pulled off the road and into the parking lot of
a group of shops. She wound down the window and sucked at the fresh air.
    Okay, now what? she wondered.
    The