Chapter 4 - The Siege of Pinecrest Heights
The return to Pinecrest Heights felt less like coming home and more like entering a war zone.
Black SUV fleet vehicles blocked the iron gates, and local police cruisers flashed red and blue lights against the wet stone walls of the sprawling estate. Spencer had ordered absolute lockdown. No one entered, no one left.
Inside the grand foyer, the damage was stark. Glass from an antique display cabinet crunched beneath Spencer’s designer shoes. The portrait of his late father, Arthur Warren, hung slightly askew, as if mocking the chaos below.
Detective Marcus Vance of the Pinecrest Police Department—a sharp, cynical investigator who had known the Warren family for years—was waiting by the sweeping marble staircase.
"Mr. Warren," Detective Vance greeted, holding a small plastic evidence bag containing a discarded latex glove. "Looks like a professional job. They bypassed your biometric safe using a high-frequency override code. Only three people in this world had that master code: you, your late father, and your chief of security, Viktor Vance."
Spencer’s expression darkened. "Viktor has been with this family for fifteen years. He took a bullet for my father during the warehouse riots in '15."
"People change, Spencer, or secrets come to light," Detective Vance replied, handing him a printed log sheet. "Look at the security server logs. The bypass code was entered at 4:15 PM today—precisely twenty minutes after you left the mansion to go shopping with little Charlee. Whoever did this knew your exact movements."
Spencer handed baby Dexter—now safely swaddled in fresh linens and resting in the arms of a trusted pediatric nurse he had hired by the hour—over to Mrs. Mabel, who promised to guard the baby with her life. Charlee stayed close to Spencer’s side, her small hand firmly gripping his coat pocket.
"Where is Viktor right now?" Spencer asked, his voice low and lethal.
"That's the interesting part," Detective Vance said, a grim smile touching his lips. "He didn't run. He's locked inside the estate’s underground panic room in the basement, claiming someone tried to assassinate him."
Spencer didn't waste another second. He strode down the dimly lit hallway leading to the service elevator, descending deep into the bowels of the mansion. The panic room was a relic of the Cold War era, reinforced with foot-thick steel plating and digital keypad locks.
When Spencer reached the heavy steel door, Viktor Vance—a burly, scarred man with graying temples—was pounding on the metal from the inside, shouting for help.
Spencer punched the master override sequence into the keypad. The heavy locks hissed, and the steel door swung open.
Viktor stumbled out, gasping for air, his shirt torn at the collar and a fresh bruise swelling along his jawline.
"Boss! Thank God!" Viktor panted, leaning against the stone wall. "I was checking the perimeter sensors when someone jumped me from behind. They dragged me down here, forced me at gunpoint to hand over the master override codes, and locked me inside!"
Spencer stared down at his chief of security. Every instinct honed over a decade of running a multi-billion-dollar global empire screamed that something was deeply, fundamentally wrong.
"Really, Viktor?" Spencer asked coldly. "Because the security logs show the code was entered smoothly, without a single error, from the primary console inside your private office."
Viktor’s eyes flickered with panic, a split-second hesitation that did not go unnoticed.
"The... the hackers must have spoofed my terminal, boss! You know me! I would never betray the Warrens!"
"You're right, Viktor," Spencer said smoothly. He slowly raised his wrist, tapping the screen of his smartwatch. "You would never betray the Warrens—because you always served someone else. Look at the monitor behind you."
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Viktor whipped his head around. On the wall-mounted security display, a live video feed from the East Wing showed a hidden door behind the library bookshelf slowly swinging open.
Stepping out from the secret passage was none other than Jocelyn Cooper—the woman who had supposedly vanished abroad, holding a silenced pistol aimed directly at Mrs. Mabel, who was holding baby Dexter.
