Chapter 5 - The Siege of Cascade Ridge
The wind howled through the shattered front doorway of Cascade Ridge Estate, carrying swirling flakes of snow across the marble foyer.
Rosa backed away from the study desk, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. She desperately eyed the doorway leading to the living room where Lily and the twins lay sleeping. If these men found the children...
“Well, well, well,” a smooth, greasy voice drawled from the foyer. Marcus Kane stepped inside, shaking snow from his expensive Italian wool coat like he owned the place. His eyes were cold, calculating, and laced with the manic adrenaline of a cornered animal. “Dr. Nathan Pierce’s high-tech fortress. Always wondered what it looked like on the inside.”
Two uniformed deputies—Deputy Miller (no relation to Nathan’s mercenary) and Deputy Vance Jr.—flanked him, their assault rifles raised and locked onto the hallway.
“Where is he?” Marcus barked, his smile fading into a snarl as he spotted Rosa standing pale and rigid near the study door. “Where’s the good doctor? And more importantly... where are my brats?”
Rosa swallowed hard, forcing her voice to remain steady despite her shaking knees. “Dr. Pierce isn't here. He went out to look for Sarah hours ago.”
Marcus let out a harsh, barking laugh. He unbuttoned his coat, revealing a heavy shoulder holster carrying a Glock 19. “Look for Sarah? Oh, he’ll find her all right. But he’s going to be awfully disappointed when he realizes she’s not breathing anymore.”
At the mention of their mother, a faint whimpering sound drifted from the living room. Ethan, startled by the crashing front door, began to cry softly.
Marcus’s head snapped toward the hallway. His eyes lit up with malicious glee.
“Well, now. Sounds like we have company,” Marcus said, stepping past Rosa toward the living room archway.
Rosa lunged forward, grabbing a heavy glass paperweight from the desk and hurling it at Marcus’s head. It missed by inches, shattering against the doorframe.
Deputy Vance Jr. spun around, slamming the butt of his rifle into Rosa’s shoulder. She cried out, collapsing hard against the hardwood floor as pain radiated through her arm.
“Stupid bitch,” Vance spat, stepping over her.
Marcus strode into the living room. There, wrapped in cashmere blankets on the sofa, lay five-year-old Lily, her green eyes snapping wide open in terror. On the armchair, the twin babies were wailing in unison.
Lily shrank back against the cushions, her small hands pulling the blanket over her chest. “You’re a monster,” she whispered, her voice shaking with pure, unadulterated fear. “You hurt Mommy.”
Marcus knelt down beside the sofa, his face inches from the little girl’s face. He didn't look like a father; he looked like a reptile inspecting its prey.
“And now I’m going to hurt you and your little brothers, you little rat,” Marcus hissed, reaching out a gloved hand to grab Lily by the collar of her shirt. “You shouldn't have run away. You should have frozen in the snow like a good little girl.”
Before Marcus’s fingers could touch her, a loud, deep metallic roar echoed from the driveway outside.
VROOOM-CRASH!
The massive armored tracked vehicle belonging to Vance Logistics didn't just pull up—it drove straight through the side glass wall of the mansion’s indoor conservatory, showering the room in a million sparkling shards of tempered glass.
Marcus jerked his hand back, stumbling to his feet as alarms blared throughout the smart-home system.
Through the cloud of powdered snow and shattered glass standing in the doorway of the wrecked conservatory stood Dr. Nathan Pierce.
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He wasn't wearing his surgical scrubs. He wore a dark tactical vest over his parka, his face carved from granite, and in his right hand, the Sig Sauer P226 was leveled directly at Marcus Kane’s chest.
“Take your hands off my niece, Marcus,” Nathan said, his voice dangerously low, echoing like thunder through the ruined living room. “Or I swear to God, I’ll open a hole in your chest you won't need a scalpel to fix.”
