At Horizon za, the emergency stairwell was nearly empty. On a level stretching around a corner, the two men lunged to subdue fubri


    warning


    Aubree whirled around to see two burly men lunging at her. Without a second thought, t not to be outdone, swing her bag and smashed it into the head of the nearest attacker.


    ; the phonia in her hand straight at them Beside her,êN,


    The two attackers recolled in pains, giving filtree and i a precious moment to catch their breath,


    Aubree wasn’t familiar with this mall. When she finally made it out of the emergency. a wave of despair hit her again. Horizon za’s emergency exit didn’t lead outside, but straight into the underground parking garage.


    To make matters worse, their path ahead was <b>also </bpletely sealed off


    Trapped from both sides, they had nowhere to ruh


    “Who are you guys? <b>What </b>do you want? Aubree gripped I’s hand tightly, stepping protectively in front of her. She was determined to keep ista sale no


    matter what.


    Aubree’s </b>arm, her expressionposed despite the situation. As a daughter of the Matthews family, she was no stranger to such attacks and kidnappings, having faced them before in Odiond,


    The garage was freezing A creeping cold seeped into I and Aubree’s bones, wrapping around them until their blood seemed to turn to ca


    “What do we want? Can’t you tell? Of course, we’re here to make <b>your </b>life hell,” one of the men sneered and said.


    The Timbeke family sent these four men here. With Jacob almost fully recovered and the police poised to take him away, Gareth couldn’t take it anymore. Ronald had promised to work with him against Aubree, but kept dragging his feet. Gareth couldn’t wait any longer.


    So he simply hired <b>four </b>desperadoes to kidnap Aubree.


    Since Bowen has thrown courtesy out the window, he shouldn’t me me for <b>dropping </b><b>all </b>pretenses, Gareth thought. “Bowen is unwilling to let my son go just because of that woman named Aubree, right? Fine, I’ll just kidnap her for an exchange. Let’s see if he can still stayposed


    The four men closed in. They’d been watching Aubree for quite some time, and today, they finally seized their chance.


    “Damn, these two are gorgeous, and this one’s a foreign chick!” one of the men leered, Mashing a mouthful of rotten teeth that <b>made </b>one’s stomach tum His lecherous paze shamelessly raked over Aubree and I’s bodies.


    He then said, “Well, that person only said to bring Aubree. He never mentioned we couldn’t have some fun first, right?”


    Aubree’s heart clenched, thinking about how to protect both of them.


    I tugged at Aubree’s sleeve. “Don’t worry, Aubree. I’m tougher than look


    The four thugs couldn’t understand the foreignnguage, but they knew that the longer they waited, the more likely it would go wrong. “Inough bik,” one <b>of </b>them growled. “Let’s grab them first. Once we’ve got them, <b>what </b>happens wat is up to us.”


    With that, one of them lunged forward, reaching out


    Aubree <b>released </b>I’s hand. Thanks to her ongoing self–defense training, she slipped aside <b>in </b><b>a </b>sh


    I was even more impressive. She <b>grabbed </b>the man’s arm and executed a textbook–perfect over–the–shoulder throw, mming him hard to the ground. Though she dressed to appear decaptively spreet and cute, she was tall. As the daughter of the Matthews family, self defense was part of her training


    The four men rushed of them all at once. Aubree and <b>i </b>knew they <b>were </b>no match for them, so they bolted


    “Stop, Aubree! Don Linovel” one of the thugs shouted.


    Ethan and Samson were the first to arrive with reinforcements. They quickly deployed teams to secure the mall, then split up to search for led his team up from the underground garage via the emergency stairwell, while Samson conducted a sweep through the mall interior.


    By sheer luck, Ethan heard someone yelling Aubree’s name when he was approaching the underground garage. As he was about to lend his term inside a group of men brandishing iron rods emerged from the shadows and blocked their path.


    “Hey, buddy, we’re handling some business here. Mind staying out of our way?” His words sounded polite enough, but the ominous scraping of the iron rod he dragged along the ground bold a different story.


    Ethan wasted no words. “Get them,” hemanded.


    These men were trained thugs, but against Ethan and his team, they stood <b>no </b>chance at all in just <b>a </b>few moves, they were all knocked fat on the ground.


    AD