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

Aubree whirled around to see two burly men lunging at her. Without a second thought, not to be outdone, she swung her bag and smashed it into the head of the nearest attacker, the phone in her hand aimed straight at them. Beside her, Isla...

The two attackers recoiled in pain, giving Filtree and Isla a precious moment to catch their breath.

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

To make matters worse, their path ahead was also completely sealed off.

Trapped from both sides, they had nowhere to run.

“Who are you guys? What do you want?” Aubree gripped Isla’s hand tightly, stepping protectively in front of her. She was determined to keep Isla safe, no matter what.

Isla clung to Aubree’s arm, her expression composed despite the situation. As a daughter of the Matthews family, she was no stranger to such attacks and kidnappings, having faced them before in Odionland.

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

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

The Timberlake 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 four desperadoes to kidnap Aubree.

Since Bowen has thrown courtesy out the window, he shouldn’t blame me for dropping all 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 stay composed.”

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, flashing a mouthful of rotten teeth that made one’s stomach churn. His lecherous gaze shamelessly raked over Aubree and Isla’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.

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

The four thugs couldn’t understand the foreign language, but they knew that the longer they waited, the more likely it would go wrong. “Enough blabbing,” one of them growled. “Let’s grab them first. Once we’ve got them, what happens is up to us.”

With that, one of them lunged forward, reaching out...

Aubree released Isla’s hand. Thanks to her ongoing self-defense training, she slipped aside in a flash.

Isla was even more impressive. She grabbed the man’s arm and executed a textbook-perfect over-the-shoulder throw, slamming him hard to the ground. Though she dressed to appear deceptively sweet and cute, she was tall. As the daughter of the Matthews family, self-defense was part of her training.

The other four men rushed them all at once. Aubree and Isla knew they were no match for them, so they bolted.

Chapter 192

“Stop, Aubree! Don’t run!” 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. Ethan 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 lead his team 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 told a different story.

Ethan wasted no words. “Get them,” he commanded.

These men were trained thugs, but against Ethan and his team, they stood no chance at all. In just a few moves, they were all knocked flat on the ground.