Chapter 612:

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As the car entered the city, familiar streetlights flashed past the window. They were getting closer to the hospital.

The SUV slowed for a red light at a busy intersection. Amelia’s eyes snapped open.

She saw the outline of a handgun tucked into the waistband of the kidnapper on her left.

And then she saw something else. On the back of his left hand, a small black tattoo of a scorpion.

She remembered that tattoo. As she was being dragged from the safe house, she had caught a glimpse of the same design on the hand of one of the men who had knocked out her guards.

𝘞𝗁at 𝘦𝘃𝖾r𝘆𝘰n𝖾 i𝗌 𝗋𝗲а𝖽𝘪ոg 𝘰n 𝘨𝗮𝘭𝗻𝘰𝘃𝖾𝘭𝘴.𝘤o𝗆

The realization hit her like a physical blow.

They were all the same group. The invaders. The kidnappers.

“Mr. Thornton sent us” had been a deadly, vicious lie from the start.

The light turned green. The SUV lurched forward.

Amelia’s heart pounded like a war drum. This was it. Her last chance. Once they had her inside the hospital, under their control, she would be completely powerless.

She kept her eyes fixed on the man with the scorpion tattoo, on the bulge of the gun at his waist.

She went on groaning in pain, letting her body slump toward him as if seeking support.

The kidnapper, his guard down against a woman he believed was in the throes of premature labor, only frowned and told her impatiently to sit up straight.

As the car turned onto the ramp for the overpass leading to the hospital, Amelia’s eyes turned as sharp and cold as a surgeon’s scalpel.

She threw her entire weight forward, lunging for the driver’s seat. Her hand shot out, closed around the steering wheel, and with a surge of pure adrenaline she yanked it hard to the right.

The move was so sudden, so unexpected, that it caught everyone off guard. The driver screamed in terror and wrestled to regain control, but it was too late.

The SUV careened across the lane and smashed head-on into the concrete guardrail of the overpass.

The world exploded in a deafening shriek of metal. The front of the car crumpled like paper. Airbags deployed with explosive force, slamming into the men inside.

Amelia had braced for the impact and aimed her body toward the soft seatback. She was thrown violently, but spared the worst of it. Pain seared through her, and still she stayed conscious. The two kidnappers, taken completely by surprise, were knocked senseless, blood streaming down their faces.

The engine sputtered and died, thick smoke pouring from the mangled hood. A pain unlike anything she had ever felt ripped through her abdomen. The baby was really coming.

She ignored it and fumbled for the door handle, but the frame was twisted and jammed.

The driver and the front-seat kidnapper were unconscious. But in the back, the man with the scorpion tattoo was stirring, shaking his head to clear it.

He saw her trying to escape. A vicious light flared in his eyes, and he reached for her.

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