Chapter 5

After Scarlett was hospitalized, Julian Hayes stopped bothering me.

I'd been working overtime for two consecutive days at the company, and tonight I was still there until nine.

I yawned as I stepped out of the elevator.

As soon as I reached the underground parking garage, hurried footsteps sounded behind me.

Just as I turned, a sack was roughly pulled over my head.

A familiar terror instantly swept through me.

Memories of being kidnapped in my past life surged like a tidal wave.

"Let me go! I'll give you whatever you want!"

I struggled desperately, but I was violently shoved into a car.

The car was eerily silent.

The scent of leather seats mixed with a familiar cologne.

It was the one Julian Hayes always used.

My heart sank instantly.

I suppressed my trembling. "What do you want?"

Silence stretched for a few seconds, followed by a deliberately lowered voice. "You don't need to know that much."

The car screeched to a halt.

He grabbed my arm, brutally dragging me out of the car.

"Remember this lesson."

The metallic whoosh cut through the air, and the next second, searing pain exploded in my lower back.

"Ah!"

A golf club slammed heavily into my lumbar spine. The agony made my vision blur.