This Time, I'll Be the Villain's Favorite Daughter novel Chapter 360

Chapter 360 The Ambush

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The entire drive, Maya and Iris kept a close watch on the road.

Sure enough, trouble arrived before they were halfway there.

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It started with a vehicle appearing in the rearview mirror. A vehicle that shouldn’t have been there.

Maya had her eye on that tail when the sedan came barreling out of the side street, perfectly timed, perfectly aimed, throwing itself into their flank like a battering ram.

Fortunately, Somalie’s car wasn’t an ordinary luxury vehicle. It was custom–built, armored from top to bottom. The reinforced steel plating belonged in an entirely different category from civilian cars.

The impact sent the reinforced chassis sliding sideways across the asphalt. The whole world tilted, metal shrieking, before the driver managed to wrestle the wheel back into submission and kept them from rolling.

Somalie went airborne across the back seat, crashing into Maya’s shoulder hard enough to drive the breath out of both of them, her hair whipping across her face like a curtain of silk.

The car shuddered to a halt.

Maya and Iris snapped upright in perfect synchronization, shoulders squared, eyes wide and already calculating.

The idling engines of passing traffic continued to hum along the adjacent lanes.

In this world, violence was just another part of the scenery, as unremarkable as rain.

The other drivers merely adjusted course and gave them a wide berth, as if clearing a path for something inevitable.

Iris remained remarkably calm. “They don’t have guns.”

Outside, the security convoy sprang into action. Bodyguards poured from the escort vehicles, moving to protect Somalie.

However, they looked far more impressive than they actually were.

Against professional mercenaries, they barely qualified as a speed bump.

The driver twisted the key again. And again. The engine coughed, sputtered, and refused to catch.

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13:04 Mon, Jul 13

Chapter 360 The Ambush

Somalie, for all her fussiness, was not naive.

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She’d grown up in the crosshairs of half the underworld, had been snatched and ransomed and threatened more times than she could count. A certain kind of composure came with that territory, the bred–in–the–bone calm of someone who had been through the procedure before.

She blinked those misty blue eyes, lashes fluttering. “What do we do?”

The question had barely left her mouth when one of her bodyguards collapsed onto the pavement outside.

Somalie blinked again. A hint of uncertainty finally appeared on her face.

But she clung to the one certainty she’d been raised with: her father had always, always made sure she came home.

Nothing bad had ever actually happened to her.

And she saw no reason tonight would be any different.

“We should stay in the car,” she declared, even taking the time to reassure the other two. “My dad will definitely save us.”

Iris stared at her. “Wow. That’s… a lot of confidence.”

Maya gave her a thumbs–up, deadpan. “You’re the bravest one here.”

The thing was, Somalie wasn’t entirely wrong.

Her father had prepared a contingency plan.

Maya and Iris were the contingency plan.

Which meant neither of them had time to sit in the car waiting for rescue.

Iris hiked up her skirt and nearly tripped doing it, cursing under her breath. She palmed the knife she’d tucked into her waistband. “I told you this dress was a problem.”

The fabric just got in the way. Slowed them down.

Her fingers worked the blade free. “This is your fault, you know. Making us wear these ridiculous things.”

“Yeah,” Maya agreed without missing a beat. “Totally your fault. Useless. Can’t do anything right.”

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13:05 Mon, Jul 13

Chapter 360 The Ambush

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Somalie’s mouth fell open. “Me…?! We’re under attack right now! Why are you both yelling at me? I’m going to fire both of you!”

The two girls exchanged a glance.

“Good news,” Maya said. “I wore pants.”

Iris smiled, serene and infuriating. “Funny. So did I.”

For them, skirts were optional. Pants were not.

They twisted toward the doors, ready to move.

Somalie grabbed one of them. Then the other. Her fingers clamped down on their sleeves with surprising strength, her voice climbing into something frantic. “Wait, wait! Where are you going? You’re my servants! Get back here!

“Let the guards handle it! They can buy us some time while we stay in the car. They’re paid to die for me, that’s literally their job.

“We can just stay here until my father sends help.”

The truth was, she didn’t want them getting hurt.

Worst–case scenario, she could always get kidnapped.

That part didn’t scare her. She was practically an expert by now.

Negotiations. Ransom demands. Payment procedures. At this point, she could probably offer constructive feedback to professional kidnappers.

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