Page 60 of Revenge of a Queen

“Knew you missed me,” he preens with delight.

“What do we have on Baizen? Anything?” Marcus cuts in with a serious look on his face.

That gets a genuine smile from me for the first time since we all got here, “Come on, I’ll show you,” I gesture for them to follow me. I lead them back down to my little den of danger so we can make a plan. Once all the guys have taken a seat in there, I pull out a spare whiteboard, and start sticking information to it as I talk.

“Steven Baizen,” I begin by placing a picture of him in the center, “husband of Katherine and father of Damien,” I add, sticking a picture of his family up. “He is the Captain of Police and a decorated one at that,” I continue, as I hand out files to each of the guys containing all his background information. “People see him as a hero, a family man, a true credit to the town of Black Hallows. What they don’t see is this,” I press a few keys on the computer until pictures of him start appearing on the screen, all of him in compromising positions with underage boys.

“Baizen is a predator. He preys on innocent young boys, befriending them through the system, and then raping them before making them disappear,” I turn back to the guys. Asher and Lincoln are emotionless, having already known all of this. They are my information collectors after all. Logan is reading his file and no doubt committing every inch of it to memory, whereas Marcus and Jace look a little green at what they are seeing. I turn back to the screen and make it go dark, the images there aren’t pleasant, and we don’t need reminders of what a sick fuck he is. I take a seat and wait for the guys to process the information.

“If you have proof of his crimes, why haven’t you handed him in?” Jace asks with curiosity.

“To who?” I laugh slightly. “His police buddies, who he is the boss of? Or Carter Fitzgerald the Governor who he golfs with every Sunday?” I don’t mean to sound bitchy, but these guys really need to grasp that the only way out for anyone involved with Elliot Donovan is death. Baizen is one of Elliot’s inside men, complicit in all of his crimes and a master at keeping them covered. It’s time for him to disappear.

“What’s your plan?” Lincoln speaks directly to me. He knows this is my show, he and the others are just along for the ride.

I blow out a breath, “Honestly? I don’t know yet. It needs to be discreet,” I muse as I rub little circles on either side of my temples, like that will help me conjure up a solution to all my problems.

“I may have something,” Marcus pipes in, looking down at his phone with a frown.

“What is it, brother?” Lincoln questions him.

He passes his phone to him as he speaks, “I just received a report signed off by Damien Baizen that the fire at the loft was an accident."

Asher grunts, “Yeah, and I’m the son of a fucking saint,” he drawls, his voice brimming with contempt.

Lincoln passes the phone to me so I can read what’s in the report. Sure enough, even with all the evidence of foul play that was left at the scene, the fire has still been ruled an accident. I fucking hate money, it really can buy anything. I spin on my chair until I’m facing the board again, my gaze locks onto the picture of Steven smiling down at his wife and son.

I smile when the idea hits me, “Time for us to capture a little incentive, boys. We are done playing in the shadows.”

Chapter 34

MARCUS

Elle is quiet as we drive across town to get to the loft, well, what’s left of it anyway. She isn’t tense or even fearful, just calm. It unnerves me. Her plan seems simple but as I have come to learn, nothing is ever fucking simple. I’m running through a range of scenarios in my head and praying none of them come true. I just want something to go smoothly for once.

It’s just the two of us in her jeep, the others are following behind us in a brand-new SUV that is identical to what Lincoln had. Elle gave it to him like it was nothing to just hand over a car worth thousands of dollars. I guess to her, it was nothing. She’s no longer heir to the King fortune but somehow managed to find herself with even more money than before.

“Do you think this will work?” I ask, breaking the tension as we pull up alongside the police cruiser that is waiting for us. Her plan was simple, use Steven Baizen’s son to get him to come to us.

“Only one way to find out,” she answers simply, before turning off the engine and climbing out, so I follow suit.

Damien Baizen looks pristine in his uniform, every bit an official man of the law like you would imagine. His brow is furrowed as he looks back and forth from the paperwork in his hand, to the black vessel that I used to call a home. He looks between the two like he is trying to work something out. I clear my throat to get his attention and he startles, like he didn’t even realize we had arrived.

He shakes his head like he is clearing his thoughts and reaches out a hand for me to shake, “Mr. Riviera, I presume?” he asks. I have to hold in my grunt at his fake bravado, knowing full well he will have seen my file. They may not be aware that I committed fucking murder, but I have enough of a rap sheet to be on a first name basis with most of the officers down at the precinct. Although, this is the first time I have ever crossed paths with Officer Baizen.

I shake his hand and squeeze his fingers slightly, he winces before he can stop himself and I smile. I feel Elle watching us before she thrusts out her own hand.

“Elle King,” she says, casually tossing her name out. We both see the recognition in his eyes.

“Miss King? What a pleasure,” he holds out his hand and I frown at the genuine tone of his voice, like he really is happy to meet her. What the fuck?

Elle’s face crumples in slight confusion, but she accepts his hand, as we both clock the other guys creeping up behind him. Elle smiles a sinister smile which shouldn’t turn me on but fuck me it does.

“Don’t speak too soon, little Baizen,” Elle responds without remorse, as Logan comes up behind him and slides the syringe into his neck at the same time that Lincoln and Jace reach out to grab him. Elle told me Logan is following in Arthur’s footsteps and studying medicine at college, making him our in-group pharmacist. It wasn’t hard to figure out a dosage of Flunitrazepam to get him to take a little nap. Elle doesn’t react to his flailing body as he slips into unconsciousness, “Get him in the trunk,” she simply requests, and the guys follow her instruction. Once he is locked inside, we all look to her as she surveys the surrounding area.

“Pretty boy take his car and burn it. Lo, you go with him. Superman, you hack his phone and get Daddy dearest to where we want him. Ash make sure any cameras that may have caught him on his way here are wiped. Marcus and I will get everything set up and keep an eye on our incentive until we get Steven,” she rattles off her list of commands, we all nod our heads in unison. A queen commanding her troops.

It doesn’t take long for Elle’s demands to be met and before I know it we are parked outside a seedy bar on the outskirts of town in a blacked out van. Lincoln used Damien’s phone to text his father, telling him something bad had happened, and that he needed to meet him urgently, away from prying eyes. Of course, the Captain of police knew just the place for that kind of conversation. I want to laugh when I think of all the officers at my house the day, I found my dad's body. All of them were so professional looking for evidence and offering me their condolences. What a bunch of fucking bullshit that was.

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