The Revenge by Tijan

I was reeling.

He was sent in?

“Where?”

“With Arcane, the first time they tried to take your girl. That was me. That’s why they thought Calhoun was really behind the job, why they let me in on their team. I was sent to see what they were doing. I was supposed to report back to him what Quinn was doing, but I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I’m the one who told Bailey that men were coming in to kidnap her. I was trying to help.”

Bailey had reported all this to Bright and Wilson.

“Keep going,” I grunted.

His head dipped once. “Have you been keeping up to date with Quinn’s trial?”

That was from left field.

“No.” I scowled. “Why?”

“Because Quinn made amends with Calhoun when she was arrested. They’re going to help get her acquitted. After, she’s supposed to set up a meet with you. She’s supposed to kill you, and I’m supposed to transition into your life. You asked if I was supposed to have plastic surgery to make us completely identical? I was. The surgery was supposed to happen last week.”

“How were they going to get Quinn acquitted?”

“They’d need to blame someone else.”

Someone else.

I had a feeling who that was, and I wasn’t liking it.

“They killed the Arcane team. Every last one of them. Drew Bonham was killed a month ago. That guard, also dead. Only two people remain alive that were at Bailey’s kidnapping: Quinn and”—another beat of hesitation—“Bailey.”

I sucked in some air because fuck him.

Fuuuck him.

I was getting what he was saying. I was seeing it all now.

“They took Chrissy to set Bailey up. It was always planned for Chrissy to come back and reunite with her family, but she was supposed to be brainwashed. I got her out, but I’ll be honest, I don’t know if it was in time. She started saying to me the shit they wanted her to recite to the public, and that was that her daughter had made it all up. Everything. She was never kidnapped by Quinn. She never saw her mother get murdered. Chrissy Hayes is alive, and she was supposed to say instead that the two kidnapping attempts took a toll on her daughter. Bailey was mentally unstable, had hallucinated the whole thing.”

The facts were all swimming in my head, getting muddied around. “But there were too many other factors that still would’ve helped Bailey’s statement.”

“Court of law, it wouldn’t have mattered. If they had a mom who said, instead, that her daughter attacked her, stuffed her in a car, and had her taken away by strangers, and she waltzed into a court to testify to that, that’s all they would’ve needed. Quinn would get off. Her charges would be dropped and there’d be no hold for why she couldn’t still see her kids, and that means, she’d still have an opening to get back in with Peter.”

“But why?”

I was ignoring the bullshit about setting Bailey up and focusing on the endgame.

Chase shook his head. “It’s simple. Money.”

Jesus.

All the pieces. My grandfather had thought of it all.

But there was one more piece missing.

“Who’s the other inside person?” I asked.

Chase gave me a hard look. “The next person who I’m fairly certain is about to be called as a character witness for Quinn, who’s supposed to also collaborate against Bailey’s case, saying she saw Peter’s estranged daughter doing weird shit, maybe even attacking her personally.”

If they had been successful in turning Chrissy, then added a second witness to testify to the same argument, it would work. Quinn would walk free. Bailey would be implicated, at least in public opinion, because those transcripts would get out. Press was there. Quinn’s lawyers would throw a press party.

“Who is it?”

“Quinn’s sister. Payton.”





FIFTY-FIVE

Bailey


“All rise.”

We rose as the judge came in, then sat when we were allowed. I didn’t understand why today was the day Chrissy insisted we come to Quinn’s trial. I’d not been allowed in the other days, and most of it had been kept hush-hush. They talked about it on the local news every day, but that’d been the extent of my knowledge. But today, for some reason, was the day Chrissy was adamant we attend. She put everything in motion, arguing with the lawyers until finally it was allowed. On any other day, yes. I would’ve loved to go. I would’ve been curious about what was being said, what was happening. But today? Peter was arrested the day before, and not for something he did but for something I did.

That was more important.

Chrissy was arguing with our lawyer for us to come here, and right behind her, I was arguing with him about why he wasn’t doing more to get Peter released from custody.

Apparently, the whole thing took time. Those were his words.

But we were here, in court, definitely not sitting behind Quinn’s side.

Since I was here and thinking on all of this, I gave my mother a side-eye, because when had she decided to take up the torch for anything? I mean, post her not-murder/kidnapping? Because she hadn’t been like this since Kash brought her back home. She’d been traumatized and quiet. Now I saw it in the way she was sitting firm and upright. I saw it in how her eyes were fierce and focused. Her mouth was set and determined.