His Queen (18+)

Chapter LII

THE PLAN

And I'll find comfort in my pain, Eraser

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CHAPTER LII

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"YOU'REEVIL," LUCIEN said as I walked into the basement, his eyes sending me a poisonous glare. I knew that if he wasn't tied up right now, I would probably be dead but luckily, he was. "You're the most psychotic bitch I've ever met."

"You flatter me," I said as I placed my hand over my heart as if touched by his words. Instead of exchanging any kind of pleasantries with him, I grabbed a chair from the side of the basement and dragged it over to him before sitting right in front of him and crossing my legs. "Now, why don't we talk business?" I asked, making him narrow his eyes at me before looking away defiantly, making me chuckle at his expense. "Unless," I said softly as I ran my eyes over his beaten and bruised appearance, noting the way his clothes was soaked through with his own blood, "you still need to be softened up a little bit." His eyes briefly widened at the warning in my words as he turned to face me again. "I could arrange for that."

"I'll talk," was all he said in a low, begrudging voice, making a charming smile stretch across my face as I leaned back into the chair and folded my arms across my chest.

"Then talk."

"What do you want to know?"

"Why don't we start about where my husband is?" I asked, getting straight to the point. To my surprise, he hadn't answered as fast as I had expected him to and instead swallowed down a nervous gulp as he met my eyes.

"I don't know."

"You must think I'm stupid," I said, shaking my head in disappointment as I reached into my sock and pulled out my pocket knife. I leaned in closer to him and pressed it to the base of his neck, making him squeeze his eyes shut. I suspected kt must have been an effort to keep me from seeing his fear. It clearly didn't work. "Do you think I'm stupid, Lucien?"

"I-I swear on my life, I don't know," he spluttered out, taking me by surprise at how genuine he sounded. Either he was an extremely good actor or he was being honest with me. "I made plans for them to take him away so they can apply pressure on you to give yourself up. They never told me where they were taking him to, but I was assured that he would be returned to me without a scratch on him as soon as they got you. That was the plan."

"Huh." I slowly lowered the knife from his neck, surprised at the fact that I actually believed him. From what I knew, Lucien was actually being truthful. If there was one thing I knew about the Costillo's, it was that they worked with the utmost secrecy. They were trustworthy if you were allied with them, but they kept themselves private. Only the higher-ups knew anything about locations and profiles. Even the leader was still unknown to most. Anyone that tried to reveal information was swiftly assassinated and anybody who that person had told was also killed. It made people not want to talk about them at all. Nobody knew if they were messing with one of their moles. "You're a stupid man, Lucien," I chuckled as I leaned back against the backrest of my chair and shook my head. "A very, very stupid man."

"Shut up," he said narrowing his eyes at me but instead of getting angry, I only laughed because there was nothing that this man did that didn't amuse me. He was a clown.

"What else do you know?" I asked, making him narrow his eyes before looking away. Unfortunately, before he had completely averted his gaze, I had caught onto the way his lips had quirked up into a smirk as if there was something else he knew that he felt powerful for not telling me about. "Speak, idiot. What do you know?"