Page 109 of Sinful Palace

“Sorry,” he finally said. “I had to turn this on first. It’s a scrambler.”

“A what?”

“It scrambles signals. If there’s a bug in here for some reason, they won’t be able to pick up anything we say. They’ll just hear static.”

I nervously fingered my necklace. “Will it block this?” I asked, lifting the alexandrite pendant to show him the tiny recording device nestled beneath it.

He rubbed a hand across his jaw. “Sweet Jesus, that’sbugged?”

“Yes.”

“I should’ve known. You never take it off,” he muttered, shaking his head.

I raised my brows. “So….”

He finally seemed to remember my question and snapped his gaze back to mine. “Yes, the scrambler will cover it. No one will hear anything we say.”

I chewed on my bottom lip and darted my eyes toward the door. I was worried that Logan would come after us when he couldn’t hear our conversation, thinking something was wrong. The last thing we needed to do was cause a scene at the White House while half the Order lingered nearby.

I swallowed hard and turned my attention back to Jamie. “We need to be quick,” I said. “What did you want to talk about?”

He looked down at me, concern flickering in his eyes. “I didn’t have time to tell you about this the other day, but you should know… I’ve been looking into the Order for years.”

“What?” My brows shot up. “You told me not to do that.”

“I know.”

“Don’t you think it’s hypocritical to tell me not to do something that you’ve been doing the whole time?” I said, folding my arms.

“Yes, it is, but you were being so brazen,” he said. “I had to warn you in case the wrong person overheard you talking about it.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve been careful. I only approached you because I knew you were safe.”

He nodded and let out a small sigh of relief. “Okay. Good.”

“So when did you start investigating the Order?” I asked, tilting my head to one side.

“After they tried to recruit me,” he said. “Like I said the other day, I heard all sorts of terrible rumors about them, which is why I turned down membership, but I was curious anyway. I wanted to know the truth. I started researching them as much as I could.”

“What did you find?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Nothing for the first five years. They hide themselves very well. I started thinking I’d never get anywhere at all, but I managed to find a source eventually.”

“How?”

“It’s a guy from the Order. He found out I was looking into them,” he said, lowering his voice. “At first I thought I was screwed, but he said he’d help me, because he’s not happy with how things are in the society. He’s been leaking information to me ever since.”

“Who is he?”

Jamie shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s never given me a name. He just sends me stuff on occasion.”

I lifted a brow again. “How do you know it’s real, then? It could be someone’s idea of a prank. Or someone setting you up.”

“I thought the exact same thing at first, so I didn’t trust him at all for two whole years,” he replied. “Even now I’m still a bit cagey with him, but he’s given me good info so far. Every single thing he’s told me has turned out to be accurate.”

“What has he told you?”

“Not much, but I’ve managed to figure out a few things. For one, the higher-level Order members seem to be involved in some sort of buy-and-sell operation for babies. They find pregnant women who don’t want the child and offer to take care of them in various ways in return for the baby when it’s born. Then they sell the babies to buyers from there.”

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