Page 21 of Sinful Palace

If he cared about anything other than his own agenda, whatever that may be, he wouldn’t have brokered the contract which forced me into a permanent relationship with Logan.

Q lowered his hands again. “You may sit,” he said, dipping his head.

I gratefully sank back into my chair. My face felt like it was on fire.

“Councilwoman Meyer, please address the society,” Q said, tilting his head to one side.

The woman behind the microphone nodded and turned back to the crowd. “As our venerated leader has already stated, we have been trying our hardest to locate the source of the security breach. What we know so far is that a computer hacker managed to get through our encryptions, giving him access to the data on our servers. Our system was—and still is—meant to be unhackable, so we have our best minds working on the issue, trying to figure out how the hack could’ve possibly occurred.”

“Does that mean this hacker has everything?” someone called out, their voice panicky and shrill.

The councilwoman shook her head. “We know you’re probably all afraid right now, but we can assure you that Willow’s confession file was the only one accessed and read by the hacker. Our IT employees have ways of checking these things.”

A collective sigh of relief went around the room.

“But what if the hacker gets in again?” another member asked, eyes narrowed.

“That won’t happen. Our employees have taken the temporary measure of disabling the entire system, so it’s all offline now, and it will remain that way until we know exactly what happened. I repeat: no one else is at risk of having their confession leaked to the world.”

A younger member stood up, timidly holding one hand in the air. The councilwoman pointed at him. “Do you have a question?”

He nodded. “Yes. When I joined the Order, I was led to believe it existed in complete secrecy, so I’d like to know how the hacker even knew there was anything to hack in the first place.”

“That’s a very good question,” Councilwoman Meyer replied with a tight smile. “In order for the hacker to have known about our confession files, a member must have broken his or her vows and told them about the Order. Either that or the hacker is actually a member.”

She raised her brows as shocked, angry mutters spread throughout the room like wildfire. Several people looked around worriedly, casting suspicious looks at their fellow Order members.

Logan simply pressed his lips tightly together and rolled his eyes. “No shit,” he muttered.

An older member leapt to her feet. “If the leak is coming from one of us, then what’s stopping them—or the hacker—from revealing the existence of our society?” she said with wide eyes. “So far, the media doesn’t actually know where that recording of Willow came from, but if the truth gets out, everyone will know about the Order.”

“That is a serious concern of ours,” Meyer replied with a curt nod. “So far, nothing has happened to suggest that the source might reveal our existence, but we know the threat is still there.”

“So what are you doing about it?”

“We plan to investigate every single member, leaving no stone unturned. When we discover who our leak is, they will be dealt with accordingly,” Meyer said, holding her head high. She paused and narrowed her eyes. “Whoever you are—you will regret your actions. You will regret breaking your vows. Mark my words on that.”

Several members exchanged nervous glances. I frowned, wondering how many innocent people would get swept up in the witch hunt as Q and the council pursued the leak.

I was willing to bet a lot of the members had confided in their spouse or best friend about the existence of the society, probably thinking it was fine because they were sure that person would never betray them. Even if they weren’t guilty of leaking anything to the hacker—whoever he or she was—they would still get in trouble if and when their disloyalty was discovered.

That wouldn’t be good.

I tuned out the rest of the meeting. It was mostly made up of members asking questions I’d already asked myself a million times and receiving nothing more than vague responses from the high council. It was surprising how clueless they were, and it made me wonder if the Order was actually as powerful and influential as they’d always claimed to be.

It also made me wonder if this meeting was just a decoy. Maybe Q and the council knew exactly who the leak was, and they didn’t want to reveal their identity because it was actually one of them. Maybe the revelation of my confession was part of their grand master plan, whatever the hell it was.

Nothing would shock me at this point.

Once the meeting was over, a door on the far side of the function room opened, and a multitude of impeccably dressed waiters streamed out, holding trays of drinks and canapés for anyone who wanted to stay and socialize.

I didn’t. Even though it would be nice to catch up with people like David, Simone and Amy, I just wanted to get the hell out of here and have a hot, relaxing bath. My nerves were utterly shredded after being made to stand up in front of everyone by Q earlier.

Fortunately, Logan was on my side for once. “Let’s go,” he said, holding out one hand.

He escorted me out of the room with Mal and Adam trailing behind us as usual. As we stepped through the atrium, we passed Varsity, and I spotted Rowan standing by his table with another young man, presumably the coworker who’d invited him out.

Rowan’s eyes were on the enormous TV on the other side of the bar, but I caught his attention with a wave as I passed. When he realized it was me, his eyes widened, and he started waving frantically. “Willow,” he called out. “Come here!”

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