Page 67 of Sinful Palace

“I had absolutely nothing to do with that,” he said, leaning back again. He didn’t look even remotely ruffled.

I reached into my other pocket and fished out the threatening note Willow had received. “Really?” I said, slamming it down on the desk. “Because Willow grabbed this from the corpse’s mouth. Are you going to tell me it isn’t a direct warning from the Order?”

He picked up the note and turned it over in his hands, one eyebrow raised. “I’ve never seen this before.”

Christ, he was so full of shit.

I rolled my eyes upward. “So you didn’t tell the rest of the Order anything? You overheard us talking about possibly investigating them, and you kept that traitorous act to yourself out of the goodness of your heart? And then someone else somehow found out what we discussed and made this happen?”

Dad sighed. “No one found out about your conversation, Logan. I didn’t tell a soul what I overheard.”

“So how do you explain this note, then?”

“Easily.” He pushed the paper back over to me. “The threat wasn’t for Willow.”

I narrowed my eyes. “How could you possibly know that? You just said you’ve never seen this note before.”

“I haven’t. I’m simply making an educated guess.”

“So who was it for, then?”

He pressed his thin lips into a flat line. “The body was dropped on the Rhoades family float at the parade, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Then the threat was probably for Quinn Rhoades.”

I frowned. “She doesn’t even know the Order exists. Why would they drop a warning on her like that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Perhaps Q wants her to resign from the presidency because of the recent scandals, and he hopes she can be intimidated into doing so,” he said. “I don’t question what he does, or why. It’s not my place.”

“How could something like this body-drop even happen without you knowing?” I asked. I wasn’t going to stop calling out his obvious bullshit, no matter what he came up with as an excuse.

“Q organizes a lot of things without running them by the high council first,” he said, eyes barely wavering.

I arched an eyebrow and tapped my fingers together. “Really?”

“Yes. It’s his society, so he doesn’t need our permission,” he said. He gestured to the note again. “You’re right; that’s definitely from the Order. But I had no idea about it. Neither did anyone else in the council. That means it came directly from Q. And like I said earlier, I didn’t tell anyone about the conversation I heard between you and Willow. So that means there’s no way the threat was for her.”

My jaw clenched. Sure. “You seriously expect me to believe any of this?”

“Yes.”

“So you actually want me to believe that you went and planted a fucking bug in our room out of sheer concern?” I asked. “You expect me to believe you told absolutely no one about the stuff you overheard?”

“Yes, because it’s the truth.” He leaned forward again, hands clasped in front of him on the desk. “If I were you, though, I’d make damn sure Willow drops this investigation idea of hers. Neither of you should be trying to look into Q. Nothing good can come of it.”

I suppressed a triumphant smile. He obviously didn’t want us sniffing around anymore because he was worried we were already getting too close to the truth. That meant we were probably right about him being the secret society’s true leader.

“When I came in, you said that you’re not Q, right?” I said nonchalantly, kicking my feet up on a nearby ottoman.

He stiffened. “Yes, that’s right.”

“But if you were, you wouldn’t admit it, would you? Not even to me.”

“No. I’m telling you, though, I’m not him.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “I really wish my word was enough for my own son.”

I held my palms up. “Okay, I believe you,” I said, even though I didn’t. Not one bit. “But you obviously know a lot more than me, given your position in the Order. So what can you tell me about Q? I’ve always been curious.”

---