Page 67 of Ruthless Prince
“I will. Thanks for being so understanding, Madam President. Willow is very lucky to haveyou.”
Mom laughed coquettishly. “If you’re in a relationship with my daughter, you can just call me Quinn. I promise I won’t have you declared an enemy of thestate.”
Logan smiled. “All right. Thanks, Quinn. I’ll talk to you againsoon.”
With a click, the call was over, and the videoended.
I stared up at Logan, fuming. “Are you serious? You actually didthat?”
He smirked. “Yup. She wasn’t hard to fool, was she?” he said. He cocked his head to one side. “I expected a little more from the president, but she made things very easy forme.”
I shook my head. “Easy? You must be joking. You really haven’t thought this through at all, haveyou?”
He smiled faintly. “That’s not true. I’ve consideredeverything.”
“No way. You might’ve tricked my mother for now, but it won’t last. Also, my father won’t believe any of that bullshit. He’s in the Order, so he knows I wasn’t at a college retreat. When Mom tells him what you said about me running away and showing up at your door, he’ll know it’s a lie. Everyone else from the Order will know something is uptoo.”
“They won’t. After the Bacchanalia, most members sleep for half the day to recover from their hangovers. Then they pack up and go home. People might notice that you’re gone, but they won’t think much of it. They’ll just think you woke up earlier than them and took the first plane off the island.” Logan lifted one shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. “Besides, the Order wouldn’t help you out of this situation,anyway.”
“Yes, they would,” I insisted. “They wouldn’t let someone kidnap one of their members, even if it was a fellow member doing thekidnapping.”
Logan’s lips pressed together in a grimace. “You’re so naïve. Do you really believe anyone in the Order gives a shit about you,Willow?”
“Of course they care. They wanted me to join,” I said, cheeks flushing withindignation.
He chuckled. “The society is filled with rubes like you—people who can be used and abused. The higher members promise you the world and offer you all kinds of pleasure and entertainment, but it’s just a lure. They don’t give a fuck about you until they need you forsomething.”
“I don’t believeyou.”
Logan sat down. “Trust me. You were chosen for your name and nothing more. Being a Rhoades means something in this country. On top of that, you’re directly related to a president, so one day, whether we like it or not, people are going to listen to what you have to say. The Order knows that. Five, ten, or twenty years from now, they might need you to grease the wheels on one of their schemes by showing your support or simply dropping your name. Until then, you’re just a low-level member who contributes nothing and takes everything. Not exactly the kind of person they care about. They pretend to care, of course, but if you genuinely need help with a serious issue, they won’t provide it. Not unless it benefitsthem.”
I nervously licked my lips. “You’re wrong,” I said in a smallvoice.
“I’m not. But don’t feel bad. You’re not the only one,” he replied. “If it wasn’t for my family, I probably wouldn’t have been chosen for membership either. Ninety percent of the Order is built on name and privilege, because using the influence that comes with all that privilege is one of the easiest ways to get shit done in thisworld.”
“Right,” I muttered. “And what ‘shit’ is that,exactly?”
“Their main objective is to make our country a better place for everyone. If they need to force people like you to use their connections in order to help things along, then so beit.”
“But they aren’t forcing me to do anything. I joinedwillingly.”
His lips curled into another smile. “Not exactly. You gave them your deepest secrets, and that secrecy binds you in an indebtedness to them. Now that you’re in, you don’t have any choice but to stay and do as they say, even if you aren’t so willing in theend.”
I folded my arms, glowering at him. “Whatever. Even if they won’t help me, my fatherwill.”
“Are you sure about that,princess?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Yes. And don’t call me that. I hateit.”
The media had dubbed me Princess Willow when my mother was sworn in as president, and it had always made me cringe. I wasn’t a princess. I was just a girl. A privileged girl in a gilded world, to be fair, but still just a girl. Not a single drop of royal blood flowed through myveins.
Logan raised a brow. “I know you’re still confused about what’s happening here, so I’ll let you talk to me like that for now. But you’ll need to drop the attitudeeventually.”
“Orwhat?”
He flashed me an indulgent smile. “You’llsee.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, you’re whipping out the old ‘you’ll see’ line again, huh? Am I supposed to feel threatened bythat?”
