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He loved us, really. Probably. Maybe. Well, he loved his paycheck. That much was certain.

“What I don’t understand is how they got inside the wards?” I asked aloud. “Nobody gets through them.”

“Right, our wards are badass, like us.” Zee straightened. “Who even messes with us? Don’t they know we’re famous?”

Victor tugged at his shirt cuffs, trying to align them perfectly with his wrists. “It seems whoever is doing this has no fear of repercussions.”

Someone who wasn’t afraid of our reputation, someone who could get through the wards . . . Who was that strong? We’d dealt with all the Big Bads in our lives. We hadn’t made anyone angry lately, that I knew of. Well, there had been the guests who got stuck in the elevator for five hours. And then the delivery guy who the mailbox had tried to eat, although I doubted he’d ever come back. Even if it had been a disgruntled guest or person, the wards should have stopped them from getting inside.

I lifted my gaze to the end of the bar, where Zee’s laptop from earlier sat, closed and asleep.

What if this wasn’t a physical attack, but more of a metaphysical one?

Oh.

“Wait . . . Victor, what did you just say?” I asked.

“I said they have no fear of repercussions.”

“Exactly.”

Both Zee and Victor stared back.

“What’s another word for repercussions?” I asked.

“Is this a vocablulary test?” Zee asked.

“It’s pronounced vo-cab-u-lary,” Victor said.

Zee’s face screwed up. “I know how to say it.”

“I doubt you know how to spell it.”

“Sure I do. It’s spelled F U C K Y O U.”

“It’s consequences,” I said, talking over their argument before it escalated.

“Zodiac’s lack of spelling and grammar clearly has consequences.”

That was true. “I mean another word for repercussions is consequences.” I caught Tom Collins’s eye and pointed at the laptop down the bar.

Tom Collins obliged and slid it over to me.

After waking the device, there, on the screen, Zee’s chat with the HOTELS4U bot was still open.

PLEASE CONFIRM THAT YOU ACCEPT FULL RESPONSIBILITY AND RELATED CONSEQUENCES.

THANK YOU! YOUR EXPERIENCE WILL BEGIN SHORTLY. HAVE A NICE DAY.

I turned the laptop to show Victor and Zee. Zee peeked over Victor’s shoulder.

“We invited the consequences inside the wards,” I said. “We consented. That’s how this is happening.”

“I see,” Victor said.

Zee huffed. “I don’t see.”

“When we agreed to Hotels4U marketing the hotel months ago, I signed their terms and conditions. In those conditions, it states that hoteliers will be truthful, reliable, and respectful at all times. I didn’t think that’d be a problem for us. We are reliable and respectful, but then, Zee, you started leaving five-star reviews for the SOS Hotel online.”