Page 64 of The Exit Strategy

“Tell me, my little ball of fury. Did you want to call me Daddy, or was Viper…frustrated?”

I’m going straight to hell. Nothing has changed—so why do I suddenly not give a fucking shit about anything but her and me and now?

“Yoo-hoo. Junie, you in here?” Katie’s voice rings through my home like a hurricane warning in a strip mall.

Junie shoves her chair back as I sit my ass on the ledge of the table and clasp my hands in front of myself to cover the erection I have no chance of hiding.

Junie swings her chair to the right, putting some space between us, but not before her gaze catches on the tent in my pants. I unclasp my hands to offer awhat am I going to dogesture.

Her cheeks flame red before she jumps out of her chair and rounds the table to intercept Katie.

“Oh, there you are.” As if Katie didn’t know exactly where to find my Viper. “It’s time for S&S. Are you ready?” Ilift one leg higher on the table and angle myself toward the door. “Are you okay?” Katie presses a hand to Junie’s forehead. “You look flushed.”

“Fine.” Junie swats her hand away. “I’m just hungry. I get…” Her gaze cuts to mine for half a second before returning to Katie. “Cranky when I don’t get what I want.”

I snort. I can’t help it. “That,” I say with a smirk, “is the truth.”

Katie watches us with a knowing grin I’ll answer for later, then drags Junie by the arm while shoving a pile of mail into my hands. “Let’s go. Cole can meet us there. We have some…catching up to do.”

Fuck me. There are worse people for Junie to befriend, but Katie’s the only one here who scares me.

I sit as Junie slips her feet into her shoes and leaves with Katie pressed to her side as though they’re already spilling secrets, then I glance down at the padded envelope Katie handed me.

It’s from Fen. I’d recognize the packaging anywhere. It’s the kind of overkill only Fenway Ashford Jones III would consider appropriate for sending personal items through the mail, but I open it without thinking.

Inside are photos and a Post-it note in Fen’s writing.

Found these cleaning out the extra rooms at the Brookline house.

He means Junie’s house. But no one, not even Junie, has ever called it that around us. It’s always just been…ours.

It’s why I changed my trajectory, why I acted alone. We’ve all needed that house at one point or another. The ghosts it carries are ours. And Junie has a right to decide what happens to it.

Thought Spite-Berry might want them. Or you. Whatever. Don’t make it weird.

I knew he and Hudson were taking care of the house for Junie. I didn’t know it would come with hauntings from the past though.

The first photo I pull out is all five of us at the kitchen table—it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence back then. Junie’s probably seventeen. She’s mid-laugh, her head thrown back in glee at something Fen said. It was clearly him because he sits in the photo with the smug expression of a job well done. Hudson’s head is down, reading. Nolan’s looking at me—as though whatever he sees is changing the very fabric of his soul.

What Nolan sees is me watching Junie. My face tells the same story it does now, but I always thought I was better at hiding it back then.

No wonder later that year he told me to stay away from his sister. This is what he watched grow from innocent care to an inappropriate love.

It’s what made it easy to sacrifice myself for them.

He was finally in med school. He would’ve had to drop out—and he would’ve done it without hesitating. Hudson was in law school and in his own battle with his father who had cut him off financially. Going to him then wasn’t an option, and the more time that passed, the harder it became to explain why I was in this position. And while I love Fenway like a brother, there’s nothing he could have done.

It had to be me.

Anger vibrates through my chest with new realizations. We’re all in this photo. That means…Natalie took this one too.

Whether we knew it then or not, Natalie was always there, collecting evidence. Patient. Strategic. And she leveraged it when she needed it most.

My heart thuds viciously as if I’m back inthatmoment.The instant Natalie laid all the photos out on her desk, one by one, like a house of cards built on a shaky foundation, and asked one simple question…

What would Nolan think?

Then she tossed out the final blow. A video of Junie’s mom. She was talking to Junie’s dad and the slimy fucking loan signing agent who had come over to close on the loan they were taking out—against Junie’s house—and said the one thing no daughter should ever hear come from their mother’s lips.