Page 73 of The Exit Strategy

“You keep saying that.”

“It’s true.”

Four seconds of silence. She counts them the same way I do—I can see her doing it with each tap of her pen.

“Fine.”

The word arrives like a giant red flag.Finefrom Junie Mercer never means what you think it does. From her lips, in this moment, she’s choosing not to pursue it, but she’ll be back with her game plan in place, and when she comes, she’ll take no prisoners.

“Thank you,” I say. For the moment, we can’t talk about. For making me feel something again. For fixing my mess. For everything.

“Don’t thank me,” she snips. “I’m just following thesequence.” She picks up her pen again. “Nolan lands on Thursday.”

My coffee is suddenly the most interesting thing in the room.

“Are you nervous?” she asks.

“No.”

“You’re doing your jaw thing.”

I scoff, and it makes me sound like a teenager. “I don’t have a jaw thing.”

Her glare proves otherwise. “You grind your back teeth when you’re managing something you don’t want to talk about. You’ve been doing it since you were in eighth grade. It’s why you have two crowns now.”

I don’t ask how she knows about the crowns.

“He’s going to have questions,” I say, knowing we’re past the point of hiding the rising tension that grows between us with each passing day.

“He always has questions.” She’s typing now, purposefully keeping her gaze off me again. “We’ll give him the answers that are available, and the rest is nobody’s business.”

My gaze snaps to hers.The rest is nobody’s business.I scrutinize that statement, looking for the fail point, but can’t find one.

I open my mouth to give her…something…anything that tells her I’m trying here, but my phone buzzes against the table with an incoming email, and I see the sender before she looks up.

Natalie.

She’s a sliver under my fingernail.

I slide my finger up the screen.

The message is six sentences. Her name. Her title. Her company logo, centered at the top like a flag planted in a territory she stole.

Cole—Marcus had a good month. His team is optimistic about the new program. It appears Juniper isn’t faring so well on TikTok. It’s unfortunate for her, isn’t it? I trust you’re maintaining our arrangement even more thoughtfully now.

Below that is a picture of Junie and her mom together at the beach.

The blood drains from my head.

“Everything okay?” Junie asks as I delete the email and place my phone face down on the table.

“Yup.” It croaks past my lips, and her pen stops moving.

“Maintenance issue,” I say because that’s better than the alternative. I can’t tell Junie the truth until I can protect the secrets that will break her. And I’m about to throw myself tothe fire to ensure that I do. So, I look her in the eye and force myself to relax. “Stanley filed another application for enhanced golf cart modifications. I need to figure out which committee handles vehicular aesthetics before he installs a siren.”

She frowns, then glances at my phone.

Did I not erase it quickly enough? My hatred for Natalie and the lies she’s backed me into has never felt so visceral. My patience for her bullshit, for the position she’s put me in with Junie again, is wearing thin.