Page 71 of Exit Strategy

“Because one way or the other, we’re out in the open now,” Kyle said. “Roan said that the chance of someone working at Fallout being a mole for New Eden is so high that, yeah. They have a mole one way or another. If they don’t, it’d be a shocker,” he said.

“Unlikely,” Sadie added.

“Then as soon as their plan hits, New Eden will know the general vicinity of where you are, and they will act,” he said, sliding off the interstate and onto the highway that looped out toward the bay and the house. “But we completely expect them to act, so whatever they do, they’re already chasing after us, and have no idea what they’re getting into.”

“Is this going to be a repeat of the Bootlegger Head incident?” I asked.

“No, no,” Sadie said. “We have contacts in the local police, and a private security firm in the area. I’m sure by now that Roan has compromised Fallout’s systems.”

“Compromised?” Callie asked. “But they’re on our side.”

“They are, and we trust Tate, but Fallout is a group, and we don’t trust thatentiregroup. Roan will have his fingers inside their system, and we’ll known everything they know by the time we get back. Then it will be showers. I know the dessert tonight atLe Jeffersonis acroquembouche, and those are splendid.”

“But what about Marion?” Callie asked.

“We aren’t doing anything to Marion or Fallout, but we also aren’t putting all of our trust and eggs into that basket,” Kyle said. “Your safety is our number one concern.”

“This seems like such a rollercoaster,” Callie said.

“It is, but it will be over soon enough, with the things you told us, and the medical records from Carter and Doc Max. This is devastating,” Sadie said.

“Roan says our reservation has been confirmed and we have our favorite table, love,” Kyle said, and Sadie beamed. She gave Callie’s hand a squeeze and a warm smile.

“You’re going to loveLe Jefferson.”

21

Callie…

I had my reservations about thisLe Jeffersonrestaurant, no pun intended. Sadie was beaming at me as though she hadn’t just shared some very dark and painful things about her own past with me to help ease me into talking more about mine. Or maybe it really was just to make me feel less alone. In any case, I wasn’t alone. I knew I wasn’t, and that was what I was doing all of this for.

The August and the rest of New Eden were going to kill me for it, too. I knew that. I was still wrestling with coming completely to terms with that knowledge, but I was honestly tired. So very tired, and so what would be would be.

I turned to look in Kurt’s direction and he turned his head and looked down at me, his light-colored eyes unreadable behind the wall of mirrored aviator lenses that he had put up between himself and the world. Still, I could tell by the set of his mouth, the way it formed a grim line, and the hard edges that made up the rest of his expression, that he was on high alert and that he was worried for me.

I disentangled myself from Sadie’s well-meaning grip and went to shelter in the shadow of Kurt’s much larger frame, hugging his massive arm with both of mine and slipping my palm against his. His fingers curved around the back of my hand in a quick squeeze and then let go as the sleek silver sedan driven by Kyle Lachlan pulled up to the curb.

Sadie left out of the building that housed Fallout’s headquarters and my nerves jangled at leaving its shelter. I mean, I highly doubted there was some New Eden sniper on one of the towering roofs around us, it wasn’t August’s style, but Arik… I fidgeted slightly and Kurt’s hand returned to mine briefly.

“Easy there,” he said, the timbre of his voice soothing. “Steady as she goes, now.”

I sniffed and nodded and let his hand go, returning mine to the crook of his arm – just Calanthe Rex being escorted by her husband’s bodyguard, nothing to be suspicious over. It’d happened before and would happen again. Everything was perfectly normal, or so I had been coached.

Give no one reason to suspect anything amiss and nothing was amiss. It was brilliant in its simplicity. We were hiding in plain sight to a degree, but I was sweating under my borrowed blazer and felt flushed to my knees below the hem of my borrowed pencil skirt. I was the picture of modern chic and businesslike in all the latest designer labels. While Ms. Brooks was by far more muscular than I, we were about the same size, though I was taller and she far more compact.

Sadie got into the front seat after I had slid into the back, Kurt slipping into the car right behind me with more grace than someone of his size should have been able to manage. He immediately laid his hand over the top of mine where it rested between us on the seats while Kyle smoothly pulled away from the curb and into traffic.

“You alright, Love?” Kurt asked gently, and I was snapped out of my private thoughts. I looked up at him and gave him a tight-lipped smile.

“I will be,” I lied.

Truthfully, after the horrified looks and the equally haunted expressions of pity I had received from the other women in that room, I didn’t know if I was ever going to be okay again.

I guess there was a point where the abuse and the life you were living all became so…normal. At least to you, the person living it. Like, you get trapped in this micro chasm of daily life and yes, it’s awful, and yes, it’s horrific to anyone that is on the outside who can look in – but that doesn’t necessarily happen. And so, you have no frame of reference, at least not really. It all became,so this is just my life now…and now that itwasn’tmy life anymore, looking back and talking about it? I was finally getting the big picture on just how awful everything really was and I was having to look in the mirror that was the tears on their faces and… andholy shit, just what had I survived?

I mean, was some of it really so awful?

Yes.According to the rest of the women in that room, it really was, and I was left feeling so small, so ashamed, and goodness, wasn’t that the thing?

---