Page 67 of Road Queens
“There’s your fundamental flaw, Cassandra,” Sidney (!) put in. “Talking about Amanda doing it alone—she wouldn’t have done it by herself. Won’t, I mean. Just like you didn’t furnish this place by yourself. Just like you didn’t start OpStar by yourself.”
“I know. That’s something else I have to face. Without me, you guys wouldn’t have gotten into any of it. You’d be safe. Well, maybe not Sidney.”
“And now you’re trying to take away our autonomy.” Sidney sighed. “Dick move, Cassandra.”
Amanda rubbed her temples and tried to think of ways to arrest what was happening. “But what about your mom?”
Cass straightened, and Amanda was startled to see she was crying. Unlike her giggles, you could never tell Cass was crying unless you were looking right at her. She’d spent her childhood swallowing sorrow.
“Cass?”
“Whataboutmy mom?” Quickly, almost savagely, Cass dashed away an angry tear. “Part of this is on her. The one time my dad laid a hand on me—”
“It was a little more than laying a hand on you. Don’t downplay what that fucko did.”
“—and she kills him? When she went to prison, she essentially orphaned me. Wouldn’t let me testify, wouldn’t say a word in her defense, took aplea deal, for God’s sake. What was she thinking?”
“To spare you the ordeal of testifying,” Amanda replied. “That’s what she was thinking. Also, it’s what she told me.”
“If she gave one shit about sparing me ordeals, my dad would still be alive.”
Sidney sucked in a breath. “Ooooof. Harsh.”
Amanda was shaking her head. “So, wait, you’re on your dad’s side now?”
“I’m on no one’s side.” Cassandra pointed right at her and scowled. “And that’s how it’ll stay.”
“If it makes you feel better, Jonny Frank’s ass is going to jail.”
“It doesn’t, Sidney. Why would it? That shithead should have gone to prison thefirsttime he killed a wife. No one bought his bullshit she-fell-down-two-carpeted-stairs-and-shattered-her-skull excuse.”
“You’re right,” Amanda replied. “Everyone knew, but the cops couldn’t prove it.”
“He’ll be out in less than ten,” Cass continued. “Guaranteed. And she’ll be in the ground forever.”
“Fewer,” Amanda said, because she was a slave to good grammar.And it probably isn’t a great time to point out that she was cremated.“Fewer than ten.”
“Thanks, grammar Nazi.”
“Whoa! Can we not throw that word around?” Sidney demanded. “It cheapens the shittiness of actual Nazis.”
“You’re the one who doesn’t like euphemisms.”
“Yeah, well, I make an exception when it comes to Nazis. Call Amanda naive or tight-assed—”
Jesus Christ.
“—or a brainiac who isn’t quite as smart as she thinks but still goes into lecture mode way too often—”
“Jesus Christ!”
“—but keep the N-word out of it.”
Cassandra rounded on Amanda. “Why do you even care?”
“I—why? One of my best friends is freshly traumatized and moving away.” Amanda took half a step in Cassandra’s direction. “Why wouldn’t I care?”
“No, I mean OpStar. Why’d you even get into it? You had a perfect childhood.”
