26. Grae
Grae
“What? You had it?” I almost get whiplash as I spin towards Amanda.
She straightens, stiff-backed. Amanda and I don’t really fight, and for the most part, we don’t disagree much.
She hates raised voices, and I am a people pleaser.
Over the years, we’ve learned how to disagree and still meet in the middle.
“You gave it to me,” she says in a whisper. “You told me to hold onto it, and that if you ever asked for it, I should give it back.” She twists the ring on her finger. Another nervous tic she's picked up over the years. The metal spins endlessly whenever she's trying not to unravel.
But why would I give my journal to Amanda? Why would I trust her over CJ, or Mom, or anyone else?
“Where’s the key?” Lena asks.
“I lost it about seven years ago,” Amanda admits, then bolts from her chair and runs to the hutch. “But I’ve got a hammer!” She brandishes it in the air.
But Alana pauses before finally saying, “What’s the first question?”
Amanda and Craig exchange glances. “We’ll start with an easy one. Why did you buy Mastodon?”
Alana narrows her eyes and says, “Skip. Next question.”
In a desperate attempt to lighten the mood, I say, “It’s because she likes me and wants to protect me.” But her glare ices over.
“I already told you that wasn’t it.”
“Horse shit,” Lance calls from the kitchen, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes. “That’s exactly why.” There’s an inner glow in my soul, but it's quickly dampened out when her jaw locks into place. Maybe I wasn’t the reason after all.
“Next question,” she takes another swig from the wine bottle.
“Do you still hate me?” Amanda whispers.
Lena tenses. “I fucking do.” Alana’s hand drops from the wine bottle to Lena’s thigh, and a second later, Lena gives a yelp.
My girlfriend meets my best friend’s gaze. “Why would I hate you? You did everything I begged you to do.” This is news to me, but I’m getting the feeling everything is about to be news. “I never hated you. In fact, I’ve been trying to get this one to talk to you for years, but she never listens.”
“Why should any of us listen to you?” CJ throws his hands up in the air. “You’re a fucking cunt.”
I see red. A crimson wave crashes across the room and drowns my former lover.
How dare he? What is he trying to prove?
The anger tangles my words and stops them in my throat.
CJ was wearing the smug triumph of a toddler who’s just crushed a worm on the sidewalk, but Alana says nothing.
She actually leans back into the couch and crosses her arms.
I’ve seen her angry. I’ve seen her destroy people with words. But her silence is even more dangerous.
“You can’t let anyone be happy, can you?
” CJ seems completely unaware of the peril he’s in, and I’m too pissed at him to care.
“If you’re miserable, everyone has to be.
Do you even understand the damage you did?
Or did you plan it? Are you evil by accident, or do you have a vision board of all the shitty things you do to people? ”
With the grace of a queen, she sips her wine and sets it down. “I’m going to let you tucker yourself out before I respond, since you clearly value my opinion.”
He stomps his foot. “You’re a pretentious, ruthless bitch with no soul,” he spits.
Lena jumps to her feet. Though she’s tiny, she towers over Alana, who is still sitting. “Get off Alana’s case,” she snaps. “You’ve always been such an asshole to her.”
Alana shoots me a glare. This silent conversation I do understand. I hope it was worth it.
“Of course I am,” CJ fires back. “She ruined my best friend, and she tried to break us up.” Alana’s brows knit, her face scrunching in confusion.
But it’s Lena who asks, “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I saw the text messages,” he says. “She wanted you to leave me. ‘It’s gonna hurt, but it’s the right thing. You need space. You and CJ would be better off.’”
Lena flinches like she’s been struck, then straightens. “She wasn’t trying to break us up. She was trying to get you into rehab.”
Rehab? My heart drops to the floor. Alana reaches out for her person, but it goes unnoticed by Lena. “Alana spent months trying to convince me to get you into rehab,” Lena says on the verge of tears.
“Stop.” Alana whispers.
“She saw all the signs before any of us did.”
“Stop it, Lena.”
“She begged me to get you into rehab.” Lena surges forward and shoves CJ. He stumbles back. “Shit, she almost had me convinced.”
“Stop.”
“She flew out to L.A. and gave me brochures. Hell, she brought Lance to drag your ass into a hospital. But at the last second, I changed my mind.” Her voice cracks, a small, broken sound tearing free. “I didn’t listen. And you almost fucking died.”
My eyes burn. Lena’s sobs catch everyone off guard except Alana, who wraps the pop star in her arms and rocks her gently. Craig and Amanda glance at each other, asking the same silent question. Did you know?
CJ doubles down on his rage, his embarrassment making him lash out. “Doesn’t matter,” he stands up and points at her. “She’s a violent sociopath. She cut off a guy’s finger!”
“I’ve done far worse.” A darkness cloaks Alana. She shifts her weight and holds CJ’s gaze like he’s looking into the face of Medusa. “But where did you hear that?”
CJ swallows. The smug triumph he'd been wearing all morning cracks down the middle. I've known him for years. I've never seen him scared like this. “I’m not telling you.”
Lance pipes in from the kitchen, with a light tone, “Seriously, who told you that?” But it’s like a ‘good cop’ who’s about to slam your face into the table. CJ’s Adam’s apple bobs, and he leans back.
“Eddie Coshovo.”
My heart stops, and a new rage bubbles up. “Your drug dealer?”
Before I can lay into him, Alana says in a low tone, “Call him.”
“No.” CJ shakes his head and cowers.
Her motions are swift like a ninja, as she launches past the coffee table until she’s face to face with CJ.
Alana grabs his chin and forces him to look her in the eyes “I have more money and power than every other person in this room combined.” Quick math—between Amanda, Lena and I alone, it’s close to a billion.
“There are ten items within arm’s length that I could kill you with, and you don’t have the luxury of being protected by Mastodon.
Men who have insulted me to my face like you have, find the consequences to be life altering,” she whispers. “Call him.”
CJ takes out his phone. Alana freaked out when she pulled a gun in my apartment, and now she’s openly threatening to kill my friend. Is this the real her? Was this who she was hiding from me the entire time? And why show it now, in front of everyone?
The phone screen lights up, and I can’t see Eddie’s face, but I hear the change in tone when he realizes he’s not talking to CJ.
“Hello… Um. Hi.”
Alana takes the phone out of CJ’s hands. “I’m going to ask you a series of questions. You're going to answer them and you’re not going to lie or hang up. You’re already in deep shit, you don’t want to make it worse for your Auntie Nicole and your girlfriend Ella, do you?”
“No!” The high-pitched squeak comes through the speakers.
“Who am I?”
“Alana King.” His voice quivers.
“Why did I chop Froggy’s finger off?”
“Oh shit,” he whispers, and then stammers, “Um, he stole a necklace from Lena Goodlove, and a laptop from Amanda Chase.” Amanda glances over at Craig with the same confused look on her face, none of her laptops were ever stolen. But Alana’s eyebrow twitches.
“You think I would disfigure Froggy and throw his ring finger down a garbage disposal over some jewelry and a laptop? Try again.”
In my mind I hear the crunching of bone on flesh being mutilated by the blades inside a kitchen sink. I can hear his screams and cries and imagine the blood pooling on a wooden table. I feel nauseous.
The voice on the phone bubbles into a sob. “He stole a USB key from Lena Goodlove’s unreleased music.” Holy shit! Leaking an album is one of the biggest violations of trust that can happen to an artist. It’s far worse if the work isn’t completely finished. Lena gasps and glares at CJ.
“What else?” Alana lets out in a low tone.
“He released videos of Amanda in an intimate situation with her boyfriend.”
I’m pretty sure my heart stops and I die on the spot. Amanda’s skin turns a sickening green. She’s seconds away from spiraling and sobbing. Amanda built her career on being the ‘good one’ so if a tape like that was released it could ruin her and destroy anyone in the blast radius, me included.
Alana glances at my friend and reassures, “It was scrubbed from the internet. The laptop and USB key were back in your hotel rooms within thirty minutes of being stolen.”
Amanda crumbles and rests her head on Craig’s shoulder. The relief for both of us is instant, but it’s going to take a few minutes for my heart rate to go back to a normal level. My girlfriend continues her questioning, “How did you get the hotel key?”
“I stole it from CJ.” CJ sinks into his chair like he’s been punched in the stomach.
At least he did it to himself, otherwise I would have to.
All of this was his fault, and Alana cleaned up the mess before it could be a problem.
Any one of those could have been career ending, but she came in and saved us.
Alana continues with a darkness that chills me to my core, “What happened to the world’s supply of Majesty?"
“You burnt it.”
“Why?”
“Because the Deviant took some kids.”
“Then what the fuck do you think I’m going to do the man who endangered my safety and privacy by telling privileged information to a civilian?
” Her voice is frigid. I don’t know what’s happening on the screen, but the man continues crying and pleading that he’s sorry.
His appeal goes unnoticed as Alana takes out her own phone and makes a call.