7. Cass
CASS
PLAYLIST: ME, MYSELF she roars and gurgles in her dangerously deep purr.
“She is a beauty,” says Audrey. “How much more does she have?”
I narrow my eyes at her.
“Who says she has?”
“I can hear it,” she says. “If I were to make a guess, I’d say long-tube headers, upgraded camshaft, and if I’m not entirely wrong, there was the supercharger whine from the smaller pulley.”
I stare at her for a moment. People like her shouldn’t know things like this. Car things. She’s elites, arrogant assholes.
“1001,” I say flatly.
“No wonder no one ever beats you,” she says with a huff. “To be honest, I only beat you because I made you believe I can’t drive.”
I scoff and shake my head in disbelief as I drive off. The Erie Basin Auto Pound is just around the corner.
We drive up to the closed gate with the N.Y.P.D. sign and guard cabin two minutes later.
I park the Hellcat right in front of it. The impound is already closed for retrieval, but I have my ways.
I get out of the car as the guard comes to the gate.
“Trouble,” he says.
“Nah,” I say and add, “homecoming,” with a tilt of my head to Audrey, who gets out of the car, too.
“Which one?” he asks.
“The Elenaor.”
He laughs out loud.
“What?” I ask.
“I bet fifty bucks it was you,” he says. “Get in, she’s in the back, a real beauty.”
“She is,” I say. “Are you in all night? Otherwise you should come by later.”
“All night,” he says. “Tell Nikki I got something in she’ll love.”
“I will,” I say and get back into the car.
Audrey follows me.
The gate opens, and we drive through.
She doesn’t say a word about everything she just witnessed.
“No judgment?” I ask her as we drive into the back of the pound.
“No.”
“Huh,” I say as I eye her. I expected a full lecture.
“You want me to judge?” she asks.
“No.”
It’s an almost painful silence until we find the Eleanor.
I park in front of the silver-grey beauty, and we get out.
Seeing the car still gives me an uncomfortable stitch in my chest. It is a living reminder of everything I lost.
We both stare at the car.
All that happened yesterday hovers between us. Seeing it brings back my anger. The anger of her being here with Elise’s car, while she—
I turn away as I kick the ground.
I am so stupid taking her here.
Why would I do that shit? Showing her the scene and who I know?
“Cass,” she says softly.
I don’t want to hear it.
Whatever she has to say, I don’t fucking care.
She saved my fucking ass, but not her sister.
“Cass,” she says again.
“Why did you fucking do it?” I round on her. “The cops, blocking them? Did you want to get on my good side? Prove something? Why are you fucking here?”
She swallows hard and looks away at the ground, drawing her lips inward.
“Come on,” I say and build myself up in front of her, provoking her with a playfully arrogant tone. “What are you hiding? It’s just us here. The elitist L.A. girl. Flown in from Hollywood after everyone died.”
“Shut your mouth,” she threatens me. But I’m not intimidated by her.
“The famous actress acting out because daddy didn’t allow her treats, while her sister suffered.”
“Shut up!” she roars at me, tears in her eyes, anger flashing at me.
“I won’t shut up,” I say, “not until I know the truth.”
“Go fuck off then,” she says and aims to get in the Eleanor. But I parked in front. She’s not getting out without me.
I lean against the passenger door of the Hellcat, cross my arms provocatively in front of me, and purse my lips, telling her visually I am not going anywhere.
“Get out of the way,” she says angrily.
“Nope,” I say.
She stands next to Eleanor, face in the half-dark, her chest heaving up and down for just a moment before she walks up to me, and fuck me, she is tall and imposing, especially when angry.
She grasps my jaw as her body clashes into mine, a wave of her scent washing over me. Or rather, the scent of a rough night—not what I expected. I expected her to be perfectly manicured like all those Hollywood girls.
She stares down at me, her blue eyes as dark as the night.
“Fucking move out of the way,” she whispers darkly, with her nose close to mine.
“No,” I say, staring up into her eyes as her fingers dig forcefully into my skin.
She tilts her head slightly, and for a horrific second I think she wants to kiss me, but she actually trails with her mouth up to my ear and whispers in derogatory iciness into it.
“You label me a traitor, but did it ever occur to you that I had to leave because I would have chosen the same path as her if I hadn’t?”
With that, she lets go of me, pushes herself off and walks away.
“Where are you going?” I shout after her.
“Somewhere where you are not,” she calls after her without turning.
“And the Eleanor? You’ll leave her, too?”
She stops.
Turns.
Scoffs.
Grabs the key from her pocket and throws it over to me.
“Take her. I don’t fucking care,” she says and walks away.
I just stare after her.
I stare after her as she breaks the window of a car she walks past, short-circuits it, and drives off with it.
It takes me several moments until I can move again.
My brain somehow didn’t process what just happened.
I pick up the key she threw and get into my Hellcat.
Sitting in there, I try to sort my thoughts. Thoughts that think everything at once and nothing at all. I can’t grasp a single one. So I do what I always do: drive.
I stop at the gate to tell Farid I’ll be back to get the Eleanor.
“Yo,” he says. “Whenever.”
I nod, and I’m gone.
I don’t even know where I am when I realize what she did. She short-circuited a random car in less than ten seconds. She realized what tuning I did with my girl. She shouldn’t know any of that.
And then, what she said—
‘Take her. I don’t fucking care.’
‘Somewhere where you are not.’
‘Did it ever occur to you that I had to leave because I would have chosen the same path as her if I hadn’t?’
The crying.
“I’ll be gone in a minute.”
“Fuck,” I breathe out and brake the car. What if she came there to say goodbye?