craned to see out the window. Spinning lights refracted through the trees.
“An ambulance,” her mom explained.
The lights stopped. The reverse warning beeped on and off. Why would Mom assume an ambulance? Then Halle’s words from last night replayed. They won’t let him out. “She’s exchanging us for Billy.”
“I think that might be her plan,” Mom agreed.
“It will never work.” Amanda temples pulsed. “She’s an extraordinary planner. There’s too much risk—”
“I don’t think Halle sees a choice.”
Amanda turned to Mom. “Did you know about her?”
Mom shook her head. “Not in a million years.”
“I should’ve seen—” The missing pieces from Casino de Gemmayzeh lined up. Halle had planned and executed. It’d been an inside job to lure Amanda away from the protective reach of Titan Group. Billy was dying, and Halle needed a bargaining chip. “She planned Lebanon.”
Mom’s brow furrowed. “What?”
“I had a job in Lebanon. It went wrong.” She pressed her fingertips into the corners of her eyes, exhausted. “But I didn’t know why.”
“How’d it go wrong?” Mom asked.
Considering their current circumstances, Amanda wondered how big of a deal would her mom see an attempted abduction. Probably a pretty big deal … She decided to save that for later and bore Mom into a new subject. “The casino’s fiscal budget showed irregularities. I didn’t realize the numbers were doctored until I saw a store listed with an outdated name.”
“So?”
Mom didn’t sound the least bit bored. “Well …” Amanda chewed her lip. “A little Googling explained that the store’s parent brand had filed for bankruptcy. But unless you were in the know, it would’ve been missed.”
“Why would Halle create a bogus job?” Mom asked.
Amanda bit her lip then leaned against her mom. “I didn’t want to worry you.”
Her mom snorted. “Take a look around, sweet pea.”
“Hagan and I botched a paid attempt to grab me.”
“Amanda.” Her mom took a heavy breath. “You’ve had a very rough few days.”
Amanda snickered. “Don’t make me laugh.”
“I’m not trying to. What else have you neglected to mention lately?”
“I don’t know.” She bit her lip. “If I had just kept it together after Dylan died …” She shook her head. “None of this would’ve happened. I would’ve seen what was happening. Or, better, said something about—” Her stomach churned. “I don’t know.”
Mom sat up and gave her a look. “Said something about what?”
Amanda looked away. She’d never told anyone how Halle and Billy had been before the explosion. At first, she forgot. Then with Halle by her side at the hospital, Amanda thought the memory had been a delusion.
“What didn’t you say?” Mom demanded.
She shook her head. “I thought there was something between Halle and Billy, and it turns out that I was right.” Amanda waited for her mom’s lecture or, at the very least, reference to a science project gone wrong. But it didn’t come. Neither did the shame she should’ve felt for being duped.
“You can’t take on all of this, Amanda,” Mom whispered.
Her protest caught on her tongue. Exhaustion weighed her shoulders down. She was so tired of taking responsibility for the burdens she continued to carry. “You’re right.”
Her mom wriggled until she could hold Amanda’s eyes. “I know that. But, really, do you?”
She’d never claimed to be a saint, but the differences between right and wrong were suddenly clear. Other people had been assholes. Classmates who talked to the press. Journalists who picked her apart. A boyfriend who blew up the library. Their issues had pulled Amanda underwater so many times—and she was done carrying the load. “I do.”
Then her tears came. She’d created every rule, contract, and teenage attitude problem in reaction to others, and that had cost her the one thing that she really wanted: Hagan.
Heavy footsteps came closer. The two men reappeared, and this time, faced them. Amanda wiped her cheeks, not using one iota of energy to glare.
“Ma’am,” one said, as though apologizing for leaving the First Lady tied up. “We—”
“You never saw us,” the other added. “We were never here.”
The first guy smacked the other one on the back of the head, then gave a quick salute.
“Thank you,” Mom said.
The men disappeared the way that they first came in, giving Amanda one more quick glance.
“What are you thanking them for?” Amanda managed once they were gone.
“Don’t forget, your father’s the commander of the free world. And a lame duck.”
Amanda blinked, trying to see what Mom saw with her term-limited father, the longest-serving US president in history, never running for office again. “So Dad sent spec op guys to screw