Mary, Mary

believe. You can just —’
Oh, shit!
What are you
doing,
Alicia? You numbskull!”
    Somehow, she had shuttled off the highway and then onto an exit ramp. It brought her down to a traffic light at an unfamiliar intersection.
    She was in L.A., but this definitely wasn’t Wilshire Boulevard.
    It wasn’t anywhere she’d ever been, from the look of it. Abandoned buildings mostly, and one burned-out car sitting on a far curb. A taxi, actually.
    Then she saw the men, boys, whatever they were. Three of them, standing on the corner and staring her way.
    All right, all right,
she thought.
Don’t freak out, Alicia. Just get yourself turned around and back on the highway. You’re right as rain; everything is cool
.
    She willed the red light in front of her to change as she craned her neck, looking for the ramp back onto the highway.
    One of the young guys had wandered out into the intersection now, his head tilted for a better view through her windshield. He wore baggy cargo pants and a sky-blue sweat jacket; he couldn’t have been more than sixteen, seventeen.
    Then the two others came along slowly behind. By the time Alicia thought to run the red light, the boys were standing in front of the hood of her car, blocking the way. Oh, great. Now what?

Chapter 68
    SHE SQUEEZED HER EYES SHUT for just a half second. What were you supposed to do in this situation? And why had she never gotten around to buying a cell phone? Um, maybe because she was almost dead broke.
    When she opened her eyes again, the one in the blue jacket was at her side window, a menacing look on his face, a tattoo of a red dragon on his neck.
    She screamed in spite of herself—just a small yelp, but enough for him to see how scared she was.
    Then her panic level crept even higher. It took her a moment to realize the kid in blue was saying something. His hands were held up flat, in a “calm down” sort of gesture.
    She cracked the window. “W-what?” she said, unable to keep her voice from quivering.
    “I said, ‘you lost?’” he asked. “That’s all, lady—
you lost?
You look—
lost
.”
    Alicia choked back a sob. “Yes. I’m so sorry.” It was a bad habit; she apologized for everything. “I’m just looking for —”
    “’Cause I
know
you don’t live around here,” he said. His expression shifted, and hardened again. The others laughed at the joke. “This your car?”
    Fear and confusion locked Alicia into subservience, which she hated. All she could think to do was answer his question. “It’s my parents’.”
    The guy in blue rubbed his chin whiskers as if considering her answer. “Lotta people looking for a car just like this one,” he said. “Don’t you read the papers? Watch TV?”
    “I’m just trying to get to Westwood. For an audition. A TV movie. I got off the highway before I was supposed to —”
    He howled with laughter, turning away from the car to his group, and then back again. His movements were casual and slow. “She’s trying to get to Westwood to be in a movie. A
film
. Damn, that’s about exactly what I expected. ’Cause I know you ain’t got no interest in anything or anybody ’round here.”
    “Nah, man,” said one of the other boys. “She do her killing in the rich neighborhoods.”
    “I got no problem with that,” said another. “Kill the rich, eat the rich, whatever.”
    “What are you saying?” She looked at each of them now, desperate for any kind of clarity, a clue about what she should say or do to get out of there. Her wild-eyed gaze fell on the rearview mirror.
Could I back out of here? Fast? Really, really fast? Pedal-to-the-metal kind of thing?
    The kid at her window lifted his jacket to show a pistol tucked into the waistband of his jeans. “You
don’t
want to do that,” he said.
    The idea that she could be murdered before she had her morning coffee came over Alicia with an ugly reckoning. “Please, I just . . . please. D-don’t h-hurt me,” she stammered.
    She could hear the helplessness in her own voice. It was like listening to someone else, someone pathetic. God, she was supposed to be an actress.
    The man in blue nodded slowly, in a way she couldn’t decipher. Then he stepped back from the car and put out his hand to let her pass.
    “Highway’s that way,” he said. The other two moved off to the side, too.
    Alicia felt as if she might faint from relief. She gave the men a watery smile. “Thank you. I’m so sorry,” she said again.
    Her hands were shaking on