“Duh, I know it’s an alleyway. I don’t need a backseat driver,” Britney said in her usual nasally condescending tone.
“This is a bad idea. We’ll probably be mugged,” Whitney said.
Sophie scoffed. “We can’t be mugged in Beverly Hills.”
Was she really that naïve? Surely she knew better. Out of nowhere a man appeared in front of the car. Britney slammed on the brakes, screeching to a halt. Our heads thrust forward with the movement. Screamed filled the Bentley. It was too late.
Britney smashed into the man. After briefly tumbling onto the hood, he toppled to the ground. His expression right before impact was burned into my mind. The horror in his eyes when he realized what was happening shook me to my core. Another chorus of screams rang out inside the car.
“You just hit that man,” Sophie yelled.
“Don’t you think I don’t fucking see that?” Britney gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands.
We sat in stunned silence for a couple seconds until I opened the back door and jumped out of the car.
“What the hell are you doing?” Britney screamed out the window.
“We have to see if he’s okay,” I said as I rushed toward the front of the Bentley.
The man remained motionless on the pavement with his left leg twisted back at the knee in an awkward position. If he managed to survive, I knew he’d suffer major damage. Britney had been driving entirely too fast.
I knelt beside the man. “Sir, can you speak to me?”
The thumping of my heartbeat grew louder in my ears. Clearly, he was no longer with us on this plane. Holes dotted his dirty red shirt and his brown pants appeared as if it had been quite a while since they’d been inside a washing machine. The man’s coffee-colored hair reached just above his shoulders and a full beard covered his face. Oddly enough, he didn’t smell bad. A hint of spicy cologne lingered in the air. Maybe he’d gotten a sample from one of the stores. A likely attempt at masking a lack of shower?
Britney, Whitney, and Sophie finally climbed out and inched toward the front of the car. The click of their expensive shoes echoed in my head. They peered down at the man as if he were an animal carcass they’d hit and left for dead on the side of the road. I pulled out my phone to dial 911.
Britney smacked it from my hand. The phone bounced across the hard ground with a thud.
“What are you doing?” I yelled. “I have to call for help.”
“Are you kidding me, Alexsis? We can’t fucking call the police. I killed the guy, and I refuse to go to jail.” Britney had a wild-eyed look. “Do you have any idea what goes on in those places? Even I couldn’t pull off those orange uniforms.”
“We’ll explain that it was an accident.” I peered down at the lifeless body once again.
The man’s eyes were still open with a look of terror etched on his face. It was as if he stared at me, blaming me for what had happened. People tossed accusations my way for things out of my control all the time, so this was nothing new. Blood trickled from his nose and mouth.
Britney exchanged a look with Whitney and Sophie. “Help me load the body into the trunk.”
“I’m not touching him.” Sophie rubbed her arms to fight off a shiver.
Whitney reached down and grabbed the man’s legs. “Get his shoulders.”
Who was she talking to? Not me, I hoped.
“Sophie, help Whitney now.” Britney’s face grew red with anger.
Sophie hesitated, but ultimately placed her hands under the man’s shoulders. With a lot of grunting, my friends lifted him from the ground.
“God, why is he so fucking heavy?” Whitney panted.
“Just get him in the trunk,” Britney ordered.
“Have you lost your mind? You can’t do this,” I said, rushing after them.
Whitney and Sophie dumped the body into the trunk. His leg dangled over the edge. Britney lifted her leg and pushed him the rest of the way inside and then slammed the lid shut as if she’d just tossed a bag of trash into a can. I should have run for help, but all I could think about now was that Britney would strike me with her car too. The ice-cold grip of fear had my spine and I remained frozen in place. What had just happened? Was this a dream?
“Get in,” Britney demanded.
“Shouldn’t we discuss this a bit more?” My voice shook as the rush of fear overtook me.
“I said get in,” Britney repeated through gritted teeth.
Once again, I followed the orders. What other choice did I have now? This had reached beyond a simple accident and I would be considered an accessory to the crime.
Chapter 2
Britney maneuvered the Bentley back onto the road, blowing through another red light. A man in a white Range Rover honked at her. She flicked up her middle finger and stuck her hand out the open window.
“I wonder what they’d say at the dealership if they knew they were detailing a car that had hauled a dead body around.” Amusement tinged Britney’s words.
Shock still overwhelmed me. I wasn’t sure if the gravity of the situation had fully hit me yet. We had a dead body in the trunk!
“My phone. I left it back in the alleyway. Or rather, you knocked it out of my hand. We have to go back and get it,” I said.
Britney flicked an icy glare my way. “You can’t be serious. I can’t go back just because you lost your precious phone. We have a body in our trunk. God, Alexsis, don’t be so selfish.”
“Stashing a dead homeless man in the back of your car wasn’t my decision. If anyone finds my phone, they’ll know I was there.” I stared at her, although she’d directed her attention back to the road and ignored me.
She didn’t care if they found my phone there. As long as it wasn’t her phone she was fine with that.
“You act as if a crime took place, Alexsis. I told you that no one will miss the guy. He was homeless, for God’s sake. Nobody cares about him. Plus, they’ll just think he stole your phone.” Britney checked her shiny pink lip gloss in the rearview mirror as we waited at a red light.
Her mouth sparkled as she made a perfect pout and blew a kiss at her reflection in the mirror. Disgust, guilt, and fear rushed through my body, making my stomach churn. Nobody cared about the dead man? He had to have family somewhere. Did Britney not value life? Oh yeah, only her life. How had I gotten entangled with these women in the first place. What had I been thinking? Loneliness perhaps? I’d been willing to accept any friendship. Surely I could have found better friends.
“We’ll go back for your phone after we’re done,” Britney said.
Whitney and Sophie were quieter than I’d ever seen them. It had only taken killing a man to shut them up.
“After we’re done with what exactly?” I asked. “What are you planning?”
The women exchanged a look as if they had a secret that they weren’t sure they should share with me. What exactly did they talk about when I wasn’t around?
“I think you know what we have planned,” Britney said as she rolled through a yellow light. “We have to get rid of the body.”
My mind couldn’t wrap around how that would even happen. How could they not be as panicked about this as me?