Page 2 of Wanted
Now that Liv knew she’d tried to manipulate him, that was definitely not happening. And at this point, even her pretty face and heart-shaped ass couldn’t make up for the attitude problems.
Maybe if she was gone from their lives for good, Knox would find it easier to forgive him?
“I’m afraid my dick won’t ever get hard again after this. No longer gold,” he added with an exaggerated pout and picked up the bowl of fruit. He shook the few apples and tomatoes out onto the counter, along with the keys.
Finally. Knox was surely cold out there this late into the night.
He shouldn’t be working construction for that piece of shit Vlad—who they called Vladdy behind his back—anyway. The job was hazardous and didn’t come with health insurance, since the pay was under the table, and fuck knew where Vlad’s cash came from. Amanda’s friend worked some kind of sex cam for Vlad, and she’d called him a ‘low-key pimp’, so it felt double dirty that Knox busted his ass for mediocre pay from the bastard.
All because he was desperate to leave their trailer park forever. He’d even said he wanted to leave Liv’s ass behind, but he couldn’t have really meant that. Their bad blood had only started after Liv got into Amanda’s pants. Leaving was a dream they shared, and that would never change. Girls came and went, but the two of them? They were solid. Their friendship was the end game.
Amanda opened her mouth to speak again, but he ignored her and stepped through the door adorned with an official F1 posterKnox once got from his mom after she won a bunch of money at the casino and went on a spending spree that got her into debt.
The late September air made him shiver as he headed for the old Subaru Impreza sedan he and Knox had been working on for the past two years. It was the pre-face lift model, with a flat hood that revealed the vehicle’s age, but when they’d first seen it in someone’s driveway, with aFor Salesign, its potential made both their hearts beat faster. They didn’t even need to discuss the purchase. Liv sold his new TV, Knox lent him the remaining sum, and on the very next day they picked up their new baby… which malfunctioned on the way home.
They’d changed out her guts since, added a rear spoiler, golden rims, then painted her with iridescent paint that changed color between purple and green, depending on the direction one looked from. Knox called the extravagant coat oil spill to make it sound more masculine, but to Liv it was scarab, which sounded way cooler anyway.
Too bad the car now featured a long and painful scar from getting keyed along its side. Knox’s revenge for the whole Amanda debacle. He could have done more damage but probably didn’t have the heart for it, since they’d both worked so hard to make the car a masterpiece. Even when Knox’s own ride malfunctioned a few weeks ago, they’d agreed on pumping money into fancy new upholstery for Liv’s car instead of fixing it. Knox had told him he regretted that choice when he found out what his girlfriend had been up to behind his back, but at that point it was too late to take it back.
Oh, well, maybe spending time together in one vehicle would lead to some kind of truce because the last few days had been silence, door slamming, and Knox pretending Liv did not exist.
Which hemaybedeserved.
ButKnoxdeserved someone who actually cared for him, not a self-centered woman like Amanda. They’dbeen together sincespring, and he wouldn’t listen when Liv tried to inform him that she was banging other guys on the side. Liv figured that seeing was believing and seduced Amanda on a day when Knox was to come home early. Unfortunately, that backfired like a prank played on a skunk.
Liv opened the car and parked his ass in the old seat that was in dire need of an upgrade. It vomited foam on one side, and while the cover Liv had fashioned out of an old blanket did its job well enough, he'd soon upgrade to lime green leather. And once he and Knox finally left this dump, it would be in style.
They deserved it after the fucked-up start they’d had in life. Liv’s mom was a notorious addict, Knox’s dad was doing time in prison, and once their two remaining parents had gotten together, they dumped their kids into the spare trailer and made the larger, nicer one, into a love nest. It had been a blessing for two teens who wanted freedom more than anything.
For the first few weeks, Liv and Knox had lived on cereal for dinner, chicken nuggets for breakfast, and had the time of their lives with girls coming over for sleepovers, and nights of binging car makeover TV shows. They only cleaned up their act a bit after a family of cockroaches had moved in. It was so funny when Knox found a dead bug floating in his coffee. Good times.
Liv kept his headlights off as he drove past his dad’s place, because he did not want to be asked for spare cash. Spoiler alert: there was none in his pocket. But as soon as he left the trailer park, the engine roared, and he sped off with a squeal of tires.
In the middle of the night, alone on the road, he could let his skills shine and relax, enjoying the brief moments of solitude.
Liv knew exactly where to expect a cop car, so he let go of his troubles as his gaze focused on the asphalt passing beneath the bright lamps of the vehicle. Life was easier in the car seat, when his pulse quickened and his focus turned razor sharp, away from everything that made the world shit.
Only Knox’s presence in the passenger seat could have made it better.
And one day, they’d climb into this very car to get away from it all. Go somewhere where no one knew them. Somewhere, where they could start fresh, without all the baggage.
Knowing he was running late, Liv completely ignored speed limits on the way to the construction site, but when he arrived Knox wasn’t waiting for him in the usual spot in front of the sheet metal fence.
He couldn’t have possibly agreed to work until even later. He would have texted despite their cold war.
Liv considered driving in, but he didn’t want to get dirt, or cement, or other shit on his precious (if scarred) beauty. So he hopped out of the car, wrapped his favorite denim jacket tighter around himself to fight the night’s chill, and jogged past the gate, huffing into his hands. The Subaru’s heating system was yet another thing in dire need of fixing. Preferably, before winter.
Maybe they should have dealt with that issuebeforeordering custom upholstery, but then again, thiswasCalifornia, so—
Knox’s yelling cut into Liv’s thoughts like an axe.
Knox… well, he had a short fuse. And while Liv didn’t mind dealing with it, the last person Liv wanted Knox to be in a fight with was Vlad.
Vlad, who was bald, twenty years older than Knox, and at least a hundred pounds heavier. Vlad, who was rumored to have put his ex-wife in hospital after beating the shit out of her. Vlad, who kept a fucking machete in his office at the construction site.
Knox could hold his ground in a fight, courtesy of his dad training him in kickboxing from a young age, but Liv wasn’t taking any chances.
After making sure that his switchblade was in his jeans pocket, he stood by the sheet metal fence and peeked past it, down the sandy road cutting through the site illuminated with a singlelamp. Bright as a searchlight, it revealed Knox facing Vlad with his hands balled into fists. Moths and other insects spun around them in chaotic patterns, as if guided by the anger radiating off both men, and as Vlad’s hulking form leaned toward Knox, Liv’s blood simmered with the need to rush over and mediate.
