Page 15 of Wanted
Knox stiffened, but then Liv joined him by the bars and draped his arm over his shoulders.
Right.
Boyfriends.
Which was… weird. And awkward. And made his heart rattle.
But it sure beat dying.
The man who walked in must have been the one who’d pointed the gun at them before Knox fainted, because he wasmassive. Liv was tall, that Shane guy was tall too. But this man mountain could lift both Liv and Knox at the same time if he strapped them to a barbell. His stern facial expression was made even more intense by the frown line on his forehead. He stomped closer in heavy combat boots, and his long black braid swayed behind him like a boa constrictor in search of prey. His dark eyes seemedalmost black in the sparse light when they settled on the two of them.
He waved a few pieces of paper. “Innocent homeless boys looking for shelter?” He cocked his head at Liv, who must have told him that lie, and showed them a printout of their faces with the wordsWanted for questioning.
Knox’s stomach plummeted through the steel floor and straight to hell. But for now the rest of his body remained here, holding on to Liv, whose chin dipped as he sucked in a shuddery breath, insistently rubbing Knox’s back in a way that was familiar yet in the context of their lie—disconcerting.
“Look, Frank, we can forget any of this happened. Disappear. I swear I don’t care what you do for a living. I don’t even know where we are, because we hopped trains,” Liv muttered with a tremble in his voice that was so believable Knox almost fell for it himself.
The huge stranger had a stern face, with a wide, big nose, and tattoos of tigers emerging from under his clothes. It would have been easy enough to dismiss him as some kind of meat-headed goon, but his gaze pierced straight through Liv and Knox, as if mentally putting them on a spit-roast already. But was he about to marinate them in acid or just grill them for information? That remained to be seen.
Knox nodded.
But before he could open his mouth, Frank spoke. “I’m not letting you go or stay until I have a full picture about who you are and what the fuckthis,” he pointed to the paper, “is about.”
Knox licked his lips, remembering what Shane had said about Frank’s soft spot. And yeah, he might have mocked Liv, but if it saved them, he could go along with whatever was needed. So he turned his head to Liv and kissed his cheek with a strange knot in his stomach.
“Tell him, babe.”
Because Liv was definitely the better liar.
Liv might have been the one to come up with this lie, but the scrape of his unshaven cheek made Knox tremble ever so slightly. If it weren’t for this fucked-up situation, he would have stepped away and dashed to the opposite end of the cell. But despite surely feeling uncomfortable with the intimate touch, he didn’t miss a beat and pulled Knox closer, until they stood chest to chest. Shocked, Knox found himself with his face resting on Liv’s shoulder. Maybe it was the right move—Knox had never been a good actor and fucked up even his starring role as a nonverbal snake in a school play—but the escalation of gayness did not sit well with him at all.
Still, he played along, because what did he have to lose at this point? This was Liv. His best friend. They shared everything. Maybe he should think of this whole thing as the most epic prank they’d ever pulled?
Liv’s chest rose, pushing at Knox’s, and when he spoke, his voice was low and raspy from hunger and lack of sleep. It almost sounded… intimate. Meant for a bed partner.
Was he… trying to flirt with this Frank guy?
“There really isn’t much to say. Knox’s boss found out about us, swung a machete at him, I pushed him back and—” The way Liv stiffened in Knox’s arms was most definitely not an act.
Liv might have been the one to throw Vlad to his death, but Knox had been there to see how he’d paled, how it had taken him a whole minute to act. Liv was a tough guy, but not a killer. Not at heart. Of course the whole business left a mark on him.
“It was an accident, but we had to go. No one would have believed us,” Liv mumbled, glancing back at Frank whose expression was a complete mystery. For all Knox knew, Shane and Dex could have been joking around without any real weight behind their words, but there were no other leads so he and Liv would have to stick to their guns.
Frank hummed. “You dealing? Your backpack is full of drugs.”
Liv rubbed his chin against Knox’s shoulder as he exhaled. “He needs them. He has arrhythmia. That’s why he fainted earlier. We broke into a pharmacy so he doesn’t run out of meds.”
For once, Knox didn’t have the insistent need to deny it, because appearing weaker than he was could be useful in these circumstances.
When Frank said nothing, Knox pulled out of Liv’s hold and took off the shitty jacket to show the ugly wound on his forearm, patched up by Liv. “This is where the guy attacked me with a machete. What else do you want, man? We need to be off-grid, we couldn't rat you out even if we wanted to.”
“Which we don’t,” Liv added with the speed of a machine gun. “Look, I hate what happened, but I had to save him, and Iwillsave him, and this accidentally brought us to your door. Sorry for the inconvenience, butplease, can you let us go? You’ll never hear of us again.”
Knox hated being the damsel in distress in this scenario, but he’d go with it if it was to save their asses. “It was so dark we barely saw anything anyway. Or, like, keep me, I’ll work it off for you, but let him go,” he said because he meant it, but also because he hoped the self-sacrifice could pull on Frank’s gay heartstrings.
Liv spun around to face him, his eyes full of emotion. Damn, this dude could have been an actor in different circumstances.
“Are you fucking kidding me? There’s no way I’m leaving you anywhere. It’s you and me. And it’ll stay that way. That’s what we agreed on, remember?” He wasn’t lying, they did make such plans, but those never felt serious with girlfriends coming and going.
