Page 6 of Wanted
Knox
The bottle of cheapvodka Liv kept in his car for emergencies had been a godsend, because Knox couldn’t have possibly dealt with this shit sober.
They’d had to pull Vladdy’s dead body off the steel bars while blood gushed on their skin and clothes, fish in his pants for car keys, and then take him to his vehicle. And on top of that, Liv insisted on suturing and dressing Knox’s wound before they did any ofthat, using the building site’s first aid kit. He would have left his fingerprints all over the place too, if Knox hadn’t reminded him of it, and since neither of them had any gloves, he ended up having to search the site office with two plastic bags on his hands.
And while the process of cleaning and then closing the wound to their best abilities hurt, it was preferable to what came next.
A part of Knox was relieved when he saw the back of Vladdy’s car disappear underwater in a flurry of air bubbles. The slopesof brown rock and the reservoir they encompassed would guard their secret forever.
Liv took a deep breath and stood on the edge of the cliff overlooking the artificial lake. The night was bright enough for Knox to see the faded American flag at the back of his frayed denim jacket, but for once, the familiar view did not feel reassuring. The stars above bore witness to their crime, and as reprehensible as Vlad had been, the law would chase his killers indiscriminately. They were both fucked.
At least the alcoholic buzz made reality blur a little. “Is there really no way around it?” Knox asked, looking back at the iridescent car. He put his bloodied work clothes inside after changing into his regular outfit. But wearing a simple set of jeans and a hoodie didn’t make this night feel any less surreal.
Liv let out a grunt and turned on his heel to approach his baby.Theirbaby, which had taken so many hours of work and so much of their money to polish, and they hadn’t even brought it to perfection yet by changing the upholstery to lime green leather.
He faced the Subaru and placed both his hands on the hood before bending down to rest his cheek on it too. “She’s registered to my name and quite eye-catching. If we’re to do this, she needs to go too.”
Knox approached the car from the other side and stroked the roof.
So many memories were attached to it. So many arguments over how to upgrade this vehicle, so many ecstatic moments when a new part worked, or when they broke another speed record. With Liv in the driver’s seat, Knox was never afraid that they’d crash. Which might have been stupid, since Liv was a reckless driver, but if Knox were to die, he might as well go with Liv.
So yeah, they’d be going off grid together in an attempt to outrun any police inquiry into Vladdy’s whereabouts. It wouldkind of be as if they died together. Liv might have been the one to deliver the final push to Vlad, but this murder was on both their hands.
“Is it bad that I feel much sadder about having to push her down the cliff than about Vlad?” Knox whispered, not looking up at Liv, who stroked the iridescent skin of their baby with a deep exhale.
“No. He was a shithead to everyone around him, andshetreated us right,” he said and peeled himself away to breathe in the earthy aroma of the desert around them.
They’d already pulled out a blanket from the trunk and packed a few useful items into a backpack, but it was time to say goodbye.
Knox kissed the roof and backed away too. “I’ll miss you,” he whispered, but then took his place at the back of the car to push. He couldn’t believe he was killing their pride and joy, but at the end of the day, she was a piece of metal, and now was her chance to save their future.
Liv joined him as soon as the Subaru was in neutral, and after a few moments of pushing, she dove off the cliff and into the waters. Initially, it seemed Liv would refuse to approach the edge this time, as if watching his baby drown was too much to bear, but in the end he shook his head and peeked at the water below.
Knox pulled him in for a bear hug, the animosity of the past week forgotten in the face of shared sadness. “We’ve got this. We’ll go far away and work things out over time. Maybe this is the push we needed.”
“Yeah. Maybe,” Liv muttered, facing the shrubs peppering the descent from the cliff. It was too dark to recognize particular plants, but their herby scent was soothing Knox’s heart. The smell of Liv’s lemony cologne mixed with his sweat was purecomfort. Familiar. Very much unlike the stench of Vladdy’s death.
Knox pulled away, not wanting to make the long hug weird. He needed to be strong if they were to successfully get away.
Neither of them had much in their wallets, and the amount of cash in Vladdy’s had proved underwhelming, but they had each other and enough street smarts to get by—
Knox met Liv’s gaze, struck by a realization that might really thwart their plans. “My meds. We forgot to go fetch them from our trailer. Fuck! It’s not like we can call a fucking Uber after all this.” So much for street smarts.
The road could be reached on foot, but if they hitchhiked, someone would remember their faces and—
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!”
Liv dragged his hands down his face and pushed the tip of his tongue at the diastema between his two front teeth. Knox always thought it looked kind of cute on him, and so did all the girls who fell for Liv’s masculine charm and roguish smiles. Most of his upper body was tattooed, with black and white thorny roses emerging onto his neck from a pulpy portrait of a zombified horse taking up most of his back. His chest was covered with colorful hot rods, and his arms featured many random images, some of which were better than others.
Not that it mattered on a man as hot as Liv. Even Knox thought theRIDE FASTinked on his knuckles was the epitome of sexy. It would have been lame on Knox, yet somehow made Liv look even more badass. Anyway, this was the worst possible moment to compare himself to his best friend.
“Uh… yeah, we should have gone earlier, but I fucking panicked. Then again, Amanda was there when I left and so horny she might have stayed up waiting for me,” Liv mumbled, stroking his short crop.
Knox froze, staring at him, then took a step back in case he felt the urge to push Liv into that goddamn lake. “Are you fucking kidding me? You left her there? So I’d come home after a night of work to see her cheating face? What is wrong with you?” He raised his voice with every question, boiling with unresolved fury.
Liv scowled and spread his arms. “Well, she wouldn’t leave me alone and even hid my car keys! That woman's like a cat in heat.”
“Didn’t you fuck her just yesterday?”
