Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 135792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Liv’s heart fluttered with hope. “Yeah.”
“Go to Walmart. I know they’re hiring,” Cy said, filling his mouth with the burrito.
Asshole.
But Liv had no pride left and watched him pleadingly from the ground. “Look… this is really important, and I can’t… it’s risky for me to look for something legal.”
Cy’s shoulders dropped, and he gave a deep sigh before taking another bite of Liv’s burrito. “I suppose we do need someone. But you’re gonna have to work your way from the ground up.”
Liv’s heart skipped a beat, and he made his aching body move until he was back on his feet. “I have skills. I’m a good mechanic. Better than those guys at the garage, for sure. And I race. But… I can do anything,” he added in response to the biker narrowing his eyes.
“Night shifts?”
“Sure,” Liv said quickly.
“Blowjobs?”
Liv froze, staring back at him with growing disdain. “Seriously? Can’t you leave our relationship alone?”
This time the bastard actually chuckled, shaking his head. “I’m just fucking with you. Be here Monday evening.”
Liv stalled, trying to ignore the shame of falling for the not-so-playful teasing. Was he… in?
“Sure. Thanks, man.”
“Just don’t bring Knox around, ‘cause you never know…” Cy gave Liv that shark grin, but as infuriating as it was, this time Liver was pretty sure Cy was indeed only joking around.
“I’ll make sure he never sets his eyes on you again. If he comes here, he’ll be blindfolded.”
Cyborg laughed and grabbed himself a cigarette as if it was his dessert. “Watch out, I might just like that.”
“You better not. Because next time, I’ll be the one to win,” Liv said and turned on his heel, glad that maybe he’d just made an ally. Cy was not a friend, but he supposed they’d established a truce.
At least Liv was pretty sure he’d put his point across about how off-limits Knox was if Cyborg ever saw him again.
As Liv passed the garage again, he wondered how he’d fit in there. Instead of working, the guys now entertained several girls who’d joined them with music blasting from a portable speaker. He could only hope that if Dex, Hammer, and Cyborg had a place here, he’d slot in too.
The moment he slid into the driver’s seat of their junky car, he picked Knox’s number and waited in complete silence. He hadn’t been hopeful on the way here, but right now, there was a radiance to his emotions, and there was only one person he longed to share it with.
“I got a job,” he said as soon as Knox picked up.
Knox whistled and laughed. “Look at you, Little Spoon! I’m impressed.”
The praise gave Liv wings. He shifted, sitting with his knees facing the stick, and exhaled, watching the glow of the party at the biker bar while Knox’s melodic voice sung into his ear. “Aaand, I’m also doing the race in December.”
This time the enthusiasm wasn’t instant. “Are you sure? Did you find out something more about it?”
Liv sighed. “Yeah. Big prize pot. Blizzard is supposedly coming.”
“Fuuuck… He’s an aggressive driver, Liv. How big is the prize pot?”
“He wouldn’t have come for scraps, that’s for sure,” Liv muttered, wondering how fast the frost would come. Because if he was to do this, he needed to practice dealing with icy roads. Something he’d never experienced.
Knox sighed. “We don’t even have the right kind of car, Liv. I was thinking about it, to be honest. Maybe we’ll be able to work it out by next year?”
The corners of Liv’s mouth dropped, and as he leaned against the seat, something bothered him, like a grain of sand inside the shoe. “We can prepare a car. There’s more than enough time,” he said, reaching to his back, seeking the cause of his discomfort.
“It’s just… it’s dangerous, Liv.”
“So is you waiting for the surgery for any longer than necessary,” Liv said, frowning when he felt a rip in the fabric, and then touched something hard. Glass?
Goddamn it.
He pushed the phone between his shoulder and ear but pulled the jacket off, watching the smokers laugh at a joke he wasn’t a part of.
In his former life, he’d been a part of every joke, one way or another, so being back here, as just an observer, made him feel… lonely despite Knox waiting for him at the junkyard. “But… I also kinda feel like this is the moment to establish ourselves here. If we wait too long, people will already have an idea about who we are. And I don’t like being a nobody.”
“Liv. You’re not. You’re good at so many things. And getting to know people? Shit… It’s been so crazy since we left California, it wasn’t even on my radar.”
Well, it was on Liv’s.
He thrived on attention, and back when his mom passed out on the sofa with a needle in her arm and Dad was away doing God-knows-what, clowning around was what made others notice him. Life felt somehow hollow without more people in it, no matter how much Liv needed Knox and how much he enjoyed getting to know their new buddies at the junkyard.