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)
“Look, you can’t fucking tell this to anyone, especially Knox,” Liv said, letting the words hang in the air, and while Frank remained indifferent, Shane’s gaze was pinned to him as if the promise of gossip hypnotized him.
“Yeah, okay, what is it?
Liv’s hands trembled, so he stuck them down his pants, and spilled the information, because what was the point of holding back the inevitable? “So, as you know, me and Knox recently got together, and his dad was extremely homophobic, so he can be a bit weird about being gay sometimes, and we actually only did the whole thing today.”
Shane stared. “And by ‘whole’ you mean…?”
Liv’s nape heated up. “Went all the way, you know.”
Frank closed his eyes for several seconds, taking a deep breath. “And this is relevant because…?”
Liv couldn’t believe this. Knox could be out there somewhere, hurt, in crisis, crying his eyes out or getting hypothermia, and they were just sitting here!
“I just told you he might be freaking out because all his life he’s been told there’s something wrong with him. You’re gay, so I fucking think you should get what that might be like!” Liv roared in their faces.
Frank and Shane watched him in silence as the door of the house opened, and Ezra looked out, surrounded by moths flying around the lamp by the entrance.
“What is this about?”
Ha. A friendly frown. Liv would take it. “Knox went off somewhere, and they just told me there are traps, and his phone isn’t juiced up, so I can’t just call him!”
Ezra’s chest expanded, and he stared straight at Frank. Frank stared back, and after endless seconds of this wordless exchange, he finished his beer with several swigs and rose. “Fine. I’ll get Jag. He knows this place like the back of his own hand.”
Shane jumped off the truck bed and approached the house. “Cer! Come here, boy! We need your nose.”
As soon as Frank was done typing on his phone, he turned to Liv, and took him to the side. “Be honest with me. Is it possible that Knox… might do something to himself?”
Liv had never thought of that possibility. He’d often had to remind Knox to take better care of himself, and Knox’s tendency to get into fights over the smallest things did sometimes leave him bruised, but he’d never done or said anything that might suggest he wasn’t happy with his life… or whatever else Frank was suggesting.
Still, now that thought had been planted in Liv’s mind, he was close to shaking, beside himself with the worry that the amazing sex they’d shared might have pushed Knox over some edge he wasn’t aware of. His odd behavior during the drive back now made sense: the silence, the flat smiles, the need for solitude. And Liv had been too fucking dense to notice that the most important person in this entire rotten world was not being himself.
“Shit… I don’t know. I just… he seemed happy right after.”
“Okay.” Frank nodded and put his hand on Liv’s shoulder which felt… oddly reassuring. Maybe it was that Frank looked around forty, or his sheer size and presence, but he made Liv think back to his old man, and how he’d never made Liv feel like this. Like shit would be okay.
A shadow emerged from the darkness making Liv flinch, but when he saw the stranger’s spear, he realized this had to be Jag.
Frank shook his head. “Hanging around?”
“I don’t trust strangers.” Jag grumbled and took off his creepy leather mask, revealing a surprisingly normal face. Some would even call it handsome. And while the loincloth of leather straps and an epaulet made out of a car bumper were strange clothing choices, this guy somehow made them work. In a… desolate world warrior kind of way. The look made a lot more sense after what Liv had learned about Jag from Shane.
Liv turned toward him, not caring that just yesterday Jag’s spear had been pointing at Knox, because right now this was the person who could help find him. “Did you see where Knox went?”
Jag stepped closer just as Shane joined him with Cerberus.
“I did see which path he took, but I had to make the call whether to follow him or not. With you still around my people, you were the greater danger, so I let him go.”
Liv stared at him in disbelief. “Seriously?”
“A moose is just an animal, and Frank tells me it can destroy a ca—”
“Can we just go after him? We need something with his scent, so Cerberus knows what he’s looking for,” Shane said, holding the pit bull close to his leg.
This made sense at least, so Liv nodded and sprinted toward the workshop, glad there was something he could do.
Hang on there, Knox. I’m coming for you!
Chapter 17
Knox
Knox couldn’t stop crying.
If he tried to bite his cheek to stop, there would now be a hole in it, so he’d done the only logical thing and cried his heart out in the cab of a rusted truck.