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)
Knox’s mouth dried as his stomach knotted with worry. He’d only known Shane and the others for so long, yet the kindness he received from them made the stakes sky-high.
“What about Ros? Is he okay?” Liv asked, following Frank, who led the way in the general direction of Shane’s home.
“He’s spending the weekend in Pittsburgh, doing some art thing. We haven’t told him yet, because he’d just put himself at risk if he came here.”
“And… you want us to storm the house, or something?” Knox asked in a dull voice. His skull still felt charred from the painful revelations earlier, so the prospect of becoming a one-person suicide crew did not seem unappealing at the moment.
Frank frowned at them, approaching his own truck, closer to the house. “What? No. But we need manpower, eyes on the house. The MC will handle it. We need to act fast, just in case these fuckers decide to hurt Shane as they get impatient.” He opened a box in the back of his truck, revealing several handguns. “We need you on the other side of the house. If any stragglers try to run, you hold them at gunpoint. If that’s not enough, you shoot. You know how to use these?”
Knox swallowed, overwhelmed, but this was their life now, and he extended his hand. “I shot a few times,” because this wasn’t a moment to play the hero.
Liv nodded, and that seemed to be enough for Frank, who offered them the guns. “They’re loaded. Now go and hide close to the western side of the house, you know, where that angel sculpture is. We’ll stay in touch.”
As Frank ran off, speeding toward Shane’s home, Knox followed his example despite the whirring in his head. Maybe he should be afraid, but emotions just wouldn’t come.
He moved with Liv as if this was a computer game, not real life. Instinctively, they stayed low, making their way behind a shed, then a heap of spare car parts Ros used for his sculptures. The gun got slippery in Knox’s sweaty hand, but he never forgot what the weight of the metal meant. He’d witnessed a few shootings at the trailer park over the years, but never took part in them. A fight with his bare fists had much less chances of ending up fatal, and at the end of the day, he never intended to kill people, even if he left them bruised and bloodied.
The insistent barking of the dogs in their kennels masked whatever noise he and Liv made, but nearing Shane and Ros’s home in the dark was a nerve-wracking experience due to the many strange modern sculptures erected in the garden. They proved painfully ineffective as guardians but their looming figures kept fooling Knox into thinking that one of the tall shadows might be made of flesh rather than junk.
Still, he managed to rein in his imagination as they skirted past the angel with wings made of propellers. It was only then that they allowed themselves to study the unassuming home, which belonged in the suburbs rather than in the middle of a massive scrapyard.
Knox just hoped this would all be over sooner than it started and they’d only be glorified lookouts. He was about to ask Liv if he was okay as they scooted down, awaiting whatever was about to happen, but he couldn’t even look into Liv’s face, let alone talk to him.
Their little hideout remained a bubble of silence, and Knox was grateful that the barking was taking the edge off the awkwardness of it.
But no good thing could last.
“I really didn’t know that was what you wanted,” Liv said, as if they were in their trailer, not waiting for action at a dangerous standoff.
“I don’t want nothing,” Knox barked back as if he were one of the Rottweilers.
He could sense the way Liv flinched without seeing it happen. For all his faults, Liv was a good person at heart and never hurt people out of malice. But his regret and guilt had never once soothed a broken heart.
The blessed silence felt like a blanket on Knox’s shoulders, but Liv once again tugged at it, shifting closer. “We can’t just not deal with a problem.”
Knox turned to him with a scowl even though his heart skipped a beat at the sound of motorcycles. “Oh, so now I’m a problem?”
Shadows obscured Liv’s face, which was for the better, because seeing the shame in his eyes might have swayed the resolve Knox needed to build a wall around his heart.
But darkness could not make his voice any softer. “Of course not. But us avoiding this conversation from the get go is. Can we agree that we had different expectations and start with a clean slate?”
Knox shook his head and focused on the light in the windows of Shane’s house. “Yeah, and a clean slate is nothing,” he whispered with his heart in his throat, about to choke him.