Page 50 of Wanted

Liv’s jaw dropped at the accusation. “Excuse me?”

Frank’s face scrunched as he watched them with a deepening frown. “Did something happen that I should know about?”

Shane spread his arms. “He seems to be avoiding you is all I’m saying.”

Frank squinted at Liv. “What is this fucking drama? Don’t you two have bigger problems?”

The ground under Liv’s feet stuck to his shoes and was about to crumble, taking him into the abyss. “Avoiding me? Why the fuck would he be avoiding me?” he asked, searching Shane’s eyes, because he wasn’t above looking for answers when they were needed.

“First he turns off his phone, now he’s gone. Why? You tell us,” Shane said, his thick brows lowering.

Frank groaned. “What’s it matter? He’ll be back when he wants to be.”

Liv put his hands against his mouth and called out Knox’s name at the top of his lungs. The noise made Frank stir with annoyance.

“Just stop it. He probably just went out for a walk.”

But Shane’s words have already taken root, and now Liv was second-guessing everything, especially the flat emotions Knox had displayed in the car. He did not look like someone who had been fucked well and was pumped out afterwards. Now that Liv was second-guessing himself, Knox’s behavior reeked of wanting to leave.

“He would have said something.”

Shane took a swig of beer. “And why exactly are you making this our problem? He’s a grown man.”

Frank glanced to the side with a scowl. “There’s the traps…”

Cold vines grew all around Liv and tightened their hold on him. “What? Whattraps?”

Shane sighed. “Yeah, Ezra once fell into one.”

“Fuck! What the hell? You should have told us. What if he’s hurt?” Liv asked, increasingly frantic, but at the back of his mind, the accusation about this being somehow his fault was growing in strength.

“Well, he’ll probably keep to the roads when it’s so dark anyway. Those are all safe,” Frank muttered before taking another sip.

How could they just sit there when there were fucking traps on this junkyard?

Shane shrugged. “We met you twoyesterday. We’re not giving you a map of the place with all the traps marked. What else? Are we supposed to tell you where the tigers are locked away?”

Frank shoved Shane’s arm. “Don’t mess with him.” He turned to Liv with a serious expression. “There are no tigers, and your boyfriend’s fine. Jag would have known if a trap was activated. Is it possible he fainted?”

The way Liv was feeling right now, he might be the one fainting. It was all his fault. He must have somehow misread the situation, or come on too strong, or scared Knox in some other way, and now Knox was somewhere out there, in the dark, with traps set up all over the place.

“I… I think he might be having a freak out, and that’s why he’s gone. Look, you need to help me find him.”

Shane put away his empty bottle. “Why would he be freaking out? I’m not doing this unless there’s a good reason. I’ve got dog training in the morning.”

Liv covered his face.

He should not tell them what happened, since it was private, but they needed to understand this was urgent, because everyone would rather have a quiet evening than run around looking for a dude with an existential crisis.

“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 thewholething today.”

Shane stared. “And by ‘whole’ you mean…?”

Liv’s nape heated up. “Went all the way, you know.”