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)
But he was right, none of it mattered now.
“We can get by. Make a detour to pick up the rest of your prescription from home, and then start fresh somewhere else. Just like we planned,” Liv said softly.
He could almost see the cogs turn in Knox’s head as he considered his answer. He licked some blood off his lips. “Go off-grid?”
Liv rose to his feet and took a deep breath before looking at the body. With Knox now out of danger, his head spun with all the ways he could have acted instead of pushing Vlad to his death, but there was no way to turn back time.
“Let them think we died with him.”
Chapter 4
Knox
The bottle of cheap vodka 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 of that, 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 slopes of 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. Their baby, 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 would kind 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, and she treated 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.