Wanted m m romance wrong.., p.1
Wanted: M/M Romance (Wrong Side of the Tracks Book 5), page 1
Wanted
Wrong Side of the Tracks #5
K.A. Merikan
Wanted
K.A. Merikan
Wrong Side of the Tracks #5
“I’m pretty sure he likes dick. Now I just need to make him realize it.”
Liver. F*ckboy extraordinaire. Race car driver. Cocky. Horny. Would kill for his best friend.
Knox. Kickboxer with a chip on his shoulder and a heart condition. Crybaby. Would get rid of a body for his best friend.
Both: Wanted for questioning in connection to a murder.
Both: Possibly-maybe in love with each other and too dumb to see it.
Liv never meant to kill anyone. It was an accident. What was he supposed to do when his best friend’s life was at stake?
As much as Knox appreciates the whole saving his life thing, they’re now wanted by the cops, on the run, homeless, hungry, and miserable. At least they have each other.
They hope to find shelter in a vast junkyard, instead they witness a crime and are about to get dunked in acid.
But they’ve overheard that the owner of the place shelters gay guys.
So Liv does the most logical thing. He pretends to be Knox’s boyfriend to get their lives spared. Knox might not like it, but what choice do they have once they started lying?
Only that touching Knox starts an avalanche of new feelings and desires Liv never anticipated. His dick is on board even before his brain is.
Now, all he needs to do is convince Knox that there’s nothing wrong in exploring this new attraction. Sadly, Knox can be as stubborn as he is pretty, but Liv wasn’t called the trailer park prince for nothing.
He’ll do whatever it takes to make Knox see the light.
And by light, he means his dick.
Themes: bi-awakening, gay-awakening, best friends to lovers, internalized homophobia, coming out, first times, fake dating, partners in crime, dark humor, jealousy, idiots to lovers, oblivious to love, fake relationship, found family, afraid to commit, illegal racing, poverty
Genre: Scorching hot, gritty M/M romance
Length: ~125,000 words (Standalone)
WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, offensive language and morally gray characters.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living, dead, or undead, events, places or names is purely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transferred in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without a permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law.
Text copyright © 2024 K.A. Merikan
All Rights Reserved
http://kamerikan.com
Cover design by
Natasha Snow
https://www.natashasnow.com/
Editing by No Stone Unturned
https://www.facebook.com/NoStoneUnturnedEditingServices/
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Epilogue
Epilogue 2
About the author
Chapter 1
Liv
“So, you're telling me you're not having sex with me because you have to pick up my loser ex whose useless car is broken? I thought he was the one with the sex drive of a dried worm,” Amanda said, flapping her arms as if this could prevent her crash with reality.
Her voice drilled into Liv’s ear like a hungry cockroach, but after a week of dating, it’d become white noise. Ignoring her moaning, Liv checked all the kitchen cupboards, and then the little hanger with kitchen utensils, but the car keys remained lost while the wolf-shaped clock ticked away the seconds remaining until the end of Knox’s shift.
“There’s a cucumber in the fridge, if you’re so insatiable,” he mumbled, walking over to the sofa at one end of the trailer and pushing his fingers between the limp cushions. He needed to get going, because it was almost 2 a.m., and Knox would be losing his shit if his ride home failed to arrive on time.
Amanda clutched at her hair and let out a frustrated roar, as if she were forced to deal with someone’s unruly kid. “You’re such a shithead! I’d dump you if your dick wasn’t worth its weight in gold.”
When Liv ignored her, turning away, a pillow hit the back of his head and fell to the sticky floor he’d been meaning to wash since the party last Friday. He glared at her but she only gave him a self-satisfied smirk, as if making him acknowledge her presence was already a win. Liv took a deep breath and pushed down his anger, because this wasn’t the time to deal with Amanda’s bullshit. He could have sworn he’d left the keys on the windowsill, like always. Short hair tickled his palm as he rubbed his head in frustration.
“Are you sure you haven’t seen them? There’s a little hot rod keychain attached to them.” A gift from Knox for his twenty-first birthday two years back. The paint was scraped off in a few spots, but the little accessory remained one of his favorite possessions. Too bad he couldn’t call it with his phone to locate the damn keys!
Amanda, who at this point wore a tiny skirt and nothing else, rolled over on the sofa, briefly attracting Liv’s attention with her perky little breasts. “Why do you care anyway? If he really was your best friend, we would have never gotten together.”
A scowl twisted his lips, but she couldn’t see it anyway when he peeked under the paint-splattered table he and Knox used for DIY projects.
This attitude was exactly why he chose to fuck bro code and sleep with her in the first place. Knox had fallen for her pretty eyes (and lies) far too easily, and he didn’t deserve to have his heart stomped on by a woman who didn’t respect him or care about him.
Amanda had been shooting Liv flirty glances since the very start of that relationship, and since Knox was too stubborn to believe his best friend, the only way to get him out of that mess had been to force the truth in his face.
And… well, Liv had been fucking Amanda since, so now Knox hated them both. Maybe in time, he would understand that Liv did him a favor. For now though, Amanda’s pussy was enough of a distraction to ignore all her other qualities for a while longer. Tonight, though, she was really testing him.
“I’ll pick him up even if I have to walk there. So, I’m asking you again: have you seen the keys?”
“No. Why can’t he take an Uber or something? Is he that broke?” Amanda rolled her eyes and pulled on her nipple as if she thought she could seduce Liv into staying.
Fat chance.
Liv might have the sex drive of a feral dog, but he was also as loyal as one when it mattered, and his best friend came first… even though he had told Liv to go to Hell just last week. Fortunately, they shared one trailer and couldn’t part just like that, which offered enough of a cooldown period to mend Knox’s wounded pride. Or so Liv hoped.
They’d shared this place for the past four years, since their parents had gotten together, forming the most dysfunctional of couples. But Knox and Liv? They fit together like bacon and eggs. Brothers from other mothers and all that. Liv would always have Knox’s back, whether that entailed lying to the cops or fucking his girlfriend to shake him out of his pointless infatuation.
They would eventually move on from this.
“He’s not broke,” Liv lied, “But it’s a waste to pay so much money for a ride when I have a perfectly good car.”
“He’s not broke? When’s the last time you looked at his shelf in the fridge? That man’s idea of a meal is old pizza and half a jar of Nutella.” Amanda’s laugh was like a series from a shotgun. It sounded just like it had when she’d scolded Knox for having a messy haircut.
Which was a ridiculous thing to pick on, because there was nothing wrong with Knox’s dirty blond mop. His hair barely reached below his ears, and he often wore it in the tiniest of ponytails. If he played guitar in some local band, Amanda would have been creaming her panties for him.
Liv was confident in his own charm, but only an idiot wouldn’t have realized that out of the two of them, Knox was the hot one. Liv was tall, knew how to talk to women, and made up for the gap between his front teeth with a sense of humor and cool tattoos. But Knox? He had those denim blue eyes women swooned over, long lashes, a bit of blond scruff every other day, and the lean body of a kickboxer.
Why would anyone cheat on him? Especially Amanda, who’d gotten together with Knox after a bad breakup, and told everyon
e who’d listen that Knox was her best boyfriend to date, and certainly better than her now-incarcerated ex.
Liv could swear this woman’s preferences changed every other week. And he was getting increasingly annoyed with her attitude. “You’re only saying this because you didn’t stick around long enough to try his barbeque. Only the people he really likes get to try his meat,” he said, shaking his head at her. “That’s not you.”
A dark cloud passed over her features, and she covered her breasts with a blanket as if to communicate her body was now off limits. Which was laughable, because if Liv wanted to, he’d get her to spread her legs for him in under a minute.
“Oh, yeah? Did you try his meat?” she asked with a provocative smirk.
Really? Was she trying to gay-shame him? He’d made her come three times just this morning.
“Sure did. He always saves the best piece for me. Jealous?” Liv said, wiggling his brows.
Amanda scowled. “You’re disgusting. I’m so sick of this. The keys are in the fruit bowl. Go pick up your boyfriend, but I’ll be expecting a good long fuck when you’re back, and he can plug his ears with old pizza if he doesn’t want to listen.”
Now that Liv knew she’d tried to manipulate him, that was definitely not happening. And at this point, even her pretty face and heart-shaped ass couldn’t make up for the attitude problems.
Maybe if she was gone from their lives for good, Knox would find it easier to forgive him?
“I’m afraid my dick won’t ever get hard again after this. No longer gold,” he added with an exaggerated pout and picked up the bowl of fruit. He shook the few apples and tomatoes out onto the counter, along with the keys.
Finally. Knox was surely cold out there this late into the night.
He shouldn’t be working construction for that piece of shit Vlad—who they called Vladdy behind his back—anyway. The job was hazardous and didn’t come with health insurance, since the pay was under the table, and fuck knew where Vlad’s cash came from. Amanda’s friend worked some kind of sex cam for Vlad, and she’d called him a ‘low-key pimp’, so it felt double dirty that Knox busted his ass for mediocre pay from the bastard.
All because he was desperate to leave their trailer park forever. He’d even said he wanted to leave Liv’s ass behind, but he couldn’t have really meant that. Their bad blood had only started after Liv got into Amanda’s pants. Leaving was a dream they shared, and that would never change. Girls came and went, but the two of them? They were solid. Their friendship was the end game.
Amanda opened her mouth to speak again, but he ignored her and stepped through the door adorned with an official F1 poster Knox once got from his mom after she won a bunch of money at the casino and went on a spending spree that got her into debt.
The late September air made him shiver as he headed for the old Subaru Impreza sedan he and Knox had been working on for the past two years. It was the pre-face lift model, with a flat hood that revealed the vehicle’s age, but when they’d first seen it in someone’s driveway, with a For Sale sign, its potential made both their hearts beat faster. They didn’t even need to discuss the purchase. Liv sold his new TV, Knox lent him the remaining sum, and on the very next day they picked up their new baby… which malfunctioned on the way home.
They’d changed out her guts since, added a rear spoiler, golden rims, then painted her with iridescent paint that changed color between purple and green, depending on the direction one looked from. Knox called the extravagant coat oil spill to make it sound more masculine, but to Liv it was scarab, which sounded way cooler anyway.
Too bad the car now featured a long and painful scar from getting keyed along its side. Knox’s revenge for the whole Amanda debacle. He could have done more damage but probably didn’t have the heart for it, since they’d both worked so hard to make the car a masterpiece. Even when Knox’s own ride malfunctioned a few weeks ago, they’d agreed on pumping money into fancy new upholstery for Liv’s car instead of fixing it. Knox had told him he regretted that choice when he found out what his girlfriend had been up to behind his back, but at that point it was too late to take it back.
Oh, well, maybe spending time together in one vehicle would lead to some kind of truce because the last few days had been silence, door slamming, and Knox pretending Liv did not exist.
Which he maybe deserved.
But Knox deserved someone who actually cared for him, not a self-centered woman like Amanda. They’d been together since spring, and he wouldn’t listen when Liv tried to inform him that she was banging other guys on the side. Liv figured that seeing was believing and seduced Amanda on a day when Knox was to come home early. Unfortunately, that backfired like a prank played on a skunk.
Liv opened the car and parked his ass in the old seat that was in dire need of an upgrade. It vomited foam on one side, and while the cover Liv had fashioned out of an old blanket did its job well enough, he'd soon upgrade to lime green leather. And once he and Knox finally left this dump, it would be in style.
They deserved it after the fucked-up start they’d had in life. Liv’s mom was a notorious addict, Knox’s dad was doing time in prison, and once their two remaining parents had gotten together, they dumped their kids into the spare trailer and made the larger, nicer one, into a love nest. It had been a blessing for two teens who wanted freedom more than anything.
For the first few weeks, Liv and Knox had lived on cereal for dinner, chicken nuggets for breakfast, and had the time of their lives with girls coming over for sleepovers, and nights of binging car makeover TV shows. They only cleaned up their act a bit after a family of cockroaches had moved in. It was so funny when Knox found a dead bug floating in his coffee. Good times.
Liv kept his headlights off as he drove past his dad’s place, because he did not want to be asked for spare cash. Spoiler alert: there was none in his pocket. But as soon as he left the trailer park, the engine roared, and he sped off with a squeal of tires.
In the middle of the night, alone on the road, he could let his skills shine and relax, enjoying the brief moments of solitude.
Liv knew exactly where to expect a cop car, so he let go of his troubles as his gaze focused on the asphalt passing beneath the bright lamps of the vehicle. Life was easier in the car seat, when his pulse quickened and his focus turned razor sharp, away from everything that made the world shit.
Only Knox’s presence in the passenger seat could have made it better.
And one day, they’d climb into this very car to get away from it all. Go somewhere where no one knew them. Somewhere, where they could start fresh, without all the baggage.
Knowing he was running late, Liv completely ignored speed limits on the way to the construction site, but when he arrived Knox wasn’t waiting for him in the usual spot in front of the sheet metal fence.
He couldn’t have possibly agreed to work until even later. He would have texted despite their cold war.
Liv considered driving in, but he didn’t want to get dirt, or cement, or other shit on his precious (if scarred) beauty. So he hopped out of the car, wrapped his favorite denim jacket tighter around himself to fight the night’s chill, and jogged past the gate, huffing into his hands. The Subaru’s heating system was yet another thing in dire need of fixing. Preferably, before winter.
Maybe they should have dealt with that issue before ordering custom upholstery, but then again, this was California, so—
Knox’s yelling cut into Liv’s thoughts like an axe.
Knox… well, he had a short fuse. And while Liv didn’t mind dealing with it, the last person Liv wanted Knox to be in a fight with was Vlad.
Vlad, who was bald, twenty years older than Knox, and at least a hundred pounds heavier. Vlad, who was rumored to have put his ex-wife in hospital after beating the shit out of her. Vlad, who kept a fucking machete in his office at the construction site.
Knox could hold his ground in a fight, courtesy of his dad training him in kickboxing from a young age, but Liv wasn’t taking any chances.
After making sure that his switchblade was in his jeans pocket, he stood by the sheet metal fence and peeked past it, down the sandy road cutting through the site illuminated with a single lamp. Bright as a searchlight, it revealed Knox facing Vlad with his hands balled into fists. Moths and other insects spun around them in chaotic patterns, as if guided by the anger radiating off both men, and as Vlad’s hulking form leaned toward Knox, Liv’s blood simmered with the need to rush over and mediate.
