Smash & Grab: RELIC #1

by Maz Maddox

  “Where are your clothes?” I demanded. He pointed and I began stomping that direction. This man made no damn sense to me. Why the hell he would have stripped down and stuffed his belongings under a log so he could hunt made as much sense as...well, anything that had happened so far. Dalton held out the rabbits for me to hold while he gathered up his clothing.

  I led the way back to our site with the flashlight and got the fire started while he cleaned the blood off. When he returned back to camp, he was dressed and I had the fire going.

  “Hey, you caught some fish!” He grinned at the little fishes I had cooking over the fire.

  “I know how to make some basic traps.” I nodded towards the rabbits. “Can you clean those? Away from here, please?”

  “Yep.” He scooped them up and disappeared into the trees, coming back after a couple minutes with my cleaned off knife I didn’t even see him pick up, and two ready to cook, dead rabbits.

  It was silent while he cooked our food, but my stomach growled and betrayed my brooding.

  “Almost done,” Dalton answered my stomach.

  “Maybe we should keep the fire going tonight.” I looked out into the dark woods. “It might keep anything big away.”

  “I think whatever killed that deer is likely full and not going to fuck with us,” Dalton suggested as he passed over the cooked rabbit.

  “Did you see anything out there?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. Just me.”

  I didn’t have the strength or the will to press more or ask again about his bloody, naked state, so I settled into silence and took a bite of the rabbit. While it was better than nothing, the stringy meat wasn’t exactly my favorite. But, it wasn’t terrible. Fresh, roasted meat over a fire mostly tasted like smoke, but it was filling. It had a wilderness charm that I enjoyed.

  The sun sank fully behind the trees, and the nocturnal life of the forest crawled to the surface. I could hear an owl hooting for a mate, crickets chirping the same type of melody, and small things bouncing around the forest floor.

  High above, the inky sky was brilliant with millions of tiny stars. It had been months since I had seen anything quite as beautiful.

  My quiet time reflecting on the beautiful night sky was disrupted by Dalton sitting on the ground right beside me, so close that our hips were touching. The guy had an entire forest to sit down, but he seemed to constantly want to annoy me.

  “Who taught you how to make the fishing traps?” he asked around a bite of rabbit.

  I moved over an inch to give us some space for Jesus.

  “My dad.” I picked some charred meat from my teeth. “We used to go camping all the time during the spring.”

  “Around New York?”

  I shook my head. “No, no. Montana mostly. It was really beautiful out there.”

  “Camping and fossil hunting?” Dalton turned my way with a knowing smirk. I couldn’t help but mirror the smirk and nod.

  “Surprise, surprise,” I said. “We started out just picking up little stuff, arrow heads and shark teeth, then our spring trips turned into full fossil hunting expeditions when I got older. Those were the best trips.”

  “So, you’re telling me,” Dalton rested his elbows on his knees and pointed an accusatory finger my way. “That you’re a veteran road tripper and you choose the lamest snacks? Your inner child must be sobbing.”

  “My inner child was a fat ass.” I failed to suppress my smile when he laughed. Even though the man was insane, a pain in the ass, and way too comfortable being nude at inappropriate times, he did have a good laugh. It was a contagious sound, a blast of boisterous warmth that had a bit of a wheeze right at the start. It was a laugh that was well worn and used often.

  I liked it.

  It was about the only thing about the guy that didn’t make me want to slap him.

  “You still go out there with your dad?” he asked once he got his laughter under control. I knew the question was coming, because it was the natural progression of the conversation, but it still stung.

  “No. He passed away a couple years back.”

  Ten years, three months and seventeen days, if anyone was counting.

  “Shit.” Dalton winced. “Sorry. No siblings to wrangle for trips?”

  “Only child.” I shrugged. “What about you? Parents? Siblings?”

  He hummed and tilted his head. “Yeah, but we lost touch a while back.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” I meant it. Having no one hurt. I had a smattering of cousins and my grandma, but no real close family to speak of.

  “Nah. Don’t be. I have a band of brothers now that I wouldn’t trade for the world.”

  Dalton finished his roasted rabbit and yawned wide enough that his jaw popped. It was mighty enough that soon I was yawning as well and rubbing at my eyes.

  “I think I’ve had enough excitement for today.” I stood and unrolled the borrowed sleeping bag next to the fire. Dalton did the same, taking the other side of the fire.

  “Hey,” Dalton called, getting my attention. Something small bounced off my chest and into my lap. The small keychain was a rectangle piece of plastic that sported the Mystery Hole’s logo, and West Virginia printed just under it.

  “Something to remember this by,” he added.

  I laughed, because it was just the ridiculous cherry on top of the madness sundae that was the day.

  “Um...thanks,” I said around my laugh.

  His smirk over the fire made him almost seem charming, which meant I was absolutely in need of some serious sleep.

  Chapter Six

  Dalton

  Simon and I had made the unanimous decision to skip trying to catch more fish for breakfast, and left the campsite early to track down a Dunkin’ Donuts. While we were sitting in the parking lot, sipping coffee and stuffing our faces with delicious carbs, my phone buzzed with an inbound call from Royal. My dino from another daddy teammate was the man in charge of intel, tracking, hacking and all that other fun computer shit.

  He also was a giant who did mixed marital arts for fun and listened to K-pop. Truly a wild species.

  “What’s up, Royal?” I answered my phone between bites of my breakfast sandwich.

  “Hey, brother. Got some news. Apparently Hyena is looking for a dude with a pink mohawk right now.”

  “Great.” I took a swig of my coffee to chase down my food. “Does he know where I am?”

  “He’s got eyes out right now, but he knows you’re likely bailing out of New York, probably heading south.” he said.

  “That’s not a huge stretch. What other details do you have?” I popped a donut hole into my mouth while Royal clicked around on his keyboard.

  “He knows you likely have the fossil and thinks you’re with the paleontologist that was apparently there that night. Did you run into him? Kinda cute, gray hair, puppy eyes with a left dimple?”

  “Left dimple?” I looked over at Simon, who currently was chewing on a donut. “Do you have a dimple?”

  “What?” Simon asked with a cheek full of pastry.

  Royal started laughing. “Oh shit, Dalton. You took the cute fossil guy with you?!”

  “I wanna see your dimple,” I demanded Simon. “How dare you keep this from me.”

  “I guess I kinda have one when I smile…” Simon’s cheeks reddened. “And I’ve laughed more than once. It’s not my fault you didn’t see it.”

  “Montana is going to be so pissed,” Royal said around a laugh. “I know you’re gonna hate it, but you probably need to lay low at a safe house for a little bit. Especially if you have Dr. Dimple with you.”

  “Ugh.” I leaned my head back against the seat. “I feel so betrayed.”

  “By the dimple or the safe house?” Royal asked.

  “Both,” I grumbled.

  “Buck up, buttercup. There’s one just outside of Charleston that’ll be ready for you. I’ll send the address.”

  “How long should we stay?” I sighed deeply and started the Rodeo.
>
  “Couple days until the heat dies down. I’ll keep you updated.”

  “Yeah, alright.”

  Royal gave a chuckle. “And I’ll send you the dimple pic. Fair?”

  “Fair.” I hung up and tossed the truck into gear.

  “What’s going on?” Simon buckled up and started gathering up the trash from breakfast.

  “Hyena is looking for both of us,” I explained. “Royal set up a safe house for us to lie low at for a couple days.”

  “Jesus.” Simon’s color drained. “Is it that serious?”

  “We took his boss’s precious dick measuring fossil away. Yeah, it’s serious.” I glanced over at him. “Damnit, I said “dick” and you didn’t smile?”

  “I’m not twelve, so no.” Simon aimed his creased eyebrows in my direction and finished stuffing our breakfast trash away. “Did they figure out who you are? I know I’m in the National Geographic spread.”

  “They know to look for a handsome dude with a pink mohawk. Those are in limited supply.” My poor deflated hawk was in dire need of some glue and root touch ups. The floppiness of it when I ran my hand over it made me sigh.

  Then, out of nowhere, Simon tried to break my heart. “If you shaved your head you’d probably be able to sneak around a lot better.”

  I gasped, offended and horrified. “My hawk is precious. Do you know how hard it was to get this exact shade of pink? They don’t sell this shade.”

  “It’s also a beacon for the guys chasing us,” he said slowly. “You can grow it back.”

  “If I wasn’t just informed you have a dimple hiding on that sweet face, I’d slap you.” I warned. “I might still.”

  “Alright. Noted.” Simon’s eyebrows raised towards the sky. “Sorry if I offended you.”

  “You did,” I said quickly. “Very offended. You’re less cute now.”

  “Good.”

  He wasn’t less cute. I was just wounded.

  The drive to the safehouse took us a couple of hours, and by the time we arrived I was ready to go for a run. I hated more than anything being stuck in the car for so long, and the pretty countryside of West Virginia was calling me to go exploring again.

  Like most of our safehouses, it was tucked away from prying eyes and didn’t have neighbors for miles. The small house off of a dirt road wasn’t too far away from civilization, but the treeline helped keep things private. It was hardly a bastion of modern comfort, with a beat up window unit and a fireplace, but the furniture looked somewhat new.

  The cozy little one bedroom had internet secured with a badass VPN, a fridge and pantry packed with food, some books and a laptop.

  “Home sweet home,” I announced as he came inside, going directly to the fridge. Simon placed the fossil case and his bag on the floor by the tiny couch and scanned the new living arrangements.

  “This isn’t terrible,” he admitted, drifting around to take in the sights. “Kinda small.”

  “It’s meant for one person,” I said around a bite of jerky I found in the pantry. “We don’t typically have stowaways.”

  “You told me to come with you,” he said flatly over his shoulder. “I’m not a stowaway. Wait.” Simon paused as he leaned into the bedroom. “Is there a spare cot or something?”

  I was on jerky number two when I answered. “Probably not.”

  “That bed is tiny. Maybe a twin? And the couch is...half the size of a normal one.” Frustration rippled over his face as he ran his hand over it. “I guess I’ll use my sleeping bag.”

  “Or we could share the bed. You worried I’ll bite?” I wiggled my brows.

  “I’m worried about your terrible concept of personal space,” he grumbled as he flopped onto the couch. I tossed my jerky wrappers away and came to sit beside him.

  “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  He shoved my legs off of his lap and gave me a very serious “go to hell” look. It was so cute.

  “How long are we going to stay here?” he asked, sounding very tired. I adjusted my legs so we were both comfortable, and he gave a heavy sigh as he placed his arms down over just one leg this time.

  “No more than a week. Probably less. Royal needs to track Hyena’s conversations and location to make sure they’re not on our trail.”

  “And if they are?” Worry wrinkled his brow as he looked at me.

  “Then we keep hiding here.”

  “What if they find us here?” Simon’s fingers picked at my bootlaces nervously. “What if they track us down--”

  “They won’t.” I sat up and leaned forward when he looked down at the ground. “Hey. Look at me. They won’t. Ok? Have I put you in danger yet?”

  He raised one brow. “Yes.”

  “Besides the driving.”

  Simon pressed his lips into a thin line and shook his head.

  “Do you trust me?” I asked.

  Simon’s light brown eyes held mine for a long time, but I didn’t dare look away. I knew that look of searching, trying to make sure there was nothing hiding in the dark. It was like trying to see the bottom of the ocean before jumping in, and I found myself doing the same with him.

  “Yeah,” he said after a couple beats. “I trust you.”

  I wasn’t expecting the tiny little blossom of heat to happen in my chest from that confession. But there it was, this alien feeling I’d never felt before.

  It made me a little uncomfortable, so I climbed off the couch to find more food.

  “Well,” Simon broke the silence after a long sigh. “Since we’re stuck here a while, do you want to watch a movie?”

  The idea of snuggling up to Simon after the strange tingle in my chest made my stomach uneasy.

  “You go ahead. I’m going to go shower,” I announced as I made my escape into the bedroom. The shower part wasn’t a lie, because I desperately needed it, but mainly I wanted to go jerk off. My pent up sex drive was making me gooey and I needed to release some of that bullshit.

  As I got the shower on at full blast, I checked my phone for any updates from Royal. Waiting for me just beyond my lock screen was Simon’s dimple.

  I understood now why I hadn’t seen it before. The smile Simon was brandishing in the picture reached his eyes, a look of pure joy and excitement lighting his face. He was surrounded by what I assume was his peers and students at a dig, all gathered around the plaster cast of the Oviraptor fossil.

  The dimple was a small, perfect little dent right beside his mouth when he smiled wide.

  It was cute.

  And I wanted to do so many things to that little dip.

  I took that information to the shower with me.

  SIMON

  I fell asleep right at the beginning of John Wick and woke up towards the end. My neck ached from the weird angle my neck had been in on that tiny couch, but I secretly hoped that maybe my brain absorbed some of the fighting techniques as I slept.

  It was a long shot, but who knows. Keanu Reeves is pretty magical.

  Dalton was emerging from the bedroom when I pushed myself off the couch to pop my back. For the first time since the night he saved me, his mohawk was at its proper upright position. The bubble gum pink blade was straight and proud, the shaved sides still a little fuzzy but smoothed down.

  His ripped up, black skinny jeans were replaced with a denim pair with rolled up cuffs and he sported a bright yellow shirt with an artistic drawing of the Jurassic Park raptor on it. Around the raptor’s head was a flower crown and a ribbon that framed her open-mouth roar sporting “Clever Girl” in a script font.

  “I see your team knows to keep some strong gel at the safe houses, huh?” I smirked at his mohawk.

  “It’s a necessity.” He shrugged as he grabbed his jacket off the counter and pulled the cigarettes out from the pocket. Pushing the kitchen window open, he lit the cigarette with his fliptop lighter with practiced ease.

  “So, I noticed the books here are all crime novels. Are they yours?” I leaned against the counter
and Dalton shook his head.

  “Not mine. Probably our boss’s. Not your thing?”

  “I like fantasy or research.” I shrugged and glanced towards the fossil case. “I really wish I could keep working on that while we’re stuck here.”

  “I bet we have some hammers around here somewhere,” he teased, grinning at my frown.

  “That’s not how to uncover a fossil that’s millions of years old.”

  “Not with that attitude.” Dalton leaned towards the window and blew his smoke out. “What about some light dynamite?”

  “What the hell is “light dynamite?”” I scoffed. “You know what...no. None of that either. Think more...Dremels, compressed air and brushes. Maybe an Exacto knife for the tiny bits.”

  “Noted,” he said, smoke coming out of his nose. “What the hell were you watching anyway? I didn’t see any dinosaurs in that.”

  “Ha-ha. I like other things besides dinosaurs. And it’s John Wick. You cannot tell me you’ve never seen it.”

  Dalton gave a lazy shrug. “I won’t tell you then.”

  “Really? I think you’ll like it.”

  “Are there hot guys, punk rock and/or prehistoric cool shit in it?” He cocked an eyebrow my direction.

  “Yes, not so much and no.”

  “Eh.” He tipped his hand from side to side in a gesture he meant as unsure.

  “Listen.” I placed my hands on the counter and locked eyes with him. “Keanu Reeves.”

  “Sold.” Dalton squeezed the cherry from his cigarette into the sink and tossed the harmless butt into the trash. “I’ll make snacks.”

  Turns out, I was right about Dalton enjoying John Wick. So much so, that we ended up binge watching the entire series in one sitting. After getting in my nap, I was up for all the kickass action for hours. We only took breaks in between movies for a new arrangement of snacks and the occasional bathroom break. It had been longer than I could remember since I had an old fashioned movie night with someone besides David. And even then, since he moved in with Kate, they had been less frequent.