Grayson Ryder: A Thief's Thrill

by M. L. Giles

  “…when Gloria opened the door, there I was with two policemen behind me. She said to them, ‘Oh dear, officers! I am really sorry. Rest assured I will have strong words with him!’”

  “Damn! Was she mad?” Colton asked while taking another sip of whiskey. I did the same.

  “Absolutely. She gave me a right bollocking for getting caught. Told me to be quieter next time.” We both laughed. I wiped a drunken tear from my eye. “Man… I miss my sister.”

  “Sickness get her?”

  I nodded. “I thought she was just ill. Everything happened so fast… People got sick, then less than two days later she died, along with everyone else on my street. If I’d have known Gloria was going to die, I would’ve told her I loved her.”

  “Yeah. I made the same mistake with my wife an’ two kids – one twelve, the other seven.” Colton looked away, remembering a painful memory.

  “Were they ill too?” I asked gently, hoping he wouldn’t see it as prying.

  He nodded slightly, keeping his gaze away from me. “Both my wife an’ boy were sick. My baby girl an’ me were fine, though. It was my son that went crazy first. He tore into his sister before I had a chance to save her. Locked myself in the bedroom with the wife an’ tried to call for help. When I realized she was gonna turn…”

  “Jesus, Colton… I am so sorry,” I reached across the table, took a hold of his hand, and squeezed it slightly. I couldn’t empathize with his situation, but I could sympathize.

  He looked at me and smiled weakly, reciprocating my gesture. “Best to move on from the past. Not like I was special or anythin’. Reckon everyone who survived suffered in some way.”

  I took back my hand, going for another sip of whiskey. “Everyone except Thomas. Lucky bastard slept through it all! Can you believe that?”

  “Heh. You remind me of my wife sometimes,” he said, with a small tinge of happiness behind his words.

  “Is it my huge knockers? Are they similar?”

  Colton laughed drunkenly, almost falling off his close-to-breaking chair. He eventually settled down enough to keep talking. “Nah-nah-nah. It’s your personalities.”

  “How so?”

  “Sophie was always makin’ me smile with her crude sense of humour. But she was adventurous too. Sophie did whatever the hell Sophie wanted, draggin’ my arse along for the ride… Wish I’d been round more to enjoy our time together, ‘stead of with the army.” Colton’s glass was empty, so he took a swig straight from the whiskey bottle. “Didn’t think I’d ever meet anyone that could make me laugh again, like she did. Everyone I met was so damn miserable all the time or too serious. Then you came along—ˮ

  “—With my crude sense of humour to brighten up yours and every other miserable fuckers’ day!” I giggled.

  “Yeah… Exactly,” he said quietly.

  Colton stared at me for a while. His breathing seemed to get heavier. It made me feel slightly uncomfortable.

  “Er… Are you okay, Co—ˮ

  I was cut off. Colton was already on his feet, pushing his chair out from under him. Effortlessly, he gripped on to the side of the table, flinging it out of his way, breaking both our glasses and the whiskey bottle in the process.

  Surprised by his rapid movements, I got up quickly, only to find myself almost falling over with dizziness from the booze. As my footing gave way, Colton grabbed me in his arms. With one large hand under my rump, he lifted me up to his level and slammed me against the wall, taking my breath away from the impact. His other hand wrapped around my neck, so he could push his lips against mine, forcing his large tongue into my mouth.

  I have no idea if it was the alcohol or the lack of physical contact I’d had, but I loved it.

  Colton’s bear-like strength held me up easily, allowing me to just barely lock my legs around his waist. All the while, our mouths remained together, exchanging whiskey-flavoured saliva back and forth.

  The feel of his hairy, herculean arms locking me to him was amazing. Even his ridiculous beard and stubbly butt-chin felt like a dream against my face.

  It had to be the booze.

  He was first to break the kiss. He moved his head beside mine, slurring drunkenly into my ear, “Did say I’d hold you to that offer for the best blowjob of my life…”

  “Well—ˮ

  I was given no chance to reply. Colton spun us around, dropping me down onto his bed with a springy bounce.

  With me flat on my back and Colton standing above me, he pulled off his tank top using only one hand, revealing his perfectly structured body with a light covering of dark fur. It was a magnificent sight, almost like looking up at a Greek god.

  I hoisted myself up into a sitting position, repeatedly kissing his stomach while using my hands to undo Colton’s cargo shorts, pulling them, along with his boxers, down past his knees.

  Seconds later, Colton was thrusting himself into my mouth, grunting loudly with each push. He controlled the movement of my head by weaving his fingers into my hair and gripping tightly. What felt like a dreamy hour of oral sex realistically only lasted a few minutes at the most.

  Once Colton had released himself into my mouth with an accompanying war cry, he released his tight grip of my hair. I fell flat onto the bed once again, only this time Colton joined me. He landed next to me with a loud thud, almost breaking the bed in the process.

  We were both exhausted. I could feel a small amount of sweat dripping down Colton’s chest as he lay close to me.

  With one arm, he turned me over onto my side, pulling me towards him like you would a teddy bear. He rested himself into my back with his arm draped over my stomach.

  My breath returned enough to talk eventually. “That… was unexpected.” I breathed deeply. “Did you enjoy yourself?”

  There was no reply.

  “Colton?”

  The cheeky bastard had fallen asleep already. I couldn’t help but laugh at the whole situation before succumbing to my own drunken stupor.

  Chapter 6

  Regret.

  Proving My Worth.

  It was the sound of a terrifying, thundering rumble that roused me from my alcohol induced sleep. Never before had I heard something so loud or felt such a deep vibration.

  Colton was snoring right into my ear.

  I’d been woken up early. Sunlight was barely shining through the thick curtains of the hotel room. Colton was lying behind me on his bed. One of his arms was heavily slumped over my stomach, holding me tightly to him.

  “No. Fucking. Way. I didn’t… Did I?” I thought.

  I shuffled out of his grip, then rolled over to see him in all his fleshy glory behind me, blue cargo shorts around his knees, white trainers still on feet. The floodgates of regret opened in my mind.

  “Oh crap! I did!”

  Gradually, as I lay there thinking about what the hell to do next, memories of the previous night started softly returning, helped along by a familiar aftertaste in my mouth – it wasn’t the whiskey. Thankfully, what we had done the previous night meant only he had ended up stripping off rather than the both of us.

  Trying not to rouse the noisy behemoth, I slipped quietly off the bed, only to find that standing up made my head spin from a pressure headache brought on by a hangover.

  Creeping away, I grabbed my hoodie from off the floor and made my way to the door, getting ready to leave. That’s when I looked back at Colton. I don’t know why I ended up doing what I did next, but I returned to him, grabbing a cotton sheet off the bottom of the bed to place lightly on him as a blanket.

  The more I looked at Colton, the less regret I felt about our drunken fumble. I mean, it was fun, sure, but he wasn’t the type of guy I would normally go for. Most of my previous escapades were with men the same age as me or younger. I tended to have a preference for guys who were well-groomed, slender, and cleanly shaven all over.

  Colton was a wide berth from my usual tastes. And yet, here I was, smiling to myself for reasons that eluded me.

  �
�Grayson!” my mind suddenly barked at me. “He was married, remember? This was just two randy, lonely ships bumping uglies as they passed in the night. He probably won’t even remember this when he wakes up. Move on! NOW!”

  Once I’d finally managed to sneak quietly out of Colton’s room without making a sound (usually child’s play, not so much with a hangover), I made my way down the hallway, heading for my bedroom to get some undisturbed sleep. As soon as I turned the first corner leading to the hotel’s main staircase, however, I was ambushed.

  “What the heck have you done, Grayson?!” Wendy growled. She must’ve been waiting for me.

  I massaged my forehead gently. “Good morning to you too, sunshine.”

  She looked furious as she approached me. I was certain a scolding was coming my way, for one reason or another.

  “You SLEPT with him?!” I wasn’t sure if that was a statement or a question.

  “Not exactly thrilled about it either, Dee. But so what? It happens.”

  Wendy began to speak, stopping briefly to let three ladies walk past us. They all looked at me, giggling away as they breezed on by.

  “So what…? SO WHAT?!” Wendy continued, practically spitting out her words. “Thomas and I have been trying hard to fit in, make new friends, and help out with whatever needed to be done around here. Then YOU go sleeping with the man in charge!”

  “Does it really matter?”

  “Yes it does!” she whispered angrily, her voice squeaking slightly. “Certain people are pissed off by your stunt. And don’t, for one second, think it’s gone unnoticed how anti-social you’ve been since arriving here.”

  “Um… How do people know I slept with Colton?”

  “Someone heard the sound of glass breaking and listened in. At first, they thought there was a struggle going on. When everything suddenly went quiet, they let themselves into Colton’s room to check on the situation. They saw you two together on his bed.”

  I groaned at the lack of privacy on the matter. “Wonderful. I’ll have to thank whoever it was for being such a blabbermouth.”

  “This isn’t some big city, Grayson. This is a small community of people living under one roof. Everyone will know everyone else’s business here, which is why we should be making a good impression.”

  “I gave the big boss of this place an even bigger smile,” I smirked. “Tell me that’s not making a good impression.”

  Wendy huffed, and puffed, and almost blew her head off with rage.

  She went to storm away but quickly turned to face me once again. “Grow up, Grayson! You think you can just act the way you used to before our loved ones died? It doesn’t work like that! Do some work for once, instead of leaving things to everyone else around you. If this place turns out to be a safe place for me to settle down and have kids again, I don’t want you messing up my chances! We came here as a group, and that’s exactly how people are judging us – as a group.”

  I came unbelievably close to yelling right back at her infuriatingly incorrect statement. Whereas it’s true I had left a lot of the boring jobs to Wendy and Thomas, when things got too hot to handle, it was ME pulling THEM out of the fire.

  With her mission complete, Wendy resumed her angry walk, heading back towards the lobby. After that, I continued to my room and got into bed, eager to recover from my hangover as fast as possible. I wanted to prove her royal highness wrong.

  I was going to get whatever it was Colton wanted on my own.

  Darkness had come by the time I woke up from my much-needed rest. The hangover headache had receded – mostly. I wasn’t really in the best state to go on such a dangerous task as this, but I was eager to prove something to Wendy.

  Not to mention it was more exciting to think that I was going alone instead of being held back by some “team”.

  I had dressed in only my darkest of clothing; black sweatpants, with the white lines down the side blackened out by a permanent marker; black trainers, with any bright or reflective areas marked out; my dark navy hoodie, and a pair of black, faux-leather gloves.

  Each item of clothing I slipped on brought me closer to a state of ecstasy. Memories of breaking into various buildings replayed like glory moments of my past, also serving as refresher training videos for me.

  Once dressed, I stood before the broken mirror of my bathroom to make sure everything was in order. I looked perfect. With the hood of my jacket up, barely any flesh was on show. I was a shadow. And when you look like a shadow, you get into the mindset of being one.

  All I needed now was information on what I was looking for and where exactly to find it.

  Many people were in the lobby of the hotel, more than I’d expected for this time. It was the first time I had seen this place busy. Most of them were sitting down in the area with the white leather sofas, chatting away. Amongst them were Wendy and Thomas. At the reception desk was another smaller group of people, all talking with each other. In that particular group was the man I was looking for, Tyrone the mechanic.

  Reluctantly, I bit the bullet and approached him.

  “Tyrone?” I said, trying to get his attention.

  He turned to me, smiling. Tyrone was wearing the usual oily overalls but sporting another new bandana with fluorescent blue lightning on this time.

  “Grayson! Good to see you, buddy.” He shook my hand, yanking me into the small group. “Hey everyone, this is Grayson. He came here with the other two.”

  People greeted me with such warmth, welcoming me eagerly to the group. All of these nice people wanted to introduce themselves to me one at a time with a friendly handshake.

  It was horrible! I could feel most of these gossip vultures dying to ask questions about me and Colton.

  “Hey, Tyrone? Can we speak in private?” I eventually managed to ask.

  “Sure, bud.”

  We walked away from the group, heading to the hallway.

  “What’s up?” he asked me.

  “Is the plan to go to the hospital still on for tomorrow?” I asked.

  He gave a hesitant nod. “Yeah, it is. I’m driving us there in the Range Rover.”

  “Mind if I ask some questions about it?”

  “I guess. What do you want to know?”

  “Where is this hospital? I’d prefer to know roughly where it is before setting off,” I asked firstly.

  He gave me instructions on how to get there. All the while I pretended that he was putting my mind at ease. The most interesting part he mentioned about finding the place was, “After that point, just follow the white skulls.”

  “…White skulls?”

  “The road signs leading to the town were spray-painted by us with a white skull. Kind of a warning to other survivors.”

  “I see. What are we trying to recover from this place anyway?” Can’t look for something if I didn’t know what it was.

  “Shit… It’s, er…” He was either apprehensive to tell me or forgetful. “They’re notes in a big brown envelope, I think. Big label on the front with the name ‘Doctor Hugo Witherson’ on. Should be in his office.”

  “And what are these notes of?”

  “They’re research notes from Witherson himself. He was working on answers to what happened last year.”

  Now I understood why these pieces of paper I was sneaking into the lion’s den for were so important. Naturally, I had some doubts that these wondrous pieces of paper had all the answers. However, given how valuable the information sounded, it was more than worth a shot.

  Being able to learn what had happened to my sister was something I’d wanted ever since she died. Suddenly this run felt more personal to me.

  Tyrone tilted his head slightly, giving me a questioning look. “Colton would’ve told you all this too. Why didn’t you ask him?”

  “Well, because you’re much nicer to talk with than he is,” I lied. The truth was that Colton might’ve become suspicious from my questioning.

  Tyrone shuffled around nervously on the spot. For just a mome
nt, I thought I saw him blush, but it was hard to tell because of the dark colour of his skin. I suppose my sexuality was out of the bag now. Perhaps he thought I was coming on to him?

  “Um, okay. Neat… Anyway, mind if I ask why Colton is sending you with us in the first place?” he asked. “You’re new here. Seems like a big ask for a newbie.”

  I felt comfortable speaking with Tyrone, so I let my guard down by telling him the truth. “It’s because I spent most of my life stealing, sneaking around, and evading the law. Colton thinks I have the skills from being a thief to pull this off.”

  Tyrone stepped back from me. His was a reaction I was all too familiar with – if someone can accept one aspect of me, they usually have a problem with the other.

  “I should get back to the others…” Tyrone told me before shuffling back to the lobby.

  Not going to lie, it hurt my feelings to see him slink away.

  Armed with all the information I needed, I made my way down to the parking lot. Located in a small concrete room, just before entering the part where all the cars were parked, there was a makeshift key-rack made of coat hangers stuck to the wall. Each hook had a different key on.

  I wanted the small green car Carl had driven us here in. It wasn’t distinct in anyway, making it the perfect choice for blending in with other cars.

  With as many vehicle keys as I could carry in hand, I went to my car of choice, trying key after key until, finally, the eleventh one fit.

  After putting the other keys back, I returned to the car, started it up, and drove down to where the metal gate was.

  “Good job you forced me to practice driving with your car, sis,” I thought.

  As the gates came in to view, I kept the lights on for five seconds before blinking them three times quickly.

  The gates stayed still for a while, then started to rise, just like when Carl had done it.

  “Thank you, magical gate wizard!” I shouted out of my window as I drove under the gate.

  “You’re welcome,” someone yelled back from the darkness.