Page 15 of The Thief
He didn’t deserve it and neither did she.
She was a girl from a different world to the one I lived in. She had a loving family. The violence and abuse I’d seen, the crap that I’d lived with was alien to her, and that was a good thing. It wasn’t fair for me to bring my world to her door. Not when that world was hell. I needed to back off.
So, I turned and walked back around the corner, heading away from the Porter family and the mess that I’d created. It had snowballed enough; I didn’t need to make it worse.
But as I walked back through the streets of Brinton Manor, heading back to my house, I thought about my future. The future I wanted for myself.
I’d said I didn’t need to prove myself to anyone, but maybeI did. Perhaps it was myself that I needed to prove something to. That I could be a better man.
I stuffed my hands into my pockets, and that’s when I felt it.
The purse.
I’d meant to give it back to her, but I’d been so caught up in our confrontation, I’d forgotten.
“Keep it as a reminder of what a shitty person I think you are.”
My smile grew wider as her words echoed in my mind.
I’d done shitty things in my life, but I would be better, just to spite her and anyone else like her. Because a thief, in the right place at the right time, could conjure up magic. I’d done exactly that earlier, in the alley with the bullies. And that’s what I’d continue to do. Use what I was good at to make a difference. Be the better villain. Because at the end of the day, we were all villains. Some were just better at hiding it than others.
Chapter Five
TYLER
Present Day
Iwas fourteen years old when I learned what it took to be a real man.
Sixteen when I realised that, sometimes, the family you choose for yourself means more to you than your flesh and blood, because at sixteen, my father upped and left. Not a word about where he was going or how I’d survive on my own. Nothing. One day he was there, the next, he was gone, and I hadn’t heard a thing from him since.
I later found out he’d been sent to prison for assault. He’d started a fight at the pub he spent more time in than his actual home. I didn’t bother contacting him. He knew where I was if he wanted to find me, but I knew he never would.
It didn’t matter though, because I had my own family to lean on now; Adam, Devon, Colton, and Will. We were the familythat none of us ever had growing up. We made each other better. We worked as a team. Alone, we were strong, but together, we were unstoppable.
Back when my dad left, I survived as best I could, paying the bills with my skills on the street. Luckily, I managed to avoid social services. I kept my head down, went under the radar, and hustled for a living. We all did. The others knew I needed help, and each of them stepped up. And through it all, we found a brotherhood. A bond that went deeper than anything.
Hurt one, hurt all.
That was our motto and the code we worked to from the start. It stemmed from our need to be the voice for those who had none, and we still stood by it. It was our mantra. To bring justice where there was none.
Which brings me to today...
We’d come a long way since our days at the pupil referral unit. From the gutters of Brinton Manor, we’d worked hard to make a name for ourselves. Now, we owned and ran an exclusive nightclub in a building that used to be an asylum. Giving back to the town we loved. It was a dark, gothic, intimidating building sitting three stories high as if it was watching over the town below. It was a building that’d housed sorrow and screams back in the day. But we’d taken the horrors that’d seeped into those walls, the hell that’d swirled through the corridors, and turned them into something else. We’d turned them into our heaven. Now, the asylum was known as The Sanctuary. That was the name we chose for our club, and it suited it, and us, perfectly, because that’s what we offered the town and the people who came to the club.
A release.
A haven.
A place to come and be yourself, whatever and whoever that was. There was no shame here. As long as you showed us respect, it was all good.
Our nightclub and our name in this town was something we were proud of. We worked hard to maintain it and we didn’t take kindly to anyone who tried to fuck it up.
We’d done all we could to give back to the town we’d grown up in. Brinton Manor was a rough place to live, but we’d done what we could to make it better. Crime had been rife until we stepped in. But after, the people here knew if they wanted justice and protection, we were the ones who could give it to them. The vigilante soldiers of the Manor.
Don’t get me wrong, the town was still run-down, even today, but now, there was more pride amongst the people. They knew we had their back, and after proving ourselves time and time again, they had ours.
Well, most of them did...
