Page 1 of The Thief
Chapter One
THERE’S HONOUR AMONGST THIEVES
Tyler
Aged Fourteen
“You couldn’t help yourself, could you? You had to act the bloody fool. Be a goddamn prick and cause me all this fucking drama. Do you think I’ve got nothing better to do than run around cleaning up your fucking mess?”
My dad didn’t need to inject venom into his voice when he spoke to me; he delivered most remarks with enough toxicity to wipe out a whole city. It didn’t matter what he had to say. It was always the same.
But I didn’t let the savage hate festering inside him affect me anymore.
That ship had sailed years ago.
I didn’t even bother looking his way as I replied, “Well, considering you haven’t had a job for months, I’d say you had plenty of time to clean shit up.”
I knew it’d piss him off, but I didn’t care.
He huffed, but I carried on. “What can I say? I’m sorry my existence eats into your precious drinking time at the pub.”
My dad kept his eyes on the road as he drove, but his hand shot off the steering wheel as he reached out and tried to smack me on the head. Tried being the operative word. I was quicker than him, and I shifted in my seat, curling my body against the passenger side door, holding my hands up to avoid the hit and smiling to myself at his weak effort to gain the upper hand. He growled when his hand failed to land on its intended target. So he settled for thumping my arm, which was an easier shot for him as he navigated his way at speed, running through a red light. He must’ve been late for happy hour, judging by how eager he was to drop me off and get away.
“You’ve always been trouble,” he snarled. “A bloody thorn in my side. The minute your mother passed away, I should’ve put you into care.”
“I wish you had done,” I snapped back, folding my arms over my chest and staring out of the passenger side window, leaving the hostility and hate to hang in the air between us like toxic fumes ready to choke me to death.
Years ago, words like that would’ve hurt me, but not anymore.
I didn’t care what he thought or what he said.
I didn’t care about anything.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true.
I cared about impressing the other kids at school, pissing off theteachers, and getting what I wanted. But I’d been kicked out of school a few weeks ago, after I got caught trying to resell the laptops I’d stolen from the IT department. Guess I’d have to find new ways to get my kicks now. New ways to make a bit of money, too. That school wasn’t going to be inviting me back any time soon.
“If I had my way,” my dad carried on, like I gave a flying fuck what he thought. “I’d enlist you in the army. Ship your ungrateful ass off, so you can find out what it takes to be a real man.”
I shifted slightly to stare at the side of his face. A face permanently etched with a frown, scorn seared into his skin so deeply he never looked anything other than extremely pissed off at a world he felt owed him more than he’d got; a wife who died, leaving him to fend for himself, and a son he never wanted.
“It didn’t do you much good,” I spat back, knowing that’d hit him where it hurt.
He was proud of his army background. But as for making him a man that others revered, that was bullshit. Nobody looked up to him, not even me. He was a drunk with no future. The minute I was old enough to leave, I’d be out of his house, and I’d never look back.
I had tried to leave a few times already. I’d run away, thinking anything would be better than being trapped under his roof. But after spending a night or two in care, I realised I wanted better for myself. I could do better. I just had to bide my time.
I had skills.
Skills that’d see me right when the time came.
Patience.
I just had to be patient.
Eventually, my dad screeched into the car park of the pupil referral unit I’d been enrolled in. Being thrown out of mainstream school meant I’d have to show up to this shithole every day until I was of age. And believe me, I was counting down the days.
The building was smaller than I’d expected, only two stories high. There was nothing notable about the exterior either. It was a concrete box that looked like a throwback to the nineteen-seventies.
