I hope all of you are staying safe during lockdown. For me and many others, it feels like an opportunity to press the restart button in a world gone mad. For me this has been a time of intense writing and reading. Anyone who follows my blog loves to read or they wouldn’t be here. So I’m choosing this time to share a brand new KDG story that has never been made public before.
Be warned, this is a different kind of KDG story, a hybrid of erotica, crime and paranormal with a pinch of horror thrown in for good measure. After today, I will be sending you an instalment of The Bus Route once a week for the next seven weeks, so be sure to check in every Friday for a new instalment.
Sex in derelict buses. Who knew it was a thing?
A money-making thing for Seth Allen, who blackmails enthusiasts stepping out on their other half by catching the deed on cameras he’s rigged at a public transport scrap yard known by frequenters as the Bus Route. Sadly the paydays aren’t as regular as Seth would like until con artist, Jon Knight, suggests they team up. With Seth’s tech and Jon’s charm, the money rolls in and the future looks bright until their marks start disappearing mysteriously.
The Bus Route Part I
“I’ve been watching you, Seth.” The stranger inserted himself into the tight space next to me at the bar. “I know what you’re doing here.” That the man knew my name should have scared me more than it did, but you get jaded in my line of work. As to him knowing what I did, well, I doubted it. In hindsight, I was less cautious than I should have been.
“I’m here to get lucky, like everyone else,” I said without looking away from the couple I’d been watching. They were taking longer than the average punters to get on with it – evidence that romance wasn’t dead, only anesthetized and dysfunctional. They were finally about to give me the money shot, and I’d just activated the camera on my spy specs. I couldn’t afford to have another unsuccessful night. “Sorry, mate,” I added, hoping he’d take the hint, “you’re not my type.”
I scented quality whisky on his breath, and he wore cologne too expensive for me to be allowed in the same room with. “Oh, I’m everybody’s type,” he all but purred. “Though that’s not the point.”
I’ll admit, it intrigued me, even excited me a little that he had been observing me, but then I was in a sleazy bar full of people who got off on the risk of being seen doing the dirty with a stranger. Though having their illicit acts recorded for purchase or as surprise prezzies for the viewing pleasure of their absent other halves should they decline was not what they had in mind.
“You won’t get much from them,” the man observed over my shoulder. “Bloke’s drowning in debt. Probably be a divorce when his wife finds out. You’re looking at what, a hundred quid, maybe two if you’re lucky.”
Two fifty and change, I thought to myself. Delia, the bar maid, had light fingers and had borrowed the man’s ostentatious money clip from his pocket when she delivered the last drink. She took a few bills for herself and passed the word on to me. Money clips were rare in this hole, but a little flash of the cash would always get you laid if you had little else going for you.
The man behind me all but sighed in my ear. “I suppose that’s not bad for one night’s work. If it’s the best you can do.”
That tore it! I was tired, I was hungry, and I owed three or my snitches money for their tips on the fiascos of the last two nights. I turned on him. “I suppose you can do better.”
“You know I can. Way better.” Before I could do more than stand there with my gob hanging open, he grabbed my hand and shook it. “I’m Jon.”
“I know,” was all I could manage. Now I’m not gay, but I’m definitely open-minded, and I’d seen enough of Jon’s moves at the Bus Stop to give myself the occasional drunken stiffie imagining what it would be like with him. He was a player, though I couldn’t figure out his game. He was always with a different person, occasionally someone he’d picked up at the Bus Stop, more often someone he just showed up with. They were never anyone I recognized, and he never used any of my buses for the deed. The cameras would have recorded it if he had. None of his marks ever came back to the Bus Stop. I figured once he got them to cough up the dosh, they were smart enough to stay away. Though watching his moves, I reckon some of them thought it was good value for money.
“If you’re hitting on me, you’re wasting your time. I’m skint.”
He waved my words away like he would a gnat from his beer. “Now, why would I hit on my prospective business partner?”
That reminded me why I was at the Bus Stop, but I turned to find the couple I’d been watching gone.
Ignoring my colorful language, Jon laid a firm hand on my shoulder and guided me away from the bar. “Never mind them, they’re beneath you. Together we can do so much better.” He sat me down at a rickety table already equipped with two glasses a bottle of very fine whisky.
His plan was simple. He’d do what he did best and seduce the money. With my network of cameras, I would make sure the act was recorded for posterity. He said he’d already been grooming our first mark. He said he had it all planned out, a payday way bigger than anything I’d ever managed. Honestly, I don’t remember much beyond the basic plan. Apparently I had more than my share of the whisky, as we toasted our partnership.
If my ability was to remain unnoticed, Jon’s was to be irresistible in a very lucrative way. At first glance, he could have been a cliché for a romance novel – tall, dark, broad-shouldered, but his looks were irrelevant. It was his actions that were unforgettable. I make my living being observant, and good looks don’t count for much. It’s polish, confidence, attitude, like you own the whole goddamned planet. Jon had that in spades. But I brought into the partnership the cameras and tech along with a set up that had taken patience, stealth and the better part of a year to put together. That Jon knew about that set up should have concerned me. It didn’t.