Chapter Three
Raya St Claire

I had a death wish for glaring at Archie the way that I did, but I didn't regret it for a second. The gun was still pressed against the intruder's head and Bear still looked at the intruder like he was ready to pounce on him if he moved an inch.

"You didn't brief this with us." I tell Archie, looking at him over my shoulder.

"Yeah," Bear nods, "we didn't have a conversation about a new recruit."

I could kiss Bear for taking my side, but it wouldn't change the situation we were in. When Archie made a decision, it was difficult to get him to change his mind, and when Archie made a decision, it was final.

Archie walks over to my, takes the gun away from the intruder's head slowly and very carefully like I would pull the trigger just to be spiteful; he places my gun on the coffee table, right next to my photograph I received for my birthday today and I watch him readjust his jacket before he turned again to look at me.

"I didn't need to brief anyone. I think this is for the best." Archie says.

"Archie," I practically beg, or plead in a sense, "the NC doesn't need recruits."

I see the intruder, or newcomer, shift uncomfortably in my peripheral vision. I ignore him and focus my gaze back to Archie, watching him release a big breath before he spoke again. "Raya, don't be like this."

"We don't even know if this guy can be trusted!" I yell and throw my hands into the air frustratingly. "He looks like a fucking high school bad boy, Archie!"

The intruder lets out a chuckle and both Bear and I glare at him in unison. The intruder clears his throat awkwardly and scratches the back of his tattooed neck.

"Raya-"

I storm away before Archie got a chance to explain further.

I was just too pissed.

I make my way up the stairs but bump into Storm on the way up.

He grabs my arm gently, catching me before I had a chance to fall down the staircase. "What's wrong?" He asks, eyeing me worriedly. "It sounds like a fight broke down there."

I hold onto the railing this time, looking up into Storm's eyes. His forehead was creased with worry as he stares down at me, holding onto the railing. The anger was probably written all across my face.

"Why don't you go and ask Archie?" I say, stepping past him.

I must admit, my behaviour towards Storm was kind of rude, but I was in no mood to talk about that abomination again, so I went straight to the only place I can let all my anger out if I hit hard enough.

The training room AKA my safe haven.

The twins had their video games, Archie had his office, Storm had the entire kitchen, Rossi had his bed, Bear had the couch and I had the training room. It was like that for the entire eight years since I've been in the NC, and now there's a new addition to the group, ready to throw everything out of routine.

There were ten bedrooms in total on the second floor of the mansion, but three of them had to be redone. Ten bedrooms were a little too much for us seeing that Nikko and Junior shared a room, Storm and Rossi also shared a room, leaving there to be 1 bedroom left, and three rooms that were totally redone.

One turned into a training room.

The other one turned into Archie's office where he sets up meetings and calls important people. And the other room was turned into our meeting room, where everyone met up to get briefed on the new jobs Archie might have for us.

I shut the door to the training room loudly behind me and make my way towards one of the many punching bags in the corner of the room. I was so angry at the news that I didn't even bother to tape my hands or throw on some gloves before I started to punch the leathered material of the punching bag.

I just started to punch the leathered punching bag with all my might and power.

My knuckles crack on contact with the leathered punching bag; I smile, pulling my hand back to hit the bag for the second time. The second punch was harder than the first one, but the more I felt the pain, the more the anger started to leave my body. But as soon as I thought about the newcomer, seeing him look like a typical high school bad boy standing next to me when I pressed my gun against his head, I felt the anger start to resurface and I force myself to punch harder.

I never doubted Archie or his word, but I was starting to doubt it now. I just don't understand how he could allow that damn abomination into the mansion.

The new recruit looks like he's still supposed to be in high school, dating a new girl every single week and kissing another girl while he's dating a girl already.

The more I punched the bag, the more pain I felt and the more pain I felt, I started to feel the anger leave my body because all I could think about is how raw my knuckles started to become after hitting the punching bag without pausing to take a breath.

The sound of me kicking the punching bag echoed throughout the entire room, drowning out the sound of the training room door opening and closing again.

I take a deep breath and turn to look at Archie who decided to join me.

I narrow my eyes at him. I was still angry at him for not telling me about the new recruit.

He rolls up the sleeves of his jacket and starts to punch the punching bag right next to mine. He doesn't look at me when he started to speak. "I don't understand why you're so against us having another gang member." He says. "It's not like we didn't talk about it before because the topic did come up."

"It was only the seven of us our entire lives, Archie." I lick my lips, shaking my head. "We don't need someone else here. We each have our own speciality." I tell him, swallowing air. "We don't even know what he's capable of or what his intensions are. For all we know, he's some undercover cop with an agenda-"

Archie laughs, making me stop mid-sentence to glare at him yet again.

"This is not funny, Archie. I'm serious." I huff, starting to punch the punching bag again.

"I can assure you that he's not undercover or that he has no underlying intentions." Archie says. "The new recruit has specialities of his own. He's very good at what he does."

"Yeah, he seems good at breaking girl's hearts." I scoff. "He looks like a damn bad boy, Archie. The NC is serious. We don't need anyone who would smear the gang's name with mud by looking like he should've still been in school."

Archie releases a sigh but I saw a touch of a smile reaching his lips.

"I don't trust him, Archie." I say, giving him a look. "I mean couldn't you have gotten anyone else. Preferably someone who didn't look like a damn high school bad boy."

The recruit was the epitome of a bad boy, and I despised bad boys with every fibre of my being. They always think that the sun is shining right up their ass. The recruit looked like a damn rich prick with his fancy ass chains around his neck and expensive looking watch around his wrist.

"To be fair," Archie says, pausing to look at me, "you didn't trust the NC members either when I first found you, but now look, Ray..."

Archie had a good point. I didn't trust anyone, not even Archie, when I joined the gang, but I slowly started to trust them all over the years when they proved that they could be trusted, but there's just something about the new recruit that doesn't sit quite right with me, and I haven't even met the guy properly yet.

He, on the other hand, has only met the barrel of my gun against his forehead. That was the only civil introduction he was going to get from me.

"It took years for me to trust the NC," I explain, "and now I have to start over with the new recruit?"

"I know this is hard," Archie says nodding, "but we have to learn to trust him too, so let's just give him a chance." Archie says. "That's all I'm asking you."

I look at my raw knuckles. The purple bruising was already coming through after punching the hard leathered material of the bag without gloves or tape. I was too angry to care and now I'm already suffering the consequences of my actions.

I clench and unclench my fists, the movement causing me to hiss out in agony. I should have known punching the bag without tape would cause me this pain, but I was too angry to care after the encounter with the arrogant newcomer. I just needed an outlet before my fist accidentally connected with the recruit's teeth if Archie wasn't there to prevent that from happening to the newcomer.

I nod, stiffly. "Just so you know; I'm not doing this for him." I tell him. "I'm doing this for you."

Archie smiles again. "I can accept that."

"But," I continue, "I don't have the time or the patience to show him the ropes." I tell Archie. "You get Bear to do it, or the newcomer has to fend for himself."

"Fair enough." Archie says, rolling his sleeves down again before he buttoned them at the wrist. "But be nice to the recruit, at least." There was pleading in his tone, one I couldn't ignore, so I nodded and saw Archie smile proudly at me.

I return a small smile and start to punch the bag again. Harder this time.

Archie leaves the training room and shuts the door behind him.

Although I agreed that I'd give the newcomer a fair chance, I didn't agree that I would make things easy for him; he needs to prove himself to me and the NC, and I say again, I will not make things very easy for the poor, poor new recruit.

Right when I wanted to kick the punching bag again, the door opens behind me. I turn my head to look over my shoulder and see the new recruit entering the room.

He closes the door softly behind him and makes his way toward me.

"What do you want?" I ask, kicking the bag successfully this time around. When he didn't answer me, I look at him while I rubbed my raw knuckles. "Are you going to answer me, or what? I don't have the time to chit-chat right now."

The new recruit walks around the punching bag I used to kick moments before and holds it firmly into place. He looks at me around the bag and smiles widely at me. "I didn't think that my presence would be that big of a problem to you."

"I don't do well with strangers, newbie." I tell him. "It's nothing personal."

He runs a hand through his black hair. "Give it a few days and you'll be falling at my feet."

I frown at him. "I don't fall at anyone's feet, newcomer. They fall at mine."

"You're quite feisty." He says, holding the bag I was currently punching between both of his hands to keep it from moving. "I love it, princess."

"What are you doing here, newbie?" I ask, giving him an incredulous look.

"This is the training room, isn't it?" He asks, looking around the room. "I came here to train, princess."

I kick the bag just like Bear showed me the other day and smiled as wide as I can when the bag hit the new recruit in his face; more specifically his nose.

He stumbles backward and clasps his nose when blood started to pour from it.

"Whoops." I shrug, looking at the blood dripping to the floor. "My bad."

Blood runs down his face when he looks at me. His blue eyes were filled with tears from the blow to his nose, but yet they were still filled with amusement.

"You've got quite the kick there, princess." He winks at me.

I catch the bag in my hands, holding it steady while I was fighting back a smirk of my own. "If you're here to train, train then." I tell him, lifting my shoulder in a shrug, but he was too busy bleeding all over the training room's floor. "But just don't make conversation with me while doing so. I don't like being bothered while I train. Oh, and by the way, I don't tolerate flirting in the training room. In fact, I don't tolerate flirting, ever. So refrain from doing so in the future, or it will be more than just your nose that's going to bleed."

The newcomer actually chuckles, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. The trail of blood stays behind on his hand and I fight back a satisfied smile.

If he didn't know what I was capable of before, he did now.

• • •

I was sitting on the floor of the training room when the door opened yet again, but this time I didn't expect it to be the newcomer. I think he learned his lesson.

It was Bear walking towards me with a bottle of water and a packet of cigarettes in his other hand.

He plops himself down across from me and hands me the bottle of water.

I twist the cap and take a huge gulp from the bottle, liking how cold the water was when it ran down my throat.

"You did a great deal on the new recruit's nose." He says. "That's my girl."

I grin. "He was being an ass so I taught him a lesson." I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and take a cigarette from his extended hand.

I put the stick between my lips and leaned in for him to light it for me. I take a deep drag before I exhale the smoke, liking how it filled my lungs before I had to exhale it.

"Feel better?" Bear asks but I shake my head.

"Archie should have discussed it with us before making the final decision."

"There just are some things that Archie won't discuss with us." He says when I took another long drag from the cigarette. "Archie makes his own decisions."

"I know." I nod, slowly. "But it would have been nice to be warned first."

"Maybe the lad isn't so bad, Ray."

I shake my head and take another sip of my water. "You sound just like Archie." I say after I swallowed down the water.

"Archie isn't wrong, though." Bear says. "The new recruit has specialities of his own apparently. We can use that to our advantage."

"We don't even know what he's good at."

Bear nods and bites his lip. "True."

Bear stands up and holds out his hand for me to grab, but I shake my head.

"I want to stay a little longer. The anger hasn't left my body yet."

"Don't hurt yourself Ray."

I look at my purple knuckles. Too late for that.

"Take the anger you have and leave it until Archie would have something for us in the morning, that way you can take your anger out on the job and not on any of us, or before you break his nose the next time."