Chapter Four
Raya St Claire

"RAYA!" Bear yells the next morning. "WAKE UP."

I groan into my pillow and try to drown out his knocking but it doesn't help. He was like a mosquito, you try to swat it away but it keeps on coming back, humming into your ears, louder and louder than the first time.

"STOP KNOCKING ON MY DAMN DOOR, BEAR." I yell.

When the knocking finally stopped, I sit up in my bed with my feet touching the cold hardwood floor as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. There was a single knock against the door, telling me that Bear did not walk away yet.

"Archie wants us in the meeting room in twenty minutes." Bear says.

It was then when I heard his footsteps disappearing down the hallway.

I take in a deep breath and blow it out through my lips harshly, remembering yesterday's encounter with the newcomer.

He damn well tried his luck by flirting with me yesterday, but I showed him. The last time a guy flirted with me was at Geoffrey's bar, and he got a whiskey glass to his forehead. That was the last time a guy flirted with me.

The newcomer was fortunate enough to have gotten a punching bag to the nose and not a whiskey glass like the first guy who flirted with me.

Fortunately for him; not me.

I was very disappointed in myself for not breaking his nose yesterday.

I think he was just lucky that I didn't actually break his nose. Archie wouldn't have been happy if that was the case. If he found out that I did that to the newcomer's nose, I would've been 'grounded'.

I laugh at the thought.

I was twenty three years old, not even sixteen anymore.

But despite us all being older than twenty, we had rules to follow. We had to be disciplined like any other children out there. Archie gave us a home and in return, we have to obey his orders.

That's all he asked of us when we came here.

Obey his rules.

The boys tried their luck by flirting with me, but I knew they were just teasing me to get a reaction out of me; like Bear, he always flirted with me, but I got a foot massage out of the deal sometimes so I let the flirting slide.

I get out of bed and walk over to my bathroom.

I close the bathroom door behind me and rest against it for a few seconds before I make my way to the sink to splash some cold water over my face.

I glance at myself in the mirror and saw the tiny water droplets running down my face. I was quite surprised that the nightmares didn't wake me up this morning, but Bear's knocking did instead which was quite strange. I always had nightmares for eight year since that night, but not this morning.

I splash my face with cold water again and decided to skip today's shower seeing that I had eleven minutes left to get dressed and to get ready for the meeting today.

I skip out of my bathroom and walk over to my dresser.

I open it and spot my favourite ripped jeans lying on top of the rest of my clothing. I smile and climb inside of the jeans before I pull it over my legs.

I decide on a fishnet sleeve cropped hoodie that shows my entire stomach and the skull tattoo I had on my lower left hip: the gang's symbol. I then finish the outfit off with a pair of worn-out black slip-on sneakers. I throw my hair into a quick, messy ponytail after I brushed through it thoroughly.

I leave my room only to see that the newcomer was literally pacing up and down the hallway, and with every step he took, the floorboards creaked underneath his weight. It seemed like he was contemplating something.

I near him, seeing him look up in alarm when the floorboards creaked underneath my weight, and pulled out a gun quicker than I could possibly react from behind his back and before I knew it, the gun was pressed against my forehead in a matter of seconds.

I don't react at all; I just look at him with the barrel of his gun still pressed against my forehead. But when he noticed it was just me who graced his presence, he quickly pulled the gun away from my forehead.

"Sorry," he says as he placed the gun back into the waistband of his pants before hiding the gun behind the shirt he was wearing, "force of habit."

"You lost newcomer?" I ask with both of my eyebrows raised.

His hair was all messy and he had on a grey shirt today instead of a white one, but he had the same pair of jeans on than yesterday.

"Bear said that he would show me the way to the meeting room but I think he forgot after the talk he had with you, well the yelling competition you two had this morning." He replies, scratching the back of his neck.

"You eavesdropped on us?"

"I heard the yelling. I think everyone within a thirty mile radius heard it."

I nod. The mansion was huge and it was easy to get lost inside of, so I was going to obey Archie by showing the new recruit around. Archie will eventually see that he's not NC material.

"This way," I say, "it's not a very complicated walk, but it can be if you don't pay attention." I only started to walk when I was sure he was following behind me, and when he did, I led the way to the meeting room.

"Just so you know," I start, looking at him over my shoulder, "you're lucky none of the boys saw you aiming that gun at me. You would have hit the ground before you could mutter a single apology."

I see the newcomer scratching the back of his neck. "Like I said, it was a force of habit." He then sighs and falls into step beside me. "Archie knows what I do, did, for a living, so he knows that I'm a little on edge every day."

Curiosity got the best of me and before I could stop the words from leaving my mouth, the question that has been bugging me since he stepped foot inside the mansion came out. "What did you do for a living, newbie?"

"I was a gun for hire," he says, "a contract-killer, actually."

"A contract-killer?" I ask. "People pay you to kill other people?"

He nods and I notice that his lips were pulled into a firm line, like he wasn't proud of what he did before he came here. "A guy's gotta make a living somehow, right?" The words left his mouth so softly, I barely heard them.

"You were a professional?"

He looks at me, his blue eyes staring right into my soul. "I got the job done."

We passed a series of rooms and the training room altogether when we finally made it to the meeting room right beside Archie's office at the end of the hallway.

I kept glancing at the newbie and noticed that he was making mental notes about where all the rooms were as I explained what every room contained.

When we stop in front of the meeting room's wooden doors, the newcomer frowns at the table next to the doors, like he didn't know why there was a random table positioned there.

"Weapons and phone on the table." I tell him. I start to put my weapons inside, ushering for him to do the same when he just looked blankly at me.

"Why am I doing this exactly?" He asks. "Placing my phone on the table?"

"Trust is earned, newcomer. If you prove that you can be trusted, your phone can be taken inside the meeting room, but for now it stays outside."

"Wow," he mutters under his breath, "paranoid much?"

I stare at him blankly. "Just do it or you're not welcome inside, newbie."

The new recruit bites his lip, contemplating whether or not he wanted to place his phone on the table, but after a few seconds he finally complied.

If I didn't hate him, I would've been impressed by his remarkable choice of weaponry, but I wasn't impressed, not even just a little bit because I did hate him. It's all about using the weaponry. If you have a good gun, or even a knife, but you don't have the skills to use it as efficiently, why even bother? But if he can use that knife or gun as good as I can, then only will I be impressed.

I open the meeting room's doors and step inside.

It was quiet and it seems like everyone was only waiting for the two of us.

I look at Archie who looked proud of me for helping the newcomer find his way to the meeting room; I return the smile, making my way to my assigned seat right beside Archie.

The newcomer closes the doors behind him and made his way to his seat too, but I only realised that the seat next to mine was the only one open; it also happened to be the chair where Bear usually sat.

Bear planned this.

Bear wants me to sit next to the newcomer.

I shoot Bear a glare, seeing him share a smirk with Storm.

Bear smiles apologetically at me.

I ignore the anger that started to surface inside of me and turned to look at Archie after he has cleared his throat, gathering everyone's attention. "I called this meeting this morning because we finally have something." He says proudly, tapping the map he had resting on the table in front of him. "The boats are shipping again."

Storm starts to smile widely and the rest of the boys cheer, all except for newcomer and me. I was pissed that the newbie was sitting next to me that it kept me from feeling any other emotion but anger.

But when I thought about the job, I started to feel much calmer.

We finally have a job to do after weeks of not having anything to do at all.

I can finally kick some ass and earn some decent money.

"But with each job there are disadvantages." Archie continues after he quieted the cheering boys down.

All of us nodded in unison, including the newcomer. We understood that there was danger involved in every single job we did, but I made the jobs easier by figuring out how much danger and where the danger was.

Thanks to today's technology; I can figure all that out via security cameras.

"Raya, would you hack into the security cameras to check the surroundings before we move in?" Archie asks.

I nod. "Of course."

"Okay then. The rest of you know the drill. Nikko, Bear and Storm, you all go with Raya and Ezra. Junior and Rossi, you two stay here with me."

"You're not coming?" I ask him.

"No," Archie says, "I have to attend a few meetings."

When everyone agreed to their positions and their jobs, Archie turns to look at me. "Hack the security cameras. We meet here again right after you have what we need. Got it?"

I nod and get up from my chair.

The rest of the boys follow me out of the meeting room, Bear right by my side with a sly smile on his lips.

"I know that you did that on purpose." I say, glaring at him.

"Well, you have to make peace that he is a part of the team now and the only way to do that is for you to sit next to him." He says. "I got to know him a little yesterday, so it's your turn to get acquainted."

"The only thing that would get acquainted is my fist against his cheek."

Bear laughs and nudges me. "Dial it down a little Raya. This anger will consume you if you don't take care of it soon and I don't think Archie would like it very much if you use that anger of yours on the newcomer."

I grab my knife from the table, seeing the newcomer grabbing all his things too. He props his phone into his pocket and slides a knife into his boot.

"Get acquainted." Bear says, nudging me so hard that I bumped into the newcomer.

"Sorry." I mutter under my breath and turn to look at Bear. I flip him off and he chuckles before he disappeared down the hallway.

"So, you're a hacker, huh?" The newcomer asks.

I hide my knife in my boot too and try to ignore his presence, but it was hard seeing that I was practically standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him.

I wasn't in the mood for chit-chat or getting acquainted like Bear said I should, so I just walked away from him, but before I got very far, I feel his hand on my shoulder to stop me from walking away from him.

"You really must have a death wish for touching me, newcomer." I warn, shrugging his hand off of my shoulder.

"You didn't hear what I said."

"Oh, I heard what you said just fine, I just chose to ignore you."

"I thought we were on good terms?" He asks. "You even had a decent conversation with me this morning without biting my head off once."

"It wasn't a conversation, newcomer. It was a background check." I tell him dryly. "Bear might have taken a liking to you and Archie might see you as part of the gang now, but I don't trust you at all until you can prove that you're trustworthy, and you pressing a gun against my forehead this morning was the first sign that you're not trustworthy." I walk away from him but before I got very far, I turned to look at him. "I will not trust you until you prove yourself." I walk away from him and I tilt my head to the side to look at him to see if he followed me, but he was still where I left him.