Chapter Six Part Three
Raya St Claire

"We have to do something, and quickly." Bear says, eyeing the cars that were coming closer and closer the more we just stood there, watching their arrival.

The new recruit was on the boat now, the two guards he was supposed to take down ran with the others, but our problem wasn't the guards anymore, it was the three cars coming towards us.

The other gang members arrived and they want the goods we want, and they won't get it without a fight, and we won't get it without a fight either, so Archie's rule was going to be broken tonight if we wanted to break it or not.

He was not going to like that at all.

"I don't think we can do this non-lethally." I tell Bear, pointing the gun towards the first grey car when it parked near the docks. "I'll take the blame."

They didn't even give me a chance to shoot. They were already out of the cars, their guns ready and locked in on Bear and I without asking any questions at all.

The first gang member, presumably the boss, had his eyes straight on me. I didn't miss the way his lips curved upward in a satisfied smile. He claps his hands together, walking towards me despite me still pointing my gun at him.

"I thought I'd never live to see the day: a girl trying to rob me." He says, stopping a few feet in front of me with his cronies' right behind him. "Although I find this amusing, I don't want to end the night in bloodshed, little girl. I just came to get what's mine."

What the fuck was it with everyone calling me a little girl tonight?

They were begging for bullets in their skulls.

Bear growls beside me, stepping forward to shield be from whatever danger there might be tonight, and there will be danger, but I catch his arm and pull him back again so that he was standing beside me instead. If he dies, I die. There wouldn't be anything for me to live for if Bear, or anyone in the NC, died. "It's fine, Bear." I whisper under my breath, looking at him out of the corner of my eye. "I can handle this."

"And you're clearly outnumbered." The guy continues, rubbing the stubble underneath his pointy chin, looking between me and Bear.

I think he didn't notice Nikko on the roof and the new recruit on the boat yet, and I hoped he wouldn't notice them soon. I wanted at least two of us to get out of here alive, even if one of them had to be the damn newcomer.

"I had my men search the premises before we decided to come here." The guy says, tilting his head to the side. "You and your boyfriend here should just scamper away, go on a date and I'll forget that the two of you were ever here."

I look at their cars; seeing all of them parked behind each other in one row.

That's when I spotted our exit.

The car's gas tank was visible through the sea of bodies in front of me.

I look at Bear standing beside me. He didn't doubt my choices, he never did, so when I lifted my gun into the air, looking at the leader guy and at the gas tank, I pulled the trigger without a second's hesitation.

I was going to get all of us out of here, including the damn newcomer.

Everything after that happened in complete slow motion; the car in the middle of the other two burst out in flames before it erupted in a huge explosion, causing the other cars to explode with it.

The guys who were standing at the back had to jump into the water because their shirts caught flame, but the guys at the front started to fire their guns at us.

I hiss out in pain when I felt a bullet piercing my arm and if it weren't for Bear who pulled me behind a pillar where the guards who run away were crouched behind not long ago, the bullet would have hit something else other than a limb.

Bear grabbed my arm faster than I could pull away and inspected the damage. I didn't want to look. The pain I felt was enough to tell me that the bullet pierced my skin badly and that I probably needed stitches and surgery if the bullet didn't go clean through.

"It only grazed the skin," Bear says, "you're fine."

He smiled at me through a literal gunfire and a damn explosion.

I think he would have smiled all the way down to hell, too.

Bear has his gun in hand now, ready to kill whoever had shot me in the arm.

He didn't care that Archie's rule before we left the mansion was that we had to do it non-lethally in that moment. I knew Bear more than I knew myself, and he would wreak havoc on anyone if any of his gang members were harmed in one of the missions, and he won't even care about Archie's rules when doing so.

Before he could shoot whoever shot me in the arm, I pulled him backward, noticing that it has been strangely quiet for at least a few seconds now, like they were surrendering, but I wasn't going to take the chance to see if they did. They most likely waited for one of us to come out of hiding so that they can shoot us.

But ten seconds turned into a minute and no one still shot their guns.

It was quiet. Too quiet.

I poked my head around the pillar and saw that the men, and their boss, held their hands high when the newcomer walked around them to come toward us.

"The thing you failed to notice is that they didn't come alone." The newcomer says, pointing his gun toward the boss. "I have snipers who have their sights on you right now. So I suggest you take your men and leave..." The newcomer pauses and then says, "Waylon." The newcomer then slides off his balaclava.

The boss had his eyes widened like he was afraid of the newcomer despite him having a gun pointed at him right now. It's like he somehow knew the newbie and that he was very afraid of him, but the boss also had a scowl on his face, like he wasn't a very big fan of the newbie despite him being afraid of him, too.

Bear and I were standing there with our guns raised and watching the encounter.

We then look at each other when Waylon told his men to back down without putting up any sort of fight, and by the looks of the boss' men backing away slowly, I assumed that they were afraid of the newcomer too, just like the boss.

"Good." The newcomer says. "Now tell your men to get the hell out of here."

I frown, looking at the scene unfold in front of me.

Everyone except for Waylon just walked away.

Just like that.

They walked away.

Except for one.

 "I didn't know that you were doing business with them, Holmes." Waylon says, lifting his tuxedo jacket up so he can place his gun behind his back.

The newcomer chuckles. "I'm not doing business with them, Waylon. I'm working with them." The newcomer says, still pointing his gun at him. "We are a gang now, so if you mess with them, you mess with me."

Waylon nods despite the scowl on his face. "I cannot just leave without the shipment," Waylon says, "someone is expecting this shipment, and if I don't—"

"I'm sure you can make another plan." The newcomer says. "So I suggest you leave before I take a hole out of your brain. You personally know that I never miss," the newcomer steps forward and tilts his head mockingly to the side, "or do you want to find out if I miss just this once? Maybe I will this time."

"No." Waylon says, shaking his head in defeat at the newcomer. "You win."

"What?" One of the men that didn't back away stepped forward. "You cannot just let them have it!"

Waylon lifts up his hand, silencing the man. "We don't have a choice."

The man visibly clenched his jaw tightly together.

He was fuming.

"Let's go." Waylon says to the man.

The guy said nothing.

He just followed Waylon out of the shipyard.

I don't know how, but the newcomer actually saved our damn asses tonight, but he might've saved us from the danger here tonight, but he won't be able to save us from Archie's wrath once he finds out that I let that explosion happen and that we didn't obey his orders by going in non-lethally.

 "We better call Storm and tell him that he can bring the van." The newcomer says, staring directly at me. "And we better hurry before the police show up to investigate the explosion."

• • •

The drive back to the mansion was intense.

Storm kept quiet the entire drive when he found out that a car exploded. He heard it from a full mile away, and it didn't take long before we drove away from the shipyard for the cops to start rolling in to investigate the scene.

Bear didn't celebrate the way he usually did after a job well done. He knew what was to come when we would drive into the mansion's front gates.

Nikko was silent too the entire drive.

The silence was deafening.

It was driving me insane.

Bear sighs from beside me, his leg jumping up and down as if he was a nervous wreck before a big interview. He then looks at me. "Archie is not going to be happy about us not going in non-lethally. At least three men died from the explosion, and if they managed to survive it, they have serious burns on them."

"I had no choice." I tell him, still looking at my dirty shoes. "I didn't know that the newcomer had contacts, otherwise I wouldn't have let the cars explode." I look directly at the newcomer saying that, seeing him shake his head.

"He wasn't a contact." The newcomer says, lifting his head to look at me but I avoided eye contact and looked at my dirty shoes again. "I did a job for him once. I had to take down three of his enemies before they took him down first."

"So he fears you?"

The newcomer shrugs. "I guess he does." He says, tugging at the edges of his balaclava. "He knows that money talks. If his enemies paid me more than he did, I would've taken him down instead, but he paid me more than they ever could."

"You said that he personally knew that you didn't miss." Bear says.

The newcomer nods once. "I killed one of his men right in front of him. He had a problem with paying me for the jobs I have done for him, but I didn't let that slide."

Bear nods.

There was silence again, but the newcomer started to speak again. "How would Archie know that we didn't go in non-lethally?"

"Archie knows everything." Bear says, stopping his leg from jumping up and down. "The blast already made the news by now, too. He had the shipyard in his sight for a while now, so he'd know that there was an explosion."

Newbie nods, sitting back against the van.

"It's my fault." I tell no in particular. "I'll tell him that we had no choice but to go in non-lethally otherwise we would've been dead in the first minute we arrived at the shipyard."

The mansion comes into view and everyone kept quiet and Storm finally lets the van come to a halt in the driveway, and even when everyone got out of the van, everyone still stayed quiet.

The front door to the mansion flies open and Archie steps out and onto the porch before he crosses his arms across his chest.

I swear we looked like children ready to get reprimanded for being naughty.

But looking at Archie and his arms folded across his chest, I realised that we really were children about to get reprimanded for disobeying his orders.

"What part of 'non-lethally' didn't any of you understand?" He asks, shaking his head at all of us still standing near the van, looking up at him still standing on the porch.

"I can explain—"

"We were ambushed." The newbie says, cutting me off to what I wanted to say to Archie. "We didn't have a choice so unless you wanted the crates covered in our brains and bullet holes, I suggest you be thankful that no one died."

Archie opens his mouth to say something, but the newcomer beats him to it.

"It was my fault anyways." He says, running his fingers through his unruly hair. "I knew the owner of the shipment and I didn't step in quick enough to stop everything. Raya and Bear could've died if she didn't let the explosion go off."

Archie pinches the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes for a few seconds before he finally releases a sigh. He then lifts his head to look at us. "Okay." He says, looking at me only now. "But I at least thought that you would figure something out so that the entire mission wouldn't have ended up in bloodshed, Raya."

I open my mouth to say something but just close it again.

He was disappointed in me and nothing I would say right now would change that.

"You surely planned for this mission, haven't you? You knew there was going to be more people than expected because they were heavily armed... What happened to your plans? You're always prepared—"

"How does one plan for an unexpected ambush when you can't kill anyone?" The newcomer cuts him off yet again, but this time he did have a good point.

I knew there was going to be a gang that wanted the goods more than us, but I didn't think that there would be more than twenty people aiming their guns at us. I thought there would be five to ten people max, not twenty gang members.

Archie looks at the newcomer through his eyelashes and then finally just nods. He let all the anger go; letting it disappear into thin air before he finally asked, "How many crates did you guys manage to get through it all?"

"Five." I answer him. "We managed to get five crates from the boat."

Archie nods again and steps out of the way so that the boys could pass him on the porch. Bear and Nikko, who have been silent the entire time, walked up the stairs and disappeared into the mansion.

Next it was the newcomer's turn.

He walks up the stairs and through the mansion with Storm right behind him.

I wanted to walk too, but Archie beckons for me to join him on the stairs of the porch.

I sit down, folding my hands in my lap and looking at my dirtied shoes instead of Archie. "I'm sorry." I mutter, kicking a loose pebble with my shoe. "I know I should've planned this more—"

"It's okay, Raya." Archie says and I look at him seated beside me on the first step of the porch. "I'm not mad because there was an explosion. It's just—I was so worried that you and the rest of the crew you've gotten hurt because of it. I didn't know what to expect when I saw the news."

"Surely you must've understood that there was going to be danger involved." I tell him, frowning at him. "So why weren't we supposed to kill anyone when you knew that this was going to be dangerous?"

Archie sighs, running his fingers through his dark chocolate coloured hair. "It was a bad call to make." He says, looking directly at me, the porch light's illuminating his light green eyes. "I thought that you guys would've been able to get the job done without bloodshed, but when Ezra mentioned that there was an ambush... I knew I was wrong to have told you guys to not go in lethally."

I nod, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. "We managed to take down about five guys non-lethally." I tell him. "But when the other cars arrived, that went flying out of the window. I didn't know that the newcomer knew the person whose shipment it was otherwise I would've let him do the talking instead of me getting ahead of myself and letting the explosion happen."

"It's over now." Archie says. "But I'm letting you make the decisions rather than saying what should be done before the time." He finishes.

"Or you can just come with us the next time. Make your own decisions?"

Archie chuckles, shaking his head at me. "I'm getting too old for this, Raya."

"You're not even older than thirty five yet." I tell him, but my eyes widen in shock when something hits me. "Wait, are you thinking about stepping down?"

"No." He says. "I'm not stepping down yet, but if something happens to me, I'm putting you in charge of the Nefarious Crew, Raya. You."

"Me?" I ask, staring at him wide-eyed, my mouth slightly parted. "Why not Bear, or even Storm? I'm a girl, Archie. They won't take me seriously!"

"It's all about the decisions you make, Raya." He says. "They'll take you seriously when you make difficult, but good decisions. And besides, I take you seriously. I always have. You are stronger than anyone I've ever known."

"It's because I've learned from you, Archie!" I tell him, the shock of him wanting to make me gang leader still ringing in my ears. "I'm strong because you made me strong."

"Exactly." He says. "I've prepared you for when that day comes. When I need to step down, or even when I'm incapable of leading this gang, you will take over."

"Archie..."

"Enough, Raya." He says, dismissing me with the wave of his hand.  "Don't overthink this. I trust you, but the question is: do you trust yourself enough to be able to lead the gang by yourself?"

Even though I couldn't think about the gang without having Archie by my side, I still nodded at him.

Archie trusts me. When the day comes and he's incapable of leading, I will take over, and I will make him proud; prouder than he has ever been of me before.

The wind whined, making me shiver. As the season neared winter, the days got colder and the nights got even colder. I rub my hands up and down my arms to attempt to warm myself, but I completely forgot about the bullet that grazed my arm earlier and as my fingertips grazed over the cut there, I hissed loud enough to capture Archie's attention.

He wasn't like Bear who took my arm to inspect the wound like the world was going to end to see me hurt like that, but concern did mar Archie's face. "No one told me you got hurt." He says, his voice was barely above a whisper.

The blood was dry against my fair skin, and despite there being a sting where the bullet pierced my skin, the cut still didn't hurt that much to get it checked out. "I'm fine, Arch." I say, but the hiss from earlier told him that I was not.

"You need to get it checked out." He looks at my arm, concern crossing his features yet again. "Ezra could check it out for you. He has experience with patching up cuts and wounds."

"I'm fine." I tell him again, hoping he'd believe the lie.

"It's an order, Ray."

"Ordering me on a mission is one thing, Archie, but when it comes to my own health, I have a say in what I want to do or what not to do." I tell him. "It's just a graze anyways; it looks worse than it is, but I promise you I am fine, okay?"

Archie chuckles. "You are one stubborn girl, Ray."