Chapter Six Part Two
Raya St Claire

We were signalled that the snipers were taken down and that it's safe to proceed. Bear and Nikko were still hiding on the roof, ready to signal us if there were guards coming or not, but we were lucky thus far. We haven't seen any of the guards or gangs yet, but they were bound to arrive soon.

The newcomer was walking at my side, his weapon drawn in front of him.

The newcomer wore black clothes for tonight's mission; a black shirt, black pair of pants, a pair of black boots and a black balaclava. If we stuck to the shadows, we could do this mission without being spotted, but I think we were going to be spotted because the newcomer decided to run his mouth.

"Now that both of the snipers are taken down, what do we do now princess?" He asks.

"Shh. Keep Quiet. We don't know if there are guards around the corner." The newcomer just shakes his head, as if the guards didn't scare him at all. They didn't scare me either, but if we were going to do this non-lethally, we shouldn't give them a reason to shoot us by trespassing and announcing that we were here, but if they were going to shoot on us first, we'd have to disobey Archie's direct orders and I didn't want to disappoint him tonight.

He was counting on me to do this mission non-lethally.

"I'm just asking." The newcomer says, his words coming out in a whisper.

"You were a hit man, newcomer." I say in a low voice. "There were probably people you shouldn't have killed between the people you should, so how would you take down ten people without killing them?" I ask him.

"I'm the one that should follow your lead," the new recruit says, "you cannot ask for my input when you've done the necessary research on this."

"I did my necessary research, newbie." I tell him. "I was just wondering how you would do this kind of job without killing anyone in the process."

"I was a hit man, like you said." He says, looking at me. "I killed people for lots of money. When the money hit my bank account or hands, I didn't care about other people. I just cared about getting the job done properly. If there was collateral damage, then so be it. The job was at least done, princess."

"You're one heartless son of a bitch newbie."

"I guess I am." He says.

"Who's out there?" A voice calls out right before the person who talked came into view, holding his gun in his hands protectively as he neared us.

The newcomer wanted to lift his gun into the air, but I quickly slapped his hands downward so that the gun was out of view.

The guard lifts his gun even higher, toward my face. "Why are you wearing those masks?"

I clear my throat and step closer to the guard. "It's Halloween, silly." I laugh, lifting my mask just a little bit so that the guard could see half my face. "We were on our way to a masquerade party, but now we can't seem to find the way. We must've taken a wrong turn." I bite my tongue when I hooked my arm into the new recruit's, "Right, my love?" I turn to the recruit, hoping and praying he won't comment on my arm hooked in his.

The guard stops just a few feet away from me, standing on guard in case I do something to alert him.

"Uhm, right, my love."

"Halloween is next month." The guard says, frowning at the two of us.

"Yes," I nod, "but you know us teenagers, we throw parties weeks before the actual holiday."

"We'll be on our way now—"

The newcomer's words die in his throat when I launch myself at the guard, grabbing him around the throat with my bare hands before I squeezed it, limiting his breath intake.

There was something about having control over someone like this that gave me the literal shivers and chills. Just to know that someone could easily do it to me with fewer struggles made me feel all weird inside. Kind of scared.

I personally wouldn't want to be strangled like this by someone else. I wouldn't want my life to be in someone else's hands like this. I mean, not knowing whether or not the person strangling me was going to let go or not, that was scary.

I squeeze the guard's throat harder until his face started to turn blue. The guard's body started to get limp and his face was blue from the lack of oxygen his lungs were getting.

His legs finally give in, causing him to fall to the ground.

I get up from the passed out guard and  I turn to look at the newcomer and he still has the same wide eyes since when I stepped closer to the guard. "One guard down, and nine more to go."

The newcomer was just looking at me, like he couldn't comprehend what just happened.

"Hello, earth to the newcomer?" I snap my fingers in front of his face, letting him return back to earth.

He shakes his head and clears his throat. "I never saw a girl do that before."

"Well, I grew up with six guys in the house. I have a few tricks up my sleeve." I say, congratulating myself for rendering the newcomer speechless.

I say that is a job well done and hopefully he takes this into consideration to never touch me again otherwise he'd have the same fate as the poor guard lying on the floor right now.

"We still have a job to do so let's go, newbie."

"Lead the way, then." He agrees, stepping sideways so I could pass him.

He follows me closely on my heels as we make our way to the warehouse closest to Nikko's side.

Bear had the best view of the docking station and the boat so it would only be smart if I keep him in my sights before we walk into a trap.

I spot Bear leaning over the roof, waving frantically.

I pause in my tracks, the newcomer barely bumps into me but he manages to stop himself before he did.

"What?" I mouth to Bear.

"There are seven guys sitting over the fire, warming their hands." He mouths. "And there are two guys guarding the boat."

"Any signs of other gangs?"

Bear shakes his head no. "Nah, you're clear for now."

I nod, giving him a thumbs up.

"How can you even tell what he's saying?" Newcomer asks, looking between me and Bear.

"It's called having a connection." I say sarcastically, seeing the newcomer roll his eyes at my sarcasm. "There are seven guys sitting around a fire, warming their hands; the other two are guarding the boat."

"Well, do you have any more tricks up your sleeve for the seven sitting around the fire?"

I open my mouth to say something, but the newcomer has rendered me speechless this time.

He looks at me, amusement dancing inside his eyes.

I sigh, shutting my eyes so I can think of another plan, "I have a feeling that Archie's order of going in non-lethally is not going to work out, newbie."

"We better think of something fast because I hear voices." The newcomer says, turning in the direction where the noise was coming from, and true enough, three more guys walked towards where the other guard who smoked a cigarette a few minutes ago, stopped too to light cigarettes of their own.

"I'm thinking."

"Think fast."

"I can't think if you keep telling me to think!" I bite my lip and take in a deep breath before exhaling it again. "This might be one of the most reckless things I would ever do but desperate times..." I say before I storm down on the three guards.

They spot me and drop their cigarettes to the ground.

One guard reaches for his gun but I swipe his feet out from underneath him, sending him flying to the ground. He hits his head on the concrete and immediately passes out at the contact.

The other two guards pull me up from the unconscious guard's body and holds both my hands tightly behind my back, making me hiss out in pain from how tightly they were holding my wrists.

If they held onto it any tighter, they were bound to break it.

Come on, newcomer. This is your cue. Don't disappoint me now. Please.

"She's cute." One of the guards says, his breath fanning the back of my neck and sending shivers cascading down my entire spine. "I'll keep her."

Where the hell is the newcomer? If he left—

The newcomer comes to the rescue and uses the back of his gun to knock the guard holding my hands behind my back out while I kick the other guard's shin as hard as I possibly could. He yelps and falls to the ground along with the other guard the newcomer knocked out. The newcomer lifts his gun to knock him out too but I stop him by shaking my head at him.

I crouch down beside the guard. "Who's coming for the stash?"

The guard smirks at me. "That's for me to know and for you to find out, cutie."

"That's fine." I say before kicking him in the face as hard as I possibly could. "I got my answer." I kick him in the face again, harder. "Cutie."

I blow out a harsh breath and rub my wrist where the guards gripped it a few moments ago. It was sensitive to the touch, making me hiss out in pain.

"Fucking hell." I mutter under my breath.

The newcomer watches me with concerned eyes and I glare at him. "What, newbie?"

"You're hurt."

"This isn't enough to stop me from doing my job."

"Go back to the van." The newcomer says, eyeing my sore wrist with concerned eyes. "I'm sure we can figure something out on our own."

"I'm very capable of doing my job, thank you very much, newbie." I reply, rubbing my sore wrists for the last time before I started to move forward.

"Six more to go, then." Newcomer says from behind me.

"Can you make it to the boat without being seen?" I ask him and he nods.

"I can, why?"

"Because I need you to get to the boat and take both of the guards down. I'll handle the rest of the four on the ground."

"But your wrist—"

"Like I said, I'm very capable of doing my job just fine." I cut him off.

"Okay."

"Get to the boat, I'll be the distraction."

The newcomer nods and walks away stealthily—making sure to stay close to the walls as he walked. With his black clothes, he was blending into the shadows, making it difficult for people to spot him easily.

I take off my balaclava before throwing it to the ground and I follow the newcomer, but instead of turning right to where he was going towards the boat's side, I turn left, right into the danger zone.

I spot the four guards immediately and my heartbeat speeds up.

I just hope my wrist makes it through this.

"Where's your balaclava?" Bear asks, nearly making me jump out of my skin.

"Why aren't you at your post?" I ask him instead of answering his question.

"I saw Ezra making his way to the boat and I immediately knew that you were going to try and take down the four guards by yourself so I came down. I'm your backup, remember?"

"I don't need backup this time, Bear."

"Well, your purple wrist is telling me another story. You won't be able to fight them with it."

I chuckle at him. "Nothing ever goes unseen with you."

"Nope." He takes my wrist carefully into his hands and examines the bruise. As I watched him examining my bruise, I could have sworn I saw anger inside his eyes, and when he looked at me again, I was right. He was pissed off. If it wasn't for Archie's rule of going in non-lethally, I think he would have gone back to the guards and shoved knives inside their eyes.

I shake my head at him, pulling my hands back from his grasp gently. "Well, four guards are still risky, even for us." I say. "So what are we going to do?" I ask him, hoping that he'd have a better plan than I had.

"We've been training with the twins for years," Bear says, smiling at me. "I think we can handle four guys."

"But my wrist—"

"Do what you do best... kick 'em." He smiles and I return the smile.

"Well, kicking is better than using the hands. I need these babies to hack—"

My words die in mid-air when gunshots go off.

I run towards the four guards who were now on alert too and immediately start to kick one of them.

Bear uses his hands and hits one guard square in the nose.

"You're too late. The other guys are here." The guard I kicked says, turning to look at the boat, and sure enough, there were three cars surrounding the boat, limiting the newcomer's escape route. The only way out is the water.

I kick the guard in the face and turn to look at Bear who knocked out the third guard. Now that all four of them were passed out, we made our way to the boat but the gang spotted us and pulled their guns out and pointed it at the both of us.

We barely lifted our hands to surrender when the car they got out of, exploded, sending the gang flying to the ground; some landed in the water.

I look up to Nikko and see that he was holding a sniper rifle in his hands, watching us through the scope. Bear was looking at him, too.

Flames erupt all over and by now the sounds already made its way to the city.

"We better hurry if we want to make it out of here without the police showing up to stop us!" The newcomer shouts from the boat and both Bear and I nod at him before we run toward the boat.

We couldn't use the boardwalk because it was in flames, so Bear lifts my foot and sends me flying towards the boat; cheerleader style. I land on both my feet and see the newcomer holding out his hand for me to grab so that he could lift me up, but I refuse to take it and stand up myself.

Bear groans when he lands on his feet right next to me.

"This is going to be difficult. The goods are in wooden crates." The newcomer says, eyeing the boardwalk that's in flames. "We won't be able to get them off the boat without the boardwalk."

"We'll figure something out." I bite my lower lip, trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do. "We always do."

"Ray," Bear nudges my arm, catching my attention, "I don't like to rush you when you're thinking of a plan, but we have to think of something fast."

I look to what he was referring to.

"Shit." I mutter, shaking my head.

"Yeah."