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“Pride,” Rome says bluntly.
“Seriously, they’d risk losing their lives for pride?” I ask incredulously.
Malachi nods, “Absolutely. They wouldn’t want to be the man that admitted they didn’t want to go through it because in their minds, that would be like admitting that they were too weak to survive the assassination attempts.”
“That’s a stupid way to look at it. Especially considering that they would have gotten to the position of being leader because they’ve fought and killed the previous leader.” I reply.
Rip shrugs, “None of us said it made sense. We just said that it was most likely the reason that none of the previous Raven leaders have abolished the rule.”
“So I should expect some backlash then as well,” I add, and my smile is sharp, “to be honest, taking out people who want to kill me is a good way to keep my skills sharp. At least I’m not going to get lazy.”
“I know I should be surprised that you’re excited by that, but I’m really not,” Sawyer grins and then suggests, “Why don’t we go into the front room where we were yesterday and start going over some stuff while we wait for the cleaners to arrive. We’ve got a hell of a lot of shit to go through before Friday, and I’m starting to get worried that we aren’t going to be able to cover the most important stuff before then.”
I nod and grab my coffee, “Sounds good to me; lead the way.”
**********
The next few days are packed full of information, traditions and things that I absolutely need to fucking change. Most of the things that I need to change are discriminating against women. By Wednesday morning, all of Treyton’s inner circle have signed the NDAs and left the Ravens. That was hardly surprising, considering they were all paid the lion's share of the money earned by the other members, and they would no longer be receiving the same treatment. Surprisingly though, they did sign with minimal fuss.
Fortunately, the way that the Ravens are run is relatively similar to the way that D runs his business, just not as well done. I have been watching Uncle D run his business for many years, and I’ve paid attention. As soon as he realised that I was genuinely interested, he started explaining his reasoning behind why he was doing things. Why he made sure that things worked a certain way? Why he put certain people in certain positions? He taught me to know your people so that you know what they can handle, what you can throw at them, and how far you can push them.
I also know that if I ever find myself needing advice on how to do something or set something up so that it runs better, I can call D, and he’ll talk me through it and give me advice as well.
Sawyer quickly found a tech team that comprised of three members that were friends, had already done some work together in the past, and hated going out on actual jobs. They all practically jumped at the chance, and D has one of his nerds working with them at the moment to get them properly up to speed. Not that they need much training, they are incredibly skilled, and I’m really impressed not to mention grateful that they decided to stick around. It probably helps that they are all on the younger end of the member ages. So they’re more caught up with the times we live in, and they are less set in the ways of the older Ravens.
The older members would have had a problem with anyone who took them over, the fact that I am so different and I challenge pretty much everything that they’ve previously known the Ravens to be means that they will fight tooth and fucking nail. Sawyer and Dax handed out all of the NDAs, and we won’t know for sure how many members will be sticking around until Thursday when Sawyer collects any last minute ones that have been handed in, as that’s the deadline that has been given. Of course, that still doesn’t mean that’s our final numbers because there is a high chance that more will hand in the NDAs after the meeting if they don’t agree with the changes I’m making.
D has also got some people working on the very few jobs that we did have. I haven’t heard anything from Mona, but I won’t unless I don’t call her when I said I would. After the last few days of cramming knowledge and feeling like I’m studying for some kind of test, I am definitely in need of some action. I think I’ve spent more time beating the shit out of the punching bag over the last few days than I have for a long time. Of course, the punching bag also got my attention because we’ve now sorted the schooling situation out and we can take the exams whenever we’re ready. I just don’t know when that will be. Technically we could just drop out, and I am seriously considering it and then taking the GED later on when there is a bit of downtime because at the moment, we really don’t have any, and unlike some of the guys, I really will have to study in order to pass because academic stuff doesn’t come easy to me.
After spending most of the week learning everything I could about the Ravens and working out what I was going to change, in any free time I had, I was thinking about the schooling issue and, in the end, decided that it was going to work better for me just to drop out and then take it at a later date. The fact is, I highly doubt that I am ever going to have a traditional job that would require me to have one anyway. Mason is the only one of the guys who decides to do it like me, and the others all decide to take theirs and get it over and done with. At least that’s something that we can cross off the ever-growing list of shit that we’ve got to do. We still aren’t sure what to do about the fact that the guy's parents have been sending people to kill them sooner than they usually do. They are all confident that something is going on, but we haven’t had the chance to discuss it any further or discuss what to do about it because of everything else that we’re dealing with.
Today is Wednesday and Sawyer deemed last night that there wasn’t anything more I could know. The fact is we have already lost a lot of members so the Ravens are going to be a lot more scaled back than they ever have before, which is nice in a way because it means I’m somewhat eased into leading an organisation like this, it will also make it easier to build their reputation back up if we’ve only got a few members that we need to keep tabs on. I’m not sad about losing members, and I actually think it’s kind of convenient for the trash to take itself out.
“So what are we going to do today?” Ace asks, bouncing on his toes while he holds a grumpy-looking Murphy in his arms and the dogs bounce around his feet.
I’m not the only one who has found our lack of any action difficult, I think we all have to some degree.
“Well, the weather is pretty shit,” Rome mutters, sipping his coffee as he glances out of the window at grey skies and drizzle.
“I can’t stay inside for another day. Seriously, I just can’t,” Mason almost whines, and I nod enthusiastically in agreement because I really couldn’t give a shit what the weather is doing.
“I agree. I’m done with being inside,” Mal agrees, his leg bouncing up and down.
An idea starts to form in my mind, and I suggest, “Well, Gerald told me that there were some targets that my grandmother had set up on the grounds somewhere. We could go and find them and shoot some shit.”
My suggestion is met with huge smiles, and suddenly the kitchen is a flurry of activity as everyone puts away their breakfast stuff, and we all grab our jackets so that we can venture outside into the rain and not be immediately miserable.
The guys have already gone out the door and into the backyard, but the grounds are so vast that I decide that we really should have a vague direction of where we should go, I tell the guys that I’m going to ask Gerald only to turn around and see him smiling in the doorway.
“Ask me what?” he smiles, his eyes crinkling.
“Damn man, I swear you must have been some kind of ninja or something in a previous life. Not many people can sneak up on me,” I exclaim.
“Something like that,” he mutters, and then before I can question him, he asks again, “What did you want to ask me?”
I raise my eyebrows but carry on asking him what I wanted to know anyway, “I was wondering if you could point us in the vague direction of the targets that you mentioned my Grandmother had put up?”
Gerald’s smile widens, “Of course, I wondered how long you were all going to last before you needed out. Just into the woods at the bottom left of the garden, and then keep going until you find them. It’s reasonably straightforward to get to. If you hit the fence, you’ve somehow managed to go too far.”
