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“How in the hell has that even been allowed in this day and age?” I question and then add, “If this is a forced thing, then why the hell do people join the Ravens?”
“That’s the thing though; we haven’t had any new members for a very long time, at least none that are voluntarily here. The Conspiracy is a mixture of legacies, children of the original members, or they owed a debt, or they’re paying off a family member's debt. Their stories are their own, but you would be hard-pressed to find someone who has voluntarily joined.” Sawyer explains.
“Well, shit. Do they even still want to be a part of the Ravens? I will happily write off their debts, and they have no obligations to stay?” I ask, suddenly worrying that I’ve unintentionally backed them into a corner.
Sawyer smiles, “If they wanted out, they would have said when you mentioned it. Don’t worry, despite how fucked up Treyton was, they actually love the work and the challenge. They could never live normal lives.”
“Like us then,” Ace replies with a smile.
“Good, but let them know that the option is there and that whatever debt they had, if they had any, is completely wiped.” I insist, and Sawyer nods.
“I will. The ball is set to be in a month, and I’m guessing that you want me to put the word out that it’s cancelled immediately.”
I nod, “Oh, absolutely.”
Any more conversation is briefly interrupted when there’s the sound of scabbling feet, and the dogs come racing into the front room to greet everyone, their tails wagging happily and their attitudes already so much better than they were.
You’d struggle to see the same dogs that were nervous around men only a couple of days earlier.
“I wondered where they were,” Dax says and then adds with a fond smile, “they already look so much happier than they did.”
“Well, they have the run of the house, and when I’m not here, Gerald takes care of them,” Ace explains with a fond smile as they both lie down at his feet.
It’s evident to everyone that they know who their master is.
“Before I forget to ask, have we got any jobs that are either currently being done or that need to be done?” Rome asks, and I’d completely forgotten that there could be jobs that need our attention.
Sawyer rifles through his bag again and brings out a stack of papers, “Okay, so there are two jobs that are currently being done, and then we have four that are waiting for someone to do them. That’s not including your job for Mona. As I mentioned before, a lot of people who used to use us regularly for jobs lost faith in us when Treyton took over and started branching out into other things.”
“Do we have any idea how far along the two who are one the jobs are?” Mal asks, finally having stopped tapping away on the laptop, which I assume means that he’s finished sorting the money out for the Ravens.
“They should both be done and back by Friday, just in time for the meeting. We will make them aware of what happened and present them with the NDAs to sign if they want out right then and there.” Sawyer replies.
“Perfect, I can have the NDAs sent over to you later, and then you can present them to the rest of the Ravens. They can either sign them as soon as you present the idea to them, or we will give them an opportunity to sign them at the meeting if they decide that they don’t agree with the changes that I am making.”
“That sounds good. I need to warn you I’ve already had complaints from the higher paid members about your new payment system.” He replies with a smile that says he’s enjoying their upset.
“Well, they should feel lucky that they got paid anything at all, considering how unfairly the money was distributed before.” Rip points out, sounding as gruff as ever.
“We will deal with any problems that come up,” Rome replies firmly.
“I don’t want anyone accepting any new jobs until after I know who is sticking around and who is suitable for the jobs we are going to be taking on,” I add. I’m trying to make sure that I am thinking of everything, but I’m sure that I’m going to end up forgetting something.
“What shall we do about the jobs that we already have lined up? Do you want to put them off for a bit longer?” Dax asks curiously.
“Well, are they a mixture of things, or are they acquiring jobs?” Mason asks.
“There are no acquiring jobs at all, there’s a couple of assassinations, and then there are things like transporting goods and selling things other people have acquired,” Sawyer explains.
“In that case, I will see if D can spare a couple of people to do the jobs. we need to put out the word quite quickly that we are going back to acquiring, although I do think that we should do the selling of these acquired things if the clients would like us to as well.” I suggest.
“I think you’re right. It would save us from outsourcing it and ending up sharing the profit with those outside of the Ravens. It makes more sense to have us be experts in everything that comes with acquiring,” Mason agrees with me while the others all nod thoughtfully.
“I can help with that; I know my way around the dark web,” Ace smiles happily. This is definitely something that is in his wheelhouse. “And it's something that we can train the tech team in when we have a tech team.”
“That sounds great, I think we used to do it that way, but it may have been before my grandfather took over, so I have no memory of it,” Sawyer replies.
“I have some experience with it and a few contacts as well that we can use. Once we’ve built our reputation back up, it will be easier to get jobs,” I reply.
