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All four of the guys shake their heads but it’s Ian that answers, “We have our eyes on a few fighters but we haven’t added anyone since the night we declared war. We didn’t want to risk bringing in the wrong person and we haven’t had as much time to train either. We’d already had a handful of new fighters this year.”
“The young guys?” Kade asks. Something tickles the back of my brain at his question. I can almost remember who he’s talking about but I can’t quite grasp the memory. I know there’s something about them though.
“You’re thinking of Wren and Dean. They’re both high schoolers,” Tyler answers.
Ian continues, “They were the last two fighters we gave cards to. Dean got a card the night Scar went all trigger happy at the fights.”
“And he still showed up to the training?” Ronan asks incredulously.
Ty just shrugs. “Him and Wren are best friends and Wren had already been training with us for over a month.”
Ronan scoffs. “Still, they’re kids. They must have balls of steel to show up after that night.”
Ah, it finally dawns on me. I remember seeing them there that night. They looked to me for a command. They were ready to do whatever I asked of them, even if I could see the fear written plainly on their faces.
“Maybe,” Ty concedes. “Or they just have something worth fighting for.” He trades looks with Ian and Holden and I instantly know they have their suspicions.
“Have they said anything to you about it?” I can’t help but question. We don’t really have the time to be taking on any new problems, but if they’re our fighters then they’re one of ours. Period. We protect our own.
I can’t forget the steely determination in those kids’ eyes that night. If they’re fighting for something or someone, they are ready to go to the very pits of hell to achieve their goal.
“Nah,” Holden answers. “They’re good kids. Diligent in their training, eager to succeed. But they keep their cards close to their chests. I don’t know that they will ever open up to any of us. But we get the feeling there is a very specific reason they are so close mouthed.”
“We can’t know everything that happens. If they need help, we can keep an eye on them but we can’t do much more than that,” Ty comments.
“About that,” Ian interjects, throwing a glance at Jade before he clears his throat. “We had this idea.”
“Go on,” I encourage, curious what it could be. Tyler wasn’t wrong. There’s no way for us to know what’s going on all over St Graves at all times. We have our information network, the fights play an integral part in it, but we also use all of our various businesses to keep our thumb on the pulse of this city. Doesn’t mean we have someone everywhere though. We can’t know every secret. Especially those of high schoolers. That is one area our intel is severely lacking.
“Well,” he hesitates, making me all the more curious. It isn’t like him to hold back when he has an opinion. “We already use the fights for intel, but what if we started using our fighters as well?”
I cock my head to the side as I study him. “In what way?”
“Have them keep their ears to the ground in their day to day lives. Report back to us. We are up to almost forty fighters now, all from different walks of life, all over the city.”
All the guys start smirking as they look to me. I respond with a chuckle. “It is a treasure trove.” One unintended side effect of all this has been the colliding of all our different avenues of business. Where we used to try and keep each one in its own lane, there are a lot more benefits to having those lines start to blur. Giving us more options and things to work with.
“The idea is that once we get it going, people will start to actually use them as points of contact to inform us who needs to be marked for death.”
Risky. But I like it. “I’m intrigued. We’d have to work out a system so those marked don’t realize they have been.” I tap my nails against my laptop without typing anything. “Step one, get the fighters on board to listen and report. In the meantime come up with any further ideas on how to implement the rest.”
He nudges Jade as he answers, “We’ll get on it.” A blush rises on her cheeks and she refuses to meet my eyes. At my arched brow, Ian chuckles. “It was her idea.”
I grin before turning my attention back to Joe. “Anything else we need to be aware of?”
He shakes his head in answer. “I think that’s everything.”
It’s not surprising it took us that long to get through talking about the fights, but I’m more relieved than ever that we decided to do this today. I already feel more settled and in control than I did this morning.
Before I even have to ask, Mikey continues the discussion. “We’re hearing all the same things from our spot.”
Ronan grunts in agreement. “Even our new artists are fully booked with people trying to get in good with The Bleeding Roses.”
“The new sign looks good though,” Britt says.
My mouth drops open briefly before I throw my head back and cackle. “You didn’t?”
“Oh, they did.” She grins emphatically, pulling out her phone as she does. “Sending photos now.”
