After the cold treatment, Ryer was really trying to put me back to sleep, but it was eight am. It just was not about to happen. I knew he had a busy day today and tonight.

“Take me to work with you?”

“Nope. That is not happening.”

“Why not, I can behave,” I mumbled.

“It has nothing to do with if you will behave. You are supposed to be healing and if I take you to work with me you’re going to want to get involved and that's just not happening.”

“Come on Ryer, I swear I’ll---”

“Fine, but you even so much as not listen to me and haul you back up here by your damn ankles.”

“You think you could?”

I meant it to be a question, but it sounded like a challenge.

“I meant that as a literal question, not as a challenge.” I rattled out quickly.

“Yeah, I got that. Don't worry about it, but I probably could. Go get changed, your going to want something dark and easily cleaned.”

“Alright. I'm sure I have something.”

I listened well I got changed to make sure; he didn't leave me in his wing. All my clothing was still in the spare room dresser and after digging through everything, I found acceptable clothing.

“Is this ok?”

“Yeah, looks fine to me.”

“Great, I'm ready when you are.”

“You want to grab something to eat before we go?”

“Probably best I don't.”

“Yeah.”

We headed down to the deepest level of the complex and Ryer showed me around. He pulled me into an office behind him.

“I have some paperwork to do, so just relax, you can sit at Andrei's desk. He will not be here, and if he happens to show up it won't be for long.”

“Alright, sounds good.”

Sitting in Andrei's chair, I pulled my phone out and scrolled through my contacts; I sent a message to the Chief just to check in with him.

“Hey, Ryer?”

“Yes, Sasha?”

“You ever wanted to be an underboss or something more?”

“I am the right hand of an underboss, it's the third rank in our family. So, no. Not one bit, I have enough to do now, I need nothing else added to it.”

“Huh, that's pretty reasonable.”

“Why do you ask, Sasha?”

“Maddox wants to add another underboss, a fifth one.”

“He asked you.”

“I didn't say--- yeah, he did. But I don't want to step on any toes and I know next to nothing about what the job entails.”

“You were worried about stepping on my toes? Nope, not in the slightest, I don't care for the position of underboss.”

“Alright. I feel a little better than.”

“Let me help you choose a right hand if you chose to accept Maddox's offer. I want to make sure you have someone appointed you can trust to watch your ass.”

“Alexi is going to be pissed with me, there's a lot of tech I'm going to want to update and he is vulgar about his budgets.”

“Ah, yes. You might make it on his shit list temporarily, but he will figure it out if he hasn’t done so already.”

“Just thinking about it is already giving me a headache.”

Ryer chuckled to himself. Before he had to stop writing to actually wipe his eyes.

“What the hell are you chuckling about?”

“You think the BPVs are bad. Ask Andrei about his monkey suits all day.”

My nose crinkled in distaste right then. I hadn't even thought about having to wear a suit. Hell, I didn't even know the last time I had worn one.

“I will not actively be taking part in the monkey suits.”

“We shall see about that.”

Right we would, there is no way in hell I was about to join the monkey suit parade that went on here, that just wasn’t my jam. Ryer went back to his paperwork, and I went about pricing out hardware for if I decided I wanted to join the rest of them. The price alone made me shiver at the thought of Alexi’s n0t smiling face. But it needed to be done.

Ryer neatly organised the pile he was working on and tucked it away in a folder on the top of the desk.

“Alright, let's go. I have some training to do.”

“What kind of training? New hires?”

“No, not today. Today I'm training a group of past new hires about larger weapons and add-ons.”

“Oh, I see. The heavy weapons.”

“Yeah pretty much.”

I followed behind him as we rounded a corner and headed into a room where about thirty people sat. Each one was different from the way they dressed to the colour of their skin. Mafia henchmen didn't seem to have a look. U less you counted the monkey suits of the underbosses.

They all nodded at Ryer in a respectable way. They hardly paid any attention to me, I got a look or two but not much after that. It surprised me when Jackson walked into the room, two weapons cases in hand. They were high-powered assault rifles, I could tell just by the cases that held them. I knew my way around those guns.

I watched as Jackson started to put the first in together. His hand was in the danger zone of being pinched by the current additional piece.

“Jackson, slide your fingers back, those add-ons bite when your that close and doing it that way.”

“Would you like to be the one to do it then?” He asked in a comfortable tone.

I looked at Ryer unsure if this was out of line, he just looked amused.

Walking to the table where the gun sat, I checked the safety before picking it up having a quick once over and snapping all the additions on. Pointing the barrel away from any living person I set it down.

Ryer popped the locks on the next one and opened the case. I knew this weapon instantly. I learned the inside and out of this weapon. I learned this weapon in boot camp when I joined the special ops high ranks. Ryer gave me a look then pointed at the case. Checking the safety, I pulled the weapon out and attached the other pieces with no problem before setting it back down the desk. Ryer leaned down at that moment and his lips brushed my ear as he praised me for being able to put them together quickly. My skin felt all kinds of too tight then.

I cleared my throat before stepping back out of the way. Ryer went on showing them a show reenactment of what I had done. He put guns together in the same way I did, but that was because we shared a common background. Ex special ops.

Well, Ryer went and took the hires to get one of each of the weapons to practise on, Jackson took this time to have a conversation with me.

“Hey thanks for pointing that out, I don’t play with that model enough to know about it. It’s not something I commonly use.”

“Yeah, understandable, I only know about it because of my ex-fed and special ops background, I have made that mistake and it’s not a comfortable one.”

“I'm surprised Ryer let you come with him after what happened this morning.”

“I would not take no for an answer, I wanted to come. He told me to be on my best behaviour, but it gave me time to take to him about the fifth underboss thing. He seemed pretty pleased for me, but he said if I got a righthand he wanted to pick it to make sure it was someone he could trust to have my back if shit went south.”

“That’s a good option, he knows plenty of good people who would be suited for that. I think Maddox would agree that is a good idea too. But having a righthand is up to you, you don’t need one if you don’t want one.”

“Good to know.”

“Oh, as well. In case Maddox doesn’t tell you, every underboss is required to an hour visit every month with our resident shrink, Zev.”

“Ok, I have no problem with that.”

“Cool, Maddox would be pleased to hear that. I think you are the only one who is pretty willing about it right from the go. Even I don’t enjoy going and he’s my lover.” Jackson chuckled.

“I’m pretty used to it, When I worked with the feds any officers that saw any kind of traumatic event were required to see a psychiatrist, make sure we didn’t get damaged by the fieldwork they had us doing, especially those that got serial killer cases.”

“Zev or Dr Martin is a pretty easy guy to work with. I’m positive you will get along pretty great.”

“Who’s Sasha getting along with?” Ryer asked leading his parade back in with all their weapons.

“Zev.”

“Ah, the good doctor.”

Jackson said his goodbyes and left with the group after training. Ryer flicked the lights off and closed the door behind him after we left. As we passed one of the other rooms, we heard gagging and swearing. Ryer was there one minute and the next he was being pulled into the room a heavy order of death was leaking out of.

I could hear Andrei giving him a piece of his mind about the smell and a broken freezer to which Ryer bitched it wasn’t his job and to take it up with whoever was left in charge.

“Lukas is going to want to spray me down with the outdoor hose before he lets me inside now.” He bitched.

“Andrei, I don’t blame him. I can smell you from here.” I yelled through my hand, which covered the offensive scent from my nose and mouth.

“Why don’t I come out there and hug you and make it your problem too Sasha,” Andrei grunted.

“I would much rather not smell like that.”

After a few more minutes, Andrei let Ryer leave. But it was a few minutes too late, the scent was on his fucking clothing. As we walked back to his wing, you could see anyone we walked by getting a scent of him and gagging. Hell, Even walking beside him was awful. I had never been so happy to see his front door.