Chapter 159: Welcome To Bernia

Draven’s POV

"You all look richer than a few thousand dollars, so why did you stop us?" I asked.

Nobody answered me.

At that moment we were inside their crib ... their territory, their rules. I was scared to death standing there with a gun pointed at my head. I genuinely thought it was over. After everything we had been through, everything we had survived, we were just going to be killed like that? Offered up for slaughter like we were nothing?

"Draven Blackstone."

Their leader called my name. He didn’t seem to expect me to step forward ... probably because we were all tied down like animals.

"Yeah, that’s me," I said.

"We know your history. Your backstory. You’ve always been it," he said.

I didn’t catch half of what he was saying but I kept looking at him and nodding like I did. Didn’t know why he was going on about it, but I really wanted to find out.

He called Lucas’s name next, then the others one by one, pulling up everything he could find on a laptop ... our histories laid bare like open wounds on a screen. When he was done running through all six of us, he opened his phone and held it up so we could all see.

A live feed.

"The bounty on your heads has been increased. Anyone who brings in one of you now collects half a million. That’s three million for all six of you," he said, showing us the announcement.

According to whatever broadcast that was, we had become high-profile criminals. Seriously wanted. The kind of people who weren’t supposed to be walking free in broad daylight.

"Step outside of here right now and you’ll be caught," he said. "Every cartel, every gang, every hungry wolf in the streets will be hunting for that money."

It was only then that I counted the room properly. Eight wolves. Eight of them standing around us like we were already caged.

"So who exactly are you?" Lucas asked.

"Good question," the man said, and he actually smiled. "We are the people who have come to offer you redemption."

Redemption. The word hit different when you’d been running as long as we had.

"And how do you plan on redeeming us?" Valentina asked ... the stripper wolf, sharp as a blade even with her hands bound.

He smiled again. "By giving you a life. Because as it stands right now, you’re already dead. Everything you’ve been doing ... the stealing, the robbing, the kidnappings ... all of that was baby steps. We’re about to show you the real deal."

And that was the moment I knew. They were a terrorist organisation. That was why they hadn’t blown our heads off the second they caught us.

"So what is the real deal? And why do you still have us tied?" I asked.

"Shut the fuck up and listen. You ask stupid questions," he said.

I almost laughed. Almost.

"The fact that you got caught doing whatever you were doing ... to the point where you’re literally dead men walking ... tells me you’re not professionals. Tells me loopholes were left open," he said.

What the fuck was this man doing? He could have gone straight to the point already.

"What’s your name, if we may ask?" I said.

"Melvin. But that’s not what matters right now. What matters is that you need to leave Valdris tonight and come with us to where you’ll begin working for my organisation," he said.

"Who are you people? That question still hasn’t been answered. And what makes you think we’ll agree to anything?" I said.

Lucas would have hit me if his hands weren’t tied.

"You don’t have a choice," Melvin said. "There is no option on the table. You either do this or you die." He looked at me, then at Valentina. "What do you say?"

None of us said a word.

"Cut the ropes. Prepare them for the flight," Melvin ordered.

"You didn’t even give us a chance to say goodbye to our families," I said.

"Based on my research," he said, not even flinching, "you don’t have any."

I wanted to say fuck you to his face. But I had five other people to think about, so I swallowed it and respected myself.

In what felt like minutes, we were on a plane and ready for takeoff.

The aircraft was parked right behind the crib. I hadn’t seen it coming ... didn’t think anything that high and mighty could be sitting in a place like that. The interior of the plane was screaming wealth from every corner. I still had no idea who these people really were.

But because of them catching us, we were now in the air ... flying out of Valdris without a single soul knowing. The people who’d been hunting us were probably still down there in the streets, dreaming about cashing out millions, not knowing we were already levels above them, cutting through the sky.

Courtesy of Melvin.

We touched down and I scanned everything around me. I still didn’t know where we were. The journey hadn’t been too long, but it hadn’t been short either.

A private car was waiting for us on the ground. I was shocked ... not just at the car, but at the precision of everything, the way each thing followed the next like it had all been planned weeks before we even knew these people existed.

On the road, I caught a sign through the window.

Welcome to Bernia.

What the fuck.

We were in Bernia? That was miles from Valdris. Worlds away from where we’d been running.

But we were safe. For now, at least.

We pulled up to another private suite ... the kind that matched the car that brought us. They didn’t let us stand around and take the place in. Straight to the office, no detours.

When we walked in, another wolf stood up from behind a desk.

"Are these the runaway ones?" he asked.

Melvin nodded.

His assistant was already moving ... sharp, efficient ... sliding a register across the desk toward us. "Sign your names. If they’re fake, we’ll know."

One by one we signed. Me, Draven. Then Lucas. Valentina. Zeno. Salvatore. And Ciro, our main hacker.

All real names. No games.

"You’re here because you’re already hired," the man behind the desk said, and he removed his glasses slowly, like a man who never rushed anything in his life. "My name is Tony, and I’m your boss now. Everything you think you know about crime is about to change. You belong to the elite now. You’ll carry out missions for my organisation ... no hesitation, no looking back."

"What kind of missions? And when do we start, sir?" I asked.

Because from the look of things, we didn’t have a choice. Our lives were sitting in these people’s hands whether we liked it or not.

"Good question, Draven," Tony said. "They told me you were the inquisitive one. You’re the leader of this group now."

"Really?" I said.

"He doesn’t repeat himself," his assistant cut in flatly, looking at me like I’d just wasted everyone’s time.

Tony stood and waved his hand toward the wall behind him ... and a door appeared where I could have sworn there was nothing but solid wall a second ago. My eyes narrowed. Wonders were not going to end in this place anytime soon. I was already sure of that.

"Come," he said. "Let me show you exactly what you should be expecting ... and how to get ready."