Read Red. (Den of Mercenaries #1) for Free Online

his movements, trying to see the man better. Another thing that made him stop was his lack of an accent.
    “Who are you? Do you work for those Russians? Are you here to kill me?”
    “Who I am is unimportant. I’ve come to offer you a gift.”
    This was all some kind of fucking bad dream. Tomorrow, he would wake up with a hell of a hangover, in his hotel room with Sarah asleep beside him. There would be no Russians, no other crazy foreigners, and definitely not a mysterious man making him an offer in an alley.
    “What kind of gift?”
    “Vengeance against the Albanians that brought you to this point.”
    Russians and Albanians? This was too much. Niklaus laughed bitterly, gesturing at himself. “I don’t think I can do anything. I couldn’t even help my…” He trailed off, refusing to finish that statement.
    “But you will,” he went on. “Once you learn the trade of dead men.”
    That didn’t even make sense. “What are you talking about? And what do you get out of this?”
    “There’s only one way you can find out.”
    Niklaus noticed then, the idling truck at the curb, black with tinted windows. Had they been following him the entire time?
    “How do I know the Russian didn’t send you?”
    The man with the white hair merely shrugged. “You don’t, but you can’t expect to hide from them forever, can you? They will find you, whether the Besniks or the Volkovs. Eventually, they will catch up to you. You know the police will be of no help, do you not? No matter how you spin the tale, the blame of your lover’s death will rest upon you by the time they finish with you. Is that what you want?”
    He wanted to believe his story would be enough, that his own wounds would be enough, but the man’s words had him doubting himself.
    He hesitated. He could walk away. He doubted the man would stop him if he tried, but like he said, he would only get so far before they found him again.
    And after all he had suffered at their hands, did he not want revenge?
    “What would I have to do?” Niklaus asked, meeting the man’s gaze.
    Slowly, the man smiled as though that was the answer he had been waiting for.

Chapter Seven
    C old .
    That was the only thing Niklaus registered for the next few hours. Like before, time was an odd thing as he was moved from one vehicle to another, and if he wasn’t mistaken, a plane as well.
    As they passed through the rolling gates, the bag was removed from Niklaus’ head, and as his eyes adjusted to the sunlight streaming in through the back windows, he wasn’t quite sure what the purpose of the hood was. Besides the concrete building looming ahead, there was nothing left to see. There were trees, lots of them, and besides the guards with vicious looking dogs, the place looked rather abandoned.
    By the time he was back on the ground, nearly half a day had passed unbeknownst to him. A single car ride later, he was being transported into an armored compound that resembled a prison more than a training facility. It definitely didn’t look like a place that he would want to enter after his captivity. And it definitely didn’t look like a place that the man who had found him would frequent.
    Soon, he was hustled out of the van towards the entrance. Various corridors faded to the background of his mind as he walked through dozens of doors as his surroundings began to blend into themselves.
    Finally, as they reached the end of a long hallway where a lone door loomed ahead of them, Niklaus began to second guess his decision to come to this place, even more so when that door was opened and he was pushed inside.
    Still weak from his injuries, he stumbled, hitting the concrete floor hard as he rolled over to keep them in his sights. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of them as they all stared down at him with the door open at their backs. All of them wore ski masks and dark clothing, and while their arms rested at their sides. Niklaus didn’t doubt that they were waiting for him to make a