Page 47 of The Wolf and the Monarch

He shrugged. “Don’t really have a choice, do I?”

“No. Not with this plan of yours.” Cole ran his fingers through his hair. “Can’t believe I’m doing this,” he muttered.

Sawyer stood up and moved closer towards the man. “I-I really appreciate it, Cole. Seriously. I don’t think there’s anything I could do to repay you.”

He smirked. “Probably not,” Cole shrugged. “But you don’t have to repay me. Getting out of here and starting over sounds kind of nice.”

It really did. The more and more Sawyer thought about it, the more excited he got. He was excited to learn more about Benji. He was excited to start life anew. He was excited to learn who he was without the lurking doom of his uncle around. All of it sounded incredible. “I agree…”

“I bet you do,” he chuckled then huffed. “What’s the kid's name in the basement?”

Sawyer blinked a couple times. Technically, he was Andi to the bunker but knowing their plan, he could probably know his real name. “Benji. But don’t mention it to anyone. They think he’s Andi,” Cole’s brow raised. “It’s a long story.”

He just nodded. “I won’t question it.”

“Thanks, Cole. Seriously.”

Reaching out, he gave Sawyer a soft squeeze on his forearm and smiled. “Any day, boyo.” With a new found vigor, he moved back towards the door and threw it open. As he did so, Cole just turned back towards his paperwork like he was none the wiser.

Now they just had to survive until Monday.

Chapter Twenty Three

Benji

When Benji and Sawyer had come up with the cockamamie plan to ask the mysterious Cole for his car, Benji thought there was about a two percent chance that he would agree. So the very last thing he expected to hear was that the guy was going a step above helping them and was coming with them. He would have named a thousand different things before he even considered that option. When Sawyer told him about it, of course, Benji was skeptical.

“He’s coming with us?” Benji asked, clearly confused about that statement.

“Yeah, that’s what he said.”

“And that’s…something we want? Something that’s okay? I don’t even know this guy.”

“To be fair, you barely know me.”

He supposed that Sawyer had a point. But there were just some people you knew were meant to be around in your life. Sawyer had to be that for Benji. “You’ve proven yourself to me.”

Sawyer sighed. “I promise, he’s a good one.”

“The only good one in this whole damn place is deciding that he wants to go on this deadly adventure with us?” Sawyer just blinked at that statement. “You can’t deny it sounds weird, Sawyer.”

“I know it does but I trust him.” Benji stared back at him. “I do! He’s done a lot for me. He’s the only one that has. And he doesn’t care much for this place either so, I don’t know, it makes sense to me,” he paused, “Plus, no one in their right mind would just give someone their car.”

Benji huffed. He did have a point about that one. “Okay, fine.”

Sawyer smiled. “I have a good feeling about this.”

That made one of them. Benji wasn’t sure about the whole thing but really, what other choice did either of them have? He knew that he was on a timer there. There was only so many times he could tell that Milo bastard he didn’t know anything before he decided enough was enough. He tried not to think about it but he was pretty sure that time was coming soon. After what happened with Sawyer, he imagined his patience was running out.

He just had to survive six more days.

He could do it.

He had to do it.

The next morning after their escape plan was concocted, Sawyer regrettably tied Benji back up to the chair. They both knew that it was for the best. Sawyer had gone upstairs to take a shower (something Benji was quite jealous about) and he overheard him mention Andi. Milo had given them a few days off, likely due to what he did to his nephew, but he wasn’t a kind or gracious man. He was going to be down there to pick back up where he left off soon. Which was fine, in some aspect. Benji was doing okay. His wound wasn’t throbbing anymore. He was just hungry. Sawyer was doing the best he could with that, but it was hard to sneak him down food. He appreciated anything he could get.

Benji sat there for a while, thinking about what he would eat when he got out of there. A hamburger sounded pretty good. Maybe some lasagna or a chicken pot pie. Benji’s mom made the best chicken pot pie. Maybe he could convince her to make him some. He was pretty sure that being held hostage and tortured for information for days upon end and surviving would be a pretty good reason to make some chicken pot pie.