Page 48 of The Wolf and the Monarch

“What’s that look for?” Sawyer asked suddenly and Benji snapped out of his thoughts, looking towards him. He just raised his brow.

“What look?”

“I don’t know. You looked…wistful, I guess.”

“Wistful?” Benji laughed, “I’ve never looked wistful a day in my life.”

“I don’t think that’s true. It seemed pretty natural to me.”

The redhead smiled a bit and shifted his gaze towards the ground. “I was thinking about my mom’s cooking.”

“She good at it?”

“Pretty good, yeah. There were a handful of times she really flubbed it but for the most part, it’s always good,” he sighed, “I was thinking about her making us some chicken pot pie when we get out of here.”

Sawyer shifted on the bed a bit and turned towards Benji. “That sounds pretty good. I can’t remember the last time I had one of those.”

“Yeah, they’re kind of a hassle to make with the dough and shit.”

“Think she’d do it then?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Cool, Sawyer said, then paused for a bit. “What’s her name?”

“Meredith.”

Sawyer just smiled and nodded once.

“Why?”

He ran his fingers through his hair and chuckled. “I want to make sure I make a good first impression.”

Benji immediately smiled and it felt like his stomach did a backflip. Why did such a simple statement make that happen? He couldn’t remember the last time someone wanted to make a good impression to his mom. Not that he had brought many people home to meet her. His job made it hard to date. He had a significant other here and there but it never really went anywhere. That was mostly Benji’s doing. It never really felt safe to bring someone into his life when they had no idea about his job.

But with Sawyer…

He knew better than anyone.

With a shake of his head, he pushed that thought aside. It was asinine of him to think about something like that. Chicken pot pie? Sure. Dating Sawyer? Absolutely not.

“I’m sure you will,” Benji said simply.

He just smiled a bit and nodded. “Cool.”

“Yeah, cool.”

A few hours later, the dreaded sound of the door unlocking filled the basement and Benji swallowed hard, keeping his gaze on the staircase. Anxiety poured off both of the men but he was pretty sure he was better at keeping that under wraps. Unfortunately for Sawyer, it was written all over his face. If he had time, he would have told him to try and fix that but Milo was quickly standing before them. Benji’s gaze stayed upon him for a moment before they shifted towards the little one behind him. He couldn’t help but notice he had a pouch with him that he was holding against his chest like it was a prized possession. The other one, Tank, didn’t have much going on. He just stood beside the other with his arms crossed for a while, his gaze shifting back and forth between himself and Sawyer.

“I’m about at my wits end with you,” Milo admitted with a huff, “I thought by now you would have told me something of use. But you’re stubborn.” He wasn’t wrong about that. Benji was stubborn. Even if he did know something, he wouldn’t tell him. Either way, the guy had plans to kill him, he was sure. If he told him, he’d just kill him flat out. If he didn’t, he’d kill him because he was frustrated. Sure, the earlier option would save him a lot of pain but Benji wasn’t a traitor. He wasn’t going to put Andi in a situation she didn’t belong in, because deep in his heart, he really didn’t think Andi had done anything. Not that he necessarily belonged in the situation he was in, but that beside the point.

“I’m going to ask you five more times today. And if you don’t answer me, I’m putting a bullet in your head.” The words came out of Milo so nonchalantly. It was clearly something he was used to saying. He leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees like a school teacher would do while listening to a student. “Do you remember your mission with John Raymond today?”

Benji just shrugged. “I really don’t.”

Milo sighed and dropped his head dramatically. He let it hang there for a moment before he suddenly moved and backhanded Benji hard against his left cheek. His head whipped to the side with a soft grunt. Milo grabbed his chin and straightened his face so he could backhand him once again, this time on the other cheek. “Do you remember your mission with John Raymond?” Milo repeated, standing up straight this time.

He rolled his eyes as he looked back to the despicable man before him. “I don’t remember it because it never happe–”