Page 5 of The Wolf and the Monarch

“Shit.” Benji muttered under his breath and glanced over to Andi who was grinning like she just won a million bucks. He forgot about the wasteful part. How could he? That was essential to the Travis rant. He officially owed her twenty bucks. Walking over towards his dad, Benji held out the cup for him and Andi was quickly making her way over with the food, since it didn’t look like he was budging from his seat. “Hey, dad. Can we talk to you?”

Turning in his chair, his brow furrowed as he shifted his gaze between his kids, gingerly reaching out to take the food. “Sure… Should I be concerned?”

Andi shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Their dad blinked then turned his gaze to his brothers. “Get outta here.”

Spence huffed. “Yeah, saw that coming.” He gathered his things and left the office and a few moments later, Travis followed suit.

Soon enough, they were left alone with their dad. Benji grabbed a couple of chairs and brought them over for himself and Andi before he sat down. He took a bite of his hashbrown, unsure where to start but luckily for him, he had his sister there to start it all. He shifted his gaze towards her as she situated herself in her seat and folded her hands in her lap. “Dad,” she began. “We have some concerns about this mission that you accepted.”

He hummed. “I figured as much. You don’t typically do this unless there’s something dire to talk about,” Matthew took a sip of his coffee and he gave his kids his full attention. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“Well. I would like to know what you did to vet this job.”

Matthew’s brow quirked. “My normal protocol. Intensive database searching on the requestor to ensure they’re who they say they are. Then I researched the area to ensure that the building they spoke of actually exists.”

“And none of that came back weird?” She asked.

He shook his head. “No. It was all pretty standard. In fact, they are in direct relation to Brigadier General King.” Well, that was good to know. Brigadier General King was one of the military officials they got a good chunk of their jobs from.

“Okay,” Andi began. “Who requested this job?”

Matthew hummed softly while he reviewed his paperwork. “Looks like it’s First Lieutenant Warren.”

“And we haven’t gotten a job from them before?” Benji chimed in between bites of his hashbrown.

“No.”

“So, why are they sending it to us and not King?” Andi asked.

Their dad shrugged. “People come up in the ranks all the time. We can’t expect King to do it all.”

“But he’s never had any issues with it before. So what changed since like…last week?”

He sighed. “Things change all the time.”

“But not with this. Not with our job, dad.” Andi stated simply. She had a point.

“Did you look up this guy?” Benji asked.

He looked at his son and gave him a look that said ‘what kind of a fool do you take me for?’ “Of course I did.”

“And that was all normal?”

“Yes. It was standard information. He used to be with a different group but moved to King’s recently.”

Andi frowned a bit. She clearly still wasn’t satisfied. “Why can’t they give us an IP address?”

“I told you–”

“No, dad. That’s a bullshit excuse. I don’t think that we should do this unless they get us the IP address. It shouldn’t be that hard to procure.”

“I already asked. They won’t do it.”

She shook her head and folded her arms across her chest. “We shouldn’t be risking Benji’s life for something like this.”

Matthew looked over towards his son, trying to read his facial expression. “Do you agree, Ben?”