Page 46 of The Wolf and the Monarch

“Shit happens, I don’t know what to tell you.”

He huffed and folded his arms across his chest. “Why do you want to help this one?”

That was a bit of a loaded question but a valid one. He couldn’t very well just come out and say that Milo had the wrong person and that Benji was being set up by his family in some way they weren’t entirely sure of yet. He also couldn’t admit that he liked Benji. He thought he was nice, despite the shitty situation he was in. Sawyer shrugged again. “I’ve wanted to help them all. This one…I don’t know. I guess it was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Cole nodded his head a bit, seeming to somewhat understand what Sawyer was saying. He was silent for a bit, tapping his foot against the ground, which he was honestly thankful for. He wasn’t sure he could handle complete silence. “You think about where you’re going?”

That caught him by surprise. “Uh…yeah, a bit. He said there’s a safehouse we can go to. He just needs to contact someone about it.”

“You trust him to do that?”

Another valid question. In their business, it wasn’t smart to trust people that weren’t your own. People betrayed people all the time. And even in their business, it could get risky trusting your own. Benji had and look at what happened to him. And yet, even with that, Sawyer nodded. “Yeah, I do trust him.”

Cole chuckled, “That’s bold.”

“Yeah, I know…” Sawyer sighed.

“And you think it’s a good idea?”

Another good question. Cole was just full of them. “I don’t know. It’s not like staying here is a good idea either. I haven’t been happy in years, Cole. I’m tired of Milo. I’m tired of taking care of practical corpses in a basement. I’m just…tired.” Every day, it got harder and harder to find a reason to wake up in the morning. It wasn’t like Sawyer was suicidal or anything. He just didn’t want to be awake anymore. But meeting Benji and speaking with him, getting to know him. He was giving Sawyer a reason to want to wake up again. And he wanted to keep it that way.

Cole’s gaze stayed upon Sawyer for a few long minutes before he licked his lips and shrugged. “When are we leaving?”

“What?!” Sawyer immediately asked. Did he hear him right?

“I said when are we leaving?”

“I-I…I don’t–” Words were escaping him. So many thoughts were running through his head. Cole wanted to come with them? “Seriously? You want to come?”

He shrugged again. “I mean, I have to now, don’t I? You made me an accomplice in this whole thing.”

Sawyer’s jaw slacked a bit and he stammered some more, unsure what to say. “Cole. I-I’m sorry.”

The man waved his hand and stood up from the stool so he could move towards his worn out office chair by his desk. “Nothing to be sorry about. Can’t say I care much about this job. Just do it because it pays alright. But I got enough of it,” he looked back at Sawyer, “When we leaving?” He repeated.

“Um…well, I was thinking about this Thursday or Monday… That’s when most of the bunker is out.”

“Smart, yeah. The less sneaking we have to do the better because no offense, boyo, you probably aren’t going to be the sneakiest in your condition.”

Sawyer couldn’t even be offended because he was probably right. “Yeah. He’s not too great downstairs either but he’s on the mend.”

Cole nodded. “Let’s do Monday. It’ll give you some more time to heal up.”

“Uh, yeah, okay. Sure.” He wasn’t going to argue. Whatever day Cole wanted, they would go with. They were really at his mercy. The only unfortunate thing with waiting that long was that Benji would have to endure another round or two of Milo. But he was sure that he would deal with it if it meant they were leaving.

“Is the plan just to sneak out of here when they’re not watching and get to that safehouse you mentioned?”

“Yeah. He just needs a phone, he said. Then he can contact whoever and they’ll help us.”

“Got it. You think about what if we’re caught?”

Sawyer blinked and shook his head. “No. Not really. I’m just hoping we won’t be.”

“We’ll probably have to fight. Maybe kill,” he paused, “Likely kill.”

He figured as much. “Yeah.”

“Can you do that?”