Page 51 of The Wolf and the Monarch

Sawyer just nodded his head and closed his eyes while taking in a deep breath. Benji wasn’t wrong. He just needed to hold a while longer. They would be out of there in no time because Cole was going to be pulling out of the lot any moment now and then they’d hop in and go. No one would even notice.

He did take the opportunity to look around at all the people once again and he spotted Milo on the phone. Likely with the fire department. There was going to be a lot of questioning going on, he was sure, and he wanted nothing to do with it. He also spotted Clay, who was just watching the fire with an evil glint in his eye. That guy would like fire. Tank was just standing near Milo, shaking his head until he watched it suddenly turn. Sawyer watched where his gaze went and he saw the Chevy Trailblazer coming up the road, towards the bunker. “Shit,” Sawyer muttered when he saw Tank tap Milo on the shoulder.

Benji must have been watching as well because he began to move towards the path of the car and he quickly followed beside him.

The car was zooming up towards them and the sound of a gun firing followed. The back window of the Trailblazer spiderwebbed from the hit but it never stopped moving until it was about twenty feet away from them. Immediately, they took off running towards the vehicle. That gun shot was enough to rally a few others and guns started firing towards them and the car all at once. Benji had made it to the car first and threw open the door to the passenger seat while Sawyer went for the back.

Two loud shouts were heard and considering he didn’t do it, he assumed it came from Benji and Cole but his concern had to wait. They had to get out of there. Before their doors were even closed, Cole punched the gas and they were flying out of there like a bat out of hell. Sawyer managed to close his door and ducked down to avoid any stray bullets. Benji followed suit.

Panting was heard from the passenger seat and an odd gurgle was heard from the driver’s seat. “Cole?!” Sawyer asked, shifting further so he could see what was happening.

“Oh, fuck,” Benji sighed. The two made eye contact and he just nodded his head while grabbing the steering wheel.

“What is happening?!”

Without an answer, Cole flopped himself out of the driver’s seat and into the back with Sawyer and that’s when he saw the blood. There was so much of it. Benji had taken over driving. They lost some speed in the transition but he quickly picked it back up and looked hell bent on getting them the fuck out of dodge.

It took Sawyer a moment to find where the blood was coming from but he eventually found the wound on his neck. With shaking hands, covered it in a failed attempt at helping him. There was nothing he could do. Cole was going to die. He was already so cold and he had lost so much blood. “I’m s-so sorry,” he stammered and shook his head as the tears rushed down his cheeks. “I-I shouldn’t h-have brought you into this. Fuck, Cole.”

Cole couldn’t speak. He attempted and blood just rushed out of his mouth, which led him to choking on it. Sawyer lifted him up a bit, hoping that would help. The last thing he wanted was for him to die because he was suffocating on his own blood.

The man dying his arms had been the only person in that whole bunker that gave a shit about him. And now look at him. They hadn’t even made it two minutes down the road… Was he cursed or something? Why did everyone he cared about die? First his parents, now Cole… If Benji had half a brain, he would just ditch Sawyer the moment he could because he was apparently nothing but bad luck.

With a slow, shaking hand, Cole reached out and patted Sawyer on the cheek like he had so many times when he was growing up. Another sob escaped him and he clenched his eyes shut when he saw the light in his friend's eyes fade away to nothingness. He held him close and cried into his shoulder until he could no longer.

With a soft hiccup, he gently placed Cole down onto the back seat and crawled himself into the passenger seat, bringing his backpack with him. Benji glanced towards him and frowned before he looked back at the road. “Do you even know where you’re going?” Sawyer asked softly.

“No,” he answered sincerely, “But I didn’t want to stop.”

He nodded his head a few times and wiped his nose with his wrist. He didn’t know what to say. He was drained. Emotionally. Physically. He just wanted to go to bed and the day had barely started. With a light thunk, he placed his head against the window and closed his eyes. He didn’t open them again until he felt Benji’s hand slide into his own, holding it tight. His gaze drifted down towards their hands and while he couldn’t find it in him to smile, it did make him feel better. Sawyer’s grip tightened in the man’s and he closed his eyes again, trusting Benji to get them to wherever he believed they needed to go.

Chapter Twenty Five

Benji

Benji couldn’t actually believe that he was out of that fucking basement and in a car, driving as far as he possibly could on whatever Cole left in the gas tank. It almost seemed too easy. But, then again, they did have a dead man in the back seat of the car. He was going to have to take care of that before it started to smell. But hopefully it would give them enough time to get to the safehouse. That would make things way easier.

The entire time he drove, he would look in the rearview mirror, watching for any cars that were suddenly speeding towards them but it just never happened. The fire had really done its job. While he didn’t really know Cole at all, he seemed like a good dude. Good enough to put his ass on the line to get them out of there. Good enough to get killed in the process. It was a real shame, honestly. Benji could see how torn up about it Sawyer was and he couldn’t blame him. From what he had heard, Cole was the only person who actually liked him and cared about him there. Seeing them die right before your eyes had to be a pain he could never really understand.

But, they had something good to look forward to, right? They just had to get to a rest stop where he felt comfortable to stop at, buy a burner phone, and they’d be on their way to forgetting about everything that had happened. Honestly, Benji wasn’t sure he ever could forget about it. It was hard not to think about it. It was even harder when his tongue kept sticking itself in the hole where his molar once was. How fucking unfortunate was that? Benji liked his teeth. They were nice and straight. Now he was missing one. Luckily, it wasn’t that noticeable but he sure would notice it.

Every now and then, when he wasn’t looking in the rearview window, he would look over to Sawyer who was sleeping soundly beside him in the passenger seat, with his head against the window. They were still holding hands and, honestly, it was nice. Benji needed it just as badly as he did, he imagined. They were all they had at the moment. He was going to take the comfort where and when he could.

The only time he had removed his hand from Sawyer’s was when he went flipping through the radio stations and that seemed to immediately wake him up. “Hey, sorry…” Benji said regretfully.

The man stretched out as much as he could in the seat and shook his head. “It’s fine. Sorry I uh…fell asleep.”

“No big. People usually sleep on road trips with me. I guess I’m boring,” he joked.

“Or just trustworthy.”

Benji smiled. “Maybe that.”

Sawyer ran his fingers through his shaggy, dark locks and released a breath before he spoke, “Do you know where we are?”

“No, not really. Just on the turnpike somewhere. I’m trying to get as far as we can before stopping for gas,” he paused then said, “Which will be soon. Got a little less than a quarter of a tank.” The last thing he wanted was to run out of gas. That would be terrible.

He nodded. “Yeah, makes sense.”