Page 54 of The Wolf and the Monarch

“‘Eyyy good! Who am I talking to?” He then asked.

“Hey, Jackson. It’s Benjamin Madison.”

“No shit! Benji! Hey!” Jackson exclaimed, clearly happy to hear from him. It was pretty rare when he did so it was probably nice to know he was alive. “What’s going on, man? You good?”

“Not really,” he answered sincerely, “It’s been a rough week, man. I’m in New Jersey, right now, near East Brunswick. I need a place to lay low for a few days.”

“New Jersey, huh? What are you doing there? Aren’t you from DC?”

He nodded, “Yeah. Got mixed up in some shit. It…doesn’t matter. Just need a place. Do you have something for me?”

“Let me take a look at what I got there,” Jackson fell silent for a few moments and there was some tinkering of computer keys on the other end before a loud a ha was heard. “I actually have a place in Shrewsbury. Not that far from you, it seems like.”

“Fuck yeah, that’s perfect.”

“Great, I’ll make sure it’s set up for you and I’ll text you the address and the code to get in. This is a burner, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Good.”

“Jackson, I also will need a medic. Can you get one there today?” He tried to make himself sound as hopeful as he could.

He hummed. “I think that can be arranged. Anything else?”

“Y-Yeah… one more thing,” he rubbed at his eyes, “There was a death on the way out… a good guy. But he’s currently in the backseat. Can you uh–”

Jackson cut in, “Yep. Full service. I’ll get that body home.”

“Perfect… And uh, I will have someone with me. His name’s Sawyer. He came from the same situation I did.”

“That’s fine. He’s trustworthy?”

“Absolutely.”

“I trust you, Benji. Should I tell your dad about this?”

“N-No…no, don’t please. We’re not really talking right now.”

“That sucks. But you got it. I won’t say a word.”

“Thanks, Jackson. You’re the best.”

“I know, right?” The guy laughed. “I’ll text you the information in a few minutes.”

Benji released a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much.” He repeated and ended the call.

Sawyer shrugged his shoulders. “That went well.”

“Yeah,” he huffed. “He’s pretty easy to work with. Like I said, he’s got safehouses all over the place. We apparently lucked out with where I decided to drive.”

And just like Jackson said, a few minutes later, he was given the address and code to get into the house. He also mentioned a medic would be there in a few hours. Perfect. They were almost safe. Grabbing the map, Benji took a few minutes to acclimate himself to where he needed to go before he pulled out of the rest area and headed that way.

Chapter Twenty Six

Benji

Getting to Shrewsbury was easy. However, finding the street where the safehouse was located took them longer than either of them cared to admit. Once they did find it, a weight was lifted off of Benji’s shoulders. Between the two of them, they got them out of that fucking basement and somewhere they could lay low for a few days. He knew he had to call his sister but that would come later. As much as he missed her and wanted to talk to her, he also really needed to just decompress. And he was sure that Sawyer needed it too.