Page 60 of The Wolf and the Monarch

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to stay.”

She nodded. “Just don’t touch anything.”

Once Sawyer had sat down, Lindsey got to work numbing the area that she was going to be working on with some lidocaine. She mentioned it was the best she could do and it was probably going to be uncomfortable but he could deal with it. He tried his best not to watch what she was doing because, honestly, it made him a bit queasy, but it was hard not to. The skin graft, which he learned was actually an allograft because it didn’t come from himself, looked weird. It was like a mesh material but she said it would eventually graft to his own skin and bind over the hole in just a few days.

Talk about a medical marvel.

The actual procedure wasn’t too bad. The stitching felt like a weird pressure on his hand but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. And honestly, he would have put up with anything if it meant that he didn’t have a hole in his hand anymore. Sure, he couldn’t feel parts of it anymore and a couple of his fingers didn’t move like they used to, but all things considered, he still thought he was lucky. He could still move his thumb, index and pinky so he was going to chalk that up into the win column.

Benji stood near him, watching Lindsey’s handiwork intently. At one point, he had softly placed his hand on his shoulder and rubbed his thumb along it, just providing him some sort of support and comfort. Neither of them really thought much about it. At that point, it just felt kind of natural. Sawyer liked it, honestly.

Once she was complete with stitching the graft to both sides of his hand, she wrapped it back up and began to clean up the area, which Benji assisted her with. “Try to take it easy with that hand. I know it’s hard because it's your hand, but the less strain you put on it, the better.”

“Yeah, makes sense.”

“How long are you going to be here for?”

Sawyer glanced over to Benji, who then answered. “Well, probably a couple more days at least. We have a handful of things we need to figure out.”

She nodded. “I’ll try to swing by one more time before you go but I’ll give you my number so you can contact me when you get your life figured out. That graft isn’t a permanent solution. So the sooner the better, okay?”

“Okay, will do.”

Lindsey grabbed a pen and paper from her bag and jotted down her phone number, leaving it on the kitchen counter for them. “You two take care. Call me if you need anything in the meantime.” She grabbed her bag and cooler then headed out the door.

Benji made sure to lock it back up before he released a breath and turned back to Sawyer. “You feel okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I feel good. That wasn’t too bad.”

“Good.”

Sawyer smiled a bit then nodded towards the living room. “Do you want to watch something? And by something, I mean Marley and Me?”

Benji chuckled. “Yeah, we can watch that…” He trailed off.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he quickly added before he sighed then shrugged. “I just think…I should try to call my sister. Before we watch that.”

“Oh. Yeah. Of course. I can uh…go upstairs. Give you some privacy.”

“Do you mind?”

“No, no. Not at all.” Sawyer smiled a bit before he started walking towards the stairs. “Take your time.”

Benji just nodded and up the stairs Sawyer went to give him the time he needed.

Chapter Twenty Eight

Benji

For a while, Benji just paced back and forth throughout the living room and the kitchen. He was nervous. Which was fascinating because there was never a time in his life when he was nervous to talk to his sister. She was his best friend. But there was just that lingering thought in his mind of what wasn’t she telling him? Was there more to everything than what he knew? Why would she have to hide it from him? Was she hiding it from everyone? And at that point, would she even tell him the truth if he asked? He sure hoped that she would. He got kidnapped and tortured and kept her safe. The very least she could tell was be an adult and tell him what the fuck was going on.

On top of that, their dad was also doing something that he had no idea about. He wondered if she knew and was keeping that a secret too. There were so many things he didn’t know and he was absolutely dreading finding out because the whole foundation of his life was going to be shattered. Either his sister was doing something she shouldn’t or his father was. And both of those options were terrible, if you asked him.

His heart was pounding out of his chest as he stared down at the burner phone in his hand. Besides Jackson’s number, Andi’s was the other phone number he memorized. He figured out of everyone, even his parents, she would be the person he would contact if something happened. What if she didn’t answer? She didn’t usually answer mysterious phone numbers but perhaps something would tell her to answer.

Benji shook his hands out, took a deep breath and dialed Andi’s number before he chickened out. He brought the phone up to his ear, listening to it ring.