Chapter Eight
Sawyer
“Bring him inside and put his ass in the basement. See me when you’re done.”
Sawyer just nodded at the instructions and he looked towards their captive.
He was still out from the chloroform and would likely be for another hour, at least. He had given him a pretty big dose.
It was a mercy, really. He knew that the guy would be panicking if he was able to come to while they were driving and no one would handle that well.
He was quite lucky that Sawyer was there at all.
He doubted the others would have been as nice as he was.
Hooking his arms underneath the guys arms, he dragged the dead weight out of the back of the van and inside home base.
Unfortunately for Sawyer, he had to drag the guy through most of the base to get to the door to the basement and he could hear sniggering and chuckles from just about everyone.
Sawyer hated listening to them. It wasn’t his fault he was always on bitch duty…
Okay, well, yeah, maybe it was.
Sawyer’s family were not kind people. They had more enemies than allies and at that point, they were practically enemies of the state.
No one trusted them, nor should they. They did anything they could to get ahead and get money.
That was it. That was their prerogative and it had been that way for as long as he could remember.
When he was young, his father ran the entire operation but he was killed when he was eight years old.
His mother quickly followed his fate, leaving the ‘business’ to his uncle Milo.
Once he took over, he hired all the people he exclusively trusted and knew and made Sawyer a ghost in his own family’s business.
Not that he really cared. He didn’t like their practices anyway…
He just didn’t have anywhere else to go.
Milo always thought that Sawyer was ‘too small and pathetic’ to learn anything that counted so he kept on the duties no one wanted to do. Sawyer disagreed, however.
He wasn’t even that small.
Sawyer stood at an even six foot with tanned skin, cheeks littered with freckles, brown eyes, and shaggy dark brown hair that he often kept hanging in his face simply because he didn’t care enough to push it out of the way.
He was probably a bit leaner than most men his height, but he had always been that way.
By any means, he wasn’t skinny. His job at the bunker worked him out.
He had some muscle. They just weren’t as evident as the rest of the people in their society.
But that was fine. He wasn’t keen on impressing anyone there anyway.
As carefully as he could, he dragged the man (whose name he had forgotten, admittedly.
They had mentioned it a few times during the briefing but he didn’t think he’d be involved, so he didn’t bother to listen.
Turns out, he was going to be) down the stairs.
His nose curled up a bit from the thunks of his boots hitting each stair on the way down.
Once down there, he placed him down on a dirty mattress that was kept in the corner of the basement and released a huff.
His gaze shifted over the man and the familiar sense of guilt bubbled up in his stomach.
With a shake of his head, he pushed it down and walked back upstairs.
Sawyer found his way to his uncle, like he was told, and knocked on the door a couple times to his office. Milo looked up from whatever he was doing and presented a seat to him. Stepping in, he took a seat and crossed a leg over the other. “He downstairs then?”
“Yeah. I put him on the mattress.”
“Well, when you go back down there, tie him up to the chair.” Sawyer just nodded a couple times. He knew that chair pretty well, unfortunately. “He’s going to be spending a lot of time down there so you’re on Andi watch.”
Andi. That rang a bell.
“Right,” Sawyer began. “Feeding. Hygiene. Watching.”
“Exactly. He seems to know his shit and I wouldn’t trust him alone down there.”
“Okay.” His gaze stayed upon his uncle, unsure if there was anything else that was needed from him.
“We’ll be down there in a couple hours. You’re dismissed.”
With a nod, Sawyer stood up, exited the office and went back down into the basement.
Andi hadn’t moved an inch since he was placed on the mattress so he would have time to get him set up how his uncle asked.
The chair was placed in another corner of the room, which Sawyer dragged it over and front and center where it was usually wanted.
Walking over towards a closet, he grabbed a couple pairs of handcuffs, tape, and some rope, before he walked back towards Andi.
He dropped the gear on the ground so he could hoist the man back up and plopped him down in the chair as carefully as he could.
Andi’s head lolled backwards, which looked rather uncomfortable, so Sawyer moved it so it was at least hanging forward.
Before he got to work securing him to the chair, he took off his vest and boots and threw them aside.
Grabbing the rope, he tied their captives' ankles to the legs of the chair and used the cuffs to hook his wrists behind him on the back of it. And just for good measure, he placed a strip of duct tape on his mouth. It probably wasn’t very comfortable, but unfortunately for Andi, it was just going to get worse from there.
Once satisfied with that, he released a heavy breath and took a seat on the bottom stair, waiting for Andi to wake up.
Sawyer hadn’t even realized that he had nodded off until he heard a groan from the middle of the basement.
Immediately, he opened his eyes, blinking a few times before he settled upon the man tied to the chair.
He was finally waking up. He watched as his head lolled off to each side a couple times before he finally lifted it.
His eyes were glassy, which was to be expected after two doses of chloroform, and they stared off blankly ahead.
Sawyer watched as he began to come to the realization about what was going on.
Andi tugged at his bound wrists and ankles.
He was probably testing the strength of them, which was what everyone did when they found themselves in his situation.
He tried to move the chair, which got Sawyer to get up.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He must have not noticed him because his head whipped towards him and he began shouting behind his taped mouth.
Probably obscenities. That’s what it usually was.
“I’m just saying. If you move too much, they’ll hear you and that would start things sooner than you would want.
” Andi’s eyes narrowed suspiciously towards Sawyer, which was understandable, before he started tugging on his bonds again and shifting the chair more and more every time.
The scraping of the metal legs on the concrete was hard to hide.
Sawyer just huffed and shrugged. He tried to help.
And just like he figured, a few minutes later, his uncle and two of his cronies, Tank and Clay, came stomping down the stairs.
Two of them looked pissed. The other looked crazed.
It was to be expected after what Andi had put them through just to get them there.
Sawyer wasn’t involved in that part, and he was okay with that.
He was just there to keep an eye on him for transport.
Milo caught Sawyer’s gaze for a moment before he stared directly at Andi. “When did he wake up?”
“Oh…just a couple minutes ago.” He could see his uncle’s jaw tick. “I swear. I would have told you if it was any sooner.” That was not necessarily the truth but he didn’t need to know that.
The three approached but Milo was the closest to Andi.
His eyes shifted over him before he suddenly lifted his fist and slammed it into his face.
It was a good thing that he was strapped to the chair or else the force may have sent him falling to the ground.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to do that.
” Milo stated, which earned a small sigh from Sawyer.
Revenge on Andi had been all he had been talking about for months, it felt like, but it was probably only a couple weeks or so.
“You’re a wiley little guy, you know that? ”
Andi spoke behind the tape once again and Tank chuckled.
Tank was a big fucking dude. There was no other way to describe him.
He was six foot six, well over two hundred and fifty pounds of pure bulk and muscle, black man.
His real name was actually Christopher, but the name ‘Tank’ described him far too well.
He was decorated with scars that he proudly wore.
He had been one of Milo’s oldest and most trusted friends.
Clay, on the other hand, was really quite the opposite of Tank.
He was probably five foot five on a good day, and couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet.
Clay was the brains of the operation which was why Milo didn’t think he was ‘small and pathetic’ like Sawyer.
Clay had use to everyone there. He was the information gatherer and the person who came up with the plans.
And, to put it simply, he was insane. While he really had no business being down there with Tank and Milo because he didn’t really do anything physical, he just enjoyed watching the scene unfold and egging everyone on, particularly Milo.
Sawyer was pretty sure he got off on the whole thing.
He really didn’t like Clay but Milo thought he was brilliant.
Two peas in a crazy pod, those two were.