Chapter Thirty
Benji
The more Benji thought about things, the more bizarre the whole thing sounded.
He had been kidnapped and tortured for information.
And while he was there, he was cared for by a man who was not much better off than he was.
Sure, he wasn’t tortured and beaten every day like he was, but he was forced to be there.
They bonded, escaped, and now they were sitting on the couch in the living room of a safehouse, watching Marley and Me hours after they both just had a mind blowing orgasm.
Before that, they managed to find a football game that neither of them were particularly invested in and just ended up making out.
It was just background noise at that point.
Life really was weird.
And as much as he would have loved to change the way things went and not get kidnapped, he wouldn’t change meeting Sawyer.
Things happened for a reason, he liked to tell himself.
He knew there was a reason for what happened.
Sawyer was one reason. The world wanted them to meet.
And the other was that his dad needed to have an intervention of some sort, apparently.
If he hadn’t been taken, they would have known about what he was doing.
And whatever he was doing wasn’t good, that much was true.
About halfway throughout the movie, Jackson texted Benji and let him know a new car was in the garage for them when they were ready to leave and there were some groceries dropped off as well.
That was great news. He wasn’t really looking forward to eating pasta again, but would if they had to.
Benji brought the bags inside, beginning to put everything away when Sawyer joined him in the kitchen, leaning against the doorframe.
“What’s the plan for dinner tonight?” He asked.
“Good question. Looks like Jackson got us a frozen pizza and some chips. We could make that?”
He nodded. “Yeah, sounds good. Haven’t had one of those in a hot minute.”
“Me either, honestly.” It was easy and filling. That was enough for Benji. “Do you want it now? I can pop it in the oven.”
“Yeah, I’m hungry.”
“Worked up an appetite?” Benji asked with a raise of his brow.
Sawyer chuckled and flicked his brows. “Sure did. Gotta get my energy back.”
“Oh? Big night tonight?”
“I hope so.”
Benji felt his cheeks flush a bit and he smiled then turned towards the oven to start preheating it.
There was a moment of silence before Sawyer spoke up again. “So. How’d the conversation with your sister go?”
“Oh,” he began and shrugged his shoulders. “It was okay.”
“Just okay?”
He sighed. “I mean, it was good. It was really good to talk to her. I just…really missed her, you know?” Sawyer nodded. “We talked about what happened, where I was. I asked her about the job that she did and she swore she had no idea.”
“And you believe her?”
Benji nodded. “I do. With my whole heart.”
“Okay, good.”
“She was looking into things when I was on the phone with her and she found some…weird things with my dad. So, I don’t know. He’s doing something he shouldn’t and I don’t know why.”
Sawyer’s brow furrowed and his head tilted a bit. “What do you mean?”
“We think he took the money.”
“What? Seriously?” Benji nodded. “Why would he do that?”
“That’s what I don’t get. I’m pretty sure he has plenty of money,” he paused and sighed, “Unless that’s because he’s been doing this whole…swindling thing for a while.”
He frowned and shook his head before approaching Benji. “I’m sorry.”
“I-It’s fine. It’s not your fault.”
“I know that but it’s still shitty.” Sawyer reached out and placed a soft hand on Benji’s upper arm. “And it’s not fair to you. Or your sister.”
Benji frowned and nodded. “Yeah, I know.” Turning towards Sawyer, he found himself pulling himself into the man and their arms immediately wrapped around one another.
It was such a simple gesture, but something that was incredibly needed.
Benji’s cheek rested against Sawyer’s shoulder while Sawyer softly rubbed his back.
Breaking down the barrier earlier had really opened them up to a new world of affection, which was something he was happy for.
Benji liked affection. It was one of the reasons why his life was hard for him sometimes.
He didn’t get to have something like that very often. And when he did, it couldn’t last.
But he was hoping it would be different with Sawyer. If that’s where they were headed. He had no idea and making assumptions was foolish. But a guy could hope, right?
After a few more moments, which felt like far longer because of how nice it was, Benji forced himself to pull away and cleared his throat. “Go sit down. I’ll be over in a few.” Sawyer just nodded and wandered back over to the living room while Benji took care of popping the pizza into the oven.
The two sat on the couch together, eating the frozen pizza and the potato chips, idly chatting about whatever it was that they wanted to.
By the time the movie was coming close to the end, Sawyer stopped it and turned off the TV with a shake of his head.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m saying that they lived happily ever after and the dog lives forever. ”
Benji laughed and nodded his head. “Yeah, I agree. I really have to ask Jackson about his weird movie selection here.”
“You really do because it’s bizarre. And that’s coming from me, a guy who has barely seen anything.”
“But you know enough to know these are all tear-jerkers.”
“Exactly,” he laughed then sighed as he placed his elbow on the back on the couch and rested his cheek on his hand. “Are you uh…interested in sleeping in my bed tonight?”
Benji’s brow raised as he looked over to Sawyer before he quickly turned his gaze away and picked at the edge of the paper plate he was still holding. “Oh, uh…yeah, sure. That…yeah. That sounds good.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
Sawyer smiled. “Okay, good. Because I was hoping you would,” he paused and shrugged. “I like sleeping next to you.”
Benji’s stupid cheeks flushed again. “I like it too. When you uh…did it. Back at the bunker. It really…helped.”
He nodded his head a bit and turned his gaze downwards. “I was really scared.”
“Why?”
He shrugged his shoulders and huffed. “I don’t know. I mean, I clearly didn’t really know you but…I just…didn’t want you to die? I wanted you to be okay. And it was the only thing I could think to do to keep you warm that didn’t involve me leaving you alone again.”
Benji huffed. “You’re smart to have thought of it too. I don’t know why Milo didn’t think you could do more than what you were doing.”
“I’m glad he didn’t.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t on bitch duty. I doubt I would have even met you. And if I didn’t…you wouldn’t be here right now either.”
He supposed Sawyer had a point. “Everything happens for a reason,” he muttered under his breath. That statement was becoming more and more evident to him the more he thought about it.
Stretching out his arms and legs, Sawyer yawned (but Benji was pretty sure it was fake) and looked towards him. “I think I’m gonna head upstairs then.”
Reaching out, he grabbed his plate and stood up to head towards the kitchen. “Yeah, not a bad idea. Tomorrow, I think we should be able to leave here, if you wanted.”
His brow raised. “Really? Already?”
“I mean,” he shrugged, “If you want. I think if they were looking for us, they probably lost our trail. And we have a different car now too so I feel pretty good about leaving without being seen.”
Sawyer swallowed hard and nodded. “Okay, yeah. We can…do that.”
Benji tossed out the paper plates and turned back to the man on the couch with a tilt of his head. “You okay?”
He cleared his throat softly, clearly thinking about that statement. “Yeah, I think so.”
“That doesn’t…sound okay?”
Sawyer sighed. “I guess I just…I’ve kind of liked just…being here. With you. Away from everything. When we leave here, things are going to be hard.”
He wasn’t wrong. Things were going to be extremely hard. For Benji in particular. “Once I figure out my dad situation, things will be fine.”
His gaze drifted down towards his lap as he picked at a loose string on his t-shirt. “I just don’t know where I’m going to go. I’m kind of a stray now.”
Benji walked back into the living room and sat down beside Sawyer again, turning towards him a bit. “You can stay with me if you want.”
“What?” He laughed. “You’re crazy.”
“I mean it. Just stay with me for a while until you find a job and an apartment or whatever,” Benji paused, then said, “Unless you don’t want to live in DC.”
He ran his fingers through his dark locks and huffed. “I don’t really have any thoughts about it. I’m sure it’s fine there.”
“Fine enough, yeah,” he paused again. “And you could probably work with me.”
That got a full laugh from Sawyer. “Yeah, right.”
“I mean it. I mean, who knows what’s really going on with my dad. If he’s doing what I think, there might be a full blown mutiny and we’ll need someone else.”
“I’m not going to take over for your dad, Benji.”
“No, not his job,” he chuckled, “But you could train with my uncles or Andi… or me, if you wanted. You’d be good at it. You’re smart as hell. Resourceful. Strong,” Benji shrugged, “Seems like the perfect fit to me.”
Sawyer smiled. “I think you’re just biased.”
“Probably but I also think what I said is true.”
There were a few moments of silence between them again as Sawyer thought about what Benji said. Finally, he shrugged. “We’ll see about the job thing. But I would like to stay with you for the time being.”
Benji smiled. “Good.” Truth be told, he didn’t want to see Sawyer go.
He was really hoping that he would agree to staying with him.
It was probably foolish of him to have such a need for him to stick around but Benji was just going to chalk it up to something about trauma and leave it at that.
He didn’t really want to dig too far into his psyche about all that at the moment.
With a sigh, Sawyer stood up from the couch and began to walk upstairs. “I’ll see you up there?”
He shook his head and stood up, following after Sawyer immediately. “You’ll see me now.” Sawyer simply grinned while they made their way upstairs.