Prologue
The Jet
Sunday
Late Afternoon
Escape Time
Oh, never let it be said that Michael didn’t work for the best people in the entire universe. That was a sure fact in his world, and something that he was grateful for every day of his life.
Without them, he would be lost, and not have family to call his own.
They were his world.
Their protective nature did his heart good as they always rallied around him in order to make sure that he was safe—physically and emotionally.
They were the best people he knew.
Oh, and he greatly appreciated always having someone to watch his back when there was chaos on the horizon. The Blackhawks were people of their word.
All.
The.
Time.
Never let it be said that wasn’t their best attribute. No matter what the situation, they would always come in when it was needed.
That was how they rolled.
Family always had your back, and the Blackhawks were definitely family.
To.
Their.
Cores.
What he’d learned from them was that family wasn’t always blood, but it was always going to pull you out when your ass was in over its head.
And that was where he was.
Drowning.
Michael was struggling and at the lowest part of his life. Believe it or not, Saint Michael of the Blackhawks was not in a good place.
There had been a time in his life that he’d been in a very dark place, and the last thing he wanted was to go back there.
That scared him.
Losing the love of your life…
It was crushing—almost as crushing as finding out your fiancé had betrayed you.
It was crazy how life seemed perfectly good—until it absolutely wasn’t. Being blindsided both times had now made him twitchy.
Michael wasn’t sure he’d ever fall in love again. He’d been burned pretty badly both times.
Maybe he just wasn’t meant to have a person. If that were the case, he’d have to deal with it. It wasn’t like the universe was going to drop a sexy man in his lap in Scotland. For all he knew, he was going to be hiding out here for a while.
He needed to heal physically and emotionally—both of which took time.
The last few months had been one hell of a ride. They’d taught him a lesson.
At first, he had a fiancé who made him forget the heartbreak that nearly broke him years ago. That damage was always there, but he’d been given reprieve.
Of sorts.
Riley Cunningham, the reporter he’d fallen for, was handsome, had smarts, and made him feel…
Better.
When they came together in bed, while it wasn’t always the most earthshattering sex, it was the kind that helped heal his heart.
At least someone felt something for him again. It helped him not feel like he was the cause of all of his problems.
Michael liked some kink, but Riley was strictly vanilla. So, he opted to live with it. Maybe there was no way to find the perfect man.
Again.
Maybe that boat had sailed.
When he met Riley at a bar, mostly, it had healed something that had destroyed him.
Losing his person.
That had been the whole point of jumping back into the dating pool with serious intentions in mind. Finally, after years, he’d been ready to seek out his second chance.
And he believed he’d found it on the first try.
Well, that had been a huge mistake on his behalf. Unfortunately for Michael, he’d made a tactical error.
Riley was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and he’d not brought him relief, but instead added to the torment.
Once upon a time, Michael had been a soldier who fought wars that he had no business fighting. He was a Marine who did what he was told, and found honor in it. Somehow, he’d managed to stay alive—but by the skin of his teeth.
There was only one reason he’d managed to survive.
In the sandbox in Afghanistan, he found someone to help carry the trauma that they all had. Michael had found a man who meshed so perfectly that he’d known on day one that he was going to marry him at some point.
When the heart knew, it knew—until it was cut from his chest.
He’d been embedded with a liaison of multiple soldiers from the allied forces.
The United Kingdom.
France.
Canada.
Italy.
They were the best of the best from each of those countries, sent there to Afghanistan to take care of business for their governments.
They did icky things under the guise of patriotism.
No.
Shock.
There.
While he was bedded down on a base with other soldiers from around the world, something miraculous had happened.
He found a person he believed to be his other half. In close quarters, he was able to get to know a Scottish soldier who caught his eye.
Oh, and did he ever catch his eye.
It had been love at first sight—the first and only time in his life that he’d felt that punch to the chest as he was taken down with Cupid’s arrow.
The man had been gorgeous, outrageously funny, and overwhelmingly sweet.
Graham Lainey was Black Watch, and he quickly became the center of his world. They did patrol together, and they watched each other’s six.
They’d saved each other countless times as the world went to shit around them.
Until they didn’t.
As their time together was coming to an end, Michael knew he needed to solidify their relationship before they were separated.
The last thing he wanted was to lose the man he’d become so fiercely protective of, and overwhelmingly attached to in that short time.
In three years, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that Graham Lainey was meant to be his husband.
Only, war waited for no one.
Word had come in when their unit was being disbanded, and the soldiers were being sent back to different bases. They’d managed to end up at bases close to each other, and had been able to get off-base housing.
Together.
But Michael knew it was only temporary.
Graham was going back to Scotland for his last six months of duty, and Michael…
He was going home as in back to the US to reassimilate with normal people, and a not-so-normal job.
D’Artangnan Graves, him, was given an opportunity like none other. With his abilities and skills, he was asked to become an Archangel.
The only catch?
Oh, and it was the worst one possible too.
He couldn’t tell anyone of his classified assignment back in the US.
NO.
ONE.
He was being put on protection duty for the Director of the FBI, to ensure he was not injured.
For him, it was an easy duty, and after all he’d seen in the countless tours of the Middle East, he needed a break.
His mental health demanded it.
It would be nice not to be balancing on the razor’s edge all of the time.
When you spent days being shot at, nearly being blown to kingdom come with IEDs, and you didn’t know if you were going home alive or in a box…
You wanted a simple duty to heal those damages.
So, he took it.
The reward in this duty was that he’d be flush with cash, and then he and Graham could find the life they both craved so much.
Together.
So, D’Artangnan took the duty, assuming that Graham would follow him or at least trust to know that he wasn’t going to hurt him.
After all, they were madly, stupidly in love. They talked about marriage, and a life outside of the war zone many nights in their off-base apartment.
The cash he was being offered would be life-changing, and he had wanted that for both of them.
Without hesitating to make their lives better in the next year, he had signed on the dotted line and was sworn to secrecy. Michael had taken a second oath to protect the people the government assigned him to.
It had been one of the happiest days of his life. Because of that choice, they would be able to live anywhere, do anything, and have the money to make it happen.
When he’d told Graham he was going home, and had been given the ultimatum…
If he left, it was over…
It caught him off guard.
Did he love him that little that he couldn’t come with him?
Did he love him that little that he couldn’t trust in him?
He had hoped Graham would see that it was out of character, and to put two and two together to see that he was up to something.
Was that too much to ask?
Only, shockingly, Graham didn’t figure it out.
Instead, Michael had been raged at in anger, as if he’d ruined the man’s plans. Words had been thrown around like honor and duty.
Oh, D’Artangnan understood duty. He’d served for a very long time, making sure he put Constitution and country over everything.
And now, he was losing the one thing he loved most.
It broke his heart to find out there was no way Graham would follow him back to the US when his tour was over.
Truthfully, it confused him.
Had D’Artangnan not signed up, already, he would have stayed with Graham and let that duty and money go.
He’d be poor for the man.
Hell!
He would have lived in a foxhole in Mogadishu all over again just to be with him.
That was how much he loved him.
But Graham clearly didn’t feel the same about him since he’d given him an ultimatum and not questioned why he’d said he was going home.
Yeah, he never understood that.
Not.
At.
All.
How could he lie with him at night, promising him their future, but then not want to follow when his tour was up?
How did he not suspect something was up?
How?
The day he told him as he was packed to head out, the words still haunted him.
Every.
Damn.
Day.
‘If you leave, it’s over. If you leave, we’re done. Don’t come back.’
Those words haunted him in ways that Graham would never understand.
How could he love him that little to say those words? That befuddled him.
He thought about what he’d given up for duty and honor, and it was always the one thing that made him question his service.
It was the one thing he questioned about his choices.
He’d fallen in love with someone who didn’t understand him.
Who didn’t trust him.
That made him gun-shy for the rest of his life. Never understanding Graham’s behavior…
It wasn’t like he was out joining a carnival just for shits and giggles.
No.
This was about saving them both from poverty, and all it would take was some trust.
No one liked a long-distance relationship, but he was an honorable man.
He’d never cheat.