Prologue #3
She laughed, but mostly because Raphael was right beside her, and all he did was slip his hand in between her and the phone and flip Michael off.
The other Archangel laughed.
Yeah, he knew whose hand that was. That meat-hook hand belonged to one of his closest friends. Well, if you couldn’t bust your friends, who could you bust?
“Well, I mean, in my defense…,” he began. “It’s not exactly a lie. We all know he would do it if he wasn’t in love with his husband.”
She snorted.
“Yeah, I know. He’s sketchy as fuck, but the devil you know,” she admitted, as Raphael kissed her on the temple.
After hearing Ethan wasn’t going back to DC, now, Michael was worried.
That really wasn’t like him.
“I can come back,” he offered. “If you need me there, I can have them turn this jet around.”
She stopped him.
There was one reason.
The heat was on. Riley Cunningham was digging on them, and it was only a matter of time before he found someone who could be bought or bribed.
She didn’t put it past him.
Not.
At.
All.
“Yeah, no, I’m good. Apparently, I’m going to go see this haunted, gold-baron’s house. It’s like the men in this family don’t understand when I say I don’t want houses or ghosts. They for some reason go out and do exactly that bullshit.”
He snorted, and he had bad news for her. Elizabeth seemed to be forgetting one thing.
“I was there. You asked for this one.”
She sighed.
“But haunted, Saint Michael of the few sane Marines? I don’t think I asked for ghosts,” she offered.
He winked at her.
“Mom, if I was there, I’d keep you safe. If you get spooked, can I suggest you hop a flight and…oh, no, never mind. You own a haunted castle too. That seems to be a pattern.”
Now, she flipped him off, which made him laugh even more. Only, it wasn’t like he was wrong, now was he?
Oh, the men were testing her patience, and he was sad that he wouldn’t be there to see her beating their asses under the guise of working out in the gym.
He’d have to get Ivan to send him videos of that. Callen was a dead man, and Chris was probably safe, but only because he was too smart to work out with her.
“Don’t remind me. This is making me twitchy, and these men know it. Anyway, enough about me. I was calling to check in on you. Are you good?” she asked.
He smiled.
But he wasn’t.
Oh, and he knew she’d know it too.
They didn’t call her Mom because she was older than them. They called her that because she always knew.
You didn’t bullshit the mom in the group. She might have a lot on her plate, but she always knew when one of her Marines was struggling.
Thankfully, she could always seem to calm the savage demons that haunted them.
“Sure. I’m great.”
She stared at him.
Oh, that didn’t sound good at all. With Michael, he was almost always fun-loving and light-hearted. That was his personality.
Most of the time.
Only, Riley had changed that, and she was betting it wasn’t only because he betrayed him.
She didn’t like the man, simply because he gave her the skeezy vibe.
Anyone who would sleep with a person to get someone’s home plans, and making it an elaborate plan where the other person was in so deep they believed it was love…
Cuckoo was an understatement.
She played games with psychopaths and sociopaths, and Riley Cunningham was one of the two with a side of narcissism.
She’d bet on it.
“Do you trust me?” she asked.
As soon as she said that, he found that to be one hell of an odd question.
Why was she asking that?
Of course, he did.
“Well, I mean, if you were trying to find my killer, or storming a country, yes. Flying this jet…not so much. You’re not in the cockpit, are you?”
Because she was worried about how he was going to react, she made it light.
“Isn’t that the place Gene takes Ethan and calls it a date?” she asked, getting a comment from Gene, and a snort from Ethan.
“Like you should talk, Elizabeth,” Gene stated. “You’re the hostess there.”
Ehhh, he wasn’t wrong.
Now was he?
Instead of going there, she really needed to know if he was going to be able to handle this. What was coming was going to catch him off guard.
“Just answer me. Do you trust me, D’Artangnan?”
He said nothing.
Yeah, she knew his name, and so did Ivan, but they never called him that.
EVER.
There was a good reason too.
It took him back to a place that hurt so much that it made him want to weep.
“Yes, I trust you,” he finally said, getting past being called his birth name—not his chosen one. “Why do you ask that? I’m not getting off this jet to institutionalization, am I?” he asked.
Because he felt like he was going to lose his mind if one more thing broke him. While he was always calm, Michael felt like he was holding on by a thread. One more bad thing, and he was having a breakdown.
“No, just a question because I need you to do me a favor while you’re there.”
Michael lifted a brow.
If she needed something, all she had to do was ask. When he signed up to be an Archangel, and he’d been tasked to watch the Blackhawks, specifically Ethan, he’d been a mess.
It hadn’t been long after he’d lost Graham, and he’d been drinking, not sleeping, and a general nightmare to himself and everyone.
He’d tried to sleep with women, men, and anyone who would treat him with any kindness. He tried to find value in himself, and it took seven years to get to a good place.
Only to be blindsided again.
And it nearly broke him more.
The only reason he survived was that she’d stepped in, and saved his ass.
Her pause was making him nervous.
“What?” he asked.
She was to the point.
“Just heal. While you’re there, I want you to put YOU first. I want you to open your heart, and heal so you can be whole again. Let what happened in the past go, and move forward.”
He was confused.
What was this?
Wasn’t that the point of coming here?
If so, why was she being pointed about it? With Elizabeth, she didn’t mince words, but this felt like she was holding back.
“Uh, okay. With what happened with Riley?” he asked, clarifying.
She nodded.
“With everything. I love you, and I’m telling you that you need to let it all go. When you stay angry, you can’t let love in, and when you can’t let love in, you falter.”
Oh, well, he wasn’t letting love back in for a while. In fact, he was getting a cat, and calling it a day at this point. The last thing he wanted was to do this all over again, just to be disappointed.
Elizabeth continued.
“I was so angry at Chris for the betrayal of my heart that I held a grudge. When I forgave him, I was finally free. When Ethan forgave Gene for leaving, he was able to flourish. When Callen forgave his brother for hurting his heart, he was able to come to grips with all the trauma. Just be free, D’Artangnan.
If you take one piece of advice from me, it’s to forgive. ”
Uh, this was a weird conversation.
And he didn’t like it.
His alarms were going off in his head, but it had to be his paranoia. If not, that meant she was going there for a reason.
“Um…okay?” he asked.
She smiled.
“And remember that a mother knows you best, and she’s always here when you want to talk. I love you, and I always will. Take care of the castle, and everything in it for me. That’s your new duty. You’re on castle patrol.”
He nodded.
Oh, and he was glad nothing could hurt him there. Michael would be safe, and that was all that mattered.
“Can do, Mom. I’ll make sure it’s ghost-free when you get here.”
One could only hope.
Only, that wasn’t her only fear.
Hopefully, he’d forgive her because D’Artangnan Graves was about to get his feet kicked out from under him when he landed at the castle in a bit.
She knew the risk, but she’d weighed the reward. Him finding his person was worth him being angry with her.
If she was lucky, that was the only thing that happened to their relationship. Her fingers were crossed.
“Thank you, Michael. We love you,” she said. “Call us if you need anything, even if it’s to talk about the ghosts of the past,” she stated.
Again, that was odd.
Now she wanted to discuss ghosts?
What was going on?
“How haunted is this place, and am I about to be spooked?” he asked.
She started laughing.
Oh, it wasn’t a funny kind of laugh, but more a tired one where she was pretty much empty herself. It had been one hell of a case, and week.
“Just remember that Callen and Chris caused all of this,” she said, having both men protest from just off-screen.
Technically, it was, and she was claiming that until her dying day. They were too rich for her own good, and this was the reason she got angsty about it.
This.
Right.
Here.
She was on her way to a gold-baron’s mansion with her husbands while one of her Marines was on his way to an old haunted Scottish castle she now owned.
Her life was fucked up.
Here was the proof.
It was a good thing Charlie was dead, or he would have had the big one the second he heard ‘gold-baron’s mansion’.
Without a doubt.
Now, she was putting her faith in her relationship with Michael that it would hold up after he found out that the love of his life, Graham Lainey, was currently working for them after being hired by Callen.
Inadvertently.
If that wasn’t the universe trying to get shit back on track, she wasn’t sure what was.
“I love you, Michael. Talk to you soon,” she offered. “The flight attendant needs your attention,” Elizabeth added before blowing him a kiss, and ending the call.
When he looked up, the one flight attendant was standing right there. She was holding a packet and smiling at him.
Never let it be said that Elizabeth wasn’t paying attention or pulling the strings. He just didn’t know which.
“Sir, this is for you,” she said. “Callen had it sent to the jet before we took off.”
That was interesting.
When Michael took it, he could feel something slipping around inside the packet. Only, he didn’t get to look at first.
Why?
The flight attendant wasn’t done and now, she was handing him a briefcase that was shoved into a backpack.
She explained.