Chapter One #2
How many dreams had been filled with them laughing, at peace, and with a family of their own?
And now this?
This cut deep, and he’d never recover from it. The man looked the same, and it was as if fate picked him up, and dropped him right in front of him again.
Now, he came face-to-face with him, and that hurt was back.
And it scared him.
Michael wasn’t sure how long he’d been sitting there, but when his phone rang, he knew it would be reckoning for what he’d just done.
And he didn’t care.
Someone had to protect him, and that someone was himself. Like long ago, right after he’d been shoved out of Graham’s world, he was back to being alone.
He was his own advocate.
Pulling the ringing phone out, he sent the call to voicemail when he saw it was Ivan.
No.
Freaking.
Way.
He couldn’t deal with this right now. To him, Elizabeth deserved the dressing down. She’d broken him when he needed tenderness.
Ivan could kick rocks. He wasn’t going to rationalize this. There was no reason to do this to him.
NONE.
Michael had meant everything he said when he told Elizabeth that he quit. There was no way he could go back to work with this between them.
The betrayal alone…
She hurt him.
God.
Not only had he lost everything, but he lost that connection to the one person he could trust. She let him fall, and he couldn’t forgive her for that.
She’d promised to never let him be hurt again, and she’d failed at that mission.
Big-time.
When his phone rang again, it was Callen, and instead of answering it, he sent it to voicemail too.
There was no reason to speak to the man. For all he knew, he’d been her accomplice in this.
Fuck it.
He wasn’t family now either.
As the phone went quiet, that’s when it chimed, and a text came through.
Oh, it was clear that Callen was going to be relentless when it came to this.
Well, he didn’t care.
There was NOTHING he could say to make this right. This whole mess wasn’t kind or fair. He’d nearly died trying to save one of them, and this was his reward?
HURT?
Opening the text, he read over the words, and he was numb inside.
‘You’ve gotten this wrong, Michael. If you’d just answer the phone, I’ll explain. Elizabeth had nothing to do with this. Please answer so I can tell you what you don’t know. It will make sense, and you’ll understand that no one did this to you intentionally.’
Funny, but he didn’t believe him.
Not.
At.
All.
Only, he was curious to see how they rationalized this away. Would they lie to him even more?
Would they tell him he was overreacting?
He couldn’t imagine what the excuse would be on this one.
When the phone rang again, he hesitated. Only, he so desperately wanted what Callen said to be true. He greatly wanted for Elizabeth to be innocent of this so he could at least have his Mom.
Because he was going to need her.
His life had bottomed out in the last few months, and he felt alone—like when he’d gone back to the US without the one person he loved in the world.
Answering, he took a chance. They would only have one, so he hoped to GOD they figured it out, and figured it out fast. If he smelled a lie, he was hanging up again.
“What do you want, Callen? Feel like turning the knife a little more to finish the kill?”
The man blinked.
“My dude, what the hell?” Callen asked. “Why would we want to hurt you?”
Michael stared at him on the video call. That was exactly what he wanted to know.
“You all let me walk into that. You let me get blindsided. You know I can’t take much more. You know how much it took to come back from this seven years ago!”
Oh, he did.
That’s why they’d never hurt him. Michael was one of Elizabeth’s favorites. She doted on him and protected him fiercely for a reason.
He was broken more than the others.
“She hurt me,” he admitted.
Callen stopped that then and there.
“Do you honestly believe that she took information you gave her about a man in your past, hunted him down, got you betrayed by Riley, shot by a nut, and then sent you there just to play some game?” he asked. “Really?”
Okay, when he said it that way, it sounded insane, and he could at least admit that.
“Coincidences are bullshit,” Michael admitted, trying to explain.
Only, Callen stopped him.
“This one is a legitimate coincidence, and they do happen once in a while.”
He said nothing.
So Callen explained.
If he wouldn’t talk to Elizabeth, he’d at least listen to him. It wasn’t fair to let her take all of the blame. All she did was send him back to the man he CLEARLY still loved.
“When Chris and I bought the castle, we needed someone to be the caretaker. I met Graham when Ivan hired extra security for a book signing I was at in Scotland. He came on as extra protection for me. I was there WITHOUT Elizabeth. She’s never met the man in her life.”
Michael listened.
So far, nothing sounded off or like a lie. He knew for a fact that she’d never gone to Scotland. He would have remembered that. Michael did know that Callen had been there a year ago.
Callen continued.
“Ivan hired him, and I liked the guy. Graham is good at protecting things, so Chris and I opted to hire him full-time to manage the castle for us. We needed someone there we could trust, and he was a good guy.”
Michael said nothing.
Why?
He was hoping he’d not just jumped down Elizabeth’s throat for a legitimate coincidence.
Damn it.
“None of us knew about Graham Lainey being the man you loved and who broke your heart. Elizabeth didn’t know about the castle until right before we sent Gryphen and Ian there.
I don’t tell her who I hire for a business because she hates knowing those details.
They freak her out. She didn’t know about the castle at first.”
That feeling of guilt started creeping in. Everything that Callen was saying was the truth, and he knew it. The big joke between them all was that Callen had bought a castle, and she hadn’t been told at first.
“That’s how Graham came into our world. I swear to God, no one went looking for your ex to blindside you.”
Michael wanted to be angry, but he knew that everything that Callen was saying was logical. He remembered Ivan saying he had to hire local soldiers to cover the holes in their security detail in Scotland.
And he knew Graham would never leave the country and was a soldier. He also knew that Elizabeth hadn’t been aware of the castle until after Callen would have had security in play.
Shit.
The pieces fit.
“So, Gryphen and Ian mentioned his name when they were there, and Elizabeth put two and two together. She knew about your past, because you told her.”
He was still angry.
“She sent me here.”
Callen stopped him.
“Well, she wouldn’t have sent you there except you have shit taste in men.
Riley blew our home blueprints and used you to get to us.
She knew about Graham about the same time you began your love affair with the mad secret spiller.
After the leak, and your injury, we had to get you out, and she was just putting you someplace safe. PERIOD.”
He laughed sardonically.
The irony of his words.
“Callen, I’m not safe here. That man…he is the ONE person who can destroy me. He already did it once. He’ll finish the job. Being here is dangerous to my mental health.”
Callen was to the point because he knew a few things about this particular Marine.
They’d never cut ties officially. Graham and Michael had unfinished business, and that meant he wouldn’t get past this until he worked through that.
Graham too.
Elizabeth was only giving them the opportunity to make it right, and fix it, or walk away forever.
“You’re still in love with him, and last month, he tried to kill himself. Trust me when I say that him seeing you is far more dangerous to his well-being than yours.”
His words hung there.
The realization that Graham had nearly died because of what went down seven years ago hit him hard.
Right in the heart.
Now that he had his full attention, Callen didn’t mince words.
“When Gabby was there, helping Tony identify the bones that were in the crypt, he nearly died in an alley. Tony had to save him. He’s never gotten over you.
He’s chased by that ghost, Michael. Elizabeth put you both together because the universe already pointed you both at each other.
You both need to heal this wound, and either fix it, or get past it. ”
He said nothing, but his heart did skip in his chest. There were butterflies in his belly that Graham had never gotten over him.
Was that a possibility?
Had Graham waited for him to come back all of these years?
Now, he was scared—for Graham and his ability to hold on.
“Coincidences are rare, Michael, but this is a legitimate one that none of us knew about. I swear.”
Michael was still feeling panicky. Did the universe stick them back together to fix or finish this?
It was wild that Graham would start working for the Blackhawks as he also worked for the Blackhawks.
Callen continued.
The man needed to know.
“In order to keep Graham from taking his life, Gryphen stepped in to try to help him. Graham said he’d not hurt himself if Gryphen asked Elizabeth to help him find you.
He asked for our help to find the one man he loved his whole life, and it all fell into place.
You know when Gryphen was in Scotland. It wasn’t that long ago. ”
He was right.
It wasn’t.
Callen was to the point.
“He needed to know you were okay so he could check out, Michael. His final wish was to know that you moved on and were happy. He wanted to make sure he didn’t break you so badly that you were in the same position he was in.”
Damn.
That floored him.
It also hurt his heart.
“He asked us to make sure you were happy and safe. He wanted to know that he didn’t destroy your life so he could end his.”
The whole time that Callen was talking, Michael said nothing.