Chapter Two
The Pub
Sunday Evening
Seven P.M.
Honestly, if you’d been in one pub in Scotland, you’d been in them all. Michael recalled the countless times he and Graham would grab a drink, but have to sit across from each other so no one knew their truth.
It had been difficult to hide it too. At the time, all he had wanted was to be able to be free and claim his soulmate.
When you were a soldier, you were expected to be an alpha male, strong, a leader, and as straight as the day was long.
Most of that was true, minus the last part.
He knew so many Marines who went to the service to try and escape their truth.
They loved dudes.
The same applied to him. Had he not been a Marine, Michael would have gone to college to be a Geologist or someone who worked in nature. It was the one thing he always wanted to do.
Who didn’t like volcanos and shiny rocks?
As for signing up to be a Marine, God knew he tried to beat the gay out of himself with self-loathing and any women he could throw at himself.
And none of it worked.
Ever.
The brain, heart, and libido wanted what it wanted, and Michael was pretty sure that would never change.
Call it a hunch.
As they sat at a table, Gabby went to go get them something to drink from the bartender, leaving the two men alone to talk.
Finn was on an information-finding mission when it came to this man.
For Graham, his bestie.
“So, you’re D’Artangnan,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Michael lifted a brow.
Call him curious, but he wanted to know everything the man knew. He suspected that it was from Graham, and not Gabby.
Why did that make his heart flutter? Had Graham talked about him?
“Have you now?” he asked.
Finn nodded.
“Yeah, Graham has been my best friend since we were wee lads in the early years of school. He bested me for a girl once.”
Michael actually laughed.
Since he’d laid with the man, more times than he could count, he knew what he liked and didn’t.
Tits were not on the table for him.
“I bet you can’t say that about him when he grew up,” he stated.
Finn grinned.
“Oh, definitely not. When he came back from serving, he was a different person than when he left,” he admitted, knowing it wasn’t only war, but this man who changed him.
Well, no surprise.
He wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t know. Michael came back differently too.
That was the nature of the beast when you saw horrible things, and were shot at on a daily basis.
Only the strong survived that.
“We all came back changed,” Michael admitted. “If you didn’t, you weren’t fighting the same wars as we were,” he added.
Finn was to the point.
“He told me about your relationship,” he admitted. “We got shitfaced drunk one night, and he finally broke down and shared what he’d had.”
That hung there.
Thankfully, Gabby had perfect timing, and saved Michael from having to say anything.
When Gabby put the three pints down, her fiancé looked at her and then the glass she had for herself. It was dark like an ale.
So, he had to be sure.
“Gabriella…”
She snorted.
“What? It’s a diet soda,” she stated, knowing what he was thinking. “Aspartame doesn’t kill you. You’d have to consume a dump truck full of it every day for over a year.”
It made Finn laugh.
Okay, maybe he was a little overprotective, but he’d yet to get his lass to the chapel. They’d been planning on eloping when they came back from the States, but his mother wasn’t having it.
She was a good Catholic, and demanded a church wedding, even if he’d already helped create a life.
“Just making sure, Lass. You’re a wily one,” he admitted.
Oh, she was, but she was being super aware of this pregnancy. She couldn’t wait to feel the baby move, and find out the sex.
There was no way she was screwing around with the baby’s health, or her own. She couldn’t risk it.
Finn passed D’Artangnan the beer, and they both sipped it.
“Is this going to be an intervention?” Michael asked. “Because I don’t buy that you happened upon me in some coincidence. That one I know isn’t real,” he stated. “What’s up, Gabs?”
She was to the point.
Gabby didn’t lie to her friends, and Michael was exactly that.
“Elizabeth called me. She was upset, and worried about you. She had Ivan ping your location, and she sent me the coordinates to make sure you were okay.”
He sighed.
Damn.
He forgot his watch had a tracker in it. Michael also knew he felt like a dick for making her cry.
That was shitty, and not easy to do.
“I was angry. I’ll apologize later. I now know that she was a victim in this too. I raged against the messenger, when I shouldn’t have. It’s clear that the universe hates me. To put me back on this path…”
Know who wasn’t hearing that?
Graham’s best friend.
Finn was to the point because he knew the man needed to know the truth. Like when he’d been trying to get Gabby’s attention, Graham stepped in to help, so he’d do the same thing.
“He’s still in love with you. He never stopped talking about you or wondering if you were okay.”
Michael didn’t bat an eye.
He also didn’t say anything.
At first.
“Times change,” he stated. “People change. I’m not going back to those moments. He didn’t trust in me, and he ended up breaking my heart.”
Finn was curious.
“Can I ask you, Lad, why did you leave him and not stay? You had gotten out of the military first.”
Michael knew he didn’t owe anyone an explanation, but he felt compelled to share it. Since he never told anyone before, why not share?
“I took a job, a really good job,” he said.
Gabby leaned over to her fiancé and explained what that meant.
“Michael is an Archangel,” she admitted. “That’s the job he’s referring to.”
The very Catholic man blinked. It was crystal clear he was confused.
“Uh, what?”
She explained since she knew where he was taking this, and that was the wrong direction.
“There’s a special group of Marines who are trained and then they are hired to watch important people. Michael was recruited likely right out of service for his skills. He’s been on Blackhawk guard duty for years.”
She’d nailed that.
It was the truth.
“I’ve been one for seven years,” he said. “I signed the papers to become one on January twenty-eighth, seven and a half years ago.”
Finn finally got it.
“Oh, and Archangels are always Marines?” he asked.
Michael nodded, and explained.
“For the most part, yes. We’re the hand of God. God being the government, and we make the choices that save or lose lives. We each have a name after one of the Archangels.”
Finn blinked.
“And you’re Michael because?” he asked, wondering if the man knew the significance of his name.
Gabby knew.
“He’s the most dangerous of them. When he worked for the government, he was the top angel because of his abilities.”
Michael tipped his head in acknowledgement.
“That’s me. The patron saint of bad choices and worse outcomes,” he said. “Thus, why my life is one giant shitshow for public scrutiny.”
Gabby patted his hand.
Someone was shaken up.
It was rare that an Archangel was rattled, but he absolutely was. Elizabeth was right to be concerned.
“Michael.”
He shrugged.
“It’s okay, Gabs. I’m okay. I feel better knowing that Elizabeth didn’t create this whole thing. It just sucks that the universe hates me enough that it’ll dump me in Graham’s path again. He can fuck off.”
Finn leaned in.
“Lad, watch your tone. That’s my best friend. He’s a victim in this too.”
Michael leaned in.
“Your best friend got what he deserved. He broke me, and I’m not going to feel sorry for him. Anything he got is what the universe intended. That’s the hand of God speaking.”
This could escalate.
There were a few people that Finn was super protective of. At the top of the list was her, then his seven sisters, his parents, and Graham.
To deescalate this, Gabby put her hand on Finn’s leg.
And Finn wasn’t having it. He knew if the roles were reversed, Graham would kick asses and take names to protect him.
That was their code.
As family.
“And you’re innocent in all of this? I hear that you didn’t even explain to him why you had to leave. I guess it’s easy to point the blame when that a job mattered more, huh, Lad?”
At his words, that anger bubbled up, and Michael slammed his hand down on the table, getting EVERYONE’S attention.
His voice was low.
But the intent was clear.
He owed no one an explanation.
NO.
ONE.
Or that was what he believed.
“I took that job to set us up in the future. I took the very honorable job that paid a shit ton of money so I could give him a life he deserved. I took that job to be honorable for the first time in my career. I took that job for both of us—not just me. I get paid a lot. Or I did. I took this job to save him, and myself.”
Finn said nothing.
At first.
“Are you convincing me or yourself, Saint Michael?” he asked.
The man flushed red.
“Because you sound like you’ve rationalized it all in your head, but you don’t even believe it. The bottom line is you left. You should have at least told him. Imagine his perspective of you just walking out with no explanation.”
Michael was pissed.
“He gave me an ultimatum. I guess that’s fine and dandy too. I don’t need someone to referee our relationship in the past. It’s too late to go back there. It was classified, and I couldn’t tell him.”
Finn lifted a brow.
“Couldn’t or wouldn’t? I ask because if someone told me to do something that might cost me Gabby, but I couldn’t tell her, I’m absolutely telling her. She’s my ride or die. Maybe he wasn’t yours, but you were his. I know Graham. He would have told you in a heartbeat.”
That was a barb to his soul.
How many times did he rehash that, thinking that he should have said, ‘fuck the government’, and just shared the job?
Would it have mattered?
He wasn’t sure.
Michael found himself wanting to punch the cop in the face, and that was never a good sign, so he needed a break from him.
“Bathroom?” Michael asked, focused on Gabby and not her annoyingly accurate fiancé.