Chapter Nine
The Bathroom
Same Time
Moment Of Truth
Never let it be said that the universe wasn’t fully driving the bus, because it absolutely was. Michael knew that he was prisoner to fate, and in this case, he believed that he might just win this round.
Hopefully.
It was going to be a battle, but he was willing to fight hard.
Starting the second he was out of the shower.
When Michael washed the soap from his face and opened his eyes, he jumped. Standing about four feet from the opening of the shower was Gryphen.
The reason he didn’t realize he was there was because he was thinking about the two men out in the bedroom talking to Graham.
He hoped they didn’t talk him out of being with him or this was going to get ugly.
Well, he knew Gryphen wouldn’t. He would have his back, but he didn’t know jack shit about the other man.
Other than he was Graham’s friend.
That didn’t bode well for him—especially since Graham had nearly taken the cliff because of him.
“Jesus, dude. Don’t sneak up on me. That doesn’t end well, and you know that,” he admitted, forgetting that Gryphen had been MRR and a decorated combat Marine who could hold his own when it came to the sneak approach.
When he didn’t want you to hear him coming, you absolutely didn’t.
“What were you going to do? Shoot me with your gun?” he asked, amused.
Michael rolled his eyes and washed more of the shampoo from his body. It was clear that he and the other Marines who worked for Elizabeth had no boundaries, and were a little too at ease around each other.
That they were having this conversation proved it.
“Just say it, Gryph,” he said.
Well, since he opened that door…
“What are you doing?” Gryphen asked.
Michael stared at him like he’d lost his goddamn mind for asking that.
It was pretty obvious.
“I’m showering. What the hell does it look like I’m doing?” he asked. “I had sex, and now I’m cleaning up. I don’t know what your kink is…”
The man stared at him.
And didn’t say shit.
That told him that he wasn’t playing, and he was betting it was because everyone believed Graham was the one who had been damaged most.
That wasn’t true.
Not.
At.
All.
He was barely holding it together. It just wasn’t his style to Superman it off a cliff.
Michael sighed.
That was Gryphen’s cue.
“I was talking about with Graham. He’s in no position to be jerked around or punished for his past. He’s a man on the edge. I hope you didn’t start something that’s going to break him.”
Michael actually laughed.
Yeah, he’d been right.
He was a man on the edge too, but clearly, that was off the radar. What he was, was a man so heartbroken that he was about to do something stupid.
Michael was about to make what could be a huge mistake, and he knew it.
“I was planning punishment later. We like some kink too, Gryph.”
Only, Gryphen wasn’t having it.
BULLSHIT.
He hit the water and turned it off. Then, he was to the point.
“I meant with his heart. I don’t want to know what you do in the bedroom with him. That’s where my interests end. I’m worried about his heart, and that’s it.”
He understood.
In a way, he was grateful that Graham had people who would protect him. Michael also had people—this man being one of them.
“Funny how no one’s worried about my heart all of a sudden,” he said.
Oh, that was absolute garbage. He’d hopped a jet and flew across the ocean leaving his post with the Blackhawks to be here.
IN A HAUNTED CASTLE.
Because that annoyed him, he turned the cold water on full blast, drenching the man and making him gasp.
“Gryph!” he barked.
He turned it back off.
“If you think I’m here for shits and giggles, you’re out of your goddamn mind. I hopped a flight in the middle of the night, and brought my fiancé back to a place that Gabby just told us tried to kill her. I’m not here for the sights, Michael. I’m here because of you too.”
He sighed.
“I’m sorry. That was kind of shitty. Thanks for coming to help me.”
Gryphen lowered his voice.
“You’re out of your goddamn mind most of the time, but I’m not afraid I’ll walk out of the room, and you’ll leap out a window.
Graham is in a far worse position here, and that’s why he’s the priority.
I’m worried about you too. I know how you’ve been hurt as of late, and I’m just prioritizing like we would in combat when people needed evac.
Do you need me to evacuate you?” he asked.
Michael thought about it, and he rolled the dice, hoping he wasn’t making a mistake.
“No, I’m not leaving here. In fact, I’m going to marry him.”
That hung there.
Oh, that was NOT what Gryphen had expected.
In fact, he’d expected a slow-moving Michael who dragged this out because of nerves.
Not turbo-speed Michael.
He expected him to be uber cautious, making sure his heart stayed intact. That was anything but what was happening.
Something had gotten into him—or he’d gotten into someone—clearly.
“I said what I said,” Michael admitted.
Yeah, he’d heard.
“Seriously? Just like that? You show up, and you marry him ASAP? You’re going to charge right at it, and not think about what went down?”
He stared at him.
Was he kidding?
“You just came in here and told me I wasn’t to jerk him around. Then, I actually say I’m going to marry him and not do that, and you look offended. What the hell? Why do I get the feeling I can’t make this right either way with you? That’s the crazy part here. You, not me.”
Oh, someone was getting a little spicy, and needed to chill out.
Literally.
He turned the cold water on, and Michael yelped from the cold shower he’d been handed by his friend.
AGAIN.
“What the hell?” he sputtered.
Gryphen was to the point.
“He’s my friend. You’re my best friend, other than Ian. While I love you both, like I said, he’s in far worse shape than you. If you flake, he’s eating a gun, or jumping off a cliff—round two. Finding you again is literally all he has left, and you leaving will be his killing blow.”
He was well aware.
Only, that wasn’t why he was staying.
It wasn’t out of guilt or fear.
It was out of love.
“That day we broke up, he’d planned on proposing, and I was moving back to the States to make boku money to set us up. We were dirt poor then. Soldiers make shit money, even ones that did our kind of work.”
Oh, he was aware.
“I was just about to fall into my family, and a whole new life,” Michael admitted.
Gryphen knew the feeling.
For him too, this was the only time he’d been flush with cash, and that was because he started working for the Blackhawks. He had so much money now, he didn’t stress about anything.
He could retire tomorrow.
Would he?
Absolutely not, but he could.
That was a damn nice position to be in for him, and a new thing.
Michael continued.
“We had this shit dive apartment, and we had more love than should be legal. That was the only time in my life I was happy, Gryph. We didn’t want for anything, and now that I look back, we didn’t even give a shit about money.”
He let him talk.
Gryphen knew what it was like to be poor.
He had been.
He also knew that Michael had been an orphan coming out of the system too. He didn’t have money, family, or a chance other than selling his soul to the US government to not be homeless when CPS kicked him to the curb at eighteen.
Michael was honest.
“I have a few million dollars in the bank, Gryph. I can buy us anything we want, and then, I can be happy. We can be happy. I never stopped loving him. I know that now. I never really loved Riley. I was settling so I wasn’t alone.”
Michael leaned against the shower wall.
“When Graham found out I was on antivirals, his immediate response was I was sick, and he wanted to help me. Know what Riley did when he found out?”
Gryphen guessed it wasn’t good.
“I’m saying something less than desirable?” he asked.
Oh, he was right.
“He was horrified, and he looked at me like I just gave him HIV. He made me take a test, and show him the results before he’d let me touch him. He treated me like I was garbage, and I took it because deep down, I was so desperate to have someone love me.”
Gryphen saw the pain there.
“I was about ready to make the second biggest mistake in my life, Gryph. The first was the day I walked out, and the next would be marrying someone I didn’t love.
I still love that man out there. I never stopped.
That’s why I fell apart. My heart knew, and my stubbornness fucked me over.
I’m not settling anymore. I’m taking what I want, and I’m going to have that love again. ”
Gryphen leaned on the wall.
“You know you’re going to have to leave your job, right? Because he loves it here. You love it there. This is where you went awry last time. What are you going to do about that?”
He was aware.
Only, he was willing to put his money where his mouth was on this one.
“I love my job, but I have three million in the bank, Gryph. We can retire on that. I can have what I’ve always wanted. Him. He’s what I’ve always craved, and now I see it. He looked for me,” he said.
Gryphen was aware.
Oh, he knew how much the man searched for him. He’d spent time with Graham, and he knew the whole story. Get a man drunk, and sit on a couch by a fire, and you find out everything.
The only thing he’d never known was that D’Artangnan and Michael were one in the same.
“He hired a PI, and he tried to find me. I never tried to find him. I was an idiot. I was so angry at him for not trusting me, that I forgot it went both ways. I didn’t trust him to tell him about becoming an Archangel.
Instead, I made it sound like it was my job to run everything. He never betrayed me. I betrayed us.”
He let him talk.
It sounded like someone had a good grasp of what he wanted, and how to make it right.
The light had dawned, and Michael saw it.