Chapter Ten
The Castle
Ten Minutes Later
To say that the two naked men rushed to get dressed, and get the hell down toward the crypt in the basement of the castle would be an understatement. That sonic boom told them all they needed to know about what had gone down.
Bad shit had happened.
Oh, and when bad shit happened, both Gryphen and Finn knew that their significant others were likely in the middle of it.
And they were.
In the crypt, sitting on two of the stone sarcophaguses, were Ian and Gabby.
All around them, there was dusty air, and a pile of rubble on the floor.
Oh, and nearby, there were two very confused construction workers left holding the bag.
And it was a destructive bag at that.
When they got there, Graham looked concerned and for the likely reasons.
If anyone got hurt, that was going to be problematic for the village council, and the Blackhawks.
Oh, and him.
He’d been naked in bed at the time, neglecting his duties. The last thing he wanted was to lose his job.
“What happened?” he asked, seeing he rubble on the ground. “Is everyone okay?” he asked.
Both Gabby and Ian nodded.
“We were sitting here and out of the way of the wall,” she admitted.
Well, Finn looked infinitely happy to hear that. The last thing he wanted was for his pregnant woman to be hurt by a tomb wall.
That would take a lot of explaining to Fiona because she was all about that grandbaby in his fiancée’s belly.
The two construction guys shrugged, and tried to brush it off, but it had been so loud that they heard it across the castle in the tower.
“Aye, Lad, we literally hit one rock with a shovel, to test the stability, and the whole wall came crashing down on us. It’s a good thing you had us here to do this. Someone could have been hurt.”
Oh, shit.
He hoped they weren’t.
“Are you okay?” Graham asked, as he stepped over the stones to get closer to them.
It was incredibly cold in there, and he had goosebumps on his flesh. Somehow, he didn’t think that wall came down on its own.
It felt…spooky in there.
The one man nodded at his question.
“It scared the hell out of me, and I’m not doing that again in this castle.”
Yeah, well, he knew not to do shit like that. This was a very old structure, and Tony had found that the wall had movement when he was here.
There was no doubt it would have come down on its own at some point—or with the help of the dead.
Apparently.
Pulling out his phone, Graham sent them money, plus extra for their trouble. It didn’t look like they were needed there any longer.
In fact, it was for the best if they headed out. They didn’t need them lingering to wander around behind that wall. Sadly, they were going to have to do that.
“We appreciate you, Lads. As long as it’s not going to collapse further, we’re good here.”
The two men were more than happy to get paid and get out of there.
FAST.
As they headed out, Ian hopped down off of Duncan’s crypt, and helped Gabby down.
“Is it a good time to mention that right before they started that, it felt…off?” he asked.
Oh, Jaysus.
That was what Graham was worried about.
Behind him, two of the other men just shook their heads, and mostly out of exasperation.
Well, Gryphen and Finn were.
“What’s that mean?” Michael asked.
Graham hadn’t been able to talk to D’Artangnan since the crash happened, but he was keeping his distance between them.
And that had him terrified.
Still, he pushed on, willing to do anything at this point to get D’Artangnan to not leave him again.
Hell!
He’d follow.
“It feels off in here,” Graham admitted. “My skin is crawling.”
Gryphen sighed.
“Here we go,” he said. “We’re back at it. Who’s playing Scooby, and who is Velma?”
Gabby laughed and raised her hand.
“You’re Daphne then,” she joked.
He rolled his eyes.
That’s when Michael got it.
“You think the ghosts made the wall come down?” he asked. “Really?”
Gabby nodded.
“It got cold in here, and we heard static like it was talking, but just out of focus. You said the ghosts helped you save Graham by pulling him from the cliff, so why couldn’t they push over a wobbly wall?”
Graham was staring at Michael.
The man was babying his one arm, and he knew that was his dominant arm. That he’d had to hurt himself again to save him…
It made him feel ill.
“Good point. What was I thinking?” he asked. “Crazy of me thinking it was just an old wall.”
Oh, they all wished it was.
Only, they knew better.
This place was crazy.
“Can we go in and see what’s in there?” Gabby asked, peering into the corridor that was now opened. “Maybe something is in there.”
Ian was right beside her.
“Yeah! Let’s go!” he said, with no concern for his well-being.
Clearly.
Only, that wasn’t happening.
By whom?
His man.
Gryphen grabbed him by the back of the jeans and kept him where he was. He was NOT chasing Ian into a corridor of death.
PASS.
“HEY!” Ian said when he couldn’t move.
When he turned, it was clear that Gryphen wasn’t having it.
“How about you let us see if it’s going to collapse before you run in there like a lunatic?” he asked. “You know, so I don’t have a goddamn stroke?”
The man sighed.
“Fine,” he stated.
Gabby opened her mouth, and Finn put his foot down. In fact, he pointed at his woman.
“Sadly, Lass, that means you, too. Stay right here, and let us go do our thing. I’ll be having the same kind of stroke as Gryphen if you even move closer to that hole of potential death.”
She pouted, but knew it was for the best.
“I guess Velma is staying with Shaggy.”
Ian stared at her.
“Really? I’m more of a Fred. I can rock out an ascot.”
Gryphen just snorted as he walked past his fiancé.
As he, Finn, and Michael moved closer to the opening to check it out, Graham stayed with the other two—mostly to keep them from following.
They didn’t need anyone stroking out.
“I’m so excited,” Gabby said, practically ready to explode from the energy. Her coco-brown curls bounced as she moved from foot-to-foot as she was ready to go.
It was beyond exciting to see that they were given more access to the castle, and something might be in there.
It was like a treasure hunt.
“Babe,” Michael called back to the three people, getting Graham’s attention.
Did he just call him…babe?
Wait.
What?
“Yes?” he asked, dumbfounded that the man called him that, and without it seeming to be bothersome.
It sounded…natural.
In fact, he’d called him that all of the time when they’d been a couple.
“Do you have a light you can give me?” Michael asked as he was trying to see into the darkness in front of him.
“Uh, yes,” he offered.
Then, he grabbed a light that was on the floor, left by the construction guys, and turned it on before passing it off to him.
Graham just focused on D’Artangnan as he easily moved around, not tripped up by what he’d said.
Did he hear him right?
Was it an inadvertent slip?
It was clear that Ian saw him struggling, because he touched his back with his hand, and ran it up and down it.
Gabby winked at him, and his heart was racing.
Did the man mean to call him that, and did everyone know it but him?
God.
He was so freaked out.
“What do you see?” Ian asked.
The three men stood there. Right past the rubble, there appeared to be another hallway, that must have been original to the castle.
They’d been right when they believed the dimensions to be off.
They were.
The castle went beyond the crypt, and likely had been a secret way in and out.
“Darkness,” Michael said, shining the light into the opening.
The cop beside him didn’t like this.
Not.
At.
All.
“Well, how could this go bad?” Finn asked. “What if there’s mold, bones, and more ghosts?” he asked, not believing those words even came out of his mouth.
That was proof of how insane all of it was.
As for it going bad, they all knew.
The ceiling could collapse, there could be some archaic booby trap, or they could fall through the floor. At this point, anything could happen.
What they did know was if Duncan walled this off, he would likely not want people wandering around in it.
Right?
“Do you see anything other than darkness?” Ian asked. “Asking for a very curious man who needs to know.”
The men watched as Michael pointed the light at the back of the corridor, and that’s when the light landed on something.
“I see something,” Gryphen admitted, “but I’m not sure what.”
He wasn’t sure if it was more debris or something left there.
They might have to investigate, and that was the LAST thing he wanted to do.
What he’d hoped was the wall would come down, and there would just be a pile of bones.
Was that so much to ask?
Of course, this was going to involve something far more like taking a trip down the dark corridor to god only knew what.
The three men inside the corridor had to make up their minds, and do it quickly.
Gryphen was staring at the ceiling, and making sure it was safe enough that they wouldn’t have the whole thing come down on them.
“What’s above this, Graham?” he called to the man who was keeping Ian and Gabby from rushing inside.
He heard him.
“It heads toward the pasture where Romeo and Juliet graze. It would depend on how far back it goes.”
Oh, well, it went far.
Gryphen made up his mind.
“We should be good,” he admitted. “The only thing is we need to be careful of anything that’s here waiting for us. If I was hiding Ian’s body,” he began, and the man protested.
“Excuse me?” he called.
It made him laugh.
“You know I was just making an example, Ian. If anything, it would be you hiding my body. Who are we kidding?” he teased.
He heard laughter, and continued.
“If I was hiding my lover’s body, I’d make sure no one could defile it.”
Michael agreed.
“We should be good, but everyone should be wary. We’re underground, and I don’t want to die in here with whatever is at the end of the tunnel.”
Finn sighed.
“Come on, Gabby,” he said.
And it took her like three seconds to race into the corridor and get to her fiancé.
She.
Moved.
Fast.