Chapter Ten #3
Well, yeah, but getting the bones out of the water was the problem. Michael had nearly met his maker diving for them.
It looked as if he was going to have to go back in.
Gabby was to the point.
“It would make sense if he was in the lake,” she offered. “He was murdered. I read online that spirits that are killed or who died in bad ways tend to haunt until they finish their mission or find peace. Maybe he’s angry because we haven’t figured out the whole mystery.”
No one there wanted to have the men haunt this place. Ceit was no longer lurking, as far as they knew.
For Callen’s and Chris’ sake, they needed to get this handled.
That started with for now, focusing on the here and now of the situation.
“Before we go lake spelunking,” Michael said, “we should see what else we have in here. You know, since I’m the one who is going to be going in the lake. I’d rather we get any clues before I nearly die again.”
That had everyone’s attention.
Gryphen knew he’d been in the lake, but other than him and Graham, no one else did.
“What do you mean, again?” Finn asked.
“I was in there this morning. I got some of the bones out, but not all of them.”
They looked surprised.
“You went in alone?” Finn asked, feeling chills run up and down his spine.
Michael nodded.
“Yes, and it nearly killed me. That’s how we ended up in bed, naked,” he admitted.
Ian’s eyebrow went up, and even Gabby looked surprised. They could see that Michael was hovering around Graham, but they were not prepared to know they’d been in bed.
“As in sleeping or…?” Ian asked.
Michael just laughed, clueing them into the fact that very little sleep had been going on in there.
Well, that and Graham flushed red, and it was discernable even in the shadows of the corridor.
Oh, boy.
Someone had sex.
“Uh,” he said, not sure what to add to that since everyone was staring at him. “Trust me, no one is more shocked than I am,” Graham admitted.
Hearing that, Michael dropped his arm over Graham’s shoulders, and gave him a kiss on the temple.
He was staking his claim.
He would NOT be starting their relationship over from the start. Instead, he was picking it up right where they’d left off.
And he only hoped Graham would join him.
“I’m not shocked at all,” Michael admitted, leaving it at that.
Only, Graham was still confused.
What was going on?
Were they a couple?
Was this a dream?
Jesus.
If he didn’t get an answer soon, he was going to lose his damn mind.
Clearly.
Michael shared the rest.
“I went in, and Graham saved me. He’s my hero,” he admitted. “Something grabbed me by the ankles and pulled me down to the bottom. I couldn’t get free. When I looked down, they appeared to be skeleton hands coming up from the muck and mire.”
Gabby gasped.
“Oh, my God! When I fell through, something was pulling me down. Finn had to save me. There is something in that lake!”
As they stood in the shadows, Finn was direct and to the point.
“I don’t like that lake, and I do believe I suggested NOT going in it without backup. It’s dangerous, and someone is very angry.”
Well, Michael was aware, but he’d been sent there to do a job, and he’d planned on doing it.
“As I was in there, running out of air, I could hear talking.”
Ian was curious.
“Was it male or female?”
He considered the question.
“You know what? I can’t answer that. It didn’t sound like either. It was just a voice that echoed through the water. It said ‘revenge’ when I heard it above the water, and ‘retribution’ as I was drowning, and that’s all.”
Gabby gasped.
“I heard a voice, too, and it said the same thing. Now that I think about it, it wasn’t male or female. How is that possible?”
They had no idea.
His fiancée was staring at him, and Finn knew she was curious because he’d heard something too when he dove in.
“It just sounded dark to me when I was trying to save you, Gabs. I don’t think I gave it a thought when it came to gender. It was so weird to be hearing a voice, that I was only focused on that and saving you.”
Michael was to the point.
“I have to go back in. I only got a few of the bones. There are more down there.”
No one liked that idea.
“I think we should put that on the back burner,” Graham said, not wanting D’Artangnan to risk his life again by going into the water. That sounded incredibly dangerous. “We should go through this stuff first. Maybe it will give us a clue as to who is in the water.”
He had a point.
As they went back to going through the things, Michael kept his arm around Graham, proprietarily, and the man wasn’t complaining.
When he looked up at him, Michael grinned at him, and patted him on the ass.
God.
If this man left, he was going to disintegrate. There was no doubt about it in Graham’s mind.
Finally, Finn spoke.
“Look at this picture,” he said, showing them. “It’s another family picture, but it looks to be a few years older. The child is about four here.”
In the picture, it was just the two men and the child. Missing was the younger woman who had been playing wife number two.
“Where is Catherine?” Finn asked. “The sister-in-law-child-bride?”
That was a good question.
She wasn’t there.
“Was she dead?” Finn asked. “You know how it was back then. Germy.”
Unfortunately, they didn’t have an answer for that, but they would be able to find one.
With research.
“I didn’t find a death date for Catherine, but I wasn’t exactly looking for one either. I guess we’ll have to go back to the drawing board on that one.”
Graham was staring at the painting.
“What do you see?” Michael asked him.
He pointed.
“This painting looks to be painted out by the waterfall on the property.”
Finn agreed.
“I took Gabby there and we skinny dipped in that water not long ago. It’s just past the pasture and into the trees.”
She giggled and pulled out her phone. On it, was a picture of the man coming up out of the water—his ass out. Yeah, she still had it as her wallpaper on her phone because who the hell wouldn’t?
Gryphen laughed.
“Well, now, today, I’ve seen Michael sharing a full frontal, Graham’s ass, and Finn’s now too. I think that covers all the men here.”
Ian stared at him.
“Is there a reason, fiancé, that you’re seeing naked men that aren’t me?”
He kissed him on the nose.
“Don’t be shrewish, my love. Michael and I work out together, and we shower after the gym in a locker room. Finn because he’s in the picture, and Graham…well, we got quite the show in the Master’s Suite. Someone was taking a ride on a yank like no one’s business.”
Graham sputtered.
“Seriously? Have you lost your mind?”
It made Gryphen laugh.
How could it not?
“Turnabout is fair play, Graham,” he said. “I warned you about that when we were here before.”
He just rolled his eyes.
Honestly, Graham was thinking about ‘riding the yank’ more than anything else. In fact, he wished he was at that very moment.
That had been the plan until they’d been disturbed. Now, he was curious if he’d get another chance—whatever all of this was going on between him and D’Artangnan.
Gabby picked up another painting, and Finn nearly shit himself.
“Mo ghràdh, you’re with child. Don’t pick shit up,” he stated.
She smiled at him.
“I love you, nut, but the painting is only ten pounds. I’m not toiling in the mines to heat our home as I cart back coal.”
He snorted.
“Sassy.”
Yes, yes, she was.
Only, there was no one more careful than her. She knew what was on the line.
As he picked up the painting, for her, there were the two men, the boy was no longer a boy. He was about ten in the painting with his ‘dads’.
Still, there was no Catherine.
“Well, they liked that location,” Finn admitted. “I can’t say I blame them. It’s pretty there, and I have nothing but good memories of the place,” he said, slapping his fiancée on the ass.
It made her giggle outrageously.
From where he stood, Michael was curious.
“What does this random mish-mash of items mean? There are no bones, so…”
Ian was putting the pieces together.
“Everything in here seems to be tied to Duncan’s lover. Do you think he put all of the paintings in here to hide it out, so it couldn’t be destroyed after his death? Did he maybe fear the church ruining what was left of his memory of Ciarán?”
That was a good question.
It was possible.
But they’d have to work on figuring that out. What they knew was someone had betrayed Duncan by letting the enemy into the place, and Ciarán Begbie paid with his life.
Gabby was to the point.
“The church was probably behind it. You know how organized religion was back in the sixteen hundreds. People died—often.”
That was the truth.
If death didn’t take you out from diseases, the church did with mass executions of people who disagreed with their teaching.
Crusaders had to crusade.
Apparently.
“We should bring all of this out to where we can see it better, and where it can be safer. I’m sure these meant something to Duncan, or he wouldn’t have protected them behind a wall,” Gabby admitted.
No one argued that.
“Or he walled both ends off so that no one else could sneak into the castle and kill him next,” Michael admitted. “You said someone let the killers in, and showing them the escape tunnel would be a good way to do that.”
He was right.
“I’m with Michael on this,” Gryphen stated.
They might never know the answer for that, but they’d keep looking.
Away from the corridor.
It was creepy in there, and the hanging spiderwebs didn’t make it more inviting. On top of that, the ceiling collapsing, or more adders was a legitimate fear.
No one wanted to be buried alive or bitten.
NO.
ONE.
Together, they each grabbed whatever they could carry, and brought it out of the tunnel. When they were back inside the crypt, the air was really cold.
REALLY.
COLD.
As in they knew they weren’t alone.
Clearly, moving the items had stirred up the dead to the point they wanted their attention.
They could see their breaths as they breathed out, and the people who’d investigated here knew what that meant.