Chapter Eleven #4
They all began hugging the men.
Genuinely, they were all happy for them, and how could they not be?
“It’s not like we don’t have to go into the village anyway,” Ian said. “We have to meet with a psychic and do some research.”
Graham and Michael were staring into each other’s eyes, ignoring everyone else.
And who could blame them?
“We can go sit in the library and read over the journal until Finn makes the call,” Gabby offered.
That they could do.
Ian was to the point.
“We also have to put that letter from Catherine back in the book to preserve the history.”
The man sitting on the counter was curious, and he tried desperately to focus on the other people there.
“And the paintings are safe?” Graham asked. “Because I’m responsible for them.”
Oh, they were aware.
“Yes, they are in the storage room. Nothing will harm them there,” Ian offered.
Or so they hoped.
Finn pulled out his phone.
“Give me a few to see if I can pull some strings and get the paperwork handled.”
That worked for them.
“If you can’t,” Michael said, “we’ll still get married when the paperwork clears. It’ll happen.”
Graham agreed.
“I know it will.”
Finn pointed.
“Give me some time to do felonious things. Then, I’m going to have a little talk with my lass and the whole, ‘she’s disappointed we’re not married’ when my mother has been giving me hell over her not being my wife and carrying our child.”
Gabby kissed him on the lips.
“So spicy today. That’s sexy—almost as hot as you naked in that photo.”
He flushed red, thinking about it.
Because the man was doing an important job, they’d give him space.
Turning, Michael gave Graham his back, and the man hopped on. They probably looked silly, but Graham didn’t care. He didn’t feel like dying anymore.
He felt like living.
“Do you have me?” he asked, as D’artangnan carried him toward the library where he’d found the book yesterday evening.
“I’ll always have you, Baby. You know that. I’ll never drop you again.”
That made Graham’s heart sing in peace for the first time in seven and a half years.
God.
It had been too long.
For the first time, in what felt like forever, he wasn’t the odd man out. He had the same love that each person he called family did.
He had his heart back.
As Finn went to go make a call, the rest of the group parked their asses on the big leather couches in the library.
When Gabby grabbed the one ledger, she tucked the letter back inside of it.
For safekeeping.
They were close to piecing all of this together so that Elizabeth could come here and not be haunted.
They hoped.
It was just about tying up some of the loose threads.
“So, what do we do next?” Graham asked from his spot on one of the couches. He was in D’Artangnan’s lap so that everyone could have a spot to sit. “I’m not an investigator, and while I’ve helped out both of you, this isn’t my thing.”
Well, they had this.
It would just take some footwork to make it happen, but it was obvious that Finn, Gabby, and Ian would have to lead on this one.
“We need to get to the church, which ironically is where you two need to be,” Gabby said.
Michael wiggled his eyebrows at Graham, and the man blushed.
Oh, there was no doubt in Michael’s mind that they were going to sin something fierce tonight after they were hitched.
Bet.
On.
It.
This was a long time coming, and there was no way he was not going to live in that moment too.
Ian clarified.
“The archive there is pretty intensive.”
Gabby agreed, even though she went in through the internet, and not in the actual church.
“We’ve only skimmed the top when it comes to Ceit’s sister. I came across her ‘marriage’ to Duncan by chance because we didn’t originally look into Catherine too much,” Gabby admitted.
Ian agreed.
“When I was there, I researched Ceit, but not her sister. I didn’t know about her being brought there for Duncan to be his child bride, part two. We mainly dealt with Ceit.”
Gabby continued.
“Yeah, we mainly dealt with figuring out who Duncan’s mysterious lover was.”
Michael was trying to focus, but it wasn’t easy. There was a man in his lap, and it just so happened to be a man he had given his heart to years ago.
“What is left to go over, because your wedding, Ian, will be here before you know it? On top of that, we’ve given Elizabeth enough to be wary about, so she is known to be unpredictable. She could pop in just for shits and giggles on a day off.”
Oh, they were aware.
It was important they handled this, and quickly.
Ian rattled it off.
“We need to figure out a few things, if we can’t get the curse removed. While that’s the plan with the psychic, we don’t know if she can pull that off.”
He had a point.
Ian continued.
“Keeping that in mind, the majority of the questions start with who killed Ceit? We THINK it was her father, but we don’t know.
Maybe that’s why her spirit never settled.
She was murdered. After that, we need to locate Ciarán Begbie’s bones.
That’s likely why the two of them are unsettled.
When we put Ceit back in the crypt, she calmed right down. ”
Graham agreed.
“She hasn’t been around. I haven’t heard her crying or singing lullabies.”
Michael shook his head.
“Nope. That’s NOT what I want to hear in the middle of the night. One ‘Rock-A-Bye Baby’, and this man is out.”
They all laughed.
Yeah, that tended to be the consensus.
Gryphen sat on the couch, and Ian was in his lap. The whole time, he was letting his man play sleuth. He dug this kind of thing, and honestly, he liked being back here.
“Then what?” Gryphen asked.
Gabby was to the point.
“Who is in the lake, and if it’s Ciarán, why was he dumped in there? Maybe that’s why he’s pissy. We know Duncan made the choice to bury his wife outside of the castle, whether it be because of Ciarán or not, but maybe he’s seeking retribution because of that cold-hearted dump in the water.”
They considered it.
“I don’t know,” Ian said, talking it out. “Why would they be chummy as ghosts if Duncan tossed him in the water? They wanted us to find those paintings, clearly, and we did. We need to figure out what he’s trying to tell us.”
Yeah, they did.
That meant one thing.
“After we hit up the church archive search, we should stop in and see the psychic,” Gabby admitted. “We might be able to get some insight into what’s going on here. We’re kind of failing miserably when it comes to communication.”
Michael raised his hand. It appeared he had to remind them, and it wasn’t because he wanted to participate in this. If he had his way, he’d get married, come back here, and begin the honeymoon.
He wasn’t a ghost chaser.
That wasn’t his thing.
“We’re forgetting one thing. I have to go back into the water.”
That hung there, and his fiancé was staring at him with fear in his eyes.
“I’ll be okay,” Michael reassured.
Yeah, but his best friend didn’t like that idea at all, and he made sure he was aware of it.
“I don’t know if you should,” Gryphen admitted. “You said you nearly died.”
Yeah, but that was because he’d done it alone. There was safety in numbers, and he was good with giving Graham his back to watch.
He trusted him.
“I’ll be okay. My partner will be there to save me. He’ll make sure I’m good.”
Yeah, no pressure there.
Only, Graham would do it for a few reasons. First, he knew it had to be done, and D’Artangnan was damn good at things like this. He’d watched him dive a few times.
Secondly, it made him feel secure since he was being included in the man’s plans, and they were back to being a team.
That was something he knew would keep them both safe.
They had trust in that.
Gabby was worried.
“Are you sure, Michael? You got some of the bones out,” she asked. “Did you get the skull?”
He nodded.
“Yeah, that’s when it started to go wonky,” he admitted. “The second the skull was out, a mist rolled in, and it got weird.”
No.
Shock.
There.
Everyone was silently weighing the options, and he reassured them again.
“I can do it if I have backup. Going in alone was dangerous. I couldn’t see what was above or below. Now, I’ll have extra eyes. I trust Gryphen to keep me safe, too.”
And he would.
There were three soldiers there. They could pull this off.
“Do you want to do that first?” Gabby asked.
Michael wanted to stay on the couch with his fiancé for the rest of the day, but that wasn’t happening. What he wanted and what he was getting were two different things.
But he did have some time.
Finn wasn’t back yet from making the call, so they could stay here for now.
So, he pointed at the book that Gabby had put on the coffee table. It was the journal found in the tunnel they’d just evacuated.
“How about we go over that first?” Michael suggested. “You know, in case it tells us who is in the water. Maybe we’ll get lucky. Then, I can skip that. Elizabeth will just have to have bones in her lake. She won’t be upset with me if I can’t do the dive.”
Then again, he’d torn into her and had yet to call and apologize to her for that. She might never speak to him again for all he knew.
And that broke his heart a little.
Because of her, even if she didn’t try to meddle, what she’d done by sending him here had given him the greatest gift in the world.
His heart was back.
Now, having to tell her he wasn’t leaving here was going to be difficult. He genuinely loved his job, and how well he was paid.
But his life was with Graham, and if his fiancé wanted to stay here, then Michael wasn’t leaving Scotland.
Gryphen laughed at what Michael said. Elizabeth being told there were bones in the lake?
PRICELESS.
He only hoped he was there to see it go down. She could run fast, so he was pretty sure Callen and Chris were so dead. They might be haunting the new mansion they’d bought her in Damascus.
“Oh, the men are dead.”
Michael snorted.
There was nothing better than seeing Elizabeth all stirred up, and ready to bust chops over something like this—and she would.