That hung there for a few seconds. Honestly, he wasn’t sure he heard her correctly.
That sounded…off.
Now, he was curious.
“Pardon? Ethan wants to be there? Was he abducted? Replaced with a pod person? Did Raphael finally steal him and replace him with a replica?” he asked because any of those suggestions were more likely than the man willingly staying on the rez.
He hated it there.
She laughed, but mostly because Raphael was right beside her, and all he did was slip his hand in between her and the phone and flip Michael off.
The other Archangel laughed.
Yeah, he knew whose hand that was. That meat-hook hand belonged to one of his closest friends. Well, if you couldn’t bust your friends, who could you bust?
“Well, I mean, in my defense…,” he began. “It’s not exactly a lie. We all know he would do it if he wasn’t in love with his husband.”
She snorted.
“Yeah, I know. He’s sketchy as fuck, but the devil you know,” she admitted, as Raphael kissed her on the temple.
After hearing Ethan wasn’t going back to DC, now, Michael was worried.
That really wasn’t like him.
“I can come back,” he offered. “If you need me there, I can have them turn this jet around.”
She stopped him.
There was one reason.
The heat was on. Riley Cunningham was digging on them, and it was only a matter of time before he found someone who could be bought or bribed.
She didn’t put it past him.
Not.
At.
All.
“Yeah, no, I’m good. Apparently, I’m going to go see this haunted, gold-baron’s house. It’s like the men in this family don’t understand when I say I don’t want houses or ghosts. They for some reason go out and do exactly that bullshit.”
He snorted, and he had bad news for her. Elizabeth seemed to be forgetting one thing.
“I was there. You asked for this one.”
She sighed.
“But haunted, Saint Michael of the few sane Marines? I don’t think I asked for ghosts,” she offered.
He winked at her.
“Mom, if I was there, I’d keep you safe. If you get spooked, can I suggest you hop a flight and…oh, no, never mind. You own a haunted castle too. That seems to be a pattern.”
Now, she flipped him off, which made him laugh even more. Only, it wasn’t like he was wrong, now was he?
Oh, the men were testing her patience, and he was sad that he wouldn’t be there to see her beating their asses under the guise of working out in the gym.
