“It’s probably my Purple Heart. I left it with him. I don’t think it’ll be in there, though. I saw him holding it before he jumped. It fell off the cliff.”
It wasn’t lost on Michael the irony. He’d left his heart with Graham once before, and he’d dropped it then too.
Gryphen felt bad about that.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know that had to hurt to see—both him and the heart go over.”
Oh, it was.
But he brushed it off.
What was one more thing of his that was destroyed in some relationship?
His soul.
His heart.
His morale.
His ego.
There was a growing list at this point. Why not pile the fuck onto it?
“Anyway, I don’t think it matters what’s in the box. All I know, Gryph is I’m in over my head. This really blindsided me, and I know I keep saying that, but it bears repeating. It’s like a kick to the balls. That memory lingers.”
Oh, he was aware.
For the most part, Gryphen knew that his friend was struggling. When he became a bodyguard for the Blackhawks, Michael was the one who trained him and taught him how to do the job.
“Want me to come there and cover your six, Michael?” he asked without hesitation. “Because if you need me to be there, I will be. Graham is important to me, but so are you. We’re brothers. We’re family. We’re Marines. Say the word.”
That hung there.
Nothing was said, and Gryphen went there again, repeating it.
“I mean it. Just say the words, Michael, and I’ll be there for you. Just do it, and I’m on my way. I can be there for both of you. I love you both.”
He went to say no, but that’s not what came out of his mouth.
Not.
Even.
Close.
It was clear this had him more rattled than even he knew. His mouth and brain were betraying him.
What was next?
His heart?
“I saw him, and I feel everything I did before the moment he broke me,” he whispered. “I don’t know how to do this, Gryph. I need someone to protect me from making incrediblystupid mistakes when it comes to my heart. I can’t trust myself. Can you come? Please?”
The man was already packing his bags.
He’d already gone to Elizabeth, and she greenlighted their trip out of there. He couldn’t stay long, but he could go and make sure everything was stable and not ready to blow up spectacularly.
“I’ll be on the next flight. Elizabeth already spoke to Ivan and cleared it. I’ll see you at the castle.”
