Laughter felt good. Scratch that. It felt great. But we had work to do. “Can you borrow Ford’s truck for a drive out to Buckhead?”
“Let me ask.” She muted the call for a heartbeat. “He says yes but wants to know if he can come too.”
The fit in the cab would be tight, but we could manage. “The more the merrier.”
With that settled, Midas and I stepped outside the Faraday and bumped right into Lisbeth.
“What are you doing here?” I scanned the street from left to right. “Where’s Ford?”
“I was coming to meet him on his break.” She shrugged. “This sounds like more fun than a taco.”
“Nothing is more fun than a taco.” I slanted my eyes toward her. “Are you sure you’re not a host?”
“What?” Jerking back, she touched her throat. “Why?”
“Tacos occupy a somewhat holy level on the food pyramid for Hadley,” Midas explained. “You’re fine.”
“Hey.” I spun on him. “How would you feel if she turned up her nose at extra rare steak?”
Teeth sparkled as his smile spread. “More steak for me.”
Thirty seconds later, Ford pulled up in his truck and rolled down his window. “Need a lift?”
Lisbeth wiggled her fingers at him, and he wiggled his right back.
“Thanks for this.” I opened the door and crammed Lisbeth in beside him. “We appreciate it.”
“We felt better about you guys having backup anyway.” Ford kissed Lisbeth’s check. “Food can wait.”
It hit me then, that between Ford and Lisbeth, they could track every breath Midas and I took then report to one another, or their factions, on it. We needed to draw hard lines on what information could be passed between the pack and the OPA in any official capacity ASAP.
Midas climbed in next, leaving me for last. I bumped his hip with mine, but he didn’t scoot. Instead, he hauled me onto his lap, and his warm breath hit my nape. “Let me get the door.”
With his long legs taking up most of the space, I banged a knee on the dash when I spread mine over the outside of his. I also managed to bang my head against the light protruding from the ceiling and bumped the funny bone in my right elbow on the glass. I fought the urge to suck in a pained breath between my teeth, but it was a close one.
For his part, his legs were trapped in an awkward bend to give mine room. He thumped his head on the window behind him trying to give me space to lean back against his chest. His arms wrapped around my waist better than a seat belt, and his elbow slid off the armrest to whack the door with every pothole.
Comfortable, it wasn’t.
But sitting in Midas’s lap wasn’t a bad place to be.
“Where are we headed?” Ford pulled out into traffic. “Lis said Buckhead, but where?”
Midas gave him the address then settled in to nibble on the right side of my throat.
Chills peppered my skin, and I angled my chin to give him better access, all the while hoping Liz or her ilk would assume the hickeys he was bound to be leaving were bruises from fighting chupacabras or something more badass than me spending a good half hour as a blissed-out gwyllgi chew toy.
“We’re here.”
Jolting awake, I hadn’t noticed myself drifting, but I had definitely gone to sleep mid make-out session.
Frak.
Magic exacted a price for its use. Always. Ambrose had paid the bulk of it to heal me, which depleted his reserves, but he and I were one and the same. Despite his very generous gift, I was feeling the drain too.
Chuckles moved through my back as Midas cinched his arms around mine to keep me from flailing while I remembered where I was and what I was doing on his lap. Good thing too. I almost elbowed Lisbeth in the jaw trying to work the tingles from my arm. I had fallen so deeply asleep, I couldn’t feel the pins and needles. Yet. They were biding their time, I was sure.
“How do you want to handle this?” Ford threaded his fingers through Lisbeth’s. “I have ideas.”
“Your ideas involve me staying in the truck.” She snorted. “I’ve been with the OPA for years. I can handle myself in the field. I’m aware of my limitations, and I’ve learned to work around them.”
“Your limitations put the rest of the human race to shame,” I praised her, because it was true, “but we’ve got to watch our butts in there. The coven doesn’t play fair. They play to win.”
It was easier for me to erase the Liz who had never existed by lumping her in with the rest of them, but Midas and Ford would struggle. She had been pack. She had been Ares’s mate. She had been family.
And it had been a lie.
Sometimes it wasn’t all bad, being a world champ at compartmentalizing, but I couldn’t recommend the years of training required to reach my skill level. Not even to my worst enemy.
“Are we hoping to contain or eliminate?” Ford kept his voice cool, and I could tell I wasn’t the only one who was shoving thoughts into neatly labeled boxes. “One will be infinitely more dangerous than the other.”
“We let her make that call,” I decided. “She’s more useful to us alive, but we’ll put her down if she gives us no other choice.”
Midas held me closer while he opened the door then spilled me gently out onto my feet in the gravel.
Once we had all exited the vehicle and worked out the kinks from the drive, we stood together, taking in the objective.
The building was smothering beneath vines and crumbling at its foundation. The windows had all been shattered, and the doors had sheets of plywood nailed to their frames to seal them shut. It was creepy, remote, and decaying.
Basically, it had super-secret witchborn coven hideout written all over it.
Sliding my hand into Lisbeth’s, I gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Make no apologies.”
Fingers tightening around mine, she smiled at me. “Survive.”
The guys
