on the bed, chatting away with someone hidden by privacy curtains. Expecting it to be Abbott, I walked in and stumbled when I spotted Ford and Abbott.
“Hey.” I tried for a hesitant smile. “I didn’t expect to find you here.”
“I wanted to try an experiment,” Bishop said, gesturing Ford out of the room. “Lisbeth is an LPN. She works at a large clinic that keeps her chained to a desk, a victim of admin drudgery, but she’s an excellent nurse.”
The dots connected in my mind, and I said, “Oh.”
“I recruited her to take care of Ford,” he continued. “I was curious if he would remember her.”
“Did he?” I checked with Lisbeth. “Remember you?”
“Not until he entered the room.” Her brown eyes sparked with amusement. “Watch this.”
Cautious about involving Ford again, I started to protest. “I don’t think we should—”
“Ford,” Bishop called. “Can you come here, please?”
Ford sauntered into the room, pulled up short when he spotted me, then nodded to Bishop and Abbott. A heartbeat passed before he noticed Lisbeth, and he smiled when he did, but it was only politeness.
“Ma’am.” He took a step back. “I don’t mean to intrude.” He checked with Abbott. “Should I go or…?”
“Ford, this is Lisbeth.” Abbott introduced them. “Lisbeth, Ford.”
She stuck out her hand, and Ford was too much of a gentleman not to take it. The contact sparked instant recall, as best I could tell, and he laughed.
“You got me again, didn’t you?” He shook his head. “That’s the darnedest thing.”
It was one thing to hear a geas had been laid on someone, even to experience the limits of the ones on me, but it was startling to watch one in action on someone else.
“They spent enough time together,” Bishop told me, “the geas doesn’t work quite right on him anymore. One touch brings it all back.”
That could explain how I remembered her too. We talked every day. We may not have shared physical space often, that I recalled, but we had an emotional connection that might have anchored her in my mind during a moment of trauma.
“I guess that settles it then.” I joined Ford at her bedside. “You can stay with me until you’re over the hump.”
“Midas is staying with you.” She kept sneaking glances at Ford. “I don’t want to impose.”
True, my apartment was the size of a shoebox, and I already had a whole lot of gwyllgi male in mine.
“You could stay in Midas’s apartment maybe?” I would have to ask first. “That way you’d be close.”
“You can stay with me,” Ford offered. “Or I’ll stay with you.”
Frowning at this change in his tune, I asked, “How long do you have before you go?”
“Long enough.” He smiled at Lisbeth. “I’m not on any set timeline.”
That wasn’t the impression I got during his speech to Midas and me, but I wasn’t about to stick my nose into his personal life. The intersection of a member of Midas’s pack and a member of my team threw up a stop sign I was all too happy to obey.
“You don’t have to do that.” Roses blossomed in her cheeks. “I can manage on my own.”
“You took good care of me.” He covered her hand with his. “I don’t mind paying you back.”
“That’s not why I do what I do,” she protested. “You don’t owe me.”
“Hadley,” he said, dragging me into their argument. “Tell the stubborn woman to accept help when it’s offered.”
“Stubborn woman,” I parroted, “accept help when it’s offered.”
“Fine.” Her complexion glowed as she gazed up at him. “We’ll have to stay at your place or mine, though.” She checked with me. “Humans aren’t allowed in the Faraday, right? That’s why I was under house arrest until Ford recovered?”
The shock of learning one of my team was human struck me mute. It wasn’t that I was prejudiced against them, or that I didn’t see the value in them, but I hadn’t expected one to step up and put their lives on the line for the paranormal community.
“The Faraday isn’t safe for humans, no.” I got hives thinking about her staying here without my knowing. Bishop must have put protective measures in place, but I was stunned all the same. “Stay with Ford. Gwyllgi protective instincts being what they are, he’ll feel more comfortable with you in his own territory.”
“All right,” she said softly.
“How are we going to get around the geas?” He kept his hand on her, and she didn’t budge. “Never let it be said I mind coming home to