Heart by Rachel Higginson Page A

starving
again.
    I’d asked Ryder what his plan was earlier,
but he hadn’t answered directly. He just didn’t want to stop long
enough for Nix to catch up with us. We were close to Omaha again
now. Council Bluffs was just over the Missouri River, only ten
minutes from his downtown loft and fifteen from my midtown
condo.
    We were high up in the bluffs. Ryder had
driven to an overlook that was near the Lewis and Clark Landing.
Trains chugged along interweaving tracks at the base of our tall
cliff. The rumble of their movement and clang of metal added a
soundtrack to the summer sounds that filled in our quiet
places.
    “What now?” I broke the silence, anxious to
speak again just to make sure that I could.
    “I need to go home and get my passport.”
    His words shocked the hell out of me. I
didn’t know what he meant or what to say, but I could guess. Ryder
had taken care of me today. I would be dead by now if he hadn’t
been with me and acted so quickly.
    Or worse than that, I would be with Nix. I
owed Ryder everything and because of that I couldn’t ask anything
else of him.
    I had spent the majority of the day on the
verge of a panic attack while hundreds of escape scenarios played
out in my head.
    The best one I thought of involved Ryder
driving to Kansas City. He could drop me off at the airport there
and I could slip into the crowd unseen and unnoticed. I didn’t know
if he was down for the long trip though. I pretty much needed his
car services to get anywhere or I was completely screwed.
    I couldn’t take a cab to Kansas City and
expect to stay alive. Nix would find me. The bus left me completely
vulnerable and I was sure that Nix had already staked out
Eppley.
    In fact, looking back, I was surprised Nix
didn’t have someone watching the airport when I first got here. He
should have tagged me the second I stepped off the plane.
    Even Kansas City, two and a half hours away,
was a risk. Nix could have people there too. Hell, Nix could be
watching every single airport in this country. Flying could be
suicide. But I couldn’t think of another way.
    “What do you need your passport for,
Ryder?”
    He swiveled in his seat to face me. When his
gaze hit mine, I sucked in a sharp breath. His gray eyes brightened
with determination, steeled with resolve. “The only reason I let
you go before was because I physically couldn’t stop you. I won’t
make that same mistake twice.”
    “You want to go with me?” My voice was a
whispered squeak. I ignored the warm burn in my belly and the way
my skin tingled all over.
    “I’m going to go with you,” he countered.
    “It’s not safe.”
    “I never thought it would be.”
    “I don’t even know where I’m going.”
    “We’ll figure it out together.”
    “He might find us.”
    “I’ll kill him before I let him hurt you
again.”
    My mouth went dry and I forgot how to
breathe. “I thought you hated me.”
    He tore his gaze from mine and turned back to
the horizon. “Do you think he’s watching my house?”
    “Yes,” I answered immediately. I let him
change the subject because I had a feeling I was as anxious to hear
his answer as he was to give it.
    He pulled out his cell phone and turned it
on. I hadn’t realized it had been off, but now that it started
ringing with all of his missed notifications and texts, I could see
why he kept it shut down. It was really hard to field your
popularity when an angry Greek god was chasing you.
    “Ah, shit,” he mumbled.
    “What?” I shouldn’t be so nosey, but after
the day we had, I half expected Ryder to show me a text message
with Nix’s long list of demands.
    1. Hand Ivy over.
    2. Hand Ivy over.
    3. Hand Ivy over before I burn this entire
planet to the ground.
    Clearly I thought Nix had a one track
mind.
    It wasn’t about Nix or even me though.
    “My dad’s been trying to get in touch with me
all day,” Ryder explained. “I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m dead by
now.”
    “You should probably call