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20. Into the Lair of the Beast

Sorry for the wait on the update.

Nicky's POV

"You know," I start as I turn away from the window to look at him. "you still haven't told me where we're going."

Ryder just nods. "I know."

"We've practically been driving nonstop for three days. Are you planning on telling me where we're going?"

"What's this we? I've been driving, and we've had several breaks."

"The only reason you've been the one driving is because you won't let me drive."

"I don't want to end up in a ditch."

I glare at him. "The only reason you'd end up in a ditch is because I'd pull over and toss you in it."

"Ah, I was wondering when you were going to get back to the threats and insults."

"You started it."

I notice his lips twitch as if he's trying to hide a smile. "All I said was that I didn't want to end up in a ditch. That's neither a threat or an insult. What was left unsaid was that we'd be in that ditch because your eyesight is so horrible you'd drive us into a ditch believing it to be the road."

And the urge to hit him was back ladies and gentlemen.

"Relax matchstick," He says, his eyes never straying from the road. "We're almost there."

"Almost where?"

He ignores me and cranks up the music on the radio. I try unsuccessfully to burn a hole through his head.

***

"Where exactly are we?" I question as we walk through the doors into the foyer of what appears to be an apartment building.

"Come on," Ryder says absentmindedly as he starts to rifle through the duffle bag hung over his shoulder. "We're going to the fifth floor."

To my utter dismay, he pushes open the door labeled stairs instead of pushing the button for the elevator.

I follow behind him but he takes the steps two at a time with ease because of his freakishly tall height and long legs, and I'm stuck practically running up the stairs to keep up with him.

Mental note; if I decide to run off again, I'm taking the elevator.

Ryder's waiting for me at the door to the fifth floor and he raises his eyebrows as if to ask me what took me so long. "What, did you stop to count each individual step?"

I glare at him.

"Is that a no?"

I continue to glare but feel my cheeks start to turn pink. Technically, I stopped counting after the first couple flights of stairs. After that, I could figure out how many more steps there were easily.

He smirks at me and walks into the hallway with me following close behind and cursing him out the entire way.

Ryder comes to a stop in front of a door and continues rifling through his bag. His vocabulary gets progressively more colorful as he doesn't find what he's looking for.

"Ryder?" I hear someone say.

He instantly tenses and then begins to search even more frantically through his bag. His muttered curses getting quieter but even more colorful than before.

I turn to look at the cause of his obvious panic and see a young woman poking her head out of the door across from his. She's a supermodel kind of beautiful and I find instantly that I don't like her. Not because of her beauty, or because of the fact that she's dressed essentially in just lingerie, or because her make-up's flawless. Nope. It's because of the murderous glare she's sending my way as she sees me with Ryder.