BooksBarbecue
Back Heart of the Sun Save as PDF
Chapters (56)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for the novels of Mia Sheridan
  3. About the Author
  4. NOTE TO READERS
  5. Dedication
  6. prologue
  7. chapter one
  8. chapter two
  9. chapter three
  10. chapter four
  11. chapter five
  12. chapter six
  13. chapter seven
  14. chapter eight
  15. chapter nine
  16. chapter ten
  17. chapter eleven
  18. chapter twelve
  19. chapter thirteen
  20. chapter fourteen
  21. chapter fifteen
  22. chapter sixteen
  23. chapter seventeen
  24. chapter eighteen
  25. chapter nineteen
  26. chapter twenty
  27. chapter twenty-one
  28. chapter twenty-two
  29. chapter twenty-three
  30. chapter twenty-four
  31. chapter twenty-five
  32. chapter twenty-six
  33. chapter twenty-seven
  34. chapter twenty-eight
  35. chapter twenty-nine
  36. chapter thirty
  37. chapter thirty-one
  38. chapter thirty-two
  39. chapter thirty-three
  40. chapter thirty-four
  41. chapter thirty-five
  42. chapter thirty-six
  43. chapter thirty-seven
  44. chapter thirty-eight
  45. chapter thirty-nine
  46. chapter forty
  47. chapter forty-one
  48. chapter forty-two
  49. chapter forty-three
  50. chapter forty-four
  51. chapter forty-five
  52. chapter forty-six
  53. chapter forty-seven
  54. chapter forty-eight
  55. epilogue
  56. acknowledgments

The world already felt scary and unfamiliar, and that morning I felt brittle and on edge. I wanted to feel hopeful. I wanted to experience gratitude at knowing there was a safe place in the midst of all this madness, and that I was headed there now. But the only thing I could focus on was the pain of knowing Tuck wouldn’t be with me.

Morning mist swirled, birds wheeling above as the checkpoint came into view. The people who were guarding it had moved concrete roadside barriers into the center of the road and two men with hulking muscles stood in front of them, guns strapped to their bodies.

Tuck moved slightly closer to me as we approached, his protective nature ever present in his actions and the way he instinctively put his body in front of those he meant to block from harm. Oh God. How will I say goodbye? This isn’t right. Please tell me you can’t let me go, that nothing means more than I do. That whatever happens, you’ll return to me, and you’ll stay.

But I knew he wouldn’t, because it wasn’t true.

And part of me loved him all the more for the fact that he was going out into a dangerous world, hell-bent on helping others. I’d vowed that morning as we’d left the recording studio with backpacks of food and water that I wouldn’t beg him not to leave me. Because truthfully? I knew he might very well honor my request if I begged him hard enough. But I couldn’t let him remain with me out of obligation. It would eventually break my heart even more than it was already breaking.

Still, as Leon stood talking to the guards, who obviously knew him, I looked at Tuck, tearing up against my will. “Saying thank you for getting me to this point doesn’t seem like enough.”

“It’s more than enough,” he said, his knuckle trailing over my cheek. I turned into it but then turned away. I was barely holding on. If he touched me, I’d break.

“I can’t believe we made it here,” I said, voice as wobbly as the smile I attempted. “From that plane, all the way here. We did it. And now—”

“Now you’re going to be safe. Everything is going to be good, Emily.”