Page 11 of Watch Your Back (Devil’s Backbone #2)

The Devil’s Backbone Society elders are putting pressure on for an increased social calendar this semester.

Normally it wouldn’t bother me, but I can’t shake the feeling Heath’s sleepwalking is linked to the Society somehow.

WE WERE ALL in our ceremony robes and masks that night, when the science hall burned down.

When Ashley had somehow snapped me out of the trance.

Fucking Ashley. Why does it feel like she is the core of the problem? Or is she the solution? I wish I knew.

C arly practically kicked my door down first thing the next morning to drag me out for coffee and breakfast. I was tired from staying up way too late reading ahead in my Humanities textbooks while also trying not to check my phone every five minutes.

Was it really so stupid of me to think Carter would reach out?

“Still nothing from Sir Carter, huh?” Carly asked as we walked across the lawn toward the coffee shop. I hadn’t even realized I was staring at my phone until she said that, and I guiltily put it back in my pocket.

“Nope,” I confirmed, shaking my head. “It’s fine. I don’t care.”

Carly scoffed. “Liar. What about Heath? Are the guys back in their apartment?”

“Yeah, I think Heath and Nate got back over the weekend—Nate dropped me off yesterday—but no idea about Carter and Royce. They cut me off, remember?” I screwed up my face, trying to make light of a situation that was actually stinging something awful.

Carly sighed. “Stupid boys. What are you going to do about Heath? Has he said anything about what the doctors are advising?”

“You mean, has he ended things between us for the sake of his mental health? No. He hasn’t.

We haven’t actually spoken since New Year’s Eve, which sucks massively.

But it means that I will eventually have to be the asshole, and I really don’t want to do that.

So…I figured I’d take the mature, adult approach to the whole thing. ”

She snorted a laugh. “Avoid it until it becomes a thing?”

“Yup.” I nodded. “Exactly.”

A car revved somewhere nearby, and some women screamed, making Carly and me stop in our tracks and look in the direction the noise had come from.

“Watch out!” someone yelled just moments before a car swerved off the road entirely, plowing through the bushes and heading straight toward Carly and me.

Before I could even register what the fuck was happening, someone body-slammed into me, grabbing me clean off my feet and carrying me some fifty feet before I could get a proper scream out.

“Put me down!” I shrieked, my instincts screaming at me that this wasn’t someone I knew. It wasn’t a hold I was familiar with in any way. It was too rough, too impersonal, too…professional. “Let me go!”

Mr. Lionel Hughes placed me back on my feet but didn’t move away. He just turned his huge back to me, his head swiveling as he searched for…what, exactly? Another out-of-control car speeding toward me? That’d be crazy bad luck.

“Miss Layne, we need—” he started to speak at the same time he grasped my biceps, clearly intending to drag me along with him.

“I think the fuck not,” I snapped, wrenching my arm out of his grip.

Or trying to. He was stronger than anticipated, or at the very least he’d been prepared for my resistance.

All I managed to do was jerk against his iron grip pitifully.

Then panic whipped through me as I glanced around. “Carly! Carly!”

It was total chaos where Mr. Hughes had just moved me from.

The car had gone all the way across the lawn and crashed into a tree.

People were screaming and running, and the front end of the car was so crumpled, there was just no way the driver was still alive.

Carly was nowhere to be seen, though, and there were several people on the ground in various states of injury.

“Let. Me. Go!” I screamed, yanking my arm away with all my might. Mr. Hughes released me just a split second before I yanked, though, and I went tumbling to my ass on the lawn. I gasped, stunned for a moment, then I realized what had happened.

Mr. Hughes hadn’t let me go. He’d been knocked back a few steps by Carter’s fist, and as I watched he caught a second punch right in the nose before dodging a third.

“Carter! Stop!” I cried out, scrambling to my feet once more.

He showed no sign of even hearing me, and Mr. Hughes had shifted his focus to defending himself…

which surely wasn’t going to end well. Mr. Hughes was a trained bodyguard who looked like he’d spent time in the armed forces or Secret Service or something, but Carter?

He had anger issues and not so long ago beat a man to death in Paris, then dumped the body.

My panicked gaze flicked back and forth between them, but an agonized wail reminded me of the bigger issue at hand. The out-of-control car. The injured bystanders. Carly!

Deciding Carter could handle himself, I turned and ran back across the lawn, searching for my friend. “Carly!” I screamed, looking everywhere. “Carly! Where are you?”

I skidded to my knees beside a blond girl lying on the ground, an ominous pool of red spreading beneath her. My heart lodged in my throat as I reached out to brush her hair back.

“Ashley!” a familiar voice exclaimed.

I sucked a breath so sharply I nearly choked, looking away from the gravely injured—possibly dead—girl on the ground. The girl whose face I didn’t recognize, and that revelation flooded me with sickening relief.

Carly was running toward me, shock and fear etched across her face as she grabbed me in a fierce hug. “Holy shit, Ash, I thought something bad had happened to you!”

“Me?” I squeaked, hugging her back tighter than a bear trap. “I thought the car hit you!”

“Close,” she admitted with a groan. “I dove onto the path and feel like I will be one whole walking bruise tomorrow. Better that than the alternative, though.” She released me, then reached out to check the unfamiliar girl’s pulse. “Oh shit, she’s still alive. Call an ambulance!”

I blinked like an idiot as I pulled out my phone. Call an ambulance? That would have been the smart thing to do. Why didn’t I think of that sooner? Sirens already filled the air, and I figured others had called in the accident already, but still, this girl needed help. Badly.

“What happened?” I asked Carly after speaking with the 911 operator and being assured multiple ambulances were en route already. “That car?—”

“Insane,” she agreed, shaking her head with disbelief. The girl on the ground started to stir, moaning, and Carly shifted her focus to comfort her. “Hey, Jess, it’s Carly. You need to stay still, okay? We’ve called for help, but please stay really still in case…”

Tears pricked at the girl’s eyes, but she was lucid enough to understand. Her lips tightened and she squeezed her eyes shut in obvious agony. Fucking hell. Carly grasped her hand, murmuring soothing reassurances, and I looked over in the direction of the siren noises.

“I’ll get one of the paramedics,” I said, pushing to my feet and sprinting toward the street where they’d likely be pulling up. Just a moment later, two came speeding around the corner and pulled up quick when they undoubtedly saw the chaos.

There were lots of people needing medical help, but I had a horrible feeling about Jess’s injuries, so I pushed, shoved, and pleaded to get one of the paramedics to accompany me back to her straightaway.

They went to work efficiently, strapping Jess into a neck brace and spinal board. She whimpered and sobbed quietly as they got her prepped, but Carly kept offering quiet reassurances to keep her calm.

“I’ll go with her,” Carly told me. “You should go back to our dorm. I’ll meet you there?”

I nodded quickly, assuring her I’d be fine. Once the paramedics got Jess onto a stretcher and hurried her back to the ambulance, I turned to look for Carter and Mr. Hughes.

To my shock, they were still fighting it out. To be fair, it seemed more like Mr. Hughes was just deflecting blows and attempting to disengage while Carter looked like he genuinely wanted to murder the older man.

“Carter, stop!” I bellowed as I drew closer.

He paid me no attention, launching at the bodyguard with more fury as if Mr. Hughes’s attempts to deescalate were enraging him further.

Without really thinking my actions through, I rushed forward and physically placed myself between the two of them, then instantly braced for impact as I registered how utterly stupid that move was.

The blow never landed, though. Carter caught himself, his knuckles barely kissing my hair as he aborted the motion; then he grabbed me with both hands on either side of my face and an expression of utter horror etched across his face.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he roared, giving me a little shake. His arms were so tightly flexed it seemed like his veins were about to burst, but his touch was protective rather than threatening. “You could have been hurt, Spark! You could have?—”

“You weren’t listening,” I said, defending myself, trying to hide the way adrenaline pumped my heart like a bongo drum and my limbs trembled in shock.

His incredulous stare morphed into something undefinable. Then he crushed his lips to mine in a kiss that stole the breath from my lungs and turned my knees even weaker than they already were.

I didn’t pull away, because I needed that kiss just as much as he clearly did. Kissing Carter was pure torture, but the kind I kept willingly entering into because it felt so fucking good even when it hurt.

“Carter,” I murmured against his lips after his desperate kisses eased. “Why are you trying to kill your bodyguard?”

He withdrew an inch, brow furrowed with confusion. “My bodyguard? That guy? He was manhandling you. I heard you screaming for him to let you go and he didn’t… I saw red.”

I licked my lips, tasting his kiss there and craving more. “You do love red.”

Mr. Hughes cleared his throat pointedly behind me, and I sighed as I peeled Carter’s hands off my face. Then I narrowed my gaze as I looked between the two of them. “You didn’t hire Mr. Lionel Hughes to be my bodyguard?”

Carter’s expression was undeniably confused. “What? No. I’ve never seen this asshole in my life.”

I shot the security dude a long, hard look but his answering stare was totally blank and unwavering.

I sighed. “Whatever. Mr. Hughes, I appreciate your timely assistance, but I was quite clear with you last night. I do not want or need your services. Please pass that along to whoever the fuck your client is.”

Not waiting for a response, I grabbed Carter’s arm and started marching across the lawn in the direction of Dancing Goats coffee. Yes, I would head back to the dorms but not without some caffeine to settle my nerves first.

“Spark, wait,” Carter said a moment later, gripping my hand as he pulled me to a stop. “Are you okay? You’re not hurt?”

I shook my head. “I’m fine. You, on the other hand, are a fucking mess. What were you thinking, starting a fight like that? He’s clearly a professional and you could have?—”

“I was thinking that he was hurting you,” he snapped, cutting me off. “You were screaming at him to let you go. I thought…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “I thought he was trying to kidnap you or something. I panicked. It was like Paris all over again, and I just…” He shrugged.

I got it, though. My anger evaporated and I squeezed his fingers with understanding.

“Let’s get coffee. Then maybe you can explain why I haven’t heard from you since New Year’s?

” Or from Royce or Heath either, to be fair.

But they hadn’t shown up to sweep me off my feet at a fancy party, then dropped me like a hot rock when Mommy showed up.

Carter’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean? I called you a dozen times. You blocked my number.”

I scoffed, dropping his hand as I continued in the direction of coffee. “I did nothing of the sort. I thought surely you’d explain things or, I dunno, apologize, but the silence sort of put that final nail in the coffin, Sir Carter.”

He jogged a couple of steps to catch up, then grabbed my hand again, jerking me to a halt.

“Okay, we can discuss that nickname later—I don’t hate it, by the way—but let’s get this perfectly clear.

I tried to call. I tried to message. Dozens of times.

You. Blocked. My. Number. Spark. Did you seriously think I just didn’t care enough to explain? ”

“Bullshit,” I snapped back. “Prove it.”

His brows shot up. “Okay, then.” He released my hand and pulled his phone from his pocket, swiping the screen with his thumb to bring up his message thread with me, then turned the device so I could see the long scrolling list of messages showing undelivered, interspersed with call not connected.

My jaw dropped. “What? I didn’t block your number, though.” But just in case, I pulled out my own phone and searched for the function listing all blocked contacts. Shock rippled through me as I read Carter’s name on the list…along with Heath and Royce. “What the fuck?”

That explained a lot. A lot. But it didn’t change the fact that I hadn’t blocked any of them…

And then it hit me. I’d fallen asleep on the drive home from the New Year’s Eve party.

I’d fallen asleep in the car, fully dressed in my fancy designer gown and heels, then woken up in bed wearing a T-shirt over my lingerie… with my phone charging beside the bed.

“Fucking Nate,” I growled, my fingers curling around my phone and squeezing just like I’d like to have done to his neck. “I’m going to kill him.”