Page 13 of Watch Your Back (Devil’s Backbone #2)

My doctors suggested I keep a journal as a way of “talking about my feelings” outside of the clinic, but it just reminded me about the journal Ashley found in her room, how Abigail had been documenting all the weird shit going on within the DBs during her time at Nevaeh, and it made me think it wasn’t such a bad idea.

Maybe this way, if anything else happens to me, it’s in black and white that I am not suicidal.

I am, however, willing to kill whoever has been fucking around in my head.

“ O kay, let me get this straight,” Royce said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees as he stared into my fucking soul. “Nate didn’t just block Carter’s number because he was a total douchewad at the New Year’s party and acted like you were his dirty little secret?—”

“Come on, man,” Carter protested.

Royce flicked him an unapologetic glance. “Don’t wanna be called a douchewad, don’t act like a douchewad, Douchewad. But back to the point. Nate didn’t just block Carter—he blocked all of us? Why? Also, how’d he get into your phone?”

I threw my hands up, frustrated with the whole thing already and Nate wasn’t even back yet for me to yell at him. The more we talked about it, the angrier I was getting too. It was a massive invasion of privacy and downright petty.

“He kept going on about how I needed to distance myself from you guys, how me hanging around was detrimental to Heath’s recovery, and how it was just safer for everyone if I left Nevaeh entirely.

I guess when I didn’t fall into line, he thought he’d cut me off from the three of you anyway and make it seem like you all didn’t want me around? ”

Royce scowled. “Why would he think that would work?”

I quirked one brow. Was he serious? “Um, maybe because you’ve basically been ghosting me since Heath…since the fire. It wasn’t really a huge stretch to think you’d gone back to acting like I don’t exist.”

He recoiled like I’d slapped him. “I wasn’t—That isn’t what I—” He broke off with a sigh, scrubbing a hand over his face. His jaw was rocking some day-old stubble and it was a shockingly good look on him. Rougher than he usually looked. More rugged. “Yeah, okay. I can see the logic, I guess.”

At that moment, the front door lock clicked, and a moment later Nate casually strolled in like he didn’t have a care in the world. Hell, he looked downright smug. Wait. Ew. He looked like he’d just gotten laid.

“Carter, bro! What’s with the SOS? I was letting Paige beg for forgiveness so this better be—” He paused when he laid eyes on me, seated on the huge leather sofa with my iced coffee in hand. “What the fuck are you doing here, Layne? Can’t you take a hint?”

Scowling, I placed what little remained of my coffee down on the table, then stood up, walked across to where Nate had stopped in his tracks, reached up, and slapped him right across the face.

“Ow! What the fuck?” he exclaimed, reeling back in shock.

“That,” I snarled, “was for fucking around in my phone while I was asleep, you entitled fuck nugget.” Then I slapped him again because I could sense he thought I was done. Once again, my palm connected with a sting across his face. “And that was for taking my dress off. Creep.”

“Whoa!” Carter exclaimed. “He did fucking what now?”

Nate glared daggers his way, then caught my wrist before I could deliver a third slap—this time just for the hell of it.

“I was being nice, Ashley, considering it was a ten-thousand-dollar dress and covered in so many sequins it would have been like sleeping wrapped in sandpaper. Most people would try using a polite thank you instead of assault.”

“That doesn’t excuse your little hacking game in my phone, Essex!” I barked back, attempting to tug my wrist free of his iron grip. He didn’t let go, though, instead using it to pull me a step closer.

His lips parted, but whatever he was going to say got interrupted by Heath returning from the shower. “Oh, come on, I told you not to slap him until I was back!”

Amusement cut through my anger like a crack of sunlight in a pitch-black room, and I fought to stop my lips from curling. “Sorry, honey. Heat of the moment and all that.”

Nate’s hard gaze cut from me to Heath, then over to Royce and Carter before he released my wrist with an abrupt motion. “I see we’re all straight back to simpering over my stepsister again. Silly me for thinking you had more self-respect, Ashley.”

My jaw dropped. “Excuse you? Self-respect? You blocked them in my phone!”

Nate shrugged, apparently totally unapologetic. “Okay…and so you thought the first opportunity you got, you’d go begging for attention and asking why no one had contacted you? Kinda pathetic, don’t you think?”

The look he gave me as he headed for the kitchen was full of pity, and my blood fucking boiled.

“Okay, enough.” Heath stepped closer, looping an arm around my waist as if to physically restrain me from going after Nate with violence again.

To be fair, my fists were so tightly balled at my sides, I definitely wasn’t thinking about slapping anymore.

Nope, I was thinking about breaking his perfect fucking face.

“He is deliberately trying to get a rise out of you, Ashes. Don’t fall into his trap. ”

Nate snort-laughed. “Aw, are we all using cute nicknames now, Ashes? I think I’ll call you…hmmm…how about Nevaeh Bicycle? Because apparently anyone can take a ride. Better double wrap your dick, Heath. Who knows what you might catch from that communal cum dumpster?”

This time, I didn’t need to resort to slapping. Heath let me go, crossed the distance to where Nate stood in the kitchen, and dropped him with one solid punch.

“Ow,” Nate groaned from the ground. “Yeah, I deserved that one.”

“The next words out of your mouth better be a heartfelt apology to Ashley,” Heath snarled, “or I’ll let Carter have the next punch.”

Geez, even I flinched at that threat. A quick glance Carter’s way confirmed he was on his feet with fists clenched and a murderous look on his handsome face. Fuck, even Royce looked like he’d happily drown Nate in the sink right now.

“I apologize, Ashley,” Nate gritted out, sounding shockingly sincere for once. “That was out of line and I’m sorry.”

Heath looked at me, silently asking if that was good enough. I jerked a shocked nod his way, then scowled back at Nate, who was glaring daggers. “Apology accepted, but insult certainly not forgotten,” I muttered, folding my arms.

After another tense moment, Heath extended his hand to Nate, who clasped it and let his friend pull him back to his feet.

“That was a hell of a punch, considering how scrawny you’re looking,” Nate told Heath, offering a lopsided smile and a shoulder check as he headed for the freezer to grab an ice pack. Which then reminded me about Carter’s face.

“Toss Carter some ice too,” I instructed. Nate didn’t question me, just lobbed a gel pack across to Carter, who caught it and pressed it against his purple cheek.

Heath huffed, folding his arms over his chest. He’d sadly put a T-shirt on after the shower, and admittedly, it was a little loose. He was far from scrawny, though. Just not quite as jacked up as Carter and Nate. Or shit, even Royce was rocking some serious guns at the moment.

“Why’d you block all our numbers in Ashes’ phone, Nate?” Heath persisted, gesturing for me to rejoin Carter on the couch as he and Nate headed over to find seats. “You let us all think she was mad at us for something when you knew all along.”

Nate shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time. I’d had at least two bottles of champagne that night, to be fair. Besides, you were told by your doctor to avoid any romantic relationships for the next six months, while you’re in therapy.”

“So you thought you’d intervene?” Heath looked like he was seriously considering punching him again. “What gave you the fucking right, Nate? Last I checked, I’m an adult and can make my own decisions.”

Nate snapped. No more blasé, no-fucks-given attitude.

He totally snapped. “What gave me the right? Maybe the fact that I fucking care about you, Heath. I don’t want to ever be responsible for cutting you down from a ceiling fan again.

I don’t ever want to be the one to give you CPR and try to bring you back to life again.

How about that? Maybe, just maybe, if you weren’t all tangled up in Ashley’s shit, then you never would have done such a stupid thing. ”

For a moment, no one spoke. The silence was so thick, you could have heard a pin drop. Then Lady whined like she didn’t enjoy the tension either, and Carter leaned over to scratch behind her ear reassuringly.

“You don’t know that,” Heath finally said in a quiet voice.

“All of this could have played out exactly the same without Ashley’s involvement.

It still could happen again and have nothing to do with her.

You’re blaming her for shit that has nothing to do with her, except that you don’t know who else to blame. ”

“Wasn’t Ashley the one who snapped you out of the sleepwalking trance that night too?” Royce pointed out. “So it could be argued that we would all be in a much worse place right now without her.”

Well. When he put it like that… If Nate hadn’t snapped out of it, would we have found Heath in time to save him? Remembering how fuzzy and out of it both Royce and Carter had been, I couldn’t be so sure.

Nate had a stubborn scowl on his face, though. Or I guessed that was what the expression was, considering half his face was covered with an ice pack. “That doesn’t change your doctor’s advice,” he replied.

“I wish I never fucking shared that with you,” Heath groaned, raking a hand through his hair.

“It’s irrelevant, anyway. My doctor said to avoid any new emotional connections that might be confusing during my recovery.

This isn’t new, Nate, and I can’t just pretend I’m not already falling for Ashes just because it makes you uncomfortable. ”

I choked on my iced coffee. Gasped with the straw still in my mouth, inhaled liquid, choked. My face heated to a million degrees as I spluttered and gasped, and Royce watched me with the strangest expression on his face as tears streamed from my eyes.

Carter gave me a firm pat on the back, which did exactly nothing to help, but I quickly managed to get my shit under control again and wipe my eyes with the sleeve of my sweater.

“Sorry,” I croaked. “Sorry, I, um, I wasn’t expecting that.

” Fuck me, now all four of them were staring at me and I wanted to be literally anywhere but here.

Except at the same time, I really wanted to be alone with Heath, so I could make him repeat that.

Just for me. Preferably while balls deep inside me.

“Bro…” Nate said with a pitying head shake. “You can’t seriously be falling for that.” He gestured to me with an insulting sort of grimace.

Heath, on the other hand, looked at me like I was a goddamn queen. Pure adoration that was impossible to ignore. “Why not? She seems pretty perfect to me.”

Oh Christ, this was too much. This felt like a conversation I shouldn’t be sitting right fucking there for. Could I sneak out without anyone noticing?

“Dude…she’s fucking Carter for one thing,” Nate scoffed, and my face heated even more. I couldn’t even say anything to defend myself because technically it was true…even with our chat in the elevator earlier, I was under no illusions that I wouldn’t fall back onto his dick at some stage.

Heath just shrugged. “I’ve had plenty of time to make my peace with that. If I had to share with anyone, I’m glad it’s one of you dickheads.”

“Wow,” I blurted out. “This has been…a lot. Um. Ah…can we possibly put a pin in this super awkward chat that feels way too personal for the current group setting? And maybe circle back around to the whole hypnosis issue that is the root of the conflict here? Let’s, um, yeah, let’s talk about that and stop talking about who is sleeping with who, yeah? ”

“Whom,” Royce murmured, correcting me. “Who is sleeping with whom, Squirrel. And while we’re on the subject, I think it’s best if we reengage our roomie arrangement. For safety.”

“Seriously?” Nate barked, throwing his hands up.

I was pretty sure Royce was just fucking with him at this stage, but it did remind me to ask about Mr. Lionel Hughes. “Okay, wait, which one of you is responsible for hiring the bodyguard?” Because it wasn’t Carter, or he wouldn’t have punched the man for doing his job.

“What bodyguard?” Heath asked with obvious concern.

I gestured to Carter’s face where he had the ice pack against his cheek. “The one Carter got into a fight with this morning after the car crash on the South Green.”

“Wait, what?” Royce exclaimed. “What car crash? Why’d Carter get into a fight with a bodyguard? Catch us up, please.”

I sighed, then my stomach rumbled. I’d grabbed coffee at Dancing Goats, but at the time my appetite had evaporated thanks to the near-death situation. Now, though? I was hungry as hell.

“You tell them,” Carter said, dropping a very casual kiss on my hair as he stood up. “I’ll make you something to eat.”

It was a solid deal, so I nodded and then gathered my thoughts.

Screw it, may as well start with Mr. Hughes showing up at my dorm room and go from there, so I didn’t leave anything important out.

We still couldn’t rule out the car crash being part of the hypnosis thing, either.

After all, the driver had been a DB, and according to Abigail, it all centered on the society.

Everything centered on the society.