Page 3 of Watch Your Back (Devil’s Backbone #2)

My head swiveled as if I were in the fucking Exorcist and I eyed him with bewilderment—and a touch of concern. “Are you on drugs?”

Somehow my question shocked a genuine grin to his pretty lips and he shook his head. “I wish. This would all make a shitload more sense if it was all a fucked-up acid trip, wouldn’t it?”

I grunted, hugging my arms tighter. For once, we agreed.

“Have you told Max?” I asked after several more minutes of silence. “About…the fire, I mean?” Obviously Max knew about Heath. Everyone knew. But the shit that happened before? We hadn’t discussed it. At all.

Nate heaved a sigh. “No. Have you told Carina?”

A scoff escaped me as I shook my head. “What the hell could I possibly tell her? That your friends are responsible for arson and manslaughter but had no idea what they were doing? That they somehow sleepwalked their way through that whole process and have zero recollection of ever being there? That you nearly?—”

“Okay, I get it,” he snapped. “Same reason I haven’t said anything to my dad.

Fuck me, if he knew…” He shook his head with a small groan.

“His moral compass is way too true north. He’d make us report it all to the police and put his faith in the justice system.

But how the fuck would we ever defend ourselves when we have no clue what even happened? ”

I swallowed hard, nodding my understanding, then pulled my knees up to my chest in an attempt to warm myself. “So what do we do now?”

A small huff from Nate made me turn my face back toward him. His brow was deeply furrowed, tension lines bracketing his tight lips. “We? Nothing. You need to stay the fuck away from the rest of us until…” He trailed off again with a shrug.

I arched one brow, waiting for the rest of his statement. Until what? Until someone else committed suicide? Until they were all dead? A thick lump of terror choked me and silenced my protests, but the tears welling in my eyes told him where my mind had gone.

Nate’s answering gaze was pure agony.

“I’m sorry, Ashley,” he said softly, barely louder than a whisper.

I bit the inside of my lip, desperately trying to hold the waterworks at bay.

“This isn’t fair,” I croaked in response.

I didn’t want to stay away, and I hated the professional security guard that’d turned up at my door that first night I spent back in my dorm.

Royce had taken all his things and left a stranger in his place…

and I harbored more than a little bitterness toward him for that fact, even though I understood his reasons.

Nate didn’t disagree with me. He just hung his head and ran a hand over the back of his neck, like he was at a loss for what to even say. That made two of us.

Distantly, and only because of how incredibly quiet it was sitting there in the snow, I heard a car engine coming closer. Which was weird, because it was Christmas Day and we had no other family.

“Do you hear a car?” I asked, in case I was just imagining shit. Which wasn’t outside the realm of possibility, all things considered.

Nate’s gaze snapped to mine and he cocked his head to the side, listening. “I do. Are you expecting anyone?”

A bitter laugh bubbled out of me. “Oh sure, one of my dozens of friends are coming to hang out and gossip about our love lives. Oh wait. That’s right.

My only friend hasn’t spoken to me in weeks.

” Not that I blamed Carly for that fact—she was dealing with a lot.

But still, it hurt to be dropped so very quickly.

The car engine came closer still and, a moment later, cut off. Followed by the sound of a car door slamming. With a sigh, I pushed back to my feet. May as well go find out what other insanity our parents had arranged in a valiant attempt to salvage our first Christmas together.

“You’re wrong,” Nate said quietly as I stalked back across the frozen ground toward the house. “Carly isn’t your only friend.” He gave me a long look as I glanced over my shoulder, then shifted his gaze away. “Royce is still your friend… He’s just scared shitless of hurting you.”

There was something weird in the way he said Royce’s name, but I shook it off.

I could already hear Max’s enthusiastic greeting from within the house, and my curiosity got the better of me.

I ignored Nate and stomped back into the house, leaving little blobs of snow on the wooden floor as I kicked off my boots.

“Ash? Nate?” Mom called out. “Is that you? Come in here! Your next present just arrived.”

I stifled my groan and made my way toward the foyer, picturing anything from a sports car to a live tiger waiting out front in a giant bow. But neither of those options would have shocked me quite as much as what I found waiting by the front door.

“Merry Christmas, Ash.”

Those three words, that voice I’d thought I might never hear again—it damn near killed me. A sob ripped from my chest, and I threw myself forward, no longer in control of my own actions.

Thankfully, he caught me, his strong arms wrapping around me like he was made to hold me.

I sobbed into his chest, now utterly sure I was hallucinating, and he just stroked my hair as he chuckled with a sound so warm, rich, and real. So…Heath.