Page 35 of Watch Your Back (Devil’s Backbone #2)

As badly as Carter handled the situation with Ashes moving in, I’m glad he did it.

I love having her here. I love smelling her shampoo wafting out of her bathroom in the morning; I love hearing her happy hum while making coffee; I love being able to bend her over the arm of the sofa when we’re the only ones home.

Between the four of us, we have all shot down her every attempt to find other living arrangements, and it seems like she’s stopped trying.

We’ve got a good thing going on…even if not everyone wants to admit it just yet.

V alentine’s Day was stupid. Actually ridiculous. Carter, Royce, and Heath had filled the entire apartment with so many red roses, I worried whether they’d left any for the rest of the town to buy. Nate had been conspicuously absent—giving us privacy—but it’d cast an odd mood over the evening.

Carly had been sulking about me moving out of the dorms, so we were having breakfast together at the apartment before I needed to head to work. I’d picked up extra shifts to make up for taking the weekend off, since we had a society thing coming up.

“Your mom is calling,” she informed me while I attempted to flip pancakes. I was useless at cooking pancakes but wanted to try nonetheless.

I glanced over at where she was holding my phone out and wrinkled my nose. “Let it go to voicemail,” I said with a grimace. “I have a feeling she found out about my car somehow. It’ll be a lecture about how I should have sold it years ago.”

“You sure?” Carly asked with a frown. “Looks like she’s tried to call a few times. It could be something important.”

I shook my head. “Honestly, I’m sad enough about the Firebird without her piling the guilt on top right now. I’ll call her back another day.”

Carly shrugged and declined the call. A few minutes later, though, Nate appeared from down the hall with his phone to his ear and a frustrated scowl on his handsome face.

“Yeah, just a minute. I’ll put her on,” he said, then held out the phone to me. “Carina wants to talk to you.”

My jaw nearly hit the floor, and I shook my head. “What? No. Nate, what the shit?” My protests came in strangled whispers so Mom wouldn’t hear. “How does she know I’m here?”

He shrugged, sweeping a hand through his hair. “Fuck if I know. Morning, Carly.”

Carly gave him a small nod in response. They’d both been trying hard to get rid of the awkwardness, which was nice. I hated feeling like my friend might be uncomfortable visiting due to their history.

“Nate,” I hissed, gesturing to the phone in his hand.

“Tell her I’m not here. Because why would I be here?

” Because in addition to not telling my mom that my car had been totaled—Rex had declared it totaled a week ago, much to my agony—I also hadn’t told her that I’d moved out of the dorms. Call me crazy, but I doubted she’d like to hear that I was not only living with my boyfriend, but I was also living with my other two boyfriends…

oh and my stepbrother. Couldn’t forget that complication.

He just rolled his eyes and brought the phone back to his ear. “Carina? Yeah, uh, she’s not here. Sorry, I thought she was visiting Heath, but I guess not.” He paused, listening, then blanched and met my eyes with a guilty expression. “Ah. I see. Yes, let me just… I’ll put Ashley on, shall I?”

I gaped at him in outrage as he physically grabbed my hand and placed his phone into it, wrapping my fingers around the device with an apologetic grimace.

“Sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t deal with her gentle parenting voice. It creeps me the fuck out.”

Rolling my eyes, I extended my middle finger to Nate, then brought the phone to my ear with a sigh. “Hi, Mom. Sorry I missed your call. I was just?—”

“Oh save it, Ashley,” Mom replied with a growl of frustration. “You were dodging my calls and we both know it. I can’t believe I had to call Nathaniel to get ahold of you.”

I rubbed at the middle of my brow while Nate nudged me aside to rescue my burning pancake. “Yeah, sorry. I was just visiting Heath.”

She gave an irritated sound. “Uh-huh, sure. Is there something you’ve forgotten to tell me? Something important that I should know?”

I cleared my throat and looked to the ceiling for some sort of divine courage. “About the car?”

A short pause. “Car? What about the car?”

“Oh.” I blinked rapidly, changing gears. “Nothing. Wait, what is this about? You sound pissed off at me, and if it’s not about the car then?—”

“What happened to your car, Ashley?” she demanded, and I mentally cursed my own big mouth for not letting her lead the conversation.

“Um, I hit a deer a couple of weeks ago. It’s not a big deal. I just thought that’s what you were calling about. But it’s not, so…what’s up?”

“You—” She sounded horrified, then huffed a sharp sigh. “I was calling to ask why the hell Max’s boss just congratulated him on his son’s engagement?”

My blood ran cold, and I locked eyes with Nate at the stove. What the fuck? I mouthed the words at him and he gave a helpless shrug.

“Oh, really?” I hedged, scrambling for a casual brush-off. “That’s weird. He never mentioned anything. Maybe someone misunderstood something?”

Mom gave an angry grunt. “I’m sending a picture to Nate’s phone. I’d like you to tell me why his lovely fiancée looks so very familiar, Ashley, and I swear to coffee, if you lie to me, you will regret it.”

The phone vibrated in my hand, and I reluctantly looked at the screen.

Sure enough, someone had snapped a photo of Nate and me at the society party.

It’d been taken right at the moment where I’d pressed my thumb into his black eye, but it looked awfully like an intimate caress to anyone who didn’t know.

Nate’s hand was on the small of my back as he looked down at me, while my head was tipped back and my hand on his face… Yeah, okay, it didn’t look great.

I flashed the phone screen to Nate with a frantic gesture, and he just winced.

Real fucking helpful.

“Mom, it’s not what it looks like,” I hurried to say when I brought the phone back to my ear. “Nate’s mom was?—”

“Jocelyn was there? I knew that looked like the back of her head. That…” Mom blew out a long sigh. “That explains a lot. Okay, tell me the truth, Ash.”

I rolled my eyes, sending Nate another middle finger before explaining exactly what had actually happened, from Jocelyn pushing Nate to get back with Paige to his white lie about us dating, then how Jocelyn deliberately snowballed the whole thing out of control.

When I was done, Mom was silent for a moment. Then she gave a little laugh. “Bloody hell, yeah, that sounds like her. Okay, so to be clear…you and Nathaniel are not engaged, nor are you romantically involved at all? Because, honey, Max and I would have some things to say about that.”

“No!” I exclaimed. “Definitely not. Nate and I are…not like that. At all. Not even the littlest bit romantically involved, I swear.” Nate’s brow dipped as he watched me, probably trying to work out what Mom was saying on the other end. If I were nice, I’d have put the call on speaker.

Mom’s sigh was pure relief. “Okay, good. So the rumor I heard about you living together was also just a rumor, yes?”

Ah shit. “Ummmmm, well…” I rubbed my eyes and shook my head.

This was a guilt trip I really didn’t need, and I suspected she would launch into a whole safe sex talk about me dating three guys, and it was way too early for that shit.

So I did the most mature, adult thing I could think of.

I grabbed a packet of chips from the pantry and crinkled the bag right beside the phone.

“…breaking up…bad reception…call back later…” Then I hung up.

She immediately tried to call back, but I just tossed the phone to Nate like it was a live snake. “Not it,” I grumbled. “You started this mess. You need to clean it up.”

He caught the phone, then handed me the stack of perfectly golden pancakes he’d somehow managed to salvage from my mess. “Let me know when you’re ready. I’ll drop you at work on my way to campus.”

I murmured a thanks, then fetched syrups and whipped cream from the fridge before noticing the way Carly was staring. “What?”

Her brows shot up. “What do you mean what ? What was all that?”

I split the stack between our plates and handed her some cutlery. “I already told you about that stupid engagement lie.”

Her laugh was scandalized. “I’m not talking about that.

I’m talking about that.” She gestured to the pancakes and then the direction Nate had just disappeared.

“You guys are…comfortable. I thought for sure things would be awkward as fuck seeing as he’s the odd man out in your orgy palace but… the vibes were not awkward. At all.”

I shrugged, not seeing the problem. “We’re mature adults, Carls. We are capable of moving past our prior differences.”

She snort-laughed, digging into her food. “Still not what I meant but sure, okay. Anyway, speaking of your orgy palace…how’s Roycey?” Her smile turned smug, and I rolled my eyes. Ever since telling her that Royce and I hooked up, she was insufferable.

Apparently she’d known he was into me for months and I missed all the hints. I thought she was full of shit, but she was not letting up on the smugness.

“Someone said my name?” the sexy devil himself asked, strolling out in just a pair of loose basketball shorts and looking like a whole fucking sex dream come to life. He jerked a nod of greeting to Carly, then swept me up in a hug that took my feet clean off the ground and made me squeal.

“Mmm, good morning, Squirrel,” he growled, burying his face in the crook of my neck as he pinned me to the door of the fridge. “I missed you this morning. Why’d you need to creep out so early?”

An embarrassing little moan slipped out of me as he kissed my throat, and I smacked his shoulder. “Dammit, Royce, not in front of Carly.”

“Don’t stop on my account,” she smirked, spearing another forkful of pancakes. “You two are fucking adorable together. Puts me in a good mood for the day.”

“See, babe? Carls doesn’t mind.” Royce crushed his lips to mine in a breath-stealing kiss that nearly succeeded in making me forget we weren’t alone.

Reluctantly, I peeled myself away and slid out of his grip. “Quit it,” I scolded, my face burning with embarrassment. “Carly and I are having breakfast, and then I have work. What time do we need to leave tonight?”

“Oooh, for the DB weekend?” Carly asked. “Edmund and I are heading off around lunchtime after tutoring.”

I nodded, my mood souring. When the guys had told me about it a couple of weeks ago, I’d been adamant that we shouldn’t go.

But they’d been very convincing that the danger was over.

It’d been nearly a month since Dr. Fox’s “disappearance,” and nothing had come back on us.

No police inquiries, no suspicious surveillance…

nothing. By all appearances, we’d gotten away with murder.

More than that, Heath’s nightmares had drastically improved, and no one had any suspicious hypnosis incidents that we could track. So for all intents and purposes, it did seem like life could return to normal, like maybe I could start to enjoy my time at Nevaeh and in the Devil’s Backbone Society…

So for that reason, I’d agreed to attend the weekend event in Napa Valley.

“I think just whenever Squirrel finishes work,” Royce answered, stealing a pancake off my plate. “Three-ish?”

I nodded. “Yep, should be. Are you picking me up?”

Royce pouted and shook his head. “Carter called dibs. Nate, Heath, and I are expected to be there to help set up some shit. Inner-circle business.” He rolled his eyes dramatically, and Carly clapped her hands over her ears.

“Calm down, Carls. I’m not sharing secrets. Anyway, can I drop you at work?”

He sidled up closer, the flirty smile on his face implying he wanted to do more than just drive me. Tempting. Very damn tempting. But I had a long shift on my feet and really didn’t need to be walking around with cum-soaked panties.

“Nah, you’re fine. Nate said he’d drop me off before class.” I stole my plate back and nudged him away. “I’ll see you tonight.”

Royce gave an exaggerated sigh, then grabbed a handful of my hair to jerk my head back and kiss me thoroughly. “Fine,” he growled between kisses. “I’ll be counting the minutes.”

He disappeared, adjusting his shorts as he went, and Carly gave me a pointed look.

“What?” I asked, scowling.

She shrugged. “Nothing.” But her smile said it wasn’t nothing at all. Probably reading way too much into me sticking with Nate’s taxi services. She just loved seeing connections that didn’t exist, I was sure of it.