Page 37 of Watch Your Back (Devil’s Backbone #2)

We all know Spark is nervous about the society weekend event, and it’s understandable.

The last time we took her to a weekend event, someone ended up beheaded in her bed.

This one will be different, though. We’ve been really hands-on with the planning this time, and Nate has gone above and beyond for security. Besides…Dr. Fox is dead.

To be extra safe, I’ve bribed the right people to ensure our “random” teams keep Spark with me, so I can keep a close eye on her the whole weekend. All day and night…for safety.

In the meantime, I’m anxiously waiting on news from Royce’s uncle. All I need is enough hard evidence to play UNO Reverse Card on my mom, offer some mutually assured destruction, then Spark will be safe. We’ll both be free.

That day can’t come soon enough, but in the meantime Nate’s fake-engagement fuckup is really working in our favor. Who’d have thought? Certainly not me. Here’s hoping Ash is okay maintaining the lie a little longer…because Nate’s already agreed.

C. Bassington, Febuary 15

T he weekend event was being held at an exquisite private vineyard estate where everyone would be staying in house for the two nights and leaving Sunday. As we pulled up, my eyes bugged out at the sheer dollar value of the cars parked on the grass outside the main entrance.

“Obscene,” I muttered as Carter parked his Gemera beside a Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail. “You know how much that car costs?”

Carter gave it a glance and shrugged. “Rolls are old-man cars. Not even a little bit sexy like this baby.” He patted his custom-colored Koenigsegg affectionately, and I rolled my eyes.

“Okay, agreed. But still. That’s a forty-million-dollar car—Fuck!! Watch out!” I nearly died when he opened his door too quickly and stopped way too damn close to the rose-pink Rolls-Royce. “Christ, Carter, you’re going to give me a heart attack. Maybe you should park a little farther away.”

“Chill, Spark. I’m not going to scratch it. Come on. Let’s head in and get our team assignments before all the good ones are gone.” He gestured for me to hop out while he grabbed our weekend bags from his trunk.

I slid out, thankful that I’d turned my jeans around the right way during our last fuck-stop on the way, and leaned into Carter when he draped his arm over my shoulders. “I thought you said teams are assigned at random on arrival?”

“Yep,” he confirmed.

“Uh-huh…and didn’t you also say that you’ve rigged it to place us on the same team because you’re so completely obsessed with me that you can’t bear to be apart for even a minute?” I grinned up at him as we walked across the gravel driveway.

He glanced down with a cocked brow. “Is that what I said?”

“It’s what you meant,” I replied with a laugh.

Carter leaned down and dropped a quick kiss on my mouth.

“I’m sure I meant to say, I rigged us to be on the same team because I’m completely in love with you.

” He growled those words directly into my ear as we arrived at the front door, and my whole body shivered deliciously in a physical reaction to his confession.

He’d said it plenty of times over the last few weeks, but I was yet to say it back. I was still scared of having my heart broken, despite knowing full fucking well that saying it out loud would change nothing. I knew I was falling way too hard, and if things fell apart, I would be utterly crushed.

“Ashley Layne and Carter Bassington, Nevaeh University,” he announced to the door-check staff.

One young man checked our names off a list while another offered a velvet bag for us to pull out the token that would assign our team for the weekend. Right before I could reach in, the other guy nudged him aside.

“I’ve got it, Chuck,” he said, slipping a token directly into my hand rather than letting me take one from the bag. He then did the same to Carter, holding the velvet bag to disguise the motion, and I rolled my eyes.

“Thanks, Bass,” Nate said, appearing beside us and clapping Carter on the shoulder as he took the token directly from his hand. “Nate Essex, Nevaeh,” he announced, then continued on into the house without waiting to have his name checked off or anything.

“Hey, dickhead, that’s my token!” Carter called after him.

Nate turned to shrug and grin. “Just take another, bro. They’re random, right? What’s the problem?”

Carter glowered, glancing around to take in the amount of attention Nate had just drawn, then sighed heavily. The attendant gave a helpless shrug and offered out the velvet pouch for Carter to draw an actually random token.

“Fuck’s sake,” Carter grumbled, checking his token as we moved inside toward Nate. “Swap back, asshole.”

Nate inspected the token in his hand and smirked. “Nah, I like white gold. What did you get, Layne?”

I held mine up, showing a matching white-gold tile embedded into my token. “Snap.”

“What a coincidence,” Nate gasped dramatically, giving Carter a knowing look. “What are the odds, huh? Come on. Let’s find Royce and Heath to see who else rigged their team color. Oops, I mean who else had a strange coincidence.”

I glanced at Carter, but he just scowled and shook his head as we followed Nate through the expansive main foyer of the estate. Curious, I took his token from his clenched fist and peered at the very dark gold of his embedded metal.

“Does this make us enemies for the weekend?” I asked with a bemused grin, placing our tiles together side by side. “How many people are on each team again?”

He’d already explained it to me on the drive, but I’d been largely distracted, so the finer details were hazy. I did remember that there were eight teams, all with metallic color assignments, so there was no option for his classic red.

“Six per team,” he muttered, looping his arm around my shoulders again with a sigh. “And yes, unfortunately, my lovely Spark, you’re now my sworn enemy until the weekend is over.”

The sexy wink he shot me sort of implied he was more than okay crossing enemy lines, though, and my stomach fluttered with excitement. I wasn’t mad about this development, even if it did require Nate and I actually work together on the same side for once.

“We’re staying in the pool house,” Nate said over his shoulder, leading the way outside. Ahead the enormous pool glowed with underwater lights, and delicate fairy lights lit the trees all around. “Figured we could all benefit from a little more privacy this time around…”

As opposed to at the last event, where we’d all shared rooms and I’d found a guy beheaded and naked on the final day?

Yeah. Privacy sounded good. I also suspected he meant there was a little more security too, because he needed to input an access code at the door of the pool house when we arrived, and I noted several security cameras facing the front entry.

“Finally!” Royce exclaimed when we stepped inside. “Heath was getting so stressed out, he was considering sending out search-and-rescue to look for your wreckage.”

“Oh Heath was, was he?” Heath drawled. “Heath didn’t tell you a dozen times that Carter had probably convinced Ash to christen his new car and to stop stressing out like a nervous Nellie?”

Royce just shrugged. “Doesn’t sound familiar. Anyway, you’re here! What teams did you draw?”

Crossing over to the expansive living room where the boys had set out snacks and drinks, I let Royce drag me into his lap to snuggle as I produced my token. “White gold. You?”

“Aw, man,” he groaned. “I’m silver.”

“Copper,” Heath offered with a pout.

Carter dropped our bags, then joined us with a scowl set on his face. “Black gold,” he grumbled. “Nate stole my white-gold token and made a whole scene so I couldn’t get it back.”

“Just keeping things fair, Bass,” Nate replied with a satisfied smirk. “I’m shocked and impressed that you two didn’t try cheating as well.”

Royce and Heath exchanged a look that suggested they’d tried, and I chuckled. “Well, I’m sure the best team will win. And by best, obviously I mean white gold will win.”

“Damn right,” Nate said, agreeing and putting out his hand as he moved past me, and I reflexively slapped it for a high five. We were weirdly on the same page already. “We should head over to the ballroom and sort out team color wardrobes, though.”

Carter had also mentioned that whatever color you were assigned on arrival, you had to wear exclusively that color for the entire weekend.

But since no one knew their teams until they arrived, there would be dozens of boutiques and designers assembled in the ballroom to outfit each guest in their assigned metallic.

“I already handled Ashley’s wardrobe,” Carter admitted, pouring himself a glass of whiskey from the crystal decanter on the coffee table. “It should be in her room.”

“Oh, did you?” Nate teased, flopping down onto the couch beside Heath. “But how did you know what color to get?”

Carter just extended his middle finger and glowered. “Suppose I better go sort myself out, now that nothing I brought will apply to my new team.”

Nate looked positively gleeful. “Aw, come on, Bass. We’re almost the same size. I can take it off your hands.”

Another middle finger from Carter, and Heath whacked Nate’s shoulder. “Bro, quit poking the bear. Come on, Bass, I need to hit the wardrobe room too.”

Grumbling, they headed out once more, and I wriggled out of Royce’s far-too-comfortable embrace. I wanted to see what kind of over-the-top designer attire Carter might have provided for the weekend. “Where is my room?” I asked, glancing around as I stood.

“I’ll show you,” Royce offered, also getting up and grabbing my bag from where Carter had left it. “I got here a few hours ago so already sorted my shit out.”

“Dinner is in half an hour!” Nate called after us as Royce linked his fingers in mine and led me down a wide corridor away from the living space.

The bedroom he showed me to was at the end of the hall and had a huge floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the enormous swimming pool. The water steamed a little in the cool night air, illuminated by all the warm lighting and seeming almost supernatural.

“One hell of a pool house,” I murmured thoughtfully as I took in the view. “Uh…no curtains?” Because if anyone did decide to swim—despite the cold—they’d be able to see right into my bedroom.

“One-way glass,” Royce assured me. “And if you want to block the light, press this.” He stabbed a button beside the enormous bed and the whole window turned black, totally eliminating any light from outside.

I marveled at the glass as he turned it back to transparent. “That’s cool. Okay, let’s see what Carter’s chosen for my themed wardrobe.”

“Or…” Royce purred, sitting on the edge of the bed and crooking a finger my way. “We could take advantage of our alone time before the guys get back.”

I grinned, both tempted but also aching from my drive with Carter. “Didn’t Nate just say dinner is in half an hour?”

Royce shrugged, catching my wrist as I drifted closer and tugging me onto the bed with him. “Half an hour is better than nothing.” He rolled us, caging me in with his elbows either side of my head and his body nestled between my thighs. “I missed you today, Squirrel.”

I laughed softly. “You say that every time you haven’t seen me in a few hours. It can’t possibly be true every time.”

His teasing expression sobered as he studied my gaze. “Can’t it? You’re my obsession, Ashley. Every minute you’re not touching me, my heart aches. I love you so much, it literally hurts sometimes. Does that scare you?”

I wet my lips, swallowing hard. “Yes,” I admitted honestly.

“Oh well,” he responded with a touch of amusement. “Too bad, because that’s just how it is for me…and deep down, I think you’re only scared because it’s the same for you.”

He was right. But he spared me the need to reply by forcefully stealing the breath clean out of my lungs with hot, hungry kisses until Nate thumped on our door, letting us know that we needed to go to dinner.