Page 43 of Watch Your Back (Devil’s Backbone #2)

Something has happened between Ashes and Nate.

We’re all sure of it even though neither of them will admit it.

They’re avoiding each other to the point of ridiculousness ever since we got back from the society weekend in Napa.

Whatever Nate did or said, he clearly felt awful about it.

He is all sad eyes and small gestures at the moment but clearly hasn’t found the balls to straight up apologize.

I wish he would. It’s been three weeks and they can’t seem to be in the same room together, which is making our apartment feel like the floor is covered in eggshells.

We may need to stage an intervention soon and get to the bottom of things.

T hings couldn’t keep going the way they were.

I’d thought that surely when Nate woke up the next morning, he would have no memory of our kiss or that he’d be mortified at his drunk behavior, but no.

First thing that next morning when I yawned, he made a snarky remark about my “busy night” and it all went downhill from there.

I was hardly blameless. Every time he lashed out, I jabbed back, totally unable to roll over and take the insults that were completely out of line to start with. Then, around two weeks after our war of words began, he said something that really struck a nerve.

Which was why, three weeks after Napa Valley, Carly and I were attending an open house for a rental near campus. It was high fucking time that I moved out of Nate’s apartment.

“You sure the guys are on board with you moving out?” Carly asked as we toured the small two-bedroom unit while the agent waited, looking bored, in the hall. “You did discuss this with them, right?”

I shrugged, avoiding eye contact. “Uh-huh.”

Carly groaned, smacking her forehead. “I knew this was too good to be true.”

“What? No, they’re totally fine with it,” I lied with a forced laugh.

“So fine. Very supportive. This place seems good, right? Only a five-minute walk to campus, so we can save on gas, and bedrooms are, um, big enough for a bed.” Sort of.

Just. A small bed. The prize money from Napa had cleared my student loans from Panner Valley entirely so I could actually afford rent if I picked up an extra shift at the club.

Carly didn’t reply, and when I turned around to look at her, she had her phone in her hand.

“What are you doing?” I asked suspiciously.

She quirked a brow, then brought her phone to her ear as she held up one finger to tell me to wait.

“Hey, friend,” she sang when her call connected. “I just thought I’d let you know that the apartment Ash and I are currently looking at seems great and we’re probably going to?—”

“Carly!” I cried out, reaching for her phone to try to snatch it away, but the lanky bitch just put it on speaker and held it up way too high for me to reach. “Carly, not funny!”

“You’re doing what right now?” Royce’s voice echoed out of the phone, and I glared daggers at my way-too-tall friend. “I must have heard you wrong. It sounded like you’re looking at an apartment with my Squirrel, but that can’t be right because she lives here. With me.”

“Oh, really?” Carly replied, giving me a loaded glare. “So she didn’t discuss moving out? And you are not—what did you say again, Ash?—very supportive of the idea? Huh. How weird. No one could have seen that one coming.”

“Pin your location,” Royce growled. “I’m on my way.”

The line went dead and Carly winced. “Ooh, girl, you’re in so much trouble. Roycey seems like a spanker too.”

“You’re an asshole,” I groaned, scrubbing my hands over my face. “Why don’t you wanna live with me?”

Her response was to wrap me in a huge hug, resting her chin on my head.

“I do, Ash. It would be so much fun being roomies, but I also don’t want to sign a lease and then find myself scrambling to find a new roommate when the guys inevitably drag you back into their lair. Or worse, get you knocked up.”

A panicked laugh bubbled out of me as I shook off her hug. “Not going to happen. Thank fuck for my good friend Mirena.”

She just shrugged. “Okay, well, you’re still wearing that engagement ring, so what’s a girl to think?”

Instinctively, I clasped my hands together to cover the ring in question.

I’d tried to take it off about a hundred times in the last three weeks and for some reason kept finding reasons not to.

My current flimsy excuse was that if it was real—and I suspected it was—I didn’t want to risk losing it by leaving it lying around my room.

At the same time, it was satisfying to flash it in Nate’s face when he was being a grade-A fuckface, just to remind him that he’d started the lie so had no one to blame but himself.

“You still didn’t have to sell me out to Royce, though. Some friend you are,” I grumbled, picking up my handbag from where I’d left it on the counter and exiting the apartment.

We both thanked the real estate agent and made watery promises to think about it before heading down the seven flights of stairs to the street.

“Look, I figured you’d rather Royce than Carter, and you definitely didn’t want Heath laying on a guilt trip with the big puppy-dog eyes,” Carly said with a laugh as we both puffed our way down the stairs.

“Royce seems like he’d let you off with a light spanking.

Carter would probably have you tied up and edged for hours. ”

I stopped dead in my tracks as I thought that over, then nodded. “You’re probably right. Good call.”

“You’re welcome,” she snickered, nudging me to keep walking. “Also, no way in hell were we taking a place with this many stairs and no elevator. My calves are burning already.”

“Think of how good your ass would get, though,” I said, “and no need for a gym membership, so that’s another win.”

Carly just laughed as we reached the lobby and stepped out onto the sidewalk just seconds before Royce’s Chiron came flying around the corner and screeched to a stop right beside us.

“Get in, Squirrel!” Royce barked through the open passenger side window. “Now.”

My jaw dropped in defiant outrage. “I’m not just leaving Carly on her own because you’ve got your panties in a bunch. You don’t have enough seats for all of us.”

I couldn’t be sure with how shadowed his face was within the car, but I could feel his eye might be twitching in anger. It almost moved me to do as I was told, but a bigger part of me wanted to dig my heels in for the sake of it.

“Ash, babe, I love you, but I really don’t want to get in the middle of this,” Carly said with a grimace. “I’ll grab a cab. Oh look, there’s one now. Taxi!” She hailed the passing cab and basically sprinted across the road to dive in the back seat.

“Chicken!” I yelled after her, and she blew me a kiss from the window as the taxi started driving once more. I still made no move to get in Royce’s car, though, folding my arms and glaring at him in the driver’s seat.

He stared back at me for a tense moment, then gave a frustrated sigh and got out of the car. Anticipation filled my core like a thousand butterflies as I watched him stalk around the hood of his sexy vehicle, and I started to second-guess my decisions.

“Squirrel,” he said in a dark voice, clearly attempting to rein in his temper for the sake of getting what he wanted, “please get in the car.”

“Make me,” I retorted, completely losing control of my bratty side despite knowing full damn well I was playing with fire.

To absolutely no surprise at all, Royce had his hand in my hair and my back pressed against the side of the car in less than a breath of time, my head jerked back so firmly, I whimpered.

“Squirrel, if you don’t get in the damn car in the next ten seconds, I will bend you over the hood and fuck your ass right here in broad daylight while all the nice people passing by watch. ”

I gasped, already hot and flustered with desire. “You wouldn’t.”

He crushed himself against me, pushing a little moan out of my throat as his hard length ground against my abdomen. “Try me,” he replied, ghosting a kiss over my lips. “Ten…nine…”

I tried to move and do what I was told, but he held me firm, fingers tangled in my hair and hips pinning mine to the car. “Royce, I can’t move,” I protested with a laugh. “Not fair.”

He just shrugged, his lips curved in an evil grin. “…eight…seven…”

“Royce!” I whined, squirming in his iron grip. As tempted as I was to call his bluff and have him actually follow through on that threat, I really didn’t want to be arrested today.

“…six…” He was full chuckling now, and it loosened his grip on my hair ever so slightly.

Then right when I was going to kiss him to break his concentration, his phone rang loudly in his pocket. “Hold that thought,” he murmured, pressing a finger to my lips, then reaching to answer the call.

“Royce,” Nate’s voice echoed from the speaker, audible at the close distance. “Are you with Ashley?”

Royce huffed a sigh. “You already know I am, stalker. What’s up?”

“You need to come home. Both of you. Something’s happened.” He didn’t explain further, just ended the call and expected us to both jump at his command.

I was right on the verge of saying Nate could get fucked, but Royce’s shift in mood told me he was taking that call a lot more seriously. He released me in an instant and popped open the passenger door, making a smooth transition from sexy-scary soft-Dom to gallant gentleman.

With a frustrated sigh, I slid into my seat and waited for him to take the driver’s side again before complaining. “How does he know the exact perfect time to cockblock us?” I grumbled, because it was far from the first time he’d managed to interrupt us over the last few weeks.

Royce arched a brow in curiosity. “Oh, you totally wanted me to do it, didn’t you? Dirty little Squirrel. If it helps, I don’t have any lube on me, so probably would have only fucked your cunt.”

“Ah, I see, so you deal in empty threats now? Good to know.” I tried to shove Nate out of my head and plot more ways to make Royce angry.

He groaned and ruffled his fingers through his sunshine hair. “Right. Now I need to start carrying lube in my glove box. And maybe some handcuffs, just in case.”

I squirmed in my seat but kept my mouth shut for the rest of the drive. Hopefully Nate’s little drama was something easily resolved and we could continue with our empty threats in the privacy of my bedroom.

Sadly, that was not the case.

“Cameron McIntyre was just found dead,” Nate announced once we arrived home.

Heath and Carter were already there, Carter seated on the floor to scratch Lady’s belly, and Nate was pacing the living room like he’d been mainlining coffee straight into his veins.

“Her body was pulled out of Lake Placid. One of the girls who raised the alarm said she looked badly beaten and had dark bruising around her throat, but my guy in the Prosper PD said they’re already listing cause of death as suicide by drowning. ”

My eyes widened in horror, despite having no idea who Cameron was. I had to assume she was a DB initiate… And from how distraught Nate was, maybe she was an ex-girlfriend?

“Cameron McIntyre?” Royce repeated, sounding nauseated. “That’s the girl who took Squirrel’s room in the dorms, right?”

Well, fuck. That…was a good reason to panic.