Page 45 of Watch Your Back (Devil’s Backbone #2)

The guys are more than just friends to me.

They’re my family. My real family, instead of whatever the fuck my mother plays at during holidays and public appearances.

They’ve always been there for me, no matter what.

But never, never in all my years had I actually considered sharing my girl with them.

Until Spark. She’s the definition of that name, igniting a fire within me that I hadn’t ever thought possible. Melting my ice and softening my brittle edges, while lighting up every goddamn room she enters. Everything good in my life right now is because of her. My Spark.

If I were an outsider looking in, I’d think we’d all lost our minds. But being in it, being in her alongside my best friends? It was pure bliss.

I think, maybe, I regret agreeing with the guys that she’d have to choose between us at the end of the school year. Maybe this thing could actually work? God knows I can’t fathom losing any of my friends, but at the same time, I don’t think I’d survive losing her.

C. Bassington, March 8

M y day started off on the wrong foot from the moment my eyes opened.

I was alone in bed—something that very rarely happened these days—and the sheets beside me were cold.

While uncommon, it wasn’t unheard of for the guys to get up early and hit the gym or make breakfast, but I had the whole day off from both classes and work so had been really looking forward to a lazy sleep-in.

No one was in the kitchen, and a quick peek into Royce’s and Heath’s rooms told me neither of them was home. Damn.

With a deflated sigh, I went back to the kitchen and set about making my own coffee.

It wasn’t that I was a horny bitch and needed to get off at least once before coffee…

Okay, it wasn’t only that, but it was the startling realization that I had grown so accustomed to never being alone that now I was at a loss for what to do while alone.

And if I was honest, a nagging sense of dread and panic clawed at my chest at the unknown.

It was dumb. Logically, I could see that I was being a fucking needy, codependent bitch. Intellectually, I could appreciate the fact that just a week ago, I’d been looking at apartments to move into without the guys and therefore would be alone a hell of a lot more than now.

Logic was a dick.

I sent a text to our group thread, asking where everyone was, just in case. What if they were in trouble or sleepwalking or needed help? It was better to seem needy than regret it later.

Their replies pinged almost instantly, and the relief washing through me was so intense, my hands trembled.

“Pull it together, Ashley,” I scolded myself as I opened the thread.

Carter: You were fast asleep. I ducked out to get you an almond croissant from the new bakery.

Heathcliff: At the gym with Royce, back soon!

Royce: LOL…ducked out. Good one, Bass. Quack.

Carter: You’re such a child. No croissants for you.

I giggled as I read through the thread and swiped away an incoming call from my mom. I loved her, but I was still half-asleep and pre-caffeine. Besides, I was more interested in the text thread promising baked goods.

Ashley: See if they have an apricot custard danish?

Carter: For you? Anything. x

Royce: What about for me?

Heath: Yeah, me too, Bass! Don’t you love us too?

Carter’s response was a middle finger emoji, and I chuckled, then swiped away another incoming call from my mom. She still didn’t technically know I was living with the guys, and I’d dodged her questions effectively enough that I also hadn’t fessed up to being in a relationship with all three guys.

So yeah, call me crazy, but I had a feeling she would find out sooner or later, and I badly didn’t want a safe-sex talk about group sex. Not with my mom. Not when we already suspected her, Max, and my dad had something more than friendship going on when Dad was in town.

Gross.

Footsteps scuffed down the hall, and I glanced up to see Nate sleepily making his way out of his bedroom looking like he was modeling for a pajama brand and the bed hair was really artfully styled.

His phone was in hand, and he yawned as he squinted at the screen.

“If that’s my mom calling,” I said quickly before he could answer, “I’m not here.”

He rolled his eyes and showed me the screen as he drew closer. It wasn’t my mom; it was his dad. That made me frown in concern. Had something happened? I gave him a nod, and he answered the call on speakerphone, placing it on the countertop between us.

“Hey, Dad,” he said in a husky, sleep-thickened voice that sent a shiver through me. “What’s up?”

“Nate, is Ashley there at the apartment with you? Carina has been trying to call and can’t get ahold of her.” Max’s voice was clipped and tense, but it wasn’t an angry or disappointed-parent sort of voice. Instead, he sounded almost scared.

Nate arched his brows at me in question, and I chewed my lower lip. Then I sighed. What’s the worst that was going to happen? I suffer an uncomfortable mom lecture and then move on with life?

“Yeah, Max, I’m right here,” I said, saving Nate having to lie on my behalf. “Has something happened?”

The relieved exhale he let out worried me more than anything. Locking eyes with Nate, I knew he was thinking the same: Max was worried as hell about something.

“Carina! She’s with Nate. It’s okay. She’s all right, honey. She’s with Nate.” Max’s voice was muffled, like he’d pulled the phone away from his ear, and all of a sudden I could hear my mom crying. Fucking sobbing in the background.

“Max!” I exclaimed. “What’s wrong? Why is Mom crying?”

“Ashley, hon, I think it’s best if you come to the house so we can speak in person. Is that okay? I don’t know if you have class or?—”

“I don’t.” I cut him off. But even if I did, this would be important enough to skip. “I can leave now so will be there in an hour or so. Is that okay?”

More muffled sobs from my mom, sending chills through me and twisting my gut with anxiety. “Y-yeah. Yes, that’s good. Nate, you’ll bring her?”

“Of course,” Nate replied with a firm voice, all traces of sleep gone.

Max breathed another of those intensely worrying sighs. “Okay, that’s good. Nate…please keep Ashley safe. Don’t let her out of your sight for even a moment.”

Nate and I locked eyes, both equally as panicked about whatever the fuck had our parents worked up. “Understood, Dad,” Nate confirmed.

“We’ll be fine, Max,” I tried to assure him. “Please just look after my mom?”

“She’s fine, sweetheart,” he said in a gruff voice. “She’ll be fine once you get here. Then we can…talk.”

With that ominous statement, he told us to drive safe, then ended the call. Nate and I just stood there for a moment, staring at each other in shock. Then I glanced down at the borrowed T-shirt I’d tossed on and scrubbed a hand over my face.

“Um, I’ll get dressed. Can you text the guys?” I headed for my bedroom, and he trailed behind me, his focus on his phone screen as I assumed he did as I’d asked, texting the guys.

I grabbed some clean clothes out of Carter’s drawers, then glanced at Nate, who’d taken up residence on the foot of my bed.

Clearly, he was taking Max’s orders seriously and not giving me any privacy, but in the current situation, I found it hard to give a damn.

Nate was hardly getting turned on by the quick flash of my tits while I put on a bra, so there was no need to get weird and modest for no good reason.

“They’ll meet us there,” Nate told me once I was dressed.

He grabbed a pair of my sneakers from the closet, then nudged me to his room and placed my shoes down beside his bed.

I took the hint, sitting down to get them onto my feet while he quickly changed out of his loose pajama pants and into some jeans and a white hoodie.

I kept my focus on tying my laces and absolutely did not sneak a look at his smooth, muscular ass in the process of changing. Denial was also not just a river in Egypt.

“Let’s go,” he murmured, grabbing his car keys and wallet as I rose to my feet, shivering with paranoia.

I hated that Max hadn’t just explained himself over the phone, if only to settle our nerves for the drive.

Still, if he or Mom were hurt, he would have said so.

I believed that. So whatever had happened, it couldn’t be so bad that it wouldn’t wait an hour.

We took Nate’s truck, peeling out of the parking lot with a squeal of tires and speeding through a yellow light. That told me all I needed to know about how worried he was, despite his seemingly calm exterior.

The silence filled the car with dizzying thickness, and I started running worst-case scenarios in my brain.

I kept coming back to my dad. Had he been hurt?

Killed? He worked a dangerous job, and we knew it was a possibility one day.

That uncertainty had been a major contributing factor in their divorce, I was sure of it.

But then why would Mom have been so panicked about where I was? It didn’t make sense.

“Hey,” Nate said, cutting through my spiraling thoughts as he took my hand in his, threading our fingers together to squeeze mine firmly.

“They’re okay, Ash. You heard them both on the phone.

They’re acting weird as hell but they’re fine.

Just take some deep breaths, all right? We’ll be there soon. ”

I hadn’t even registered the fact that I’d started crying until then. With my free hand, I swiped the tears from my cheeks, then tried to calm my breathing. Hyperventilating helped nothing and would only distract Nate from driving.

“I’m okay,” I whispered. “Sorry.”

He said nothing back but also didn’t release my hand for the rest of the drive out to Lake Prosper. When we eventually arrived and he needed his hand back to park, my palm was sweaty but I was a lot calmer.

“Is that a cop?” he asked, frowning at an unfamiliar SUV parked in the driveway.