Page 46 of Watch Your Back (Devil’s Backbone #2)
Alarmed, I eyed the vehicle in question, noting the thicker-than-average radio antenna and suspicious light bar. “Yeah, I think so.” Then I frowned, remembering something. “We passed a couple of marked cruisers a minute ago too. What if they came from here?”
He cast me a troubled look, then climbed out of his seat and circled around to open my door before I’d even finished taking my seat belt off.
“Thanks,” I murmured on reflex as he offered a hand to help me down from the lifted truck. But then he kept that hand, linking our fingers once more as we headed for the front door.
“Dad?” Nate called out as we stepped through the front door. “Carina? We’re here!”
Footsteps echoed against the marble floors, then my mom launched herself at me in a full-body bear hug. She buried her face in my hair, and sobs wracked her petite frame as she mumbled something I absolutely could not make out.
Max was right there behind her, looking like he’d aged ten years, and I sent him a perplexed look as I hugged Mom right back.
“Dad, what’s going on?” Nate asked, his fists clenched at his sides after having to release me when Mom pounced. “Is that a cop parked outside?”
Max nodded, running a weary hand over his hair. “Yes. Come inside, kids. We’ll explain. Carina, honey, let Ashley go now. You’re scaring her.”
Mom peeled herself away, sniffling. “Sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… Ashley Layne, why on earth weren’t you answering your phone? Do you have any idea how scared I’ve been?”
My jaw flapped a couple of times in shock at the sharp left turn into anger she’d just taken. “No,” I replied. “I don’t know because I have no idea what is going on!”
“Living room,” Max said firmly, giving us a push to clear out of the foyer. Frustrated and confused, I sat my butt right on the edge of the sofa, and Nate sat beside me, close enough to touch.
“Ashley, when were you planning on telling us that you moved out of the Nevaeh dorms?” Mom snapped, folding her arms as she stood in front of the coffee table opposite us.
“I have to assume you’ve moved in with one of your boyfriends, but that’s a huge life step and something you should have told us! ”
Wait, what? “I’m…confused. This reaction is just because I’m living with the guys and forgot to tell you? Mom, I’m twenty-one. I don’t actually have to clear these decisions with you.”
Mom’s eyes widened, and she paled. It wasn’t a good expression.
It was the kind of face I’d only seen a handful of times in my life, but it came right before a massively excessive punishment.
Like the time she found out I’d been caught giving my high school boyfriend a blow job during school hours and grounded me for two months.
“Carina,” Max interjected. “Ashley needs context, love. She deserves context.” He gave Mom a hard look, then softened his gaze as he turned to me. “Ash, your mom is just lashing out because she’s scared. What do you know about the girl who moved into your dorm room? Cameron McIntyre?”
Dread pooled in my gut, and I glanced at Nate nervously. “Um, I know she died a couple of days ago,” I admitted in a quiet, cautious voice. “I believe it was ruled a suicide.”
Mom let out a loud scoff, throwing up her hands, but Max held up his hand to silently calm her. Or at least tell her to shut the hell up for a minute. I appreciated his involvement.
“We believe Miss McIntyre was murdered, Ashley,” Max said softly, picking up a sheet of paper from the coffee table where it had been sitting face down. “We have reason to believe someone intends to hurt you, sweetheart, and Miss McIntyre was a message.”
Well, fuck. Words failed me entirely. I turned my face to Nate, meeting his eyes with what I’m sure was a deer-in-headlights sort of expression.
“Why would you think that?” he asked smoothly, his hand resting on the small of my back in silent reassurance. For better or worse, we were in this together.
Max looked really uneasy, then flipped over the page and handed it to us. It was a photocopy of a handwritten note, and I gasped so hard I nearly choked.
Watch your back … You’re next .
“This note was pinned to our door, along with a report that stated a female student in her early twenties from Nevaeh was found drowned in Lake Placid. And your room number was scrawled on the report.” Max shook his head slowly, his brow creased in concern.
“We thought this was you, sweetheart. We thought you’d been killed by…
” He trailed off, glancing over his shoulder to my mom.
She was crying again, tears tracking from her puffy, red eyes, but she nodded firmly. “Tell them,” she croaked. “They need to know.”
“Killed by who?” Nate pushed, equally as alarmed as I was.
Mom sniffed hard, trying to pull herself together. “My stalker,” she said. “I’m being stalked and threatened, and it’s recently started to escalate. We think you’re now being targeted, Ash.”
What the fuck?
I exchanged another panicked glance with Nate, then looked at the photocopied note again and shook my head. “I don’t understand. How did you know Abigail?” Because that note was in her handwriting—I’d know it anywhere.
Mom and Max now looked just as confused as I felt. “Who’s Abigail?”