Page 6 of Watch Your Back (Devil’s Backbone #2)

That’s when Carly started laughing—just a little giggle that turned into more of a chuckle as she tried to stifle the sound. “Sorry,” she chortled. “Sorry, it’s not funny. It’s not. I swear, this is a very serious subject, but you know you’re wrong, right?”

“Wrong about what?” Heath asked, since she was speaking to him.

She shrugged, flicking a quick glance at me. “That’s not the reason Roycey wouldn’t let you stay over.”

“Okay, thank you, Carly,” Royce drawled, rolling his eyes. “Sounds like you’re still under the influence of peppermint martinis. Let’s stay on topic, yeah?”

“Hypnosis could explain why none of us were aware of our actions,” Carter said thoughtfully, not having paid much attention to the friction flaring in the room.

His phone was in hand, and he’d been scrolling something.

“The thing is, we don’t really have any symptoms or even hard evidence to put against it.

Only the fire, but if you guys hadn’t physically seen us there… would we have ever known?”

Heath nodded firmly. “Exactly. So, doesn’t that beg the question of what else we’ve been responsible for?

If no one saw anything, then how the fuck would we know?

I have a horrible feeling I was there in the forest with Ash that day she got kidnapped.

I just… It might be overactive imagination like my therapist says but someone dumped her out there. What if it was me?”

A cold chill ran down my back. I’d blamed Nate at the time, but things were different now. I didn’t believe he wanted to hurt me like that. Not consciously, anyway.

“I think it’s something we need to look into,” Carter agreed. “But now that Royce has brought the subject up with all the grace of a bull doing ballet, how are you doing? Are you going back to the rehab center after the holidays?”

It was a good question. Regardless of the reasons…Heath had still tried to kill himself.

“No,” he replied after a beat, “I’m okay now…I think. Honestly, I’m having a really hard time understanding my own reasoning for what I did. It’s all just murky in my memory.”

“That’d be the brain damage thanks to lack of oxygen,” Royce muttered.

Irritation flared in my chest. “Royce, shut the fuck up.” I glowered at him, and he glared back. Apparently, his shit attitude extended to me as well as Heath.

“Ignore him,” Nate advised. “He’s just masking his emotions with dickishness. We were all really worried about you, bro.”

Heath shifted in his seat, his hand moving to the curve of my waist like he was having a hard time letting me go.

“I was worried about me too, to be fair. When I woke up in that hospital room and they told me what I’d done…

” He blew out a long breath, shaking his head.

“I can’t explain it. I really can’t. But I don’t want to try it again, if that’s what you’re worried about. ”

“It is,” Royce snapped.

Nate threw a cushion, smacking Royce in the side of the head and knocking his beer out of his hand. “Shut up.”

“Look, it’s a valid concern,” Heath said with a shrug.

“I don’t know what pushed me to that point so I can’t sit here and say with a hundred percent certainty that it won’t happen again.

I don’t know what else to say… Do you want me to go back to rehab where I’m being monitored?

” That question was aimed at Royce, who looked like he was genuinely considering it.

Carter thankfully seemed to be the voice of reason, though. “Of course not,” he replied firmly. “But would you be okay if we just keep you from being alone for the time being? Until we can do more research on the whole hypnosis thing?”

I hated to admit but…he was talking sense. Maybe it wasn’t just for Heath’s sake, but for all of us, to alleviate worries.

“Good thing he already has someone to share a bed with tonight then, huh?” Carly drawled with a suggestive grin my way.

Royce scoffed a bitter laugh. “Yeah, because Ashley kept such a close eye on him last time. No. Heath, you’re bunking with me tonight.”

Ouch. I guess Carly wasn’t the only one who’d blamed me after all.

“At least now I know why you’ve ghosted me these last three weeks,” I muttered, cheeks flaming with anger and embarrassment. Royce heard me, despite how quietly I’d said it, and his sharp gaze speared me as effectively as a javelin.

Carly hummed a thoughtful sound, pretending not to notice the tension. “Technically, if Heath had been with anyone else, the night could have ended a lot worse. Nate, didn’t you say it was Ash calling your phone over and over that woke you up? Or…broke the trance or whatever?”

Nate nodded, then stood up. “Right. There’s only one solution for this, then.” He exited the living room, leaving the rest of us confused as fuck in his wake.

“Uhhh…anyone else feel like he finished that conversation in his head?” Royce asked, showing the briefest flash of the Royce I thought I knew. The fun one. The one who didn’t look at me like I was the devil incarnate.

We didn’t wait long before Nate reappeared with a huge armful of neatly folded linen. “Royce, quit being a dickhead and go get pillows. We’re all sleeping down here tonight.”

Speechless. Nate had officially rendered me speechless because it was a solution I’d never have thought of. So I silently got up and went to fetch all the pillows and blankets out of my own room to help set up our sleepover.

Everyone pitched in with moving furniture around and dragging mattresses out of guest rooms, and within half an hour, we’d become thoroughly carried away and set up a whole blanket fort to sleep in.

It was well past midnight by the time we all settled down—me snuggled into Heath’s arms—with the twinkling lights of the tree acting as a night-light. Somehow, it was the perfect end to what’d turned into a pretty magical Christmas day.