Watch Your Back (Devil's Backbone, #2)

by Tate James

Refernce

Refernce <///3 (I got this book within the first hour of it being out)

This book is dedicated to Pizza Shapes, the superior shape, with honorable mention going to Chicken Crimpy. Barbeque has no place here.

YES

Trouble was…I hadn’t been even remotely okay since the moment Heath hung himself.

he's actually dead...?

“Merry Christmas, Ash.” Those three words, that voice I’d thought I might never hear again—it damn near killed me. A sob ripped from my chest, and I threw myself forward, no longer in control of my own actions. Thankfully, he caught me, his strong arms wrapping around me like he was made to hold me. I sobbed into his chest, now utterly sure I was hallucinating, and he just stroked my hair as he chuckled with a sound so warm, rich, and real. So…Heath.

I knew he was alive. My baby boy.

five foot three

I was five-eight at thirteen. She's five-three at nearly ten years older.

“Aw, are we all using cute nicknames now, Ashes? I think I’ll call you…hmmm…how about Nevaeh Bicycle? Because apparently anyone can take a ride. Better double wrap your dick, Heath. Who knows what you might catch from that communal cum dumpster?”

Yeeeeeouch

Carter wasn’t joking when he said he’d make me something to eat. Before I fully finished recounting the events of last night and this morning, he’d made cinnamon buttermilk pancakes from scratch and served them up with maple syrup, whipped cream, and strawberries.

STOPPPPPP (I haven't had anything but soggy eggs and spinach for like a month now in over a week </3)

lifting me up as though I weighed little more than a wet kitten.

How necessary was the adjective "wet"?

And who is this lovely creature on your arm, Nathaniel?”

"Creature" <////3

They’re just nightmares…for now. But they’re growing in intensity and it’s bleeding into my decision-making during waking hours. My temper is so much shorter, and I’m quick to violence. I don’t hate it, either. I finally feel…alive.

Briggs,

I JUST REMEMBERED MY OLD HEALTH TEACHER'S NAME IS MR. BRIGGS. HE ALSO TEACHES SCIENCE, ASTRONOMY, AND CRIMINOLOGY!!

“Why are you wearing so many clothes, Ashes?” “Such a good question,” I replied with a heavy exhale, arching my back as his hand slipped beneath my sweater. “I’m supposed to meet Carly in half an hour, I think.” Heath paused, then rumbled a happy sort of sound. “Plenty of time. I’ll take it.” Then my sweater somehow teleported from my body to his floor. So weird. Oh well, may as well send my jeans to keep it company.

LMAO

“Idiot,” I mumbled, circling around the hood of his Bugatti to take the driver’s seat. “Hello, darling,” I whispered to the car as I stroked the leather steering wheel. “Stop dirty-talking my car, Squirrel,” Royce complained as he strapped himself in and blasted the heat. “It’s making me jealous.” I grinned and jokingly moaned when the engine roared to life. The panicked stare Royce shot my way made me laugh out loud, but I focused on not crashing his three-million-dollar car as I eased out of the parking space.

“I’m going to have to kill him,” I declared for what was possibly the fiftieth time already, and we’d barely started our drive to Hastings. “That’s the only solution. I have to beat him with a marble duck.” “Too soon,” Heath groaned from the back seat of my car. He was squashed in there like a sardine but had insisted I take the passenger seat since Royce had begged to drive again. I turned in my seat to flash him a grin. “Sorry. Okay, then I’ll stuff sixty-seven tiny ducks down his throat and make him choke on them. Death by duck just seems really appropriate.” “Just deny him sex,” Royce suggested with a sly smile. “He’ll very quickly learn his lesson.” “I’m on board with that idea,” Heath agreed enthusiastically. “And am more than happy to keep you plenty satisfied so it’s not a hardship on you.” “You’re such a gentleman, Heathcliff,” Royce teased, glancing at him in the mirror.

snickers

“Anytime, friend.” He inhaled sharply, then let it out with a heavyhearted sigh as he murmured “friend” under his breath with an almost heartbreaking edge of disappointment.

Classic

“If she comes back with something weird, I’m not eating it just to be polite,” Heath stated, draping his arm along the seat back behind me. Royce gave an exaggerated gasp. “You mean you don’t like puffer fish sashimi smothered in bat excrement? Since when did you have the palate of a six-year-old, Briggs? Live a little.”

“We can’t exactly just ask Dr. Fox now, can we?” I agreed with a groan. Heath winced. “Sorry, that’s my bad.” Royce’s lips tilted with a lopsided smile. “Bro…my bad?” He snickered, shaking his head at—I had to assume—Heath calling violent murder my bad

“Mmm, real Coke shits all over Pepsi,” Royce hummed after taking a sip. “They’re the same thing,” Heath replied, picking up his burger in both hands and licking his lips. “Now this is the sort of puffer fish sashimi I can get on board with.” Royce picked up a fry and threw it at Heath. “They are not the same thing, you heathen. Squirrel, please tell me you’re on my side with this?” I nodded enthusiastically. “One hundred percent. In fact, I just became twenty percent less attracted to Heath for not immediately knowing they taste different.”

And then I choked. Fucking infuriating men needed to stop saying things that panicked me while I was eating or drinking. Thankfully, it was just a droplet of Coke that I’d inhaled, which probably wouldn’t kill me…but my face burned all the same. Didn’t help that both Heath and Royce were looking at me like I couldn’t be trusted to eat solid foods without adult supervision.

LMAO

At some point, I curled up in a ball and went to sleep. Long drives always made me so tired. “Watch out!” Heath’s startled shout jerked me out of deep sleep a split second before the car swerved sharply, then crashed to a stop like we’d just hit something. Hard. “Fuck!” Royce exclaimed. “He came out of nowhere! Shit, Squirrel, you okay?” His seat belt unclicked, and he all but climbed between the seats to check on me, and I groaned as I rubbed my head. I’d smacked it somewhere in that abrupt stop, and it throbbed. Royce swatted my hand away and grabbed my head between his hands to check if I was bleeding, but I was pretty sure it was a minor bump at worst. “What happened?” I asked, batting his fussing hands away. It was dark outside, but given the time of year and how late we’d left the diner, that wasn’t surprising. “Where are we?” “Deer,” Heath replied, sounding a little pained. “We hit a deer. Or he hit us. Jumped out of the bushes with exactly zero warning.” I gasped, shoving Royce out of the way and gaping at the dense spiderweb of cracks that my windshield had become. Horrified, I heard a little whimper escape me. “My car…”

I actually really don't like this scene. It feels sudden, like this was put in last minute to fill a plothole.

Several little bottles of tequila later, we realized the landline phone in our room didn’t work, so the boys did fifteen rounds of rock, paper, scissors

Fifteen is wild

a small—but very manly—moan

A MANLY MOAN IS A GROAN

She’s big mad at me right now, but I know I can talk her down—the makeup sex will be so worth it. Maybe I can finally fuck that sweet ass of hers…

Men.

I could have killed Heath for stealing you this morning.” I grinned, remembering how Heath had quite literally crept in and stolen me—giggling—out of Carter’s bed barely fifteen minutes after I bed-hopped from Royce’s room.

Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail.

Road-tripping with Heath sucks. He’s nowhere near as pretty as Squirrel,

Lmao

“That’s my job. Nate sprained his ankle out on the battlefield.” “Oh, baby!” Royce threw himself into Nate’s lap dramatically, knocking the chair over and spilling the both of them onto the pavers in a tangle of ruined designer suits and spattered paint. Nate groaned and cursed between bursts of laughter, trying to shove Royce off while his friend smothered his face in kisses.

LMAOOOO

0530: Woke up with Squirrel in my arms. Perfection. Even if Heath’s foot was touching mine, I could put up with it if it meant not waking her up. 0900: Must have fallen asleep again. Squirrel slipped out to visit Carter, and I know this because I woke up to the sound of his headboard smacking the wall and Heath snuggling me like I was little spoon. The fucking audacity, I am not little spoon.

LMAOOO

“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.”

HELP

“What happened?” I exclaimed, glancing around to see a chair knocked over and a box of lightbulbs on the counter. “Did you…did you just nearly kill yourself trying to change a lightbulb, Sir Carter?” His answer was just another pained groan. “I think I pulled a muscle,” he admitted pitifully. “The chair slipped while I had one foot up on the counter, and I think I just did the splits. My body isn’t made to do the splits, Spark. It hurt.”

LMAOOOOOO

I’d slipped into work mode but quickly snapped right back out of it when he rolled over and presented me with his thick, hard erection lying against his tattooed abs. “Oh,” I said aloud, blinking like an owl. “I’m actually feeling tense in a different muscle,”

LMFAOOO WE NOTICED

“What the fuck?” Heath moaned, his face buried in my hair as I turned to jelly between them. “Dude, I fucking felt you coming. That was messed up.” “Bad messed up?” I mumbled with curiosity. “Or good messed up?” “I don’t totally know,” he admitted,

Gay awakening!?!?!!??

“Are you guys talking about me?” Royce asked, letting himself into the bedroom with a drink already in hand. We were getting ready in one of the bedrooms of the rented mansion and intended to stay the night after the party, so no one needed to drive. I’d insisted Nate take the master suite, since it was his birthday, and found a bedroom on a whole different floor for the rest of us, so he didn’t need to hear us getting down and dirty later. “Always,” Carter drawled. “We can’t stop talking about you, Roycey baby. You’re just so darn interesting.” Royce shrugged. “Seems legit. I’d believe it.”

Overexposed (Standalone)

Yooo... I think I've read this. I didn't know I knew this author (I DID AND I DO!!)