Page 4 of Hidden But Not Safe

Naz wanted to tell him to fuck off, but Diego would probably find him and beat his ass. Besides, he owed Diego his life. Diego had dragged him out of the hellhole he’d been in, murdering the men who had imprisoned him there in a rage. Naz had thought he was daydreaming about breaking free again, but it wasn’t him fighting in this dream; it was a tatted-up, scrawny man with demon eyes.

Diego was no demon, though. He was Naz’s savior in so many ways. Naz hated that Diego continued to worry about him, but the weekly texts also settled him in a way that nothing else did. His tension fled as he tilted the phone, snapping a picture he didn’t bother looking at and sending it.

One person in the world wanted proof that he was alive. Some days, that was what he clung to.

To his surprise, the phone vibrated again. Diego wasn’t one for a lot of texts. Naz glanced down, sighing at the words, ‘Not visible.’

Naz looked at the picture. It was blurry as hell and shadowed in the closed up trailer. He hadn’t flipped on the lights, he realized.

He deleted the picture, turned on the flash, and tilted the phone to capture his middle finger.

A laugh came from the bathroom, and Naz tensed up. He deserved it if she managed to shoot him or something; he’d forgotten to keep track of the shower sounds.

Meg didn’t hold a gun, though, and he was relieved to see she’d gotten dressed, even if there was still way too much skin showing for his comfort, with her flannel tied around her waist like that.

“Did you just send someone a pic of you flicking them off?” She laughed again, braiding her wet hair while crossing to him.

He didn’t expect her to drop down beside him and grab for his phone.

“Let me see.”

Her smile didn’t look the same as the one he’d seen before. This one seemed softer somehow, more genuine. Her laugh was almost a giggle, feminine and as dainty as the hands clutching his phone.

She hit the ‘Send’ button for him. “Proof of life, huh? That’s nice. Someone gives a shit.” Her shoulder bumped against his, as if somehow sharing in the joy of that.

Naz held out his hand, and she handed back his phone.

“Who’s Diego?” Meg asked.

Naz shrugged, glancing down at the phone to see the responding text acknowledging the picture. He deleted the picture before putting the phone face down on his thigh.

Meg was pouting. “Not going to tell me?”

Naz shook his head.

She studied him, stretching out her legs and resting against the wall as if she meant to settle in next to him. “You don’t talk much, do you?”

Naz shook his head again.

She frowned this time, fiddling with one of the flannel sleeves on top of her thigh. “Whatever. You’re still better company than any of those other fuckers,” she mumbled.

Her eyes flew to his, and her shoulders tensed as if she realized what she’d said.

Naz lifted an eyebrow in question. She’d seemed more than comfortable going down on Julio in the warehouse earlier, but maybe it’d been a setup after all. If it had, the dealer hadn’t gotten what he wanted.

Whatever she saw in his face allowed her shoulders to relax. “You just don’t have ‘I wanna fuck you’ eyes. It’s weird, but I’m beat, so it’s kind of nice.” She sighed, fiddling with her sleeve again. “Julio had way more stamina the second time. It was nice until it wasn’t. I had to squeeze the shit out of his dick to get him to finish.” Her shoulder pressed warmly against his as her head rested back against the wall. “What a fucking day.”

Naz agreed. He wasn’t often out of his comfort zone anymore, but watching her give Julio a blow job had blown his sense of stability to pieces.

Her eyes closed. Her lashes looked delicate where they rested against her skin. She was a skinny thing, her size and shape more noticeable now that her amber eyes weren’t taking all his attention. The corner of her lip and her cheek were swollen from where she’d been smacked.

“You’re so quiet,” she mumbled. “’S kinda nice.”

Naz shook his head before resting it on the wall like she had. Most people found his silence intimidating or annoying. Even Diego tried to pull words out of him.

Naz thought the quiet in the trailer was kind of nice, too.

At the creak of the trailer door, Meg’s eyes flew open, and she jerked upright, her shoulder not touching his anymore as she scrambled to her feet.