Page 22 of Hidden But Not Safe

Cuddling? Naz’s thoughts slowed. Was that what they’d done?

Julio seemed to be in a good mood. He even smiled. “Your boss called. Check your texts.” He slapped Naz’s arm. “Too bad. We could have used you today with the dealers coming, but jefe said not to say no to Rodriguez. He wants to be on your boss’s good side.”

Julio was already strolling away.

Naz dragged out his phone.

‘Take the bike to Diego.’ An address was under Ramiro’s words.

He should have expected that response to his message the night before. The motorcycle did need to be looked at. It hadn’t felt right.

But Naz didn’t want to leave.

‘It’s fine.’

‘Liar.’

Ramiro was a quick typer. His response was almost immediate. The dots appeared again.

‘Diego needs a break.’

Guilt twisted in Naz’s chest. He’d been too self-focused. If it was about Diego, then it couldn’t be helped.

‘You do too.’ Ramiro’s additional text made him rub a hand over his head. The scrape of hair against his palm was distracting. He needed to shave it.

Naz shoved his phone into his pocket without arguing again and went out to his motorcycle.

The thought that he hadn’t seen Meg that day didn’t help. It was good if she was hiding out in the trailer and staying out of Julio’s way. Leaving her there didn’t sit right, though, and he considered asking Julio if he could take her with him.

Which wouldn’t work. No way Julio wanted her to go off alone with Naz. It’d also mess up Diego’s gig.

Naz drove off on his motorcycle without looking back.

Diego’s hair looked even messier than usual when he greeted Naz inside the surveillance house. He was also normally more of a talker, but Ramiro must have been right about him being on edge. He didn’t say much before grabbing the helmet and taking the motorcycle out on a test drive.

Naz moved inside to sit in front of the screens. Diego was into tech. He’d tried to explain it to Naz, but the explanations made his head hurt.

Watching the quiet house on the monitors, which included views of a crazy number of rooms and of the driveway, wasn’t very interesting, but it was easy enough for Naz to zone out while doing it. His eyes would flick when there was movement, and he was surprised to see the kids, but he ignored that monitor since it wasn’t like they were the ones Diego was spying on.

Not that the women were his targets either. Whoever Diego was digging up dirt on must have been out. That made sense. No wonder he’d taken off as soon as he could.

Watching nothing happen was boring.

Naz wondered what Meg was doing. Julio wouldn’t want her to be around when the dealers showed up. She was probably stuck in the trailer and as stir-crazy as Naz was feeling.

He pulled out his phone, opening up the Notes app. The new page with his explanation of the warehouse popped up first. He deleted it so that the note from before was on the screen. His finger hovered over the ‘delete’ button.

Why did she even like giraffes? The one in his pocket was ugly as hell, yellow and brown with uncentered eyes. He shouldn’t have gotten it. If he had given it to her, she would have laughed her ass off.

He moved his finger away from the red button, tracing over her words. Not the word ‘giraffe.’ It didn’t really matter which animal she liked.

‘You can have mine.’

It was as if she was trying to fill him when he’d mostly been empty before. He wanted more of that feeling.

The front door closed, and Naz put his phone face down on the desk.

Diego lifted an eyebrow, his eyes glancing at the phone. “Were you texting someone?”

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