Page 33 of Hidden But Not Safe

Julio’s voice brought him awake.

“What the hell?”

Naz looked over at the man, too entangled in Meg’s limbs to move away, and not even wanting to.

Julio wasn’t looking at them on the bed. He rose from his crouch with the discarded nasal spray in his hand.

“She OD’d?” he asked, though it was in a confused way, not like he gave a shit.

Naz didn’t bother responding.

“There wasn’t much in the bag I gave her. I’ll have to tell them the lacing was too strong.”

Julio had given her the drugs. Of course he had. Where else would she have gotten them? If the drugs had been mostly fentanyl, the Narcans shouldn’t have worked on her at all.

Maybe they hadn’t. Maybe he’d been wrong about her being in danger.

Either way, it sounded like Julio had used her as a guinea pig. Naz started to roll off the bed, but Meg murmured a sound of protest against his neck, curling against him tighter.

Julio made a disgusted noise as he kicked the other discarded can. “Two? These things aren’t cheap.”

Meg tensed in Naz’s arms before pulling away to sit up. She rubbed at her mouth before laughing. It was the sharp, fake laugh. “That’s what I told him. What a waste, right?”

Julio stared back at her.

Her eyes drooped with exhaustion, and her arm shook where it supported her on the bed.

Julio’s gaze shifted back to Naz. “You would have been dead if you’d been all up in her. Keep your clothes on, and I don’t give a shit. She’s no use to me all fucked up like this.”

Meg’s chin dropped, and she stared down at her hand.

Julio left.

Naz reached out, wrapping his hand gently around her arm. It curled over her in the same place everyone else always grabbed her, but he didn’t pull away. Instead, he tugged her closer.

Meg lowered into his arms, right where it felt like she belonged.

Chapter 12

Meg slept for over twelve hours, and Naz didn’t leave her side.

Seb had been using the room to sleep since he’d arrived, after bumping Miguel to one of the couches. When Seb paused in the doorway, he wore an expression Naz couldn’t decipher. After studying them for a brief moment, Seb nodded at him and walked away.

Rocks kicked them out midmorning the next day. He’d stayed up as lookout most of the night. He was too big to curl up on any damn couch, or so he barked at them, with a slam of the bedroom door behind them.

“I should find Julio,” Meg said, giving Naz’s hand a squeeze before releasing him. He followed her to the trailer door, holding it open to watch her cross to the warehouse but staying behind.

He felt lightheaded. It’d been a while since he’d forced any type of calories down his throat, and his body was telling him it’d been too long.

He’d never charged his phone, so he plugged it in before rooting around the cabinets for his powdered meal. Someone had moved it again. Snagging it and a can of condensed milk from the shelf, he found the cup he liked to use. It was actually a sports bottle, but it let him squirt the shit down his throat without spilling it everywhere. That way, he only had to concentrate on opening his mouth and swallowing.

He’d used condensed milk because he was so underweight at first, but Naz still liked it for the fact that it didn’t go bad fast. The trailer’s fridge was shit, and most of the jobs he’d had didn’t even have a fridge.

He had downed about half his meal when the trailer door opened, making him choke. Some of the mixture dribbled down his chin. He wiped at it with his hand and focused on swallowing instead of on the way Meg stared at him.

He probably looked like a baby with a bottle. His head throbbed as he moved toward the sink.

Meg was suddenly beside him, her grip on his arm, stopping him from pouring the other half out.

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