Page 25 of Hidden But Not Safe

Meg squealed when she took the bag. “I was almost out. Thanks again.” She leaned back into Julio, kissing him under the jaw. “I asked him to get me more if he went to the store.”

Naz didn’t contradict her. He just wanted them to leave.

Julio made a noise in his throat. “Those are disgusting.”

“Even if I eat them off your dick?” Meg’s laugh grated in Naz’s head.

The bathroom door snapped shut behind them, their voices fading as Naz’s vision narrowed.

He crouched down to his haunches, letting his hands grip the counter above him. He focused on breathing until his chest stopped hammering and all the tingles in his legs faded.

Chapter 9

Naz struggled to fall asleep that night. Rocks wasn’t thrilled with Naz doing his own perimeter checks, but he ignored the bigger man’s mutterings, feeling better outside than in the warehouse with the chains hanging above him.

When he finally made his way toward the warehouse wall where he normally sat for the night, Meg was already there.

He’d been hoping she would stay with Julio, or he had told himself he was hoping for that. The relief easing the pressure in his stiffened neck called him a liar.

She looked up, her eyes barely landing on him before she stared back down at her knees, curled up under his shirt again.

Naz settled beside her, realizing too late that he was close enough for their arms to brush against each other. Meg didn’t pull away.

She also didn’t lean on his shoulder or begin talking his ear off, the two things that occurred most often. He liked the sound of her voice as she grew sleepy. It didn’t seem to matter what she said, more that she said something, as if silence was the enemy for her.

Now that silence drew out.

Tension stiffened his neck again as he waited for her to ask about his scar.

Her head didn’t turn toward him, and the words didn’t come. After long minutes, she held out her hand, palm up.

He wasn’t sure what she wanted at first and stared at that open palm, with its three prominent lines that seemed to connect in the middle. When her fingers curled into the ‘give me’ motion, he finally figured it out, and he handed her his unlocked phone.

She pulled up the Notes app, her finger going right to the icon.

He let his head lean back as she typed out her message. He was almost afraid to look when she handed back his phone.

‘Julio called you brain damaged. Is that true?’

All the different explanations he could give her sifted through his mind. They’d all take a lot more words than he wanted to deal with. He minimized the note and searched for the term the doctors had given him: dysarthria. Ramiro and Diego had made him go to doctors for a while, and it had helped him cope, but it hadn’t done much else.

He handed the phone back to her and let her research for herself.

Naz had only managed to escape on his own once. It was toward the end. He’d almost made it, too. A swing of a shovel had stopped him. Instead of the broad side knocking him out, the curved edge had carved into the back and side of his head, cutting deep.

It hadn’t helped that he’d been dumped back into his room after, but maybe even if he had gone to a hospital, the injury would have turned out the same. The doctors hadn’t had an answer either way.

It was a sick thing to regret trying to escape the hell he’d been stuck in.

Meg handed his phone back.

Her head found its place on his shoulder.

“What about kissing? You can’t do that either?”

A snort escaped that that was what she’d asked about first. No pity laced her voice, just curiosity.

Naz gave a minimal shrug, not wanting to bounce her head too much. Kissing anyone was the last thing he was worried about.

---