Page 55 of Hidden But Not Safe

Julio shouted without words, and there were a couple of “fuck yeahs” from Carlos and Miguel that only made Naz more furious. The warehouse was silent for a beat.

Naz tried to pull away from Seb’s grip, and the other man dropped his weed to shove him back with both hands, his face hard and angry and right in Naz’s face.

“Don’t,” Seb muttered, his tone low and gruff.

Naz jerked his arms up to break Seb’s hold and punched him in the face, making him stumble. He hit him again for good measure, but Seb didn’t go down.

Someone laughed inside the warehouse. “Fuck, you made a mess of her,” Miguel cackled.

It distracted Naz enough that he caught Seb’s returning punch in the ear. His head rang from the blow. Seb got an arm against his throat and pinned him against the wall.

“I’m trying to keep you alive, dammit!” Seb seethed into his face, low enough for the words not to carry. His face was furious now, with a bleeding cut above his eyebrow.

“For such a slut, you hate this, don’t you?” Julio said from within the warehouse.

There was a startled gasp that could only be Meg, and Naz choked against Seb’s arm.

“Let’s see if you’ll keep your goddamn mouth shut now.” Julio didn’t shout it. His voice had lowered in volume and was harder to make out now; Naz’s throbbing ear wasn’t helping.

“We could keep her mouth busy for you,” Carlos offered, a gut-twisting excitement in his words. “She hoovered the shit out of your dick. I’d love to shove mine in her mouth. I bet she’d learn her lesson if you made her choke on all of us.”

Naz headbutted Seb right over his cut forehead. It lacked the power he wanted from so close. Seb didn’t make a sound, but his arm fell away.

“No!” Meg shouted. “I’m sorry, baby,” she pleaded, making Naz feel like he would puke. The renewed ringing in his head added to the nausea. “I’m sorry. I learned my lesson. I promise.”

“Good.” Julio grunted. “Go get cleaned up.”

There was a sobbing breath, then rapid, light slaps against the concrete.

“She’s mine, Carlos,” Julio was saying, but then Naz saw Meg, too briefly to get a good look as she hurried past.

Naz chased after her, catching her in only a few strides, his arm curling over her chest as he pulled her back into his, trying to wrap his body around hers as if he could shield her after the fact.

She stiffened at first but then relaxed in his hold. Her breath shuddered, and that horrible whimper returned, just once, but once was enough.

There was a stickiness coating the skin of his arm that only increased his nausea.

Her hands lifted to clutch at him. “I—” Her voice broke, and she sucked in a breath. “I—” Even her second attempt failed.

Naz picked her up and strode toward the trailer with the shower. Meg was stiff in his arms as if she was trying to keep the mess glistening on her face and soaked into her shirt from getting on him.

“I’m fine,” she finally said, but her voice wasn’t Meg’s. It lacked something.

He didn’t like it. He jerked open the trailer door.

“I like giving blow jobs.” Meg’s words sounded flat, even though Naz had heard the sounds that proved them true, and he remembered what she’d looked like the first time she’d given Julio one.

The trailer door slapped shut behind them, mingling with Rocks’s snoring from the room Naz had begun to think of as his and Meg’s.

He didn’t set her down until the bathroom door had shut behind them.

A shudder shook her body. Her hand hovered over the skin of her neck, shiny under the fluorescent light. “I really hate cum on me.”

Naz reached past her in the tiny room, turning on the shower and keeping his hand under the spray, not caring that he hadn’t pulled the curtain shut and water was spreading across the floor.

Meg’s fingers curled into his shirt, gripping it as she kept her body from pressing against him, as if she’d damage him if she coated him in Julio’s mess.

Naz nudged her into the spray fully dressed. He was the one to lather the soap and carefully wash her face. He did the same to her neck and the top of her shirt.

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