Page 77 of Hidden But Not Safe

His phone screen lit up, pulling his eyes to the picture of them together. He stared at that picture until the phone dimmed again before reaching for it.

Ramiro had sent him message after message, but Naz continued to ignore them. He’d told his boss as much as he wanted him to know. The double digits of unread messages had likely become threats by now.

The newest notification was the same as every week.

‘Proof of life.’

Diego had always cared whether he was alive.

Now Naz had one more person who cared.

He opened the message and hit the camera icon. A quick snap, and his weekly check-in was done.

“That Diego?” Meg asked.

Naz nodded, his gaze drawn back to her.

They’d spent the day together, just like they had before he’d killed everyone. Since they’d already been cuddling on the couch, Meg decided she’d like to watch TV. She’d found some rerun she liked. Naz barely paid attention. He was content to hold her, more than content to listen to her random giggles and commentary. Her fingers had played with his where they wrapped around her, and time had passed.

When she was around, time passed way too quickly.

“How did you and Diego meet?” Meg asked.

Voices, ones he hadn’t heard all day, swirled inside his mind at the question.

“You’re friends, right?” she continued, taking another bite of her sandwich. She watched him as she chewed and swallowed. “He obviously cares that you’re alive, and not in an I’m-gonna-get-something-out-of-you type of way. But do you think of him as a friend?”

Naz hesitated. Not because he was unsure but because the question made him think about Meg. He’d been sure they weren’t friends for a while, and even with how close they were now, he still wouldn’t call her that.

“Ignacio?” Meg asked. Her fingers gripped the giraffe tightly.

Naz nodded. Diego was a friend. He was more than that, but in a different way than Meg was.

“Oh, good,” Meg said, her grip easing. “For a second there, I thought I’d got it wrong.” She set down her sandwich and turned to face him on the stool. “I mean, with that Ramiro guy, it’s different. He’s got a soft spot for you, but he’s intimidating. You two fought. And he’s, I don’t know, not what I expected.”

Ramiro was complicated. Naz trusted him, but also knew there’d be a point when he considered Naz more trouble than he was worth. Maybe he’d already reached that point.

“Summer was nice. To me, anyway. She looked at you in that way.”

Naz lifted an eyebrow. Summer definitely didn’t have a thing for him. She always made him nervous as hell, but not because she was into him.

“No, not that way,” Meg said, rolling her eyes and letting out a snort. Her smile fell away as she met his eyes. Her body turned toward him more, and her gaze slipped down his body slowly. The hairs along his arms rose while she looked her fill, her gaze returning to his eyes. “You’d know if it was that kind of look,” she said, her husky voice acting like an additional caress.

Taunting filled his head, and he couldn’t even force out her name.

“We haven’t talked about it.” Meg searched his eyes. “About what we did last night.”

Thinking about how he came while his memories tried to drag him under made everything worse. Their sneers and excited expressions when they’d made him come flickered in place of Meg’s face.

She hadn’t seen him come. She’d already been asleep. Meg was thinking about what he’d done to her.

Remembering how she’d looked when he’d made her orgasm wiped out the voices, a sudden silence thrumming in his ears.

“I understand, you know,” Meg said.

He focused on her. All traces of her smile, of her joy, had been sucked away.

“I was in pain. You forced yourself to help, even though it wasn’t good for you. You’re like that, Ignacio, always putting me first.”

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