Chloe (Made Men Book 3) (12 page)

P
arking
his car behind Nero’s and Vincent’s on the street, he got out, wondering why Nero had dragged them to Stephanie’s house late at night.

“Did you take long enough to fucking get here, Amo?” Nero asked him.

“Listen, if we’re here to have a foursome with Stephanie, I’m gonna pass. I’m not into dick,” Amo retorted.

“The last thing I would want to see is your dick. Besides, you don’t have to worry”—Nero flashed a smile—“I already took care of Stephanie, and even though I just dropped her off, I’m sure she’s already passed out.”

Vincent flashed his own smile. “I bet I could wake her up.”

“For fuck’s sake.” Amo was on the verge of a headache. “Can you just tell me why I’m here? Then you two can go back to sucking your own dicks.”

Nero’s face turned dark, getting serious. “There was a murder tonight.”

Blankly staring at him for a moment, Vincent still wanted to know why he was here. “Okay …?”

“Who gives a shit?” Amo was clearly as unimpressed as Vincent. Their fathers all worked in the same line, and killing sometimes just came with the territory.

“Well, my father just gave me my first job.” That piece of information from Nero certainly made them give a shit. “And when I finish it, I’ll be in.”

Now he knew why they were there. “Can we get in on it?”

“I don’t know yet. It depends on how difficult sh—the job gets.”

“You can’t tell us what the job is?” Vincent asked.

Nero shook his head. “Not yet. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up.”

Amo and Vincent nodded their heads in understanding before they all went back to their cars.

Getting back into his car, Amo felt his blood start to pump. He was closer than ever to following in his father’s footsteps. It was a day he had been dreaming of for as long as he could remember.

The day I become a made man.

* * *

“
T
his is
the best day of my life!” Chloe almost couldn’t believe it when those words passed her lips as they headed toward the cafeteria. It was the first time ever Cassandra hadn’t come to school, and not one person had said anything to them. She hadn’t heard “freak” or “waitress” all day.

Elle chuckled. “I know. Best freaking day ever. I wonder why Cassandra isn’t here.”

“Who cares? I never thought one person was the sole reason for high school being such a nightmare for us.” She had thought it was more like Cassandra, Sebastian, Stacy, and Stephanie, plus all the people who wanted to impress them by making fun of her and Elle.

“Yeah, me, either.”

However, they still weren’t stupid, so they reached the cafeteria and got food from the shortest line.

“I have to tell you what happened when you left me this morning. By the way, what the hell? Why did you do that?” Elle asked once they sat down to eat their lunch.

It took her a second to realize what she was even talking about, but then it came to her.

In their first period English class, Elle hadn’t seemed like she was even there. It had seemed like something was wrong, or maybe something had happened, but she had snapped out of it pretty quickly when they had realized Cassandra wasn’t going to be there today. Anyway, Mr. Evans had given them an assignment of writing a short, five-hundred-word essay the day before, and Elle hadn’t turned anything in. Therefore, he had asked to talk with her after class, and that left Chloe getting to second period on her own.

“Because Mr. Evans said he needed to speak with you, not me. I knew it was about you not turning in your essay. He wasn’t going to talk about it in front of me, you know that. Oh, and why didn’t you turn in your essay? It was the first assignment of the semester.”

“I was sick. Listen, I have to tell you something. You’re not going to believe who talked to me and didn’t want me dea—”

“You were sick? Really, that’s the excuse you’re giving me? I hope you didn’t use that on him.” She didn’t believe that bologna for a second.

“Uh, yes, I was sick. That’s the truth, and he believed me. Why can’t you?”

“Probably because, not once have you
not
turned in an assignment, and you get sick all the time. You practically stay sick. There isn’t anything that goes around that you don’t catch.”

Elle started to look like she was hiding something serious. She was the master at lies, so whatever it was, it must be bad for it to affect her to the point of not being able to pull off a lie.

“Well, this was a different kind of sick.”

Oh, okay. Sure, a different kind of sick. What in the world is she hidin—

A male voice interrupted her thoughts. “Hey, babe, can I sit here?”

Chloe about choked on her food when she turned to see Nero with a tray. She thought she was seeing things—
wait … Did he just call Elle “babe”?

Elle pointed to the empty seat beside her. “Are you serious? Sit
here
?”

“Yes, I was talking directly to you, wasn’t I?”

Her mouth dropped to the table. The sarcasm was real in their voices, telling her that something must have happened between them. She was pretty sure of it by the way he was eyeing Elle.
Yep, he is, in fact, talking directly to you!

Chloe was on the edge of her seat, wondering what Elle was going to say next.

“No, you clearly weren’t because my name isn’t ‘babe.’ I bet you don’t even know my name. So, no, you cannot sit here, Nero.”

Okay … I wasn’t expecting that.

“All right, babe. I’ll eventually be sitting right there. I can wait.” Nero left with a smirk on his face.

Okay, I wasn’t expecting that, either. He definitely liked that answer more than he should have.

Chloe picked her jaw up off the ground and swallowed the food that was still in her mouth. “Don’t you think I deserved a little warning?”

“Jesus, Chloe, I tried to tell you twice, but you kept interrupting me. I said you weren’t going to believe who talked to me.”

“Well, tell me already!”

“When you left me, I went in the hall, and he bumped into me. I tried to tell him sorry, but he told me to not apologize for something I didn’t do. He actually talked to me and wasn’t mean.”

Chloe felt her mind being blown at this moment.

“I can’t believe it. Nero is … nice?”

“No way. He is …” Elle drifted off.
“He wants something, but I’m not going to find out what it is. I know exactly who Nero Caruso is, and ‘nice’ is the last word I would use to describe him.”

“Yeah, but aren’t you just a little curious?” Since today was a dream day free of Cassandra, she wondered how Elle didn’t seem the least bit interested. “I know I am.”

Chloe couldn’t help it. She had always found Nero beyond handsome, and she could live vicariously through Elle. The way he had looked at her friend, with his piercing green eyes, had shown her something definitely was there, and if she could see it, then Elle should have definitely felt it. Chloe was the one who didn’t like people around her.

“No, I’m not,” Elle told her defiantly.

Well, that was the biggest lie if I ever heard one.

After that, the rest of the day went on rather quickly, and they found themselves back at Chloe’s Health class for the last period of the day.

“Stay here and wait for me. We’re not going to try to be bold just because Cassandra isn’t here. Clearly she’s the ringleader, but you know just as much as I do she is not the only one who likes to ruin our lives.”

Chloe nodded her head. “I know. I’ll wait right here.”

“All right. Catch you later.”

Going into the classroom, she took her seat in the back, hoping Elle would make it to class safely, even though they were having a great day so far. Like Elle had said, they weren’t going to take any chances just because the witch of Legacy Prep wasn’t there.

When class started, a strong feeling came over her. She couldn’t quite place exactly what it was. Looking up from her desk, she glanced around the room, the feeling becoming more unsettling by the second.

Getting nervous, she started digging her nails into her palms. Focusing on her hands while she stared at them seemed to help. Slowly, the unnerving feeling began to dissipate… right up until the end of class when it returned to her full-force.

Quickly, she again glanced around the room, once more expecting to see the devil’s eyes staring at her. When her eyes stopped roving, she found a different pair watching her, instead. They might not have been pure evil, but they were black as night.

Unable to hold the gaze for even a moment, she averted her eyes and went back to digging her nails into her palms.

Quit being silly,
she tried to talk herself into having imagined it. No one had ever cared to look her way unless they were calling her a freak.

Feeling like she was just being paranoid, she looked back up at him, only to catch Amo blatantly still staring. It was harder for her to move her eyes this time, but thankfully, the school bell saved her.

Brrring.

Turning over her hands, she saw the little droplets of blood appear.

“You ready?” Elle appeared out of nowhere, seeming a bit disheveled.

“Yeah. You okay?”

“Uh, yes, why wouldn’t I be? Okay, let’s go!”

It was almost like it was in slow motion when Elle’s hand reached out and almost grabbed hers. She had to look away from Elle and down at the floor as she pulled her hand up to her chest.

“I’m sorry, Chlo—”

“It’s okay. Let’s go.” Chloe didn’t wait for her to lead the way this time. Instead, she walked right past her and started the journey to her car.

That was the closest anyone had been to touching her in a long time, making her realize she was never going to be able to stand human contact. A thought had never been so sad to her until now.

Her hand felt like it had almost been burned by the close encounter, and she took a look at it to see the little red marks she had created from Amo staring at her.

Chloe had been right to call him a beast three years ago.
He just grew into it more and more each day.