Chloe (Made Men Book 3) (13 page)

T
he moment Sebastian
stepped up to their lunch table the next day, you could see the rage radiating off him. “Have you heard why Cassandra isn’t here?”

Even though his rage was directed at Elle, Chloe was too scared to breathe.

When Elle didn’t answer, he only got angrier.

“Well, she was suspended. Do you know why?”

Again, Elle didn’t even look at him.

Closing her eyes when his hands came up, Chloe’s instinct was to think he was going to strike her—she expected it—but she didn’t expect the sound when he hit the table, instead. It was so loud it caused pure silence in the cafeteria.

“I am talking to you, waitress!”

Elle finally looked at him, clearly terrified for her life.

“Now, do you know why?” Sebastian was losing it by the second.
“
Do you
?”

It didn’t matter that Chloe had kept her eyes closed, she could still feel it the moment he lunged for Elle.

“I better not see you lay your fucking hands on Elle, ever.”

Immediately, Chloe opened her eyes to see Nero intervening.

“I don’t want to see you talking to her or even looking in her direction, and that goes for Chloe, too. Because, if you do, I will make damn sure everyone in this school will be calling you the freak. Do you understand me?”

What?
She looked just as shocked as Sebastian did.

Nero came off much more frightening than Sebastian ever did, confusing her about which one she should really fear.

After Sebastian nodded his head, he was released.

It didn’t take Nero slamming his hands down on the table to command the student’s attention.

“Their names are Elle and Chloe, and you will call them by their names.”

She had to look at Elle to see if she had heard him correctly. Standing up for them to Sebastian was one thing, but sending a message to the whole school was something different altogether. This was Nero Caruso. He was practically the king here, and anything he said had everyone falling in line.

“You okay?” he asked Elle.

“Um, yeah, I’m fine.”

The two girls continued to look at each other, trying to make sure this was real.

“Do you think I could sit here now?”

For the most part, Chloe was okay with Nero, and she could definitely deal with him for Elle. She knew something was for sure going on between the two, so him sitting with them one day wasn’t going to bother her. She’d had to learn to deal with much worse from all the events her father had dragged her to through the years.

“Sure. Why not?” Elle smiled at him.

Yep, something is.

“Good.” However, she wasn’t expecting Nero to wave his friends over.

Her nerves started to set in. She wasn’t going to be able to deal with them coming over.

“What are you doing?” Elle asked, moving closer to Chloe.

“Uh, I’m sitting here, and they sit where I sit,” he said matter-of-factly.

“No, I said
you
can sit here. I didn’t say they could.”

“What’s the big deal?” A second passed before he figured out why by the way Elle was blocking Chloe.

“They can’t sit here, Nero.”

Stopping his crew by just a motion of his hand, he said, “Ba-Elle, listen; letting them sit here will make sure no one will ever say or do anything to you and Chloe again. They won’t hurt you. I promise. They won’t touch Chloe, either. I give you my word.”

She could see it on Elle’s face when she looked at her that the last bit had sealed the deal.

Taking a seat beside Chloe, she gave him a warning, “You better not be lying to me, Nero.”

Nero nodded for his crew to come over again, and with that, a deal was struck.

“It’s going to be okay. I haven’t let anyone in here hurt you, have I?” The words Elle whispered over to her were true. She had never let anyone touch her, always offering herself up for bait if it came to it.

This last semester was going to shit in a hand basket, and she knew Elle was only agreeing to it for protection. Therefore, she shook her head, letting Elle know she understood.

Please don’t let him sit next to me.
She held her breath when the biggest one came into view. For some reason, Amo scared her the most. She didn’t know if it was his size or his dark eyes reminding her of …

Her breath released when Leo was the one to take the seat beside her after Nero’s guidance. Then Nero sat down on the other side of Elle while Amo and Vincent took the other remaining seats across.

“This is my little brother, Leo.” Then he nodded at her. “Leo, this is Chloe.”

“Hey, Chloe.” For some reason, she didn’t expect the young boy to extend his hand, taking her even more off guard with the strange situation.

Elle saved her, taking his hand, instead. “Sorry, she’s germaphobic. I’m Elle.”

The guys all stared her down at the word germaphobic, making her want to run away. You could tell they didn’t believe it.

She didn’t expect Leo to begin laughing. “That’s freaking genius, Nero. Why haven’t we thought of that after all the gross hands we’ve had to shake?”

Thankfully, everyone joined in the laughter, and even she gave a chuckle. The conversation had taken a different turn than she’d thought it would. One thing was for sure: Leo had a lot of charisma for his age, and since he was a lot younger than her, Chloe felt strangely comfortable with him.

The more lunch continued on, the more comfortable she began to feel around them. For the most part, Elle and Leo were the ones to talk about how Leo was adjusting to high school. The other boys pretty much had quiet conversations to themselves, giving Chloe space to feel as if they weren’t even there. She could almost block them out … until she felt Amo’s eyes lingering on her longer than she liked, and the more he did it, the more it started to irk her.

As Elle started to get up to take their trays to the trash, Nero stopped her, taking the tray. Then Amo came up to take hers, and she didn’t know what possessed her to hold on tightly, not letting him take it. As a result, when he held on and pulled it slowly to him again, he easily won.

“I-I can throw away my own trash.” Her eyes remained glued to the ground, unable to look at the beast with her outburst.

“Yeah, so what’s your point?” Amo didn’t wait for her reply, moving toward the trashcan. He knew she wasn’t going to say shit back.

That—

“Catch you later, girls,” Leo called out, already heading to his class.

Beast.

Something about Amo was extremely unlikable for her.

“What class are you in?”

“Spanish. Why?” Elle answered Nero’s question.

Amo had already started walking out front before he even replied, “Because we’re gonna walk you to class.”

After he took Elle’s arm to get her to start walking, it wasn’t long before he stopped to look back at her. “What are you doing, Chloe?”

She had almost bumped into Elle’s back from his abrupt stop. “Um, walking?”

“Why the hell are you walking on Elle’s ass?”

Raising her right eyebrow that had a small patch missing from her scar, she didn’t understand the point of his question. “This is how I always walk.”

He ran his hands through his hair. “Jesus Christ. Chloe, walk beside Elle.”

It was only when she noticed Amo and Vincent shaking their heads that she took a step to stand next to Elle. Then, when Elle nodded for her to go, she finally, reluctantly started walking.

The feeling of it was just weird. It was completely awkward for her to walk beside Elle. After growing used to looking at her back and being blocked by her, she felt like everyone was gaping at her as she walked past.

Looking up for a moment, she found out that they were, but for a different reason. They were gaping at the fact that Nero and his crew were actually walking with them.

By the time they reached their classroom, Chloe didn’t waste any time before running in.

She had all but forgotten what it had been like when she used to walk beside Elle, and now that the memory was back, she decided,
I didn’t like that, not at all.

* * *

L
eaning
against the wall outside the back of the school with his arms crossed, he started shaking his head. None of this made sense.

“What are we doing here, Nero? Why do you suddenly give a shit about Elle and her friend?”

Nero shrugged, staring at the back of the school door. “Maybe I just want to fuck her.”

“No, man, you don’t try this hard for pussy.”

Nero continued to just stare at the door, not answering him.

Amo looked at Vincent who wasn’t getting what was happening, either. He started to head back to class. “All right, I’m out.”

“Me, too.” Vincent followed.

Nero waited until the door was about to close behind them. “Okay, fine.”

The two came back outside and stood in front of him.

“What I’m about to show you, you didn’t see.” You could tell he was still contemplating showing them as he pulled out his phone and went through it. “I wasn’t even supposed to take a video of it.”

When Nero turned his phone around, Amo and Vincent glued their eyes to it. They thought it was just a picture of an alleyway at first, but then a strawberry blonde in an old timey diner uniform appeared with a trash bag in her hands.

Vincent looked up from the phone. “Is that Elle?”

“Yeah. Keep watching.”

The video kept playing, showing Elle throwing the trash bag into the dumpster. You expected her to go back where she had come from, but instead, she ran to hide behind the dumpster where you could no longer see her.

“Shit,” Amo said when Nero’s father came into focus along with Nero’s brother, Lucca, who was holding a squirming man. A man named Sal scoped out the alleyway, coming close to finding Elle before he disappeared.

They continued watching, knowing exactly what was going to happen.

The man trying to fight for his life looked like he had bitten Lucca’s hand to free his mouth. Right before he could even scream, Nero’s father shot him dead. They watched as a car then pulled up moments later, and the men all got in, escaping from what they thought no one had seen. However, right before the video ended, Elle reappeared, running for her life.

Vincent’s mouth dropped open. “What the fuck? She didn’t go to the cops?”

Nero shook his head.

No fucking way.

“This is bullshit. I don’t believe it. That girl did not see anyone get murdered two days ago. She’s acting too normal for that.”

“That’s why I took the video recording. I knew you wouldn’t believe me. I didn’t fucking believe it when I came to school yesterday, and that was after I saw the video.” He put his phone back in his pocket after he clicked a few buttons. “I just deleted it.”

The cat was already out of the bag, Vincent guessed.

“So what’s the job?”

“She’s still seventeen,” Amo answered, figuring it out. If she were a year older, this conversation wouldn’t be happening. The family would have killed her, no questions asked. “That means you’ve got to find out if she actually saw them and, if she did, whether she’ll keep her mouth shut till she turns eighteen.”
After that, she’s as good as dead.

When Nero nodded his head, affirming the job, he seemed conflicted or almost sad.

He likes her …

That was going to be difficult since the man who’d pulled the trigger was not only Nero’s father, but was Dante Caruso, the boss of the Caruso mafia family. Then, to make it better, the man who had muzzled him was his brother, Lucca Caruso, the fucking underboss.

Amo went back to leaning against the wall. “If we help, then we get in, too.”

“I’ll make sure of it,” Nero said, going back to staring at the door.

“I’m in,” Vincent agreed.

When Sebastian appeared, looking high and mighty, Amo smiled. “This will be fun.”

Nero was the one to move, and just how Sebastian had tried to lunge for Elle in the cafeteria, Nero lunged for Sebastian; except, he was successful in grabbing his collar to choke the shit out of him.

“I thought you were going to give me some fucking weed and apologize!” Sebastian choked out.

“Yes, and your dumbass believed it.” Nero squeezed his neck harder until choking sounds started coming out of Sebastian’s mouth. “I better not catch you trying to lay your fucking hands on her again.”

Letting him go only for a second, Nero punched him so hard in the face he dropped to the ground, passing out cold.

Amo boomed with laughter that Sebastian could only take one shot to the face. He was pretty sure he had passed out more from fear than the actual hit.

Vincent frowned. “What the fuck, Nero? You took all the fun.”

“Not all of it.” Nero kicked Sebastian’s helpless body before he swept his hair back into place.

Planting his own kick, Vincent kicked him in the ribs, giving him another bruise to wake up to.

Finally, Amo moved from leaning against the wall and went up to the still unconscious Sebastian. Even kicking him with only half his strength, it was still going to be the most painful one yet. Once his shoe made contact with Sebastian’s balls, Sebastian woke up, screaming for just a second before he passed out again.