Chloe (Made Men Book 3) (16 page)

“
S
o
, what do you girls want to eat?” Nero asked once they got in the lunchroom, unaware of what exactly that question meant to them.

Chloe looked at Elle, not knowing how to respond. And by the way Elle quickly dropped her hand from Nero’s, she didn’t know how to answer that question any better than her.

He then told them like they didn’t already know, “It’s either pizza or the same line that’s always been here of chicken patties and hamburgers.”

“I don’t care.”

“Yeah, uh, me, either.” Chloe went back to staring at the floor.

“Jesus, pick already. I’m fucking starving.” Amo was clearly still not in a better mood than he had been this morning.

“Chicken patties sound fine,” Elle answered after seeing no one was really in that line.

Vincent didn’t seem to approve of their choice. “Who the hell doesn’t choose pizza?”

“Elle, do you like pizza?” Nero asked.

“Yes,” she mumbled her response.

Amo crossed his arms over his chest. “Chloe, do you eat pizza?”

Not like you care, anyway.
Chloe nodded only after she looked at Elle for approval.

“So, why the hell can’t I have pizza?” Vincent asked.

“Elle, why did you pick that line?”

Don’t answer.
The looks on their faces were turning scary.

“We always pick the line that doesn’t have anyone in it.”

“And what happens if the lines are about the same?”

Elle, stop answering Nero’s questions!
She couldn’t help wringing her hands, feeling the rage begin to radiate off them.

Leo popped up out of nowhere. “Hey, guys, what’s up?”

“Shut up, Leo. Answer the fucking question, Elle!” Amo roared, clearly already knowing the answer but wanting to hear it.

Chloe dug her nails into her skin when she felt Amo’s eyes move from Elle to her.
Why does he care all of a sudden?

Elle stared at the ground, unable to meet their faces any longer. “If the lines are even, then we pick the line that has the least scary people in it.”

“Jesus Christ,” Nero voiced.

“For fuck’s sake,” Amo said more loudly.

“Motherfuckers,” Vincent somehow responded the loudest.

Leo’s eyes danced around the group. “Does that mean they don’t want piz—”

“Shut up, Leo!” the boys all said as one, scaring Elle and Chloe.

“From now on, you fucking eat what you want to. Do you both understand?” Nero told them.

Elle was quick to nod her head.

Chloe kept quiet, still a little frightened of the scary trio.

“Chloe, if you want fucking pizza, you eat fucking pizza, got it?”

Her eyes grew wide when Amo bellowed, demanding an answer.

Fiercely, she nodded her head, not wanting to make him even madder. He had looked mad enough about it, and she didn’t understand why.

The moment Elle took off for the pizza line, Chloe was right behind her. Hearing Vincent say, “Let’s fucking kill ’em,” made her scurry faster.

By the time they got in line, everyone was already there, so they were forced to be in the very back. Leo caught up to them first and was shortly followed by the three guys.

Chloe swallowed hard.
They look like they’re ready to go on a murder spree.

“No way I’m waiting this fucking long. You know they run out of pizza. Let’s cut.”

Elle stopped Amo. “No, that’s wrong. We’re not cutting.”

“Sorry, sweetheart. After what you just told me, I frankly don’t give a shit about right and wrong.” Vincent started cutting up the line, yelling “move” to anyone who didn’t do so at first.

Amo was quick to join in, and suddenly, the line parted for them. Nero shoved Elle to go, and Chloe was forced to follow.

Feeling extremely uncomfortable didn’t even begin to describe how it felt for her to cut every student in line who had ever called her a freak.
Please let me dissap—

When a tray was extended to her, she looked up to see Amo holding it out for her. It was the first time she could see something that almost seemed nice under his rough exterior.

Slowly, she took it from him, having to look away as she did. She had grown almost used to the roughness of him and seeing him differently for once seemed weird.

They all went through the line rather quickly and were at their table in no time. Sitting down, she could tell Elle got embarrassed when Nero kissed her on the cheek, but Chloe found it rather sweet. It was obvious the two were perfect for each other.

Getting nervous over who was going to sit beside her today, she was relieved when it was Leo again.

This day is turning out okay after all.
Chloe almost smiled as she brought her pizza to her lips. Picking school lunches around everyone else sucked because they were never able to eat the good stuff.

Nero quickly took notice of the joy on their faces. “When was the last time you ate pizza at school?”

You could tell Elle was uncomfortable again. “Since middle school.”

“I had it freshman year,” Chloe chimed in, regretting her statement the moment it came out. The pizza was just so good compared to the chicken patties that she wasn’t even thinking.

Again, the tenseness returned full-out, and the rage that had eased a bit came back in an instant.

Leo tried to ease the tension himself, voicing the question he’d probably had the second he had seen her scars. Since he was younger than them, he wouldn’t know.

“Chloe, how did you get those scars?”

The table went silent, and the boys all waited to hear the words come out of her mouth.

That had been the first time in a long time anyone had asked her that. Everyone just knew and made fun of her for it. At least, everyone knew the lie her father had created.

As she stared down at her plate, the devil’s eyes appeared before her, reminding her exactly how she had gotten them.

“She was in a car accident,” Elle answered, seeing Chloe couldn’t.

His mocking laughter rang in her ears.
Lies.

That only made Leo want to know more.

“Oh, dang. When?”

Stay still, little girl …

Her heart began to race, knowing something was about to come.

“When we were freshmen.” It was obvious Elle didn’t like talking about it any more than Chloe.

… or it’ll just hurt worse.

Chloe held her breath, waiting for impact.

* * *

L
ater that day
, Amo began walking in the direction Sebastian was running.

“I’m going back to class,” he told his friends, leaving them outside of the school.

He didn’t know why the fuck Nero had let Sebastian off easy since the last conversation they’d had with him clearly hadn’t been effective enough. He damn sure wasn’t going to stand around and agree with Nero like Vincent had.

Today, Amo had found out just how badly Chloe and Elle were treated, and it had rattled something deep inside of him. All these years, they had gone to the same school, and they’d had no idea of just how bad it was
.

I have no one but myself to blame.

Opening the back door to the school, he knew Sebastian was still on the other side of it. He was trying to catch his breath and wipe the tears away from his face. So, by the time Sebastian saw Amo, it was too late.

Amo covered his mouth to muffle the screams and shoved him up against the wall with as much force as he could. Staring down at him, he could see the fear grow tenfold in Sebastian’s eyes.

“I don’t know why Nero didn’t beat the fucking shit out of you just now.”

The tears the little bitch had just wiped away merely returned.

When Amo pushed his arm into his throat, Sebastian started choking into his hand.

“I should just fucking snap your neck right here.”

When he finally heard the sound of Sebastian pissing himself, he let up the tiniest bit.

“But Nero won’t let me, so if I find out you did have something to do with hitting Elle in the face at lunch, I will make damn sure Nero won’t make the same mistake again.” He pushed his arm harder into his neck, the smell of his piss greeting his nose. “But if I find out you ever laid a hand on Chloe
,
I
will
snap your fucking neck next time.”

Once he let go of Sebastian before he did just that, Sebastian ran off, this time surely not to get caught again.

Amo tried to calm himself down from seeing that milk carton drill Elle in the face at lunch today to the point she bled. He was sure it had pissed Nero off just as much, but what he hadn’t expect was the look in Chloe’s eyes. She had sat there, unmoving after it had happened, clearly going through inner turmoil and completely and utterly afraid. Not once had he ever seen someone truly afraid until he had looked into her eyes. Whatever she had gone through, he wanted to know. And after today, he didn’t believe she was in a car wreck.
Not for a fucking second.

“
A
ll right
, Amo. You can take Chloe to class.”

“What? No. We need to all walk together,” Elle told Nero, not wanting to take a chance they would try something again just after they had tried to take her out during lunch.

Chloe wanted to agree with her friend, but Amo’s voice spoke low, commanding, “Come on, Chloe.”

Seeing Elle push at Nero’s chest in disagreement, she realized how much she had truly held Elle back all these years. Like today, when her friend had gotten hit, she hadn’t even moved to see if she was okay. Instead, she had been stuck in her own hell inside her head. It was time to start pulling away from Elle just a little so Elle could be free.

Having to look away from Elle, Chloe looked at the floor as she walked away with Amo.

She could hear the little fight Elle tried to put up, but Nero wasn’t having it, keeping her in place. It was hard to walk away from her like that.
But I have to start cutting the cord a little … for her.

Chloe fell in line behind Amo, causing him to quickly stop and turn around.

“Don’t make me show you again …” His voice was so low it was like he was daring her.

Her eyes almost popped out of their sockets. She quickly moved directly beside him before he even finished his sentence. There was no doubt he was still furious from lunch, and she couldn’t help wondering if someone might have suffered a terrible fate while they had been in their last half of Spanish. Last time, it had been obvious the boys had skipped the last half of their classes and gotten to Sebastian, giving him a black eye. Her instincts told her they had gone back for round two.

Walking beside him was exactly as terrible as you would think. Everyone—and I mean everyone—stared at them while giving them a wide berth. It was like the hallway had split, and everyone lined up against the lockers to watch them pass.

She was sure she had drawn blood in her palms with how hard she was pressing into them.
Please let it end!

Getting closer to the classroom door, she couldn’t take the stares anymore, so she made a run for it, and she had barely touched the doorknob before his voice boomed.

“Chloe!”

Suddenly, she dropped her hand.

Amo approached the door, opening it himself.

Why couldn’t you just let me run away?

She felt even more embarrassed by the scene he had caused.

After walking into the classroom slowly, the door slammed behind her from Amo making even more of a spectacle. The room of students drilled their eyes into her even more than the ones had in the hall.

Finally making it to her seat, she scooted to the very edge of the table as Amo sat down beside her.

“Why did you just run for the door?” he demanded quietly.

She could feel the blood start to trickle down her nails at this point.

“Tell me why, Chloe,” he demanded again.

She had yet to look at him, let alone give him an answer.

Staring at her, he finally noticed her twitching hands. “Open your hands.” He could see the little bit of red peeking out under her fingers. “Chloe, open your damn hands before I open them myself.”

Gently, she opened her hands, too afraid he would follow through on his threat. She didn’t have to look at him to know what he was thinking.
Freak.

“Fuck.” Jumping up, he didn’t waste time before going to the front of the class and grabbing the whole box of Kleenexes. Coming back, he ripped a bunch out. You could see he wanted to grab her hands and hold the tissues to the marks, but he didn’t. Instead, he carefully laid them on her hands, making sure he didn’t touch her. The act was almost …
sweet.
It made her wonder if he was even a beast or jerk at all.

Closing her hands, she let the tissues start to soak up the blood.

This time, his voice was soothing when he asked, “Why did you run for the door?”

She found out she could talk to this Amo. “E-Everyone w-was staring at us.”

“Is that why you did this to yourself?”

Solemnly, she nodded her head.

Pulling out more tissues, he made her change them out. “Put more pressure on it.”

She closed her hands more firmly to stop the bleeding.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you. I thought you were doing it just so I couldn’t hold the door open for you again.”

She was finally able to meet his dark eyes. To actually see how badly he really did feel about it made her heart twinge a bit. She wasn’t sure if she really knew him at all. Finding out he had only made the scene because he had wanted to hold the door open for her was cute in a chivalrous way.

“It’s o-okay. I’ll let you hold the doors from now on.”

He actually cracked a smile at her joke. It was the first one she had really seen on him.

Brrring.

She quickly averted her eyes. The bell had made her realize she was staring at him. Her cheeks flushed a bit when he didn’t move his eyes off her right away.

Their class seemed to creep by, and about a third into it, Amo made her check her hands to see if the bleeding had stopped. It had, so at that point, Amo got up, uncaring of the teacher lecturing, and threw away all the used tissues, as well as placed the tissues back on the desk.

As he walked back to his seat, Chloe felt his stare until he sat down.

The remainder of the class, she felt herself get a little bit more comfortable next to him. It wasn’t much, but a small difference was some kind of progress. This seemed to make the class go by faster, and when the last bell of the day rang, she was surprised for once.

“You’re not gonna try to make a run for it again, are you?” he asked when she quickly got up.

“N-No, Sebastian’s locker is out there, and you basically said you wouldn’t help me, remember?”

A smug look crossed his face. Instantly, she forgot all the nice things Amo had just done for her.

“Y-you d-did something to him.”

His face dropped. “No, I didn’t. I went back to class. Nero and Vincent were the ones who went and saw him.”

Chloe bit her lip, “Really?”

“Yep,” Amo reassured her.

Staring at him for a moment, she began to believe him.
At least, I think he’s telling the truth …

Standing up, he went to the door then stopped when she didn’t follow. “You coming?”

Chloe didn’t want to feel the stares on her again.

Seeming to read her mind, Amo asked, “You know why they’re staring like that, don’t you?”

She looked to the floor. “Because they think I’m a fre—”

“No, you’re not a freak,” Amo snapped. He paused for just an instant before he said, “It’s because they’ve never seen me walk a girl to class before.”

She didn’t believe him at first, but thinking back, she realized she hadn’t, either. Nero and Vincent were always the ones with girls wrapped around them between classes.

Building up the small amount of courage she had inside of her, she took her first step toward the door.
The beast might not be so bad after all.

* * *

A
nger exploded
out of Chloe as she stared at the beast. It was a feeling she hadn’t felt this pure probably ever in her life. It only grew worse with each tear that fell down her friend’s face. She had seen Elle get the shit beaten out of her, but she had never witnessed her in this much pain.

They had just caught Nero, Amo, and Vincent in a fight, but that wasn’t the worst part. When girls in tight dresses had wrapped themselves around the boys, Chloe certainly hadn’t been shocked Vincent accepted it or even Amo, but she had been shocked Nero had a girl wrapped around him. Chloe could see it in Nero’s eyes every time he looked at Elle: he loved her. She didn’t know why he would fuck all that up.

“Let’s go,” Elle told Chloe through the tears. She had basically just told Nero to go fuck himself and only wanted to get away from him.

The anger hit its reaching point inside of Chloe.
I thought we were all starting to be friends.

Nero and Elle were what was holding the alliance together. Without them, there was no friendship, especially since he had done something like this to cause such heartache to her.

She knew exactly who had played the major part in this.
I can see it on his freaking face.

Rearing back her foot, she kicked him in the shin as hard as she possibly could.

“Ow! What the fuck did I do?” Amo yelled, holding his shin.

“You should be ashamed of yourself.” She then pointed at Vincent who started to back away from her, afraid of the safety of his own shin. “And you, too.”

Looking back at Amo, she let him know she knew this had all happened because of him. “I know you put him up to this.”

Walking over to her now crying and somewhat smiling friend, Chloe stopped and looked at Nero. “I have nothing to say to you. You know what you just lost.”

With each step to her car, the anger slowly left her body, making her realize what she had just done. It was like …
I was possessed.

Getting in her car and seeing Elle in the passenger seat wiping away the tears, Chloe felt the need to cry hit her, too. If she could, she was almost certain she would cry right beside her.

Fear set into her, but it wasn’t the kind she was used to. Back there, she had thought Elle was the one with the most to lose with Nero. However, she felt like she had lost something just as great. Every day, Amo surprised her; every day, she had trusted him a little bit more; and every day, she could feel the start of a friendship blooming.

The fact that she was feeling the start of a friendship with Amo scared her. The fact that a strong sadness came over her since she wasn’t going to see their friendship bloom truly frightened her …

* * *

D
id
she just fucking kick me?
Amo’s leg still stung as he walked to the car.

Damn, she did just fucking kick me!

She had blamed him for Nero going out with another girl, but the only reason Nero had gone out was because he really hadn’t had much of a choice. He had set the date up before Nero had realized he fully wanted her. Amo knew Nero would come to the conclusion of picking Elle over the job. It was obvious he liked her too much. However, Nero had to pretend to the boss that he wasn’t falling for her, because if the boss found out about them and then they canceled, it would look suspicious. Nero’s father was already skeptical of his loyalties.

Cassandra had also been supposed to be here tonight. Since she had been suspended this week, they hadn’t seen her. They wanted to talk to her outside of the school, force her to tell them all the shit they had done to Elle and Chloe.

Nero had planned to kill two birds with one stone tonight: gain his father’s trust and get his hands on Cassandra. But it all had gone to fucking shit the moment Elle had showed up.

They didn’t even understand why she had come to Poison, anyway. It was a lounge for teens and definitely not somewhere Elle or Chloe had ever gone before. Elle had said she had gotten a text from Nero to come here, but he hadn’t sent one.

We’re getting played somehow.
Someone was one step ahead of them, and he could feel it.
He just hoped it didn’t come to bite him in the ass before he could see it coming.

You should be ashamed of yourself …
Chloe’s words swirled in his head. She could barely look him in the eyes day by day, yet tonight, she had stared the beast down and kicked him. He was used to seeing that hint of fear in her eyes every time she looked at him, but for the first time, he had seen it disappear for just a moment.

Fear was the only thing he had thought lived in Chloe.
But, damn, I was wrong.

A smile touched his lips. No girl had ever dared to do something like that to him. Not only that, but he had let her live to tell the tale. Whatever he had done to change her image of him had worked. He hadn’t seen it until now, but that was exactly what he had hoped for.

There was no doubt Nero was getting Elle back, which put him right back where he wanted.

Before he opened the door to his car, the clicking of heels came up behind him. “Amo, you didn’t forget about me, did you?”