Chloe (Made Men, #3)(27)

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.



*

Leaning 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 f*ck her.”

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

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.