Chloe (Made Men, #3)(35)

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.



*

Later 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 f*ck 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 f*cking 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 f*cking 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 f*cking 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 f*cking second.





Thirty





The Beast Might Not Be So Bad After All





“All 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.