Nero (Made Men #1) (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-
Six

You’ve got This All Wrong
, Motherfucker

Elle flipped through the rack of clothes.
The Goodwill gods are not looking out for me today.
They had scoured every thrift store, and all Elle had been able to find was more t-shirts. She had only been able to find three she liked, and they were a little iffy with all the holes they had accumulated. Elle was looking for something different, but of course, those staple pieces only came along every so often.

Going through the racks
, Elle thought about what Nero had asked her on the drive home. He had asked her if she was planning to drive with Chloe again once her car was fixed. She had told him she hadn’t made her mind up for his sake. She liked riding with Nero, but she would be there for Chloe before him. That wasn’t what bugged Elle, though.

H
e had then proceeded to ask her why Chloe’s car had still been parked at the school until this morning. That brought up a whole can of worms Elle would never talk about. She had been thankful when he dropped the conversation pretty quickly, yet now she was thinking it might have given him some information he had wanted to know.

Elle moved to another rack
, this time smiling at remembering when Nero had parked a house down. She had been able to see he was a little upset still that he wasn’t going to take her on a date yet; as a result, she had promised him, the next time she was off, she was all his. That was when it dawned on Elle.

T
hey were becoming pretty serious. Yes, it might have only been a few days between them, but Elle had seen since freshman year that Nero was never around only one girl. She had watched the way he treated girls, and he didn’t treat her the same as them.
Well, maybe in the beginning he did.

Elle couldn’t
describe the feeling. She didn’t even attempt to understand it, but something in her said it was right. It only grew stronger every second they spent together alone as well as when Nero kissed or touched her when no one was looking.

“What about this?” She saw Chloe hold something up a few racks down. The e
merald green color struck her.

“I love that.” Elle
walked over and took the garment from Chloe then headed to the dressing room.

S
he threw off her shirt and put it on. Elle looked at herself in the mirror, loving her reflection. It was a tight, V-neck sweater that was almost meant as a dress. It hugged all her curves and the color looked fantastic next to her hair and skin coloring. Elle knew it would match perfectly with her black leggings at home.

Elle opened the door so Chloe could see the outfit.

“Oh, my gosh, you have to get that. I would wear that. Well, if it was black.”

Elle laughed at her friend
. Chloe only wore one color and that was black. She could barely remember Chloe in bright and cheery clothes so long ago. Honestly, Chloe looked good in anything. Her clothes might be black, but they were expensive. Her father forced her to dress in the nicest ones, and even though he didn’t approve of the color that much, he at least didn’t force her to wear a different one, like pink.

Elle shook her head at the thought of Chloe wearing the color pink.

“Thank God. I was beginning to think I wouldn’t find anything. At least this will replace my white sweater Bimbo Number One destroyed.” Elle had loved that sweater, but this one was definitely going to make up for it.

“Me
, too. Maybe the person who donated that brought more. We better hurry up and look through the rest of the racks. It’s late and they close soon.”

Elle nodded and turned around to head back in the dressing room. She hear
d Chloe laughing behind her, making her stop to look at her before she closed the door.

“What is so funny?” Elle
inquired.

“I was just thinking about what Nero’s face is going to look like when he sees you in that.”

* * *

Nero listened to the
obnoxiously-loud music playing. It was very dark with almost-neon lighting all around. They sat at an uncomfortable, high table as they ordered some drinks and appetizers.

Nero looked around the full table
. Amo and Vincent looked like they were at home, sitting beside two public school girls who were wearing glitzy, tight dresses. Unfortunately, the girl beside him was dressed the same way and there was not a shy one out of the group.

Nero
hadn’t even caught their names when they’d introduced themselves. Before Elle, he would have had all their names in one second and their dresses off the next. Looking at Amo and Vincent, he could tell they clearly liked that Nero was out of the game.

Nero’s eyes had
wandered the whole night, looking for Cassandra
. I find her, get what I want, and then I’m out of this fucking place.

He
could sense the girl he was with was getting a little wounded that Nero wasn’t paying her any attention, especially with his friends all hands-on and frisky in front of them. At first, he did feel a little bad, but then, when she started to get a little hands-on and frisky herself, he didn’t care that he was rude, pushing her hands off him. This girl was far from Elle, and that was who both of his heads wanted.

Nero turned his attention to the dance floor
. That part of the lounge was crazy, and he had no intention of going near it. Everyone was barely two inches apart, dancing on top of each other.
Get a bunch of horny teenagers together and you get an orgy.

As
Nero saw a fake blonde appear on the dance floor, he turned toward Amo and Vincent and waved his head toward the mass of dancers. Nero stood with Amo and Vincent, them telling the girls to wait there.

Nero kept his eyes on the back of the fake
-ass blonde hair.
I fucking got you.

He
and his crew pushed through the teenagers, who desperately needed to get laid already, until he finally reached the girl. Nero spun her around, and his control started to shake.

*
* *

“Ugh
, today is not my day, is it?” Elle said as she finished up with the last rack.

“I cannot believe we only found one thing.”
Chloe was now sitting on the floor.

Elle looked over at her friend,
who was exhausted from trying to help her find clothes. “I know. Let’s pay and get the hell out of here. I’m starving.”

“Thank
God. My stomach has been growling for the last hour,” Chloe confessed.

Elle and Chloe walked to the checkout and handed over the green sweater.

“It’ll be three dollars,” the older woman said from behind the counter.

God
, I love Goodwill.
Elle handed over the three dollars, and the woman handed her a grocery bag with her sweater inside. She and Chloe then headed for the door.

Dinng
.

Elle pulled out her phone as they headed toward Chloe’s BMW. Her phone di
splayed there was a new text message from
Asshole
,
making Elle smile.

“Who was that?” Chloe asked
once they were seated in her car.

Elle knew she was asking because only Chloe usually texted her.

“Nero. Let me see what he said.”

Elle went to her messages and read
,
Meet me at Poison, urgent.
Elle stared at the words, confused.

“Well?”

She looked over at Chloe. “He said to meet him at Poison and that it was urgent.”

Chloe stared back at Elle
, just as confused. “Well, we did always wonder what it looked like inside.”

“Yeah, but I don’t have enough money to get inside that place.” Elle didn’t know what could be so urgent
. Her stomach started to roll in nervousness.

“You don’t
; I do.” Chloe smiled.

“I-I
—
”

Chloe stopped her
. “Elle, he said it was urgent. Do you want to go or not?”

Elle’s feeling took over her body
. “Let’s go.”

*
* *

When Nero
looked at her face, he was immediately disappointed it wasn’t Cassandra. Nero let the girl go and turned to his friends.

“Fuck! I can’t stay here any longer.” His control was finally gone.

Amo laughed. “It must be hard seeing every sad sack in here is going to go home and get laid when you haven’t even got Elle’s top off yet.” He had to speak loudly for Nero to hear him.

“Fuck you
.” Nero went to walk off, but saw Vincent frozen in place, staring. Nero followed his eyes to two girls dancing together.

“Who is that? I need to fucking meet her
,” Vincent said with his mouth practically hanging open.

Nero knew which girl out of the two he was talking about instantly
. The girl was wearing a black dress that was loose at the top but tight over her ass. The material barely covered it, showing her long legs. He was sure if she bent over slightly, her whole ass would hang out. She was long and lean, the narrow type, and even though she wasn’t Nero’s type because of the small curves
—I prefer something I can grab on to—
he was even entranced by her dancing.

It was pretty dark
in here, though the sudden flashes of neon every so often could sometimes light up the person’s face; however, the guys hadn’t seen either of the girls’ faces yet.

Nero noticed the guys
around them salivating to dance with the girls. They tried to join in, but the girls kept pushing them away, making them all the more desirable. A flash quickly illuminated the girls.

“Wait, I think I know them.” Vincent squinted his eyes.

Nero looked at them harder. The other girl in the purple baby-doll dress looked familiar to him, as well.

The girls danced around
until they faced them. Another flash lit up their bodies.

“Holy shit, that’
s my fucking sister!” Vincent remarked.

Nero
recognized the girl in the purple dress was Vincent’s sister the moment he said it. Adalyn had become Vincent’s stepsister when his mother had married her dad when Vincent had been a toddler. They had grown up together and hadn’t realized they weren’t related by blood until they could understand the concept. Adalyn might technically be Vincent’s stepsister, however to him, she was his sister.

“Yeah
, but who’s the one I need in my fucking bed?” Amo was infatuated with the girl dancing, as well.

Vincent stared at the girl
shaking her ass as she pushed her light-brown hair back. “Lake, my fucking sister’s best friend.”

“Damn
, have you been keeping her all to yourself?” Amo couldn’t pull his eyes away.

Unfortunately
, neither could Vincent. “No, man. I’ve known her since preschool, so don’t fucking think about it.”

Nero laughed
, his anger now gone. Vincent was clearly caught off-guard by her. Vincent had evidently never thought about Lake that way, but right then, he was seeing her in a new light.
Literally, neon light
. Nero watched as Vincent’s face started to become pissed and torn at the same time.

“Shit
, man, just think about all the years you’ve missed out on that one,” Amo said.

Nero was trying to cease his laughter.

“They are dead,” Vincent declared, his nose practically flaring.

Nero figured it was probably hard seeing them this way, especially his sister.

While he looked back at the two girls dancing, two guys came up and started to grab them.
Oh, shit.

“No
,
they
are fucking dead!” Vincent started pushing through the crowd with Nero and Amo following him.

Nero knew this was not going to turn
out well for the two guys, as well as Vincent’s sister and her best friend.

Nero smiled as they came closer
.
Tonight is looking up.
Nero had always looked forward to a good fight.

“Vincent?” Adalyn yelled as she pushed the guy off her.

“Huh?” Lake shoved the guy as she turned to see.

The two girls quickly started walking toward them.

Vincent yelled at them, “What the fuck are you both doing here?”

“They are with us.” Two guys pulled them back behind them.

Nero noticed they weren’t the ones who had been trying to dance with them.

“Okay then
, who the fuck are you two?” Vincent asked, pointing to the two who had been trying to dry-hump his sister and her friend.

The two guys reached out and grabbed the girls
back.