“Great. He does make a fantastic drink.” As she leaned back in her chair and looked around the room, Ria glanced around the room, as well.
It was about half-full, and she had seen most of the people before on previous visits. She glanced past one of the corner booths and something caught her attention. She looked back. She recognized the man; he was the Rocky-wannabe who had gotten her fired from her EMT job.
“What’s gotten into you?” Lacey asked. “Peter flirting with another customer?”
When Ria stared at her reproachfully, she had the grace to blush at her behavior, quickly dropping her eyes.
“Don’t look, but remember the guy who got me fired from Metro? He’s here,” Ria growled quietly.
Lacey laughed out loud, causing Ria to scowl at her friend.
“That’s how you refer to him, as ‘the guy that got you fired’?”
“That’s one of the more polite terms I use.”
Lacey laughed again, promptly turning her head to look at the man.
“I told you not to look!” Ria exclaimed.
Lacey quickly turned back to Ria. “Ria, you have told me over and over what happened that night. You should have just ignored his comments. The poor guy was obviously in pain, and you acted unprofessionally.” Lacey always had to give her honest opinion. She would never lose her cool with a patient. Moreover, she was right. It was an EMT’s job to soothe the patient, not insult them. Hell, if Ria had thought she could have gotten away with it, she would have strangled the obnoxious man in the back of the ambulance that night.
“Whatever you believe, you’re wrong. He thinks he’s God’s gift to women, and couldn’t believe I wasn’t interested.” Ria huffed.
“That still didn’t give you an excuse.” Lacey shrugged.
Ria knew Lacey was still pissed for being so unprofessional. She hated that her friend was working in the bar.
Ria was disappointed in herself. That ten minute ride had irrevocably changed her life, putting her back in the sights of those she had been hiding from. Lacey had given Ria an earful later that night for her behavior, telling her she should have laughed it off. Ria had taken her opinion in stride. They had remained strong friends through the years because neither of them pulled their punches, nor worried about hurting the others feelings.
She thought back to that ride to the hospital. She recalled thinking he had dozed off, that he must not be in much pain for him to be so quiet. In pain, men were usually quite vocal, while women were the more stoic.
When she had turned back from talking to the driver, she had glanced down at him. He had been staring at her with an odd expression. She had asked him if he was in pain, which had led to the jerk going into graphic detail of which part of his anatomy had been in pain. It hadn’t been her first time being propositioned in the back of the ambulance, but those patients—both male and female—had been several decades older and suffering from dementia.
She had gotten angry yet had strived to control her temper and professionalism.
“Are you on any medications?”
“Just the pleasure of seeing you bent over me.” His eyes had been glued to her breasts as she leaned over to take his blood pressure.
She had ignored his comment, rolling her eyes. Like I haven’t heard that line before, she’d thought.
She had carefully stabilized his arm while feeling his gaze watch every movement she made.
“So you’ve never seen me fight?”
“No. I usually work another run, but the EMT for this one called in tonight.” She had then picked up her clipboard, beginning her paperwork that she would hand over in the ER.
“You’ll have to come to my next fight. I’ll make sure you have a front row seat.”
Ria had looked up from her paperwork. “No, thanks. I have better things to do with my time than watch two men deliberately hurt each other. Besides, it’s going to be a while before you’ll be fighting again.”
“I guess I’ll have to find another way to stay in shape. Want to meet me after I get released from the ER?”
“Seriously?” Ria batted her eyes and pretended to swoon before straightening and bursting into laughter. “Dude, not only are you not my type, but if I was going to date a fighter, it would be the winner, not the loser.”
His demeanor had changed in an instant. Ria hadn’t needed to imagine him as an opponent, his fierce expression causing her to slide down the bench seat, farther away from him.
When they’d pulled up to the ER, she had stepped out of the ambulance, turning to offer her assistance.
“I’m fine,” he’d snapped, taking the step down.
As he had stepped out of the ambulance, she had seen the head of the hospital come out to greet him personally, solicitously ushering him inside the ER.
She followed closely behind, turning her paperwork over to the chart nurse behind the desk. Her eyes had then followed the man as he was taken into a room, and the ER doctor promptly went in to check on him. In the time she had been an EMT, she had never witnessed someone receiving such preferential treatment.
They’d received another call not long after; therefore, she had returned to the ambulance where Chase was waiting. It was over an hour before she had to return to the ER with another patient. An elderly woman had fallen in the shower, injuring her hip and hitting her head. It had taken them a while to maneuver her out of the tiny bathroom.
As she turned her paperwork in, out of the corner of her eye, she had seen the man being escorted out of the ER room with a brand new cast. His eyes avoided hers, which hadn’t concerned her, but the stern gaze of the administrator had.
The administrator had escorted him to the door, only leaving the man when he had pointedly said he needed to make a phone call as he went out the sliding doors. When the administrator had passed her again, ignoring her greeting, Ria had begun to get nervous. However, another call coming in had redirected her concern, sending her back outside.
The man was just outside the door. As she passed him, his back was to her.
“It’s Nicholas. Come and get me.” His voice had been cold and clipped. Ria had felt sorry for whoever was on the other end of the conversation.
He had then disconnected his call, and as she’d passed him, their eyes had briefly met. The cocky, flirtatious man that had entered her ambulance was gone. Ria had almost stopped to do damage control and apologize for her remark, but she truly had felt he deserved the set-down for his behavior.
“Let’s go, Ria!” Chase had yelled, turning on the siren and lights. She’d jumped in the ambulance, forgetting about apologizing in the rush to get to the emergency.
It was a mistake she would regret.
The next morning, she had been called into her office and was fired, citing her unprofessionalism. She had been dumbfounded that a man of Nicholas’s fame had resorted to having her fired because of being rejected.
She had desperately tried to explain, but her boss had been unmoved.
“I thank you for your service to our company, but we will not allow that type of behavior from any of our employees,” her boss had replied.
Ria had looked at her boss, begging for another chance. “Mr. Lyon, I’m sorry for my outburst; it was completely inappropriate.”
“Get your things and get out.”
She had quickly cleared her things and gotten out as fast as she could. She had unsuccessfully applied to the only two other ambulance companies in the city. With her bills skyrocketing and her mother’s condition worsening, she had been left with no choice other than to take the job at the bar. Her pride had taken a hit, but it was worth it when she was able to pay the rent. Nicholas Brooks might be the local idol, but to her there was nothing to admire. He was no hero.
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Enjoy an excerpt from Sarah Brianne’s book
Nero (Made Men, #1)
Chapter One
High School Dropouts
Elle sat in Spanish, staring at the clock. S
he swore the classroom was a hundred degrees.
With three minutes until lunch, she really missed Christmas break. Not once during the entire break had she gotten this sick feeling. No matter how many times the sensation took over her body, she could never become used to it. It was like an impending doom kind of feeling.
Elle hated school. No, Elle despised school with all her being. The one reason she was surviving Legacy Prep High was because of her only friend in the world, Chloe Masters.
Chloe needed her. Yes, Elle was bullied, but Chloe, now she was tortured. Elle would do anything to keep her safe. She deserved a protector, especially after what had happened.
All the money Elle had saved up working this Christmas break had to go to her high school tuition. Otherwise, she would get kicked out, and that would mean no protection for Chloe. Elle luckily had a scholarship to pay most of her tuition because of her grades, but she had to pay the rest by working at the diner almost every night.
Two minutes until lunch. I thought when you stared at a clock, it was supposed to make time go slower.
Elle was dreading lunch. The students hadn’t been able to pick on her and Chloe since the last day before break, which meant they were all going to let out their pent-up aggression on them. God help them.
With one minute until lunch, Elle turned her head to see Chloe since the clock was no longer serving her any purpose. Her heart broke a little. Chloe’s head was, of course, hung down, and she was wringing her hands in her lap. That was her thing whenever she was nervous.
She pictured her sweet face under her sheet of hair, marred by the deep slashes on her features. One stretched from two inches above her eyebrow down to the hollow in her cheek; the other slash was one inch above and below her lips. Both were on the right side of her face.
Elle shivered at the memory of seeing her for the first time since the new markings and then jumped when the lunch bell rang. She grabbed her satchel and stood.
You can do this. However, the sick feeling was because she really didn’t believe she could.
She went to the door and felt Chloe at her back. This was where you could always find Chloe, right behind Elle, for the last three-and-a-half-years. Slowly, Chloe had started inching over every day until she walked just one step directly behind Elle. They had quickly learned that walking side by side meant a bigger target.
She stepped over the line into the hall and headed toward the cafeteria, walking a slow pace. She had a system down for the usual hall breaks; you wanted to take the shortest route to the next class unless there was a huge crowd. A huge crowd meant the ones who picked on them like Cassandra, the school’s queen bee. She had learned to never linger because they were always better off in a classroom; the teachers usually stayed in it during hall breaks, waiting for their next class. Lastly, don’t look anyone in the eyes. Although, Elle never kept her head down to the floor; that was a bad idea, plus she was never that type of person anyways.
This was the only time the halls were safe for them, though. The cafeteria awaited with far greater dangers for her and Chloe.
Elle reached the lunchroom and looked at her options. Here there were two lines. Line one was different each day, whether it was pizza, turkey, or meatloaf; it was whatever had been decided for the menu at the beginning of each month. Line two was always the same; chicken patty or hamburger and fries every day. However, Elle and Chloe didn’t have two options; they had one—whichever line had the less scary people in it. It also meant they usually got stuck in the line that didn’t taste the best.
Elle walked toward the back of the shortest line, all of the other students having thought the other option was better. Elle looked over to it, coming to the same conclusion.
Far better, she thought.
Elle saw two figures cut farther up in the line. She and Chloe didn’t make a move to call a foul on it, though. It was better not to draw attention.
“You didn’t call or text me one time over break. Didn’t you miss me?” Cassandra wrapped her arms around Nero’s neck.
Nero grabbed her waist. “Sorry, babe. I’ve been busy.”
Nero Caruso. He was the definition of tall, dark, and handsome. He was more muscular than almost all of the other seniors but still slender. Cut is how Elle described that body-type. She could tell he had trimmed his hair over break. She thought it was strange because he’d always had it longer and slicked back for as long as she could remember. Now that it was much shorter, his hair had movement. She liked it better this way. “Does that mean you’re too busy for me tonight?” Elle could see Cassandra’s breasts rise higher.
In the next instant, Nero caught Elle staring. He held her gaze with his green eyes and then leaned down to whisper something in Cassandra’s ear.
“Get a room!” someone yelled in the line.
Cassandra snapped her head back and caught them staring at each other, giving Elle a menacing look. With that, Elle was able to break the eye contact. She felt embarrassed to be caught gawking at them. She had trained herself to never look any of the students in the eye, especially during PDA.
Geez, what is wrong with me today? All Elle needed was to piss Cassandra off. She’d had it out for her since freshman year when a boy Cassandra must have liked complimented Elle on her hair. Cassandra made sure to make Elle the school’s target, and the boy had nothing to do with her from that moment on.
The line finally moved along and they were able to grab a tray. Lasagna, green beans, and applesauce were on the menu today. Honestly, it could be worse.
Taking a water out of the cooler, she reached the lunch lady, giving her lunch number to her. “1089.”
“You can charge the first week only, Elle, then you need to either put money in your account or bring money with you every day.” The lunch lady spoke louder than Elle thought necessary. “We are not going through this again this year.”
Elle didn’t think she could have felt any sicker. “I will.” She moved over so Chloe could give her number.
“1072.” Elle knew she could have, in fact, gotten sicker at the look on Chloe’s frightened face knowing they would have to make it to their table now.
Elle started walking to their usual spot. There were several tables scattering the cafeteria. The studious students used the tables closest to the lines; they weren’t picked on, just ignored really. The tables in the back of the cafeteria were used by the popular crowd. Elle and Chloe, on the other hand, had always eaten at the same table for the past three and a half years—the one closest to the door. This table was in-between the two sides but closest to the studious side. Just one table full of nerds separated Chloe and Elle from the popular kids. The robots.
Elle sat with her back to the door; she liked the full view of the cafeteria. Chloe sat opposite of her; she wanted the back of her head to the rest of the world.
“Did you sleep last night?” Elle asked sympathetically. Elle knew Chloe never slept much with the nightmares, but today she looked like she hadn’t even slept a full hour last night. She looked pale, almost ghostly. Her black hair was now dull as it attempted to conceal the right side of her face. She noticed the hollows under her stark, gray eyes.
“Not much. I really didn’t want to start school back up, I guess.” Chloe forced a smile for her friend.
Elle looked at Chloe sympathetically. “Don’t worry, Chloe. This will be our last semester of high school. Then, we don’t have to see the robots’ faces ever again. Besides, maybe forty-five minutes will go quicker than we remember,” Elle said, trying to make light of their situation.
“We were gone three weeks, Elle, not three years,” Chloe replied lightly.
“Hey, a lot can happen in three weeks. Robots could have asked for a heart over break.” They both laughed over that.
“If that was the case, then my whole high school career was one long nightmare and I will wake up right…” Chloe squeezed her eyes shut and opened them a second later, “Now. Well, it looks like no one asked Glenda the Go
od Witch for help.” Elle laughed hard and Chloe couldn’t help joining in. Elle was glad when Chloe loosened up.
They both began eating their lunch while Elle carefully looked at the robot’s tables. That side was actually pretty diverse. You had a few athlete tables consisting of a full football team table and the rest being a mixture of baseball, softball, basketball and soccer. This left just a few tables.
Her most hated table was the fashionista one, who only bought designer labels and were all mostly cheerleaders. Cassandra was, of course, the head of that table. The table adjoining Cassandra’s consisted of the filthy rich, and I mean, filthy. They were all boys with the head being Sebastian, which was Cassandra’s twin brother. Elle shivered in fright at not only the sight of him, but the sound of his name.
This brought you to the final table, which Elle really couldn’t describe. Three guys had always sat there; one was Nero, who was basically the king of Legacy Prep, and the other two were his crew, as the school liked to call them. The big one was Amo and the smaller one was Vincent; both were seniors, as well. However, Elle noticed a new boy sitting with them.
He must be a freshman. Elle wondered who he was. All she could see was his dirty-blond hair from the back.
She suddenly felt like someone had stepped in her personal space. That was when she realized she had made a huge mistake—she’d dropped her guard.
“I have been looking for you all day. I have a little mess and I needed the waitress to clean up for me.” Cassandra took Elle’s plate and pushed it off the table. Then the high-pitched screech of her voice started back again. “Go on, clean it up, waitress.”
The whole cafeteria grew silent at her words. That word waitress made Elle’s skin crawl, and yet it might as well be her birth name here as far as they were concerned.
Elle thought about the two options she had. Option one: blatantly ignore it or pretend you didn’t hear it; and option two: respond with either a witty response or a few short words. She chose the first then stared at Chloe, wishing she hadn’t by her panicked expression.