Maria (Made Men Book 7) Read online

  She hoped Dominic wasn’t here to tell the truth; otherwise, the lies and promises she told Lucca would have been wasted breath. If Dominic knew she went to the shit side of Kansas City and took a step into the Luciano home, instead of the strong exaggeration she told him of taking a cab to the mall to meet Kat, then Todd might as well be making peace with God, because he wasn’t going to make it to the end of the week.

  Hearing footsteps hit the foyer, her green eyes met the green in hazel ones that were much calmer now. Dominic’s fiery presence subsided after his meeting with her brother. However, the closer he got to her, the more she saw the hurt, which he was trying to hide.

  Regret.

  Knowing why he was here, she stayed right where she was on the steps.

  Maria had never felt sympathy before, but she was sure what she felt looking at him in this moment was exactly that.

  She didn’t expect him to say anything to her, knowing with the burden he carried he could only walk out the door.

  “See you at the wedding.” He spoke the words grimly from over his shoulder as he went to open the door, but before he walked out, he gave her one last look. “I’ll be wanting a dance, princess.”

  Watching him disappear behind the big door and into the night, she realized that hadn’t been a request, but a demand. She would have sworn he was hopeful, and if she knew what being hopeful felt like … Maria would have realized she felt the same.

  Six

  Ken was Kind of Ugly, and Barbie Could Do Way Better

  “If my men see you dancing with him, then everything Dominic has sacrificed will be for nothing,” Lucca warned her, only letting his presence known when he blocked the view of the front door right before he passed by her going up the stairs for the night.

  There was absolutely nothing she could say, knowing he was absolutely right.

  On the inside, she might have screamed at the top of her lungs at the fact that since birth she had been promised to marry a man in the Caruso family. It was expected of her—without fucking saying—even though her father had reminded her of it on several occasions. Either she would marry a man who spoke the Omertà, becoming a Caruso, or she wouldn’t marry at all. Maria had chosen the latter long ago, and even though it wasn’t much of a choice … it was, nonetheless, her choice and she had been happy with it.

  But now her world was starting to tilt. The invisible axis that held it up began to slip and her infamous feel-no-remorse, fuck-empathy, switch-for-psychos didn’t seem to work around Kayne or Dominic, making her suddenly feel like her decision of never marrying a man wasn’t really a choice. Because, if her switch wasn’t working around them, she wasn’t allowed the choice to find out.

  Maria’s destiny had been decided the day she was born. It was like that “written in the stars” bullshit, and she hadn’t realized the graveness of it all until right this moment…

  …“What are you doing in here?” her father asked once he found her in his office hidden behind his wooden desk. Coming over to her favorite spot perched on his big leather chair, he picked up the little awkward Maria, whose legs were too long for her young body, reminiscent of a baby giraffe. Placing her down on his desk, he sat in front of her. “I thought I told you that you weren’t supposed to come in here.”

  Her caterpillar-like brows furrowed together, not understanding why it was such a big deal when she wanted to pretend to be like Daddy and not like Mommy. “But you let Lucca come in here whenever he wants.”

  “Well, he’s older than you.” He settled for the older card, instead of the “because you’re a girl” card, hoping it would last another year.

  “You let him sit in your chair when he was as tall as me!” It didn’t.

  Sighing, he realized it was time. “That’s because, one day, when Lucca gets older, he will take over the family business from me.”

  “What about me?” she asked, staring at her father, who hadn’t even shown a gray hair yet.

  Dante smoothed down her dress. “Well, if you’re anything like your mother, then you’ll have every man who works for me wanting to marry you, and the choice will be yours.”

  Her tiny nose scrunched up. “Why?”

  “Because, my bella Maria, it is your destiny.”

  She had heard all the girls her age already arguing about who got to marry Ken when they played Barbies, but she always thought Ken was kind of ugly, and Barbie could do way better than him. Therefore, she stayed silent, letting the other girls argue over him.

  “What if I don’t want to marry anyone?”

  “Oh …” Her father chuckled, all-knowing, like he thought the same thing when he had been her age. “You will.”…

  Maria unconsciously made her way to the kitchen, staring down at the wad of cash Nero had left on the counter.

  Fuck destiny.

  She padded her feet across the floor like she was on a mission, getting to the steps and finally going up. She saw Lucca in the hallway, standing outside Nero’s bedroom.

  “I’ll go to bed in just a bit. I’m just helping Elle finish up her paper.” A calm, sweet voice came from inside.

  Lucca nodded before leaving to go to the bedroom at the end of the hall.

  Stepping up to the spot that her brother just left, she saw the BFFs sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at a laptop. The shower running in the bathroom let her know that Nero was in it, and the coast was clear.

  “How important is that paper?”

  The strawberry blonde looked up from the screen first. “Judging by the look on your face”—Elle excitedly closed the tiny silver computer—“it can definitely wait.”

  Maria had known the second she met Elle that her asshole of a brother, Nero, didn’t deserve her, and, well, Chloe went without saying.

  Both girls stood, swiftly and quietly following her into her bedroom before closing the door behind them.

  Taking their places back on the edge of the bed, they watched Maria pace in front of them until the scarred beauty couldn’t take it anymore.

  “W-What is it?”

  The truth was that she didn’t know where to start until she did. Holding out her pinky with a perfectly shaped, long, oval, nude nail, she turned deadly serious. “I need you to promise me that you won’t tell anyone about what we’re about to talk about.”

  “Anyone” was a.k.a. her brothers.

  “I promise.” Elle wrapped her own pinky around hers first.

  She stared down at the gray eyes that were hidden behind a long scar. “Both of you.”

  Knowing that Chloe didn’t like to touch or be touched, she did with Lucca, and from time to time, Elle, if she had to. And, right now, she had to touch Maria.

  Swallowing a lump in her throat, Chloe lifted her hand, lightly twirling her pinky with theirs. “Promise.”

  Each taking their hands away, Maria just came out with it. No fucking regrets.

  “You were in Kayne Evans class, right?”

  “Mr. Evans?” The strawberry blonde seemed to be confused that this was what they were talking about and swearing their lives away for. “Yeah … Why?”

  Maria flipped a stray, blonde strand of hair behind her shoulder. “Well, I just want you two to tell me whatever you know about him.”

  “Well, all the girls were in love with him—”

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that. Maria waved her hand, wanting her to pass over that, because she didn’t need to hear that part again.

  Elle didn’t take the hint, continuing, “He’s very, very good-lookin’— Oh my God, Maria!”

  The long, dark hair had been swept away from her pale face, able to perfectly see Chloe’s mouth dropped open.

  “Shhh!” Looking at the door behind her, Maria made sure there wasn’t a shadow at the bottom slit of the door. She didn’t understand why she had to keep shushing people over the fact that she might actually like a man. “Quiet, or they will hear you.”

  “Well, I like Mr. Evans. He was really nice to us,” Chloe stated s
omething that, for once, wasn’t about his looks.

  “You do?”

  “Yeah, he protected us once, and I think he always looked out for us.” She looked over at her friend to make sure she had recalled it correctly.

  Maria hadn’t known it could be possible to like the hot teacher more. She had heard about Chloe and Elle’s high school experiences and how it had been much different than hers. They had been bullied every day, until Nero caught feelings for Elle and grown a pair of balls to stop what was happening to them. Hell, Maria had even helped take part, shoving the heel of her stiletto right up Cassandra’s—

  “Yes, and that’s exactly why it wouldn’t work.” Elle looked up at Maria seriously.

  That statement took her off guard. “What?”

  “Mr. Evans’s is very intelligent and didn’t buy my lies for a second. Yes, he is nice, and I am extremely grateful for what he did for us, but he has a strong sense of right and wrong.” Clearing her throat, she spoke softer, “And, considering your last name … I just think you’d have to be careful is all.”

  Studying her, it seemed like Elle had wanted to say something else but had settled for letting her down softly.

  “That’s true.” Chloe carefully thought for a second, seeming to choose her words before she spoke them. “But I think, if you like him, then there’s something about him that makes him even more special than we already thought.”

  A slow smile tilted Maria’s lips at the sweet remark, having not expected Chloe to be the one on Mr. Evans’ side. If anything, she expected usually sweet Elle to be. Even though the two girls had vastly different opinions, she was grateful for them. It gave her two possibilities to look at and a warning that she hadn’t yet considered.

  Her bedroom door flying open had them all snapping their heads to see a wet-haired, disheveled Nero entering.

  “Oh shit.” Elle had a different reaction at seeing her boyfriend’s face coming at her than when she had seen Maria’s.

  “We were in the middle of a conversation!” Maria snapped at her brother when he came in, taking Elle’s hand and pulling her off the bed.

  The same emerald eyes as hers glowed at her. “I don’t know what you’re fucking scheming, Maria, but I ain’t in the mood for it tonight.”

  “We weren’t scheming!” she hissed as he slammed the door shut behind them, obviously not believing it for a second.

  “I-I better get to bed, too.” Chloe nervously twirled her thumbs before jumping off the bed, expecting Lucca to come in there and do the same.

  Maria fell onto her bed, internally rolling her eyes. Like Barbie, they could do way better.

  She watched Chloe’s long, black hair swing as the scarred girl headed for the door.

  There was one other thing she had to ask. “Chloe?”

  “Yeah?” Her hair stopped swaying.

  “How did you know you loved Lucca and not Amo?”

  Turning around, Chloe seemed a bit solemn, like the Chloe she had first met had been. “It wasn’t that I didn’t love Amo; I just didn’t know that the love I felt for him was as a friend—until Lucca. They can feel similar at first, but when you know, you’ll just”—her scarred pout turned upward—“know.”

  Seven

  Savage AF

  Maria stepped into Legacy Prep’s office, walking directly to the front desk lady who had been working there since before Maria was a freshman in these halls.

  “Can I help you, Maria?”

  Just like the Caruso’s reputation here, the woman still couldn’t force a smile after all these years. She was still a fucking bitch.

  “I need a list of the students here on scholarship.” When you wanted something, the trick wasn’t to ask for it by using the words “May I” , “I would like” , “Could I.” You demanded that shit like it was such a normal thing that they didn’t even fucking question it.

  “What for?”

  Well, it mostly worked, just not with this old bitch. And, when it didn’t, there was always one sure way to get what she wanted.

  “My father is considering donating money to one of the students’ scholarships for next year. He is, however, wanting to handpick the student to make sure his money is going to the right place.”

  The woman huffed, making a few clicks on her computer before the printer beside her spit out a single piece of paper. Handing her the paper, she clearly found it easier to give her the list of names than sit there arguing with Maria.

  Glancing over the first and last names in the pitifully short list, Maria had to keep herself from rolling her eyes, needing one last thing.

  “Is it okay if I go pay Leo’s lunch bill?”

  The woman pressed a button that buzzed the door for her into the school. “Go on.”

  Smiling, Maria went for the unlocked door.

  “Sir! Excuse me, sir!” The front desk lady stood, stopping the man in the suit who was following behind Maria. “You can’t go in there.”

  “I’m with her,” Todd explained.

  “Maria, is this man with you?”

  “Sorry”—throwing a dumb look on her face, she continued toward the door—“I don’t know him.”

  “For fuck’s sake—Maria!”

  Poor Todd. Even with the door closing, she heard him through the glassed-in office and the woman giving him hell.

  Clicking her heels through the school, she ignored the high school boys’ drools on her way to the cafeteria. It was hard to ignore the comments, but Maria was a savage AF person who was better off keeping her mouth shut. Otherwise, she could end someone’s soul with her words alone. Considering the age gap between them, she decided to be polite, wanting to be able to return to the school.

  The cafeteria was the same as when she left. The only thing different was slightly better-looking food on the students’ trays as she walked up to the lunch lady behind the register.

  She wondered if the lady was the same one who threw away Elle’s tray of food when Elle couldn’t afford it and hoped the school would have taken action against her. Considering their look-the-other-way attitude, though, Maria guessed woman still worked here.

  “Hello. I was wondering if any of the names on this list have an outstanding balance?”

  The lady didn’t even look at the small list for one second before answering, “Snow Blackwood.”

  “I’d like to pay off her account.” Reaching into her Birkin, she grabbed the cash that Nero had left on the counter. “How much does she owe?”

  Clicking a few buttons on the keyboard, the lunch lady pulled up her account. “Considering she’s a sophomore, the school has let her account build up to forty-nine dollars and seventy cents. She’s lucky. She will be cut off at fifty.”

  “Oh no, a whole fifty freakin’ dollars,” she mumbled under her breath hard, so as not to spit the words into the unfortunate-looking woman’s face.

  “If you are the one in charge of Snow’s account, then you need to make sure this doesn’t happen again. We are only lenient so long before consequences are put in place.”

  “A whole fifty dollars lenient,” she mumbled again before faking a million-watt smile. “I’m here to pay off student lunch debt in my friend’s name. You might know her ….” Grabbing the five hundred dollars that Nero had left, as well as another five hundred from her own wallet, she handed it over. “Elle Buchanan?”

  The mole-faced woman gulped, looking at the thousand dollars like it was a ghost, confirming what Maria had thought.

  “This should last for the rest of the semester and carry over to next year, correct?”

  “Y-Yes.” She took the cash, correcting the new balance before putting the money in the register.

  Taking a pen that rested on the lady’s keyboard, Maria wrote seven digits and three dashes on the paper that carried the list of names. “If Snow or any one of these students in the future run out of credit, Elle and I would like to personally pay off their debts before any consequences are taken. Is that clear?”


  The lady cleared her throat. “It is.”

  “I suggest a beard net or a good razor.” Maria motioned to the spot above her own lip where the woman carried long sprouting hairs from the brown mark. “I’m sure Legacy Prep wants to stay up to code.”

  “Excu—”

  “Maria?” The familiar, deep voice could be heard from a few feet away.

  Seeing the hot teacher who crept into her dreams last night, she couldn’t help herself not to wave bye at the lunch money goblin with a smile. “Have a nice day!”

  Thank God. She really needed to start praying again, considering the way things were perfectly working out. She thought she was going to have to manage to find a way to bump into him again.

  Grinning, he seemed to be pleasantly surprised. “What are you doing here?”

  “I forgot to add money to Leo’s account yesterday.” Lying effortlessly was something she made into a personality trait. She then raised an eyebrow curiously. “How did you manage to find me so fast?”

  “I was going for my lunch break when I heard a group of boys talking about a gorgeous blonde in the cafeteria.”

  A slow smile came back to her lips. “Are those your words, Mr. Evans, or theirs?”

  “Well, I thought I’d spare you from the exact vocabulary they used.” Kayne laughed. “But, don’t worry; the students who were mine, now have to write me a thousand-word essay on what feminism actually means.”

  “Wow.” Well, shit, I knew I liked him. “Does writing papers usually work on your students?”

  “Unfortunately, not as much as I’d like. But it did work on your brother, Nero.”

  “It did?”

  “Yes.” He nodded. “The point of my essays aren’t to judge how well a writer you are, but rather that you learned or gained something from writing it. I was pleasantly surprised when he wrote a paper about falling in love with Elle.”

  “Nero?” Her brother who had practically banged his way through the whole school?

  Pure laughter escaped her throat. Jeez, my brothers really are fucking cursed.