Mr. Right Now: Vol. 1: Party Boys Who Get What They Want by HJ Bellus

you. I’m done. I love Chloe, and I’m fucking done.”
    “Just calm down, Eli. I wasn’t going to say what you think,” Cole insists.
    Eli lowers his angry face and squares up with all three of his brothers. “Our mom gave everything she had by taking all four of us in as her own. She always told us to embrace our differences and to never give up on each other. You fuckers have never let me be that.”
    Eli’s fist slams into the table again, sending several glasses and plates to the ground. They shatter instantly.

 
     
     
    Chloe comes to an abrupt stop when she hears Eli’s voice. He is shouting, and she can’t force herself to take another step. His words crushed her heart. She felt like pinching herself due to disbelief while the words slipped from his mouth.
    She keeps walking, knowing it’s the best thing to do. She now knows she wasn’t wanted around by the other brothers and will keep her presence to a minimum, only showing up for business. She knew walking away from Eli would kill her. She just had no idea how truly hard it would be until now. With each step Chloe forces her legs to work. As she steps out the front door, she hears his voice again, but this time it’s calling her name. She’s tired of looking back and waiting for him.
    Five years later and she’s still not over the asshole. Chloe was never interested in other men. Hell, they were the furthest things from her mind, because she knew one man would always own her heart. The vision of him being sucked off by that other woman threatens to make her vomit on the sidewalk as she jogs to a cab.
    The fucker knew who she was and still had the nerve to hook up with a random stranger. Chloe’s not dumb and knows the Sterlings have a reputation to live up to, but she’s always had more faith in Eli until now. At least until the moment the waitress shattered that faith for her. Maybe it was a cheap lesson. Quick and easy like ripping a Band-Aid off without warning.
    When she slams the door to the cab, Chloe lets out a puff of air and gives the driver directions. Once safe inside and without the threat of Eli, she even relaxes a bit against the leather seat. Chloe chants the phrase business, business, business over and over again in her head. This all has to be business, then the men can be off to Denver to set up their next club.
    She’ll work her ass off to get them there. Her phone vibrates; her trembling fingers pluck it from her purse expecting to see Eli’s number. She’s wrong. It’s an unknown number, but she answers it anyway.
    “Hello.” Her voice is shaky from all the emotions coursing through her body.
    “Chloe,” a deep voice slowly spills out.
    “Yes, who’s this?”
    “You fucking move forward with your current project and you’ll regret it.”
    “Who is this?” she asks once again.
    “You’re a smart girl, Chloe, back off. Harwell’s will destroy you. There’s not room for Sterlings in this town.”
    “Ethan?” Chloe finally recognizes the voice. “Did you just refer to yourself in third person?”
    She couldn’t stand the fucking man, and now that she realizes whose voice threatens her over the phone, her anger boils over. This is the same man who vandalized her car in a parking garage and tried to attack her. Chloe has no doubt Ethan would’ve raped her and left her for dead that night if she hadn’t pulled out her pepper spray. It was the one thing that saved her life. Chloe’s mom had sent her a care package a few months before the incident, which included new pepper spray, and brass knuckles that doubled as a Taser.
    She never did tell her mother how handy they came in. There was no need to worry her. Actually, Chloe had told nobody of the incident but the police. She did file a report on the car damage and intended to have the asshole fix it. Yet, it still sits in the shop months later. Having the word ‘bitch’ scratched into your black car in capital letters is something you can’t really hide. A