Nero: Made Men novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Countdown

"What is he talking about?" I asked.

Nero watched the Mercedes pull out of the lot.

"Not here," he said. "Tonight. I'll tell you everything I can."

"Everything you can."

"Mona."

"Tonight," I said. "Or I walk."

"Tonight."

I left him in the courtyard and went to my last class without hearing one word of it.

At six I crossed the parking garage behind the science building to get my bike.

It was a gray concrete deck with half the lights out, and my footsteps echoed.

I had my keys in my fist before I knew why.

Three boys stepped out from behind a pillar.

The tall one in front I knew from the group chat, because his face was in every picture next to Chantal's.

He was her boyfriend, an eighteen-year-old senior in a lacrosse jacket.

The other two were seniors on his team, both eighteen.

"Gilligan," he said.

"Move."

"You got my girlfriend suspended."

"She got herself suspended. Move."

"You think your mafia boyfriend can save you every time?"

The other two spread out on either side of me.

I took one step back and felt a car against my legs.

The tall one grabbed my wrist and twisted it behind me, and the keys fell on the concrete.

"We just want to talk," he said, and put his other hand in my hair.

I kicked him in the knee, hard, and he swore.

The second man caught my shoulder and slammed me into the car door.

Pain shot down my arm.

Then a black shape came through the dark.

I didn't see him move.

One second the tall boy was holding me, and the next he was on the floor with his arm bent behind him.

Nero knelt on his back.

He had the boy's hand in both of his, and I heard a small flat crack.

The boy screamed.

The other two ran so fast one of them lost a shoe.

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