Nero: Made Men novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Dress

The gray Lincoln was still at the curb outside Brandt House when we got there.

A heavy man in a gray overcoat leaned on the fender, smoking.

Katia stood on the front steps with her phone held up, filming him.

"Seventeen minutes," she said, without lowering it. "He hasn't moved."

"Stay here," Nero said.

"No," I said.

I went down the steps alone and walked up to the man.

"You work for Sal Ferraro," I said.

"I work for nobody, miss."

"Then you won't mind the camera."

He glanced at Katia and back at me.

"Mr. Ferraro wanted me to give you this," he said.

He held out a white envelope.

I took it and opened it.

Inside were two bus tickets to Pittsburgh, one-way, for Friday morning.

A note was clipped to them, in neat block capitals.

FOR YOU AND YOUR ROOMMATE. BALTIMORE IS NOT SAFE FOR GIRLS WHO TALK.

My face went hot, then cold.

"Katia," I said, "are you getting this?"

"Every word."

I turned to the camera and held up the tickets and the note.

"My name is Mona Gilligan," I said clearly. "I'm a student at Harlow Academy."

"This man was sent by Sal Ferraro of the Bellandi family to threaten me and my roommate."

The heavy man dropped his cigarette.

"Hey. You can't."

"I just did."

"Miss, I was only..."

"Tell him I said no," I said. "Tell him I said no to the bus."

He got into the Lincoln so fast he nearly lost his door.

It pulled out and screeched around the corner.

Katia lowered her phone, grinning.

"That," she said, "is going in my wedding video."

Nero was looking at me from the bottom of the steps.

He wasn't smiling.

His face was white, and I understood that he'd been afraid I would get hurt.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Nero: Made Men from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.