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Nero switches tactics

“So what if we are?” he says “It’s just some Sweet Sixteen party”

“Nessa’s nineteen,” I correct him

“Nineteen?” Nero shakes his head in disgust “Why are they even—neverOr just any excuse to show off”

“Can we get going?” Sebastian says “I don’t wanna be out too late”

“Get in or get out of the way,” I say to Dante

He stares at us ashotgun”

I cli Dante have the front A s brother on team Party Crashers

We cruise down LaSalle Drive, enjoying the war into the car Nero has a black heart and a vicious temperament, but you’d never know it from the way he drives In the car, he’s as smooth as a baby’s ass—calm and careful

Maybe it’s because he loves the Chevy and has put about a thousand hours of work into it Orthat relaxes hi hi back his sleek dark hair, his eyes half-closed like a cat

It’s not far to the Gold Coast Actually, we’re practically neighbors—we live in Old Tohich is directly north Still, the two neighborhoods aren’t much alike They’re both fancy in their oays—our house looks right over Lincoln Park, theirs fronts onto the lake But Old Town is, well, just what the na old Our house was built in the Victorian era Our street is quiet, full of massive old oak trees We’re close to St Michael’s Church, which o Fire by a direct act of god

The Gold Coast is the new hotness It’s all pish-posh shopping and dining and the o I feel like I sprang forward thirty years just driving over here

Sebastian, Nero, and I thought we ht sneak in around the back of the Griffin property—maybe steal so in any of that nonsense He just slips the security guard five Benjauy waves us on in

I already knohat the Griffins’ house looks like even before I see it, because it was big nehen they bought it a few years back At the time, it was the o Fifteen thousand square feet for a cool twenty-eight million dollars

My father scoffed and said it was just like the Irish to flash their money