Lost Your Mind novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Smoke

By the time I reached the lawn, Nico was already gone.

His chair stood pushed back from the table.

His cane, which he never left behind, still hung from the back of it.

"Nico!"

The dining room was all noise, chairs scraping, women crying out, the Don roaring for his men.

Donna Livia had Benedetta in her arms.

I ran.

I took the terrace steps two at a time in my good shoes and tore across the grass toward the glow.

Nico's house stood at the end of the east path, a long grey building with its back to the courtyard.

The garage was a hole of orange fire.

Its roof had folded in, and black smoke rolled out of the empty door frame and hid the stars.

A burning tire rolled across the cobbles and fell over.

Two of the Don's men lay on the gravel with their hands over their ears.

One sat up as I passed, shaking his head.

"Where is he?" I screamed. "Where's Nico?"

He pointed at the house.

I ran toward the back door, and the heat hit my face.

Window glass had blown out across the kitchen floor.

It crunched under my shoes.

Smoke hung under the ceiling in a low brown layer, and I got down on my knees without thinking, and crawled.

"Nico!"

Nothing.

"Nico, answer me!"

I heard a cough from the hall.

Then a shape came through the smoke, limping, bent double under a weight.

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