Omerta

Chapter 33

        "I'll come for you" was the last thing Nick said before disappearing behind the rush of people trying to put out the fire. A paramedic wrapped a blanket around me, but I flinched when the hem of it touched something. I pulled the blanket off and glanced down at the side of my thigh. Similar to what Nick had on his ribs I had on my leg. A burn. 

I stopped the paramedics again from loading me into the ambulance and just stared at the building as it was up in roaring flames. 

I was in shock at what was happening above my head while I was trying to break down the door just below all this. It was an inferno in front of me. 

Voices could be heard yelling orders and across the street at a safe enough distance there were onlookers all curious to know what was going on.

        "Come on honey, we really gotta get you checked out," I felt a hand lightly touch me, but I flinched away. They threw their hands up in surrender to give me a moment of space. As the inferno blazed its image flickered in my irises, like a dancing candle sticks open flame. 

I was finally able to tear myself from it and walked further down where the ambulance was prepped and on standby to shoot out of here. 

It almost didn't click for me when I saw something discarded by the trash heap. I had to stop and take a few steps back to be sure I saw what I saw. The paramedic was probably so annoyed with me by then, because I'd done this several times already.

I had to stop though, because just tossed there carelessly on the ground was my cell phone. I walked over to it and picked it up, seeing it wasn't damaged much. A small crack that probably happened on the screen when they tossed it as they fled.

        I slid the phone back into my pocket and paused. My eyes stayed fixed on an object, and my feet suddenly felt like they were cemented to the ground. I felt like a wax candle that was beginning to weep with all the heat that's melting me away. "Ma'am" another voice tried to get me to snap back into reality. 

I bent down and picked the item up, examining it closer to be sure I understood what this was. I held it just in front of my face to the point that focusing on the item in my hand meant everything behind it blurred into the background in a grainy haze.

Behind that haze was a thrashing of vibrant colors, and above all that was the slate of smoke that was being carried away from here. "Ma'am, we really have to go" the paramedic snapped me back into attention. 

I took the zippo lighter that was in my hand before following these people into the ambulance. I couldn't help myself when I slid my hand into my pocket and removed the lighter again. It was one of those reusable zippo lighters where you could flip the top open and closed. 

It was all gold and something told me it was real.

Just like Giuseppe Luciano's lighter I'd seen him use in his office the day he cut that cigar in front of me. The day he gave me a speech. I held that lighter in my palm now and I couldn't stop staring at it. 

        "Did someone special give that to you?" The female paramedic smiled kindly down at me. I couldn't work myself into a smile, so I just coughed some of the smoke out of my lungs to say, "Someone very close to me owns this lighter."

Why did a lighter from the Luciano household end up at the scene of a fire that tried to kill me?

 My heart swelled in my chest in the worst way possible. I started to cough harshly and they fussed with the oxygen mask on my face. I clutched the lighter. Who can I trust?  I was almost burned alive tonight...and I think the Luciano's have something to do with it.