Blood, gore, and split flesh clotted his scalp, and blood dripped from his hair. I couldn’t see his face because he was on his hands and knees trying to crawl across the grass.
His knuckles had split in several places. Cuts, bruises, and caked blood discolored his neck and what parts of his cheeks and ears that I could see.
He kept making those soft gasping noises while he struggled to crawl a few paces. Then he fell flat on his face in the grass, but he still tried to claw his way forward and failed.
“What is it?” Gia asked. “What do you see?”
“There’s a guy over here. He’s all beat up.” I pulled out my phone. “I think he needs an ambulance.”
She climbed up on the branch next to me and looked over. “Oh my God! It’s Nicky!”
GIA
The estate erupted in pandemonium as five security guys carried Nicky’s destroyed body into the house. Leo kept barking into his phone reassigning people to cover the outer wall. The whole security force exploded in chaos now that someone had attacked Nicky right on our doorstep.
Cesare kept his arm around my shoulder and held me out of the way while they lugged Nicky up the steps. Leo revolved around them talking fast. “Take him upstairs to the last guest room on the third floor. The medical team is coming in now.”
“Who is that guy?” Cesare murmured in my ear.
“He’s my bodyguard. You saw him at the funeral. He was the one who stopped Romeo Necci from coming near me.”
Cesare stared down at the mass of pulp that was Nicky’s face. “Jesus! I didn’t recognize him.”
We followed the security guys and Leo upstairs. They put Nicky on the big bed in the guest room. He instantly left a massive blood stain on the expensive bedspread, but no one cared.
Leo came over to me and Cesare. “What happened? Did you see anything out there?”
Cesare shook his head. “We didn’t see anything. We were standing under the trees, and we heard him moaning. I looked over and saw him like this. It must have happened long before we got there. God only knows how long he was out there.”
Leo gazed down at Nicky. Leo spoke in a low murmur like he was talking to himself. “How could this happen? He covered every angle. He made sure of it.”
“Maybe not,” I suggested. “There were a few spots along the wall where no one could see us… between the guard towers. Whoever did this did it outside the wall. We found him at the midpoint between the guard posts. There must have been a spot there that was out of sight.”
“This is bad,” Leo breathed. “We can’t lose Nicky. He’s the best we have.”
The medical team rushed in, and Leo, Cesare, and I got pushed even farther away from the bed. The five security guys worked their way out of the room, and the medical people took over.
God, Nicky looked awful! Cesare was right. No one could have recognized him. The medical team cut his ruined suit off him, and the doctors started barking orders to the nurses and paramedics.
I gulped down a lump in my throat. Nicky always seemed so impervious to any pain or injury. I always thought he was some kind of Terminator who just kept going no matter what anyone threw at him. He sure acted like an unfeeling machine sometimes.
I really started to hate Nicky these last few months. The way he’d been acting since my father died only made me hate him even more, but I couldn’t hate him now.
One of the medics started to examine the damage to his head, and he exploded out of unconsciousness. He gave a massive bellow like a wounded rhino and lunged off the bed.
His powerful, muscular chest and shoulders looked even bigger and more ferocious with cuts, bruises, and blood everywhere. He swung his brutal fists and clubbed the medic away.
Leo rushed into the gap and grabbed Nicky’s arm. “Easy, man. Take it easy. You’re okay. You’re in the estate house. Understand? You’re among friends. Take it easy.”
Nicky’s wild eyes raced around the room and then locked on Leo. One of Nicky’s eyes had been bruised bright red, and the other was swollen shut. The light of understanding came back on. “L… Leo…”
“Yeah,” Leo panted. “Take it easy, man. The medical team is here to fix you up.”
Nicky started to relax and then groaned.
Leo pushed him down. “You got hurt guarding the estate. Try to take it easy while we figure out what’s wrong with you.”
“The Neccis…” Nicky croaked. “The Neccis… were outside… the wall…”