Chapter 22
The more information Mike collected from Lenny’s phone, the wearier he felt. The biggest issue was that he wasn’t getting any information on Lenny and Marco’s plan with the FBI.
That meant nothing on Benzini and nothing to hand over to Joe. Of course, Lenny still wasn’t telling him anything. He preferred to keep using Mike as a chauffeur, a bodyguard, and occasional psychotherapist.
Mike was even more concerned when he realized that none of Lenny’s conversations with Marco seemed to mention his existence. Considering that he’d been working with Lenny for over a month, that could either be very good... or very bad.
The worst-case scenario would be if Lenny told good old dad about his friend “Gary” and Marco promptly sent an assassin to remove the outside threat.
Marco was no fool. He wouldn’t want anyone else involved, even if Lenny swore up and down that his new “friend” was trustworthy. Perhaps especially so.
Mike thought that the more likely scenario, however, was that Lenny never planned to tell Mike anything about Benzini, so he figured there was no need to disappoint his dad with the truth about his new friendship.
Lenny, therefore, was keeping Mike around simply to have a sidekick. It was as though Lenny lived his life for an imaginary audience, and having Mike around was an exciting development where he could test out his act in real time.
It was never-ending. He’d try to show off by talking about expensive cars or trips, or by telling him about “wild nights” and powerful friends. He desperately wanted to impress Mike, and that was tough. Not just because Mike found all of it vulgar, but also because being impressed didn’t work into his own scheme. Playing Lenny’s sidekick was getting him nowhere.
Instead, Mike would offer some positive feedback and interest whenever Lenny talked about his past. This prompted Lenny to ramble on and on, including a slew of stories from Lenny’s childhood. Though these were boring, and inevitably puffed up with exaggerated tales of Lenny’s bravery and heroism, they were enlightening to Mike.
It was kind of sad, actually. Here was a nearly forty-year-old man desperate to get the approval of his absentee father, a ruthless criminal and murderer. Lenny was so starved for attention, and so full of insecurities, that he flashed expensive cars and clothes at anyone who would even look at him.
But unfortunately for Lenny, Mike didn’t feel that bad for him. There were people in the past – well, technically they were considered “subjects” – that he’d felt genuinely bad for. They were generally decent people who got caught up in schemes; they didn’t set out to harm others.
Lenny was not one of those people.
While he wasn’t as ruthless or calculating as someone like Jared, he was still entirely compelled by greed. His downfall was that he was sort of dumb, something Jared didn’t suffer from, and that his insecurity made him overcompensate with a bizarre confidence that got him into bad situations.
His only redeeming quality was that despite having the chance to hurt Amanda, he hadn’t done it. But Mike wasn’t sure if that was only because Amanda attacked him first.
Lenny had a history of violence in his past, a side effect of his poor impulse control. Greed, stupidity, and impulsivity were a bad combination.
And of course, last but not least, Mike couldn’t forget Lenny’s attempt to kill him. That was offensive, really – foolish, poorly reasoned, and sloppy. Not only did he fail to kill Mike, but he could’ve killed some poor innocent in the crowd. Not the work of a professional at all.
Marco would at least have the decency to kill Mike quietly. Then, as was Marco’s custom, he’d have Mike’s closest connections killed, too. That meant Margie, maybe the kids, even Biggles. And if he looked hard enough and made the connection, Lynn would be a target as well.
His chest tightened.
No, Lenny didn’t deserve Mike’s pity. Though Mike felt a little guilt in exploiting Lenny’s insecurities to get things moving, he couldn’t let it slow him down. He needed to protect his family.
Mike decided to pull the trigger, so to speak, one evening after Lenny’s ego was badly injured following a trip to a nightclub. Lenny tried to skip the line, insisting that he knew the owner, and was loudly turned away.
Mike had to hold in his laughter. The whole drive home, Lenny went on and on about how they wouldn’t dare to do that to him in a few months, and he’d make them regret it, and that one day he’d buy the club at a discount.
Mike cut him off when they got back to the safe house. “I need to talk to you about something, and you’re not going to like it.”
They walked inside the house and Lenny flopped onto the couch. “I don’t want to hear it, man. You’re old, and you don’t know what it’s like to still have life left in you. I’m going to buy that place, and then we’ll see who’s laughing.”
“I’m serious. The FBI has really been pushing me for information lately.”
“So what? They push me too. I thought you knew how to keep your mouth shut.”
“I do, and I haven’t said anything. But they told me something. I think it was to test me.”
“Oh yeah?”
Mike nodded. “You’ve been betrayed.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Lenny scoffed. “There’s no way. By who? None of those scumbags know anything about me.”
