Page 66 of The Hidden Heir

Lanny seems confused, so I nod to Solomon and the guys. “They gave their statements to the police. The camera footage from the venue lacks the high-resolution quality the detectives need to accurately track your movements. Not to mention, I’m pretty sure there was some malfunction with the DVR.”

“No,” Lanny gasps.

“Yes. So, as far as the cops are concerned, you somehow managed to disappear shortly before they arrived. My men were too busy rendering first aid to the many who needed their assistance. You were supposedly down and unconscious, which reminds me,” I say and reach down, sticking my finger into his side where the bullet went through.

I feel the flesh and the blood squelching as Lanny cries out in sheer agony, his entire body stiffening from the sudden pain while a deluge of tears streams from his eyes. “Does this hurt?”

“Stop, please!”

“No one is coming to save you, Lanny. You only have two options,” I reply. “Would you like to hear them?”

For good measure, I curl my finger inside the wound. It’s a terrible thing to do, but once he stops screaming, it gets the job done.

“Yes!” Lanny manages. “Yes!”

“You’re going to die tonight,” I tell him. “It’s up to you whether it’ll be a quick kind of death or a slow kind of death. And considering you’re one of the men who shot at my wife, you know I’m eager to make it as slow as possible. So you see? I’m a fair man. I’m presenting you with a deal.”

Lanny shakes his head slowly, heaving and sobbing, as fresh blood drenches his jacket around the wound. The front of his pants darkens. The reek is disturbingly familiar. He’s reached his breaking point. He’s ready.

“What deal?” Lanny asks.

“Tell me everything you know, and I will end it quickly. Dick me around, and I will inflict so much pain, you’ll beg me to kill you, but I won’t. I won’t stop until I’ve had my pound of flesh, Lanny, and trust me, I’m a highly motivated man.”

Solomon raises his eyebrows at me. I reply with a nod, and he directs the men to take a few steps back. They know to keep their distance when I get involved, just as Solomon knows to hand me a pair of latex gloves to prevent any forensic evidence from being left behind. I put them on right under Lanny’s nose.

“What will it be?” I ask.

“I’ll die either way.”

It’s all I need to reiterate the gravity of his situation. I stick my finger back inside the wound, and he screams and wails and begs for mercy while I squeeze out every drop of agonizing pain left in his body.

Finally, he caves in. “Okay! Oh, God, okay!”

“Who pays you?” I ask.

“I… I’m not sure…”

“We’re getting off on the wrong foot here, Lanny,” I reply and repeat my attack on his ever-widening bullet wound.

“I swear!” he cries out. “All I know is that they’re affiliated with the Mancusos. They reach out to us on a Reddit message board. It’s all done anonymously. The cash is always dropped off at a specific location… Oh, God, it hurts…”

“How do you know they’re affiliated with the Mancusos?”

“Everything they asked us to do served the Mancuso syndicate’s interests. Robbing your truck, the ballroom…. We were told specifically to make sure he and his closest people don’t get hurt.”

“His closest people, but not all of them,” Solomon replies. “They dropped some Mancuso associates, too.”

Lanny shakes his head. “Well, they got caught in the crossfire. I don’t think anybody warned them that we were gonna storm the place. I think they wanted everybody shocked and surprised.”

“You said they hired you anonymously,” I say. “But there has to be a Reddit username. Right?”

“Yeah. It’s… It’s Firefox something. Firefox2620.”

Solomon nods once and immediately opens his phone, digging into the specific username and searching for everything he can find about it. There’s always a trail, even online. People think they can cover their tracks, but with the right tools and the right people handling them, there isn’t a single track I can’t uncover.

“Where did you get your information?” I ask Lanny. “About the truck, the delivery schedules, about my associates at the charity gala. This was exceptionally well targeted, Lanny, and you don’t strike me as an expert in research.”

He lifts his exhausted gaze to mine. “I’m not.”