The Jersey Wars

Chapter 11 - Going Solo

January 1989

As Ghost navigated the Jeep Cherokee down Washington Avenue in Belleville, he knew that tonight could very well be his last night alive. The past two months had been extremely busy as JDC had been reaffirming his stranglehold on the northern New Jersey bootlegging game. A few cats had to die but as far as Ghost was concerned, it was all just collateral damage.

Ever since KC had gotten killed, Ghost had been planning his revenge. Sure killing that snake ass nigga Mark had helped, but the retaliation went far beyond him. Ghost had been going behind JDC's back to set up tonight's coup de grace and there was no turning back. The fact of it was if JDC found out what he was doing, he'd probably have him killed if this work didn't kill him first, but that was a risk that Ghost felt he owed to KC's memory.

As he parked the Jeep and hopped the short fence into the old abandoned warehouse, Ghost was more than satisfied at the perils that he'd chosen to take....

****

Paulie Costanzo sat in the old warehouse full of wiseguys but only knew the names of a few that were present. His father had spent the past six weeks planning what would surely go down as the biggest Cosa Nostra hit in American history; Vito Costanzo was going to murder all five members of The Commission: Frank Morelli, Tony Andruzzi, Angie Fraschetti, Tommy Marconi, and last but certainly not least, Vincenzo Ditta. Vito was going to consolidate the country's mafia power to operate under him alone.

The supposed "secret" location of The Commission meeting had been leaked by one of Ditta's people who needed $10,000 to pay off a gambling debt and Vito was more than happy to oblige. After ridding the United States of The Commission, he then planned to inflict a slow and tortuous revenge on JDC for the deaths of his three children. With all of the power that would be at his disposal, Vito knew that there was no way that he could lose.

Amidst the eighty or so foot soldiers Paulie sat with the remaining members of his Syndicate crew: Salvatore (Sally), Domenico (Dom), and Geovanni (Geo) Rossi; the triplets. Their father Paolo had gone missing so they'd been trying to find him with no success. Word on the street was that Ditta had him whacked but there was no proof, so now Vito and Paulie had three 5 foot 8 inch 210 pound pissed off Italians at their side who were looking to personally ask Vincenzo Ditta a few questions.

The three brothers were built like tanks and made the late CeCe look like a stick figure. Paulie also had his remaining hammer Arturo (Artey) Conti in attendance. At 6'1" and 245 lbs. of solid Sicilian muscle, Artey was a sociopath ready to dish out vengeance for his fallen brothers Petey and CeCe, but for now he just cooled his heels as the five men waited to receive direction from Vito.

"What the fuck is going on here Paulie?" Artey asked with a hint of impatience. "I feel like the ugly girl at the dance over here, what's your Pop up to?"

Still looking at all of the movement around the room Paulie replied, "I don't know, getting everyone situated I suppose. These old goombahs travel with a lot of security so the plan of 'Run & Gun' is all that we can go with."

Artey and the triplets nodded as Vito stood atop a medium sized stack of metal pallets and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"Today gentlemen, your lives are going to change forever!"

All of the wiseguys cheered and applauded as Vito waved his hand for silence and continued.

"For years our hard work and dedication have fed the bosses as they've grown lazy and fat from our sweat. After tonight is over gentlemen, it'll be us that every mob family in the country will have to look to for guidance and answers....as well as pay tributes to!"