The Wolf by Lorenzo Carcaterra Read Free Book Online Page B

petty thief to become the Camorra’s main enforcer, commanding a group of over five hundred. “If we are going to move,” he continued, “now’s the time. These terror crews keep growing in number, and with Russian muscle at their backs it’s only going to get worse. Until now I’ve been able to push back and keep them out of our business. But each day passes, it gets harder and harder to do.”
    “The all-out war Vincent has asked for comes with all-out risks,” Jannetti said. “We see this through to the end and we’ll be down by half, maybe more. And cash flow could become an issue if the fight lasts more than a few years. That may not be a concern to him, but it is to me.”
    “We started with nothing in our pockets but a gun, you and me,” Lambretto said.
    “We were a lot younger,” Jannetti said, “and with all to gain and nothing to lose. And these new guys don’t care about turf, running neighborhoods, bringing in cash. They just want to die, get to heaven and start the party.”
    “Maybe they don’t care,” Lambretto said, “but the Russians and the Mexicans care. And getting to heaven is the last thing on their minds.”
    Jannetti nodded. “I told Vincent to count us in,” he said. “Not that I had much choice. Not only are we part of the council, we’re part of the same family.”
    “You want me to run the operation?” Lambretto asked.
    Jannetti shook his head. “I want Angela to take the lead.”
    “How you think she’ll feel working with Vincent?” Lambretto asked.
    “She’s got Camorra blood in her veins, same as you and me,” Jannetti said. “Vincent fell into this life, but she was born to it. This fight will give her a chance to show the others on the council she belongs at that table. Not just sitting in my seat one day. But sitting at the very head of the table.”
    Vittorio Jannetti was in charge of the Camorra, the Neapolitan branch of organized crime and one of the most vicious criminal outfits in the world. The group was established in the thirteenth century by a patriotic handful of citizens who decided they had seen enough abuse heaped onto the working poor by the powerful. They now number 3,500 members in Naples and New York, and are invested in the drug trade, fashion industry, construction, waste management, real estate, and the transport of toxic goods. They also control a wide portion of the European black market, which nets them $200 million per month.
    Jannetti had entered the life as a boy, brought to the local Don when he was ten, a chronic truant with no patience for school. Jannetti lived in the heart of the Camorra power center and was delivered to them by his own out-of-work father. It was how the Camorra found their soldiers, taking boys from homes of men who owed them money or had nowhere to turn for help. They then raised the children as their own, placing each with a soldier’s family, putting the child through school. If the boy excelled at math, he went to business school; if his forte was science, he became a doctor. Over time, the Camorra would place thousands of their children in legitimate businesses.
    Jannetti seemed always to be in the middle of a street fight. He had a flash temper and went after anyone he considered to be in his way. He had few friends but many silent enemies, and was feared by any who crossed his path. He was also a skilled organizational leader and a master planner. And those abilities were put to good use by the older members of the Camorra. They realized they could always groom someone to be a banker, lawyer, or doctor, but a crew boss was difficult to find and nurture, and Vittorio Jannetti was a natural.
    He was sent to New York in his early twenties and partnered with Carlo Marelli. Together, the two wove a violent path through the city’s underworld, and by the time Jannetti was in his thirties, he and Marelli had risen through the ranks to control one of the five New York crime families. Jannetti had earned the