Chapter 6 - When the Godfather Bleeds
The underworld in Chicago does not wait for a man to mourn his mistakes.
News of the freeze on the Calumet shipping lanes spread through the south side within three hours.
Capos who had bowed to Enzo for seven years were suddenly missing their weekly payouts.
Two shipment containers of high-grade pharmaceuticals were sitting on the tarmac at O’Hare with no clearance codes to release them.
Without the Romano family seals, the customs inspectors treated the cargo like common contraband.
Enzo stormed into his private lounge at the club on Michigan Avenue, his eyes bloodshot and wild.
Five of his senior captains were already waiting in the leather chairs, their faces grim and unsmiling.
They did not rise when he entered the room.
Old man Corrado, who had served Enzo’s father before him, spoke up before Enzo could take off his coat.
Corrado asked why the Romano trust had pulled its backing without warning the council.
Enzo slammed his palms onto the mahogany desk and swore that Carmela was simply throwing a domestic tantrum.
Corrado did not blink.
He pulled a folded newspaper from his inner pocket and tossed it onto the blotter.
The front page of the evening edition carried a photograph of Aaron Feld walking out of the federal courthouse.
The headline announced a full financial audit into the Moretti syndicate requested by the principal trustee of the Romano estate.
Corrado leaned forward, his raspy voice cutting through the smoky room like a knife.
He told Enzo that an alliance marriage was built on respect and blood.
He told him that when a man is stupid enough to let his wife be hunted down by rivals while he plays daddy to another man's brat, he ceases to be a boss.
Enzo pulled his gun and leveled it directly at Corrado’s forehead.
The room exploded into the sound of cocking hammers.
Four other captains drew their weapons simultaneously, all aimed at Enzo’s chest.
The silence was so brittle that the hum of the ice machine in the bar sounded like thunder.
Corrado did not even flinch at the barrel an inch from his eyes.
He told Enzo that if he pulled that trigger, he would never leave the building alive.
He told him that the council had already received a private offer from the Romano family.
Carmela was willing to restore logistics rights to the five captains independently, on one single condition.
Enzo Moretti was to be entirely stripped of his title and left without a single soldier on the street.
Enzo’s finger hovered over the trigger, his knuckles white with strain.
He realized in that frozen heartbeat that his power had never belonged to him.
It had been loaned to him by my father, maintained by my silence, and destroyed by my departure.
He slowly lowered the weapon onto the desk.
None of the men put their guns away.
Corrado stood up, buttoned his overcoat, and looked at Enzo with open contempt.
May you like
He told him he had twenty-four hours to produce Dante and fix the war with the Tatalias, or he would be buried in the same ground he had neglected.
The captains filed out of the room one by one, leaving Enzo alone in the dark with the smell of cheap cigars.
