even more of a fucking pipe dream than it has over the past few weeks.
I need to get my head on straight. I need to figure out why our known family enemy has his sights set on Charlotte.
We know what Moretti wants…to take down my family publicly by attacking our territories and showing the world that he has the power, strength, and balls to be boss. He’s always been pissed off that he was passed over when the old boss got blown away and my dad stepped into his place. He never thought my father was tough enough to grow the organization, but at least Dad managed to keep things running without a war, while Moretti ran through all of his cash like it was open season at a fucking brothel and he hadn’t gotten laid in a year.
He’s trying to lay claim to the foundation we built, a foundation I helped construct. And it pisses me off to no end that he thinks he’s gonna get away with it.
Moretti is a loose cannon. He’s a shoot first, think never kind of guy, and that’s why he got passed over. He’d cut his own mother’s throat for a nickel to get his hands on some smack because he’s always in the hole, cash-wise.
Drugs, not the Iazettis, are his enemy.
They’ve cost him a lot of bodies, too. His crew has gotten smaller and smaller over time because he’s a tyrant who’ll pull a gun on his own guys if they so much as make a recommendation that goes against his. He’s lost men and money, but he sure as hell hasn’t lost the urge to get revenge on the man he believes stole away Moretti’s ability to thrive.
Marco Iazetti.
My father.
Moretti also knows there’s a lot of money to be made in our territories because there’s a shit ton of cash up for grabs and a lot of bored housewives, entitled kids, and white-collar scum who snort in between signing multi-million-dollar deals.
That’s just the life.
And Moretti wants in. Phoenix said it himself. He’s moving into our territories around the Chicago area, too. He wants to stick his dick into every Iazetti pool he can find, contaminating them all so they’re primed for a hostile takeover.
He won’t rest until he brings our organization to its knees, and he knows he can do it with my brother Jase running the show. If Jase keeps me in the background like he has been, Moretti will steamroll us because Jase doesn’t ever think ahead. Hell, he doesn’t really think at all beyond how many pussies he’s gonna fuck in any one given night. He doesn’t know the meaning of the word strategize. Hell, he probably can’t even spell it.
But I know Moretti. Over the years, I’ve watched, studied, and learned about how assholes like him operate. If he’s got a partner, I need to find out who it is to see what we’re up against.
I rub the back of my neck. I had the chance the other night and fucking blew it because I was worried about Charlotte, so is it really any wonder why my family has lost any remaining shreds of faith in me? I’ve made it pretty damn clear she’s my priority.
I’m just hoping if I find Moretti I can redeem myself by figuring out the link to the Hawthornes and fucking decimate two birds with one bullet. My family will take me seriously again, and I’ll have the girl of my dreams by my side.
Ha! Wouldn’t it be ironic if all this time, Chuckie and I were trying to fend off the same motherfuckers?
Talk about an unlikely team fueled by hate.
Hawthorne has enemies, yeah, but they’re more like the pompous rich bastard sleep-with-your-bleached-blonde-fake-tit-secretary-corporate-scum types than the gun-toting, knife-wielding drug dealer degenerates we’re used to dealing with.
They don’t really travel in the same circles.
I can deal with my enemies just fine. I understand the underworld. I was born and bred there. I know how those guys think. I’ve watched and learned their habits over the years. I’ve become one of them. For us, it’s not about the size of a guy’s gun but the number of bullets he can fire directly between the eyes of his enemy.
Hawthorne’s enemies operate differently. They do their own version of dick measuring. Those guys don’t use guns. They extort…in a polished and sophisticated way to make it seem like they’re not criminals even though in a lot of cases, they’re even worse than the thugs.
I pull into