Chapter 8 - The Strike on the River
By Thursday evening, Vincent’s offensive against the Moretti syndicate was executed with terrifying precision.
Across three parishes, the Castellano family struck simultaneously. In Baton Rouge, Greco’s men seized four commercial cargo barges carrying unregistered freight. In New Orleans, the riverboat casinos managed by Moretti’s front men were surrounded by state gaming officials accompanied by Marcus’s armed security detail, who produced court orders shutting down operations due to financial irregularities.
By ten p.m., Dominic Moretti’s lucrative revenue stream along the Mississippi River had been completely severed.
Inside his lavish office overlooking the French Quarter, Dominic Moretti sat behind his glass desk, listening to a stream of panicked phone calls from his managers along the coast.
He was a man in his fifties, heavy-set, with a cruel mouth and pockmarked skin. He slammed his telephone receiver down so hard the glass desk cracked beneath it.
"He was supposed to be dead!" Moretti roared at his chief lieutenant, a lean, nervous man named Vane. "Paul promised me Vincent was dying in that office!"
"Vincent recovered, boss," Vane stammered, backing away slightly. "And he cleared out Paul forty-eight hours later. He knows we financed the hit."
"He doesn't just know," Moretti spat, standing up and pacing across the Persian rug. "He’s wiping us off the river! If those casinos stay closed for another forty-eight hours, our investors in New York will tear us apart!"
"What do we do?" Vane asked nervously.
Moretti stopped pacing, his small, dark eyes narrowing into slits. "Vincent Castellano thinks he’s untouchable inside that fortress of his. He thinks because he survived a blade, he’s immortal."
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He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a heavy, dark green satellite phone.
"Call the team in Mobile," Moretti ordered coldly. "Tell them we’re going to the estate tonight. I’m not playing chess with this bastard on the river anymore. I’m going to burn his house to the ground."
