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Made Man - Chapter 4
by
Matteo Calvi
Now most people would say that we're thieves, liars, and torturers. But they'd would be wrong there. They have only come to see the face value of what we are. Deeper we were more and that is why we were respected.
Constantly everyone has heard about us beating kids for their money and all that. However their generous "donations" to us did not go forgotten. It was sort of like every kid was paying us protection money. If he cooperated, we had his back when he was in trouble.
Now someone might say well what about the red haired boy. And I would answer to that, he deserved what he got. Not because he was Irish, or I had a personal dislike for him, but because he showed no respect. He tried to get wise with me and had to be taught a lesson or he would continue and people would fear me less.
I know where to draw the line. If you happen to cross it you will be sorry. But if you stay on my good side you have protection and who knows maybe you even have money or gifts or a place in the family for you.
Last week, for example, a group from downtown started to mess with one of my main sources of income. He told the kid he would give his money to him and not to me. Now the kid came to me of course. I thought it over for a while and judged that the kid was a good kid and did nothing to wrong me in my past. So I sent a couple soldiers down to meet these guys.
These were no ordinary guys, they were the Colombo's. They ran their operations just like us, except across town. We tried to stay out of each other's way but they went too far this time. I had to counter or it would be a sign of weakness. I had no choice, I would have to hit an under boss. Now I knew that this kind of thing was only gonna bring trouble. And you ask me why I do it.
Well I'll tell you this, in my line of business you learn that counter strikes have to be one hundred times harder than the original strike. It wouldn't have been enough for me to give their kids a hard time. Things always have to go up a level. So I did it. I put in the word to Paulie to take ten of the best soldiers and head over there.
I knew it meant war but I had to do it. About an hour later Paulie comes back and tells me he did one better, he beat them senseless and then trashed Mikey's, the boss's, bike. Now you're thinking that this wasn't a bad thing. But it was bad, believe me it was bad.
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