The Jersey Wars

Chapter 8 - Fire & Brimstone

November 1988

As Petey Costanzo left his last class of the evening at Ocean County Community College, he realized just how lucky he was. He listened to his classmates complain daily about their financial hardships and how tough it was to meet O.C.C.C. obligations on a quarterly basis. All he could do on these occasions was shake his head and feign sympathy.

The truth of it all was that Petey would never understand what his classmates were talking about because as far back as he could remember; his family had been notoriously wealthy. He'd paid for his evening classes in cash and didn't even know what financial aid meant.

Petey knew that he was blessed which is why he'd been going for his Associate's Degree in Business Administration for the past year. At 19 years old Petey had no grand illusions of being the next great mafia Don, those were his brothers' aspirations. For him, he just wanted to open and operate a small Italian pastries shop and live a normal life out of the glaring eye of Cosa Nostra.

When he'd talked to his father about his plans, he'd seen actual tears well up in the old man's eyes. Petey knew that his father was extremely proud of the path that he'd chosen to walk, but when he agreed to be his brother Paulie's consigliere in The Garden State Syndicate is when he noticed that his father's once proud look became replaced with one of shame. He didn't want to explain to his father how earning his own money had made him feel freer, so Petey just kept it to himself and went on about his business.

He had grown up being in possession of only the absolute finest of material possessions and he didn't want his father's money to be responsible for the continuance of that lifestyle. By hook or by crook, Petey wanted to make it on his own steam.

As Petey walked through the campus square toward the parking lot, he suddenly had a sneaking suspicion that he was being watched. He stopped and quickly turned around to find nothing lurking in the darkness behind him. His brother CeCe had always warned him that bearing the Costanzo surname would attract the kind of people that would be looking to harm him because of their father, but Petey never worried about such trivialities. His classmates of course were familiar with who his family was, but it wasn't like he went around bragging about it.

A noise that sounded like someone had stepped on a twig shook Petey out of his thoughts. Instead of looking behind himself again, Petey started walking faster and he reached the student parking lot in record time. His 1988 Ford Taurus was parked in spot Z-45 which was the last parking spot in the entire lot. Row Z Spot #45 was a good sixty yards from the lot's entrance and Petey always parked there for the exercise it offered via walking, but he wished that he had parked closer today because there was no mistaking the sound of footsteps running up behind him.

Petey's trot-walk turned into a full bore sprint as the overhead lights shined a pathway through the mostly empty lot directly to his car. He reached in his back left pocket for the car keys but quickly remembered that they were in the small compartment of his backpack. Petey saw his car fastly approaching as he tried to remove his pack and simultaneously get the keys from the pouch; bad move.

His two feet clipped each other and Petey was sent on a falling slide across the damp pavement. He then felt two hands grab his backpack and roughly flip him over. Petey looked into the face of a giant Puerto Rican and didn't immediately recognize him from anywhere. The giant gave him a swift yet powerful punch to the face (which dazed him even more than he already was) and threw him over one shoulder like a 150 lb. sack of potatoes. Petey then felt the giant walking and tried to move, but the punch had incapacitated his limbs.

A-Poc dropped Petey's semi-conscious frame on the ground next to the Taurus and then knelt and put a knee into his chest with enough force that it made him gasp for air. Petey then opened his eyes and suddenly recognized the Puerto Rican as well as the big light-skinned Black guy that he saw. They were both from the G.S.S. meetings but he wasn't sure which section they were from. KC knelt down next to Petey and slapped his cheek to make him more cognizant.