Page 98 of Marcello

He only had to do it once.

After that, everybody else gave us 10%.

So we entered our ‘warfare era,’ and quickly climbed the ranks of the most powerful Camorra clans in Naples.

However, it began to attract the attention of the big boys. Eventually the ten biggest clans sent a message to Lucrezia and Cesare: knock it off, or we’ll fucking bury you.

Cesare wanted to go to war with all of them, but Lucrezia was smarter than that. Much smarter.

She told the top dogs that she and Cesare would never bother anyone in Naples again…

So long as they got control of the Amalfi Coast and Capri.

I had to admit, I was bewildered by that.

The Amalfi Coast and Capri were peanuts. All the big money was to the north of Naples, where hundreds of sweatshops produced pirated luxury goods that sold around the world for billions. The top clans in the Camorra had a lock on the entire operation.

The Amalfi Coast and Capri were all about tourism, which meant they had to stay safe for the money to keep flowing. Which meant the clans that controlled them had to stick to the shadows and – well – do basically nothing.

I asked Lucrezia why she wanted such worthless territories, but she would only smile enigmatically. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

The big boys were flummoxed, too, but they agreed to her offer – especially when Lucrezia threw in a sweetener:

As part of the deal, we would wipe out the Amato family and the Cosa Nostra in Naples.

When I heard that, I really was astounded.

I remembered what Fausto had said: The entire Camorra have been trying to kill Amato for the last 20 years, and they’re no closer now than they were two decades ago.

“How the fuck are we going to do that?!” I asked after the top clans agreed to the deal.

“Let me worry about it,” she said.

Cesare didn’t seem concerned at all. If it had been up to him, we would’ve gone after Amato that very afternoon.

I informed Fausto about the deal as soon as it went through.

His reaction?

“Call me back when you have something more than a fairy tale.”

The only thing was…

It wasn’t a fairy tale.

Lucrezia began to put a plan into action from Day One.

First, we found out everything we could about the Amato family.

They owned a medieval castle-like compound on a hill overlooking Naples.

After six months of spying with toy drones and high-powered telescopes, Lucrezia determined that nearly a hundred Cosa Nostra foot soldiers were onsite at any given time. That, plus the massive fortifications of the castle, made a frontal assault impossible.

We would have to sneak in… so we began looking for a way.

Our guys began tailing Don Amato’s son, Luciano, who carried out most of the day-to-day grunt work for his father.

Luciano was 37 with a wife and three kids who lived in a heavily guarded compound in Posillipo, a rich neighborhood in Naples.