“It ain’t what it looks like,” he said, trying to remain as still as possible. Ninety eight percent of the time a woman scorned plus a gun equaled a dead man and he had no interest in becoming a statistic.
“Derrick, let’s not even talk about what it looks like, because if my mind and my heart take me there, as sure as my ass is black you’re a dead man,” she said seriously. “How and what the fuck are you doing here?”
“You want me to answer the questions in that order, or just wing it?” he said, trying to be cute.
“I’m the one with the gun, so I’m asking the questions,” she reminded him.
“Looks like we’ve got ourselves a Mexican stand off,” he motioned downward. Frankie hadn’t noticed it, but Duce had managed to slip his gun from his pocket at some point and had it pointed at her lower body.
“Sneaky son of a bitch,” she said, tucking her pistol back into her overnight bag.
“If that isn’t the pot,” he put his gun away. “Since when did you start running around with low life mutha fuckas like Cowboy?”
“Since my so called man disappeared on me five years ago!” she shot back.
“That was a low blow,” he said softly.
“Low blow, for a low mutha fucka. Duce you’ve got some nerve. You leave me high and dry to pop up years later pulling capers with my man and I’m supposed to welcome you with open arms?”
Duce pinched the bridge of his nose. “Frankie, it wasn’t like that.”
“Then what was it like, Duce? You drop me off one night and the next morning you’re on the news!”
“Frankie, I got blindsided. You think I had a choice in what happened to me? Fuck no!” He hadn’t meant to be so sharp, but the card was already laid. “Ma, I know I should’ve got word to you, but…”
“But what, nigga? Duce, do you have any idea what you put me through? What am I supposed to think when all my visits are denied and my letters go unanswered. And the one time your monkey ass does have the common decency to respond, it’s to kick some old funny-style shit about how you’re dead to me. What the fuck was that, Derrick?”
Duce found himself at a loss for words. From the moment the police rolled into the apartment, he knew he was finished. Frankie had been his heart since before he even knew what to do with a girl, so whether she would ride the bid with him or not wasn’t a question, but he couldn’t condemn her to that. He loved Frankie too much to sentence her to life as a prison wife, so he reluctantly let her go.
“Frankie,” Duce sighed, “letting you go was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my short life, and please believe that it’s a decision that has haunted me throughout my whole bid, but you gotta understand where my head was at. These crackers had me by the balls and the only promise of freedom made to me was to be carried out in a pine box. Seventeen,” his eyes took on a far off look. “That’s how many times I thought about killing myself because I knew I’d never see you again. I could never bring myself to ask you to ride that bid with me Frankie. I did it to protect you.”
Frankie looked at Duce as if he had lost his mind. “Protect me? Since when did I become the damn damsel in distress? Duce you and Knowledge tore them streets up, but don’t forget that we came up in this thing together, so I ain’t no virgin to pain or bloodshed. This is Frankie Five Fingers,” she pounded her chest. “While you were bull shitting, how many of those messes did I help you clean up?”
He wanted to protest but he knew she was right. Frankie went above and beyond for her man. From helping tend his wounds to lying to the police, Frankie held him down. She was the rib Adam had sacrificed to create Eve.
“That’s just it, Frankie. I had pulled you in deep enough and I couldn’t drag you down any further. You’re my heart, Frankie Five Fingers,” he said emotionally.
Frankie felt herself about to cry, but wouldn’t. She had already shed a thousand and one tears for Duce and didn’t have any left. “You could’ve said something, Duce. I was your gangsta bitch, ride or die for my nigga, remember that?” she reminded him of their oath.
Duce nodded. “So now you’re riding or dying for Cowboy?” he asked sarcastically.
Without warning Frankie reached around and slapped fire out of Duce. Frankie attacked him with the fury of a caged animal, drawing blood from his lip. Duce managed to crawl up on his knees and grab Frankie about her wrists. He tried to push her down in the seat but she reversed the move and pulled him into the back seat with her. Frankie bit into Duce’s shoulder like a dog on a bone. He slammed her against the seat hard enough to knock the wind out of the average chick, but Frankie kept coming.
He’d finally managed to pin her arms and it was around that time when their eyes met and time stood still. Their lips met in a mess of skin and teeth. It wasn’t the kiss of reunited lovers, but rapist and victim. Frankie gnawed at his tongue while Duce tried to suck the breath from her lungs. Frankie dug a pocket knife from her bra and softly down the length of his torso, cutting it open in a perfect line. When her tongue touched the crease in his chest, Duce shuddered.
With just touch, Frankie sent shockwaves through Duce’s body. She licked and nibbled on his nipples until they were almost as hard as his cock. When she looked up at him with those fierce brown eyes, he didn’t see malice or resentment, only hunger. The same hunger that ravaged his insides.
In a deft motion, he had her shirt over her head and was tossing it in the front seat before she even realized he’d moved. Slipping the hands under her bra cups, he massaged each one of her breasts and lost himself in the softness of her skin.
Everywhere Duce touched her left a warm sensation. She remembered the touch well and had craved it ever since he’d left her. Her eyes traveled down the length of his chest and came to rest on his crotch. Her hands shook so bad that she almost couldn’t get the throbbing muscle out of the jeans. She tested the weight of his penis in her hand and smiled, watching it bob up and down with his breathing.
Duce braced his arms between the headrest of the driver’s seat and the cushion of the back seat. He tried to maintain his cool, but when he felt her warm mouth on his dick he melted. She slowly licked the shaft from the balls up and wrapped her lips around the head. Frankie took him into her mouth a little at a time at first but as they got into a rhythm, she opened her throat and let him push deep enough to gag her. Frankie’s lips on him felt so good that twice he thought he was going to faint. He ran his hands through her silken hair dislodging the pins as he went. Frankie looked exotic staring at him from behind the veil of hair making him even crazier.
Feeling himself about to nut, he pried her hungry mouth loose and pulled her to him for a kiss. His clumsy hands popped the buttons off her jeans in his rush to get them off, and she wiggled a leg out. Duce propped her leg on his shoulder and shoved his face into her crotch. The sweet smell of lilac and Dove soap was intoxicating. His middle finger looked as if it might’ve been dipped in cake batter when he dipped it in and out of her. He sucked her juices off his fingers and pressed his lips to hers so that she could share the nectar. When their bodies could no longer be denied, their souls were reunited.
Even with her being wet, he had to shove himself into her, causing her to cry out. He tried to pull away but she gripped his ass cheeks forcing him deeper. Frankie’s nails raked down Duce’s back as he plowed her causing him to pump faster. Caught in the most perfect moment of his life, Duce had no idea how long they’d been going at it, but he could feel the eruption building in his cock. Frankie must’ve felt it too because she locked her legs around his waist and wouldn’t let him pull away. Duce howled like a wounded coyote when he came, but you couldn’t hear it over Frankie’s own shriek of pleasure. Cum ran from her pussy, down his thighs and onto the seats of his truck. He didn’t care though. All that mattered was that he had been reunited with the love of his life, his gangsta bitch.
SIXTEEN
Duce and Frankie lay huddled in the back seat of the Eddie Bauer watching the sunrise over the East River. The haz
y clouds floating across the orange sky bore a striking resemblance to sherbet ice cream. Frankie’s brother was going to be pissed for her standing him up, but he had to understand; miracles only came along once in a lifetime.
The reunited lovers had enjoyed each other until neither could go anymore, but they still gave it one more shot before giving up. Duce’s nuts felt like someone had squeezed every once of fluid from them and Frankie’s insides were sore but they both reasoned that it had been well worth it. For the last five years, the both of them had been two wondering halves, but now they were whole.
“My brother is gonna kill me,” Frankie said, tracing the line of Duce’s chest with her finger.
“Your brother, shit, I’d thought you’d be more worried about Cowboy finding out what we did,” he said smugly.
Frankie sat up and looked at him. “Well, it wouldn’t have been any of Cowboy’s business if you’d kept it gangsta with me. You can start if you want to Derrick, but believe I’ll finish it.”
Duce matched her tone. “What? You getting mad because I’m kicking some real shit? You belong to that lame ass nigga now.”
“First of all, mutha fucka, I don’t belong to nobody. Frankie Five is and has always been her own woman, whether it was in your bed or Cowboy’s,” she pulled her purse closer to her. “Now you’ve got one more time to try and insinuate I’m some whore bitch and we’re gonna have an issue, you understand?”
“Frankie, go ahead with that extra shit,” he told her, but didn’t take his eyes off her bag. He was seeing a whole new side of Frankie and wasn’t sure if he was prepared to deal with it. “Ain’t nobody trying to call you out your name or nothing, I’m just telling you what it is. You don’t think Cowboy would wild out if he found out that I fucked his broad?”
“So, that’s what this is all about? You had sex with me to get under Cowboy’s skin?” Frankie snatched her pants off the floor and began sliding them on, completely forgetting about her underwear.
“Hold on,” he grabbed her arm. “Frankie, I was and still am, madly in love with you. This had nothing to do with getting under Cowboy’s skin. I’ve got something way nastier planned for that mutha fucka.”
Frankie looked at him confused. “I don’t get it. One minute you guys are smiling and shooting shit up together and the next you act like he kicked your dog or something. What’s the deal with you and Cowboy?”
“Ain’t no deal, I’m just trying to get back on my feet,” he lied.
Frankie twisted her lips. “Duce, miss me with all that. Even after the lawyer fees you left me with almost a hundred stacks, and if I had a hundred then you had quadruple that tucked away, so I know you ain’t hard up for paper. We’ve never lied to each other in the past, so let’s not start now.”
Duce pondered lying, but she knew him too well not to see through it. “Frankie,” he began, “you know I love you, right?”
“Duce, please just spit it out.”
“I joined Cowboy’s team to kill him,” he said flatly. If Duce noticed the shock that flashed in Frankie’s eyes, he made no mention of it.
“Kill him, why?” she asked.
“Frankie, who do you think set me up?”
Frankie was confused at first, but then her eyes flashed recognition. “Cowboy put the murders on you?” she asked in shock.
“Not personally but that pussy gave the order. My brother was the man, and all these mutha fuckas was jealous of him. There wasn’t a nigga on the block who didn’t want to be my brother, but all knew that to take his spot you had to go through his shadow,” Duce pounded his chest. “My brother was a great and fair business man, but his heart wasn’t cold enough,” Duce said emotionally. “He wasn’t like me…he wasn’t a killer.”
“Duce…” she began.
“Let me finish,” he placed a finger gently over her lips. “All I ever thought about was murdering the men who crossed my brother. I needed a way to cut into this Cowboy nigga, and my ticket came through when I met an inmate named Costello Brown who was coming through on a robbery beef.” He went on to explain to Frankie how he’d met Cos in prison and they’d become fast friends. “Once I plugged in to him, murdering his man would’ve been a cake walk, but I was still sitting on life and waiting on an appeal. You know I ain’t never been real religious, but I got down on my knees and did some serious praying. I know it’s wrong, but I promised the powers that be if I got out of prison I was gonna balance the scales. Now, I don’t know if it was God or the Devil, but a few years later my prayers were answered.”
Frankie eyed him suspiciously. “Cowboy is a cunning and cautious man. How in the world did you get him to accept you as a part of the crew with him knowing he’d not only killed your brother, but sent you to jail in the process?”
“Because the arrogant son of a bitch never made the connection. Frankie, the only people that called me Duce were you, Granny and Knowledge. Everybody on the street knew me as D or Derrick, if they were from the old neighborhood. D-Murder was a phantom, and I was locked up under the name Melvin Bernard. The bulls fucked up and listed my middle name first, but it ended up working to my advantage when me and Cos got tight. D-Murder was the muscle behind the Uptown Boys, and Melvin was some poor lump sitting on life.”
Frankie’s head was spinning at what Duce was revealing to her. She’d known that Cowboy could be ruthless, but until that moment she hadn’t realized how much so. There were a thousand questions running through her head, but there was one she had to know the answer to.
“How?”
He knew what she was asking without her having to say. “Your boys provided me with that. One night Cos was bragging to me about this homicide cop that his man Cowboy had on the payroll who let him and Thor kill recklessly. As soon as he slipped and said the name I recognized it from my case. It was the same cock-sucker that arrested me at the murder scene. I put damn near every dime I had on the streets and then I had my people make two phone calls; the first was to inform some suspicious cats at Internal Affairs that this pig had a key of blow in his trunk, and the second was to make sure it was there when they caught up with him. I ain’t gonna give you all the details, baby, but just know that price I had to pay for my freedom isn’t something I’d be willing to negotiate again.”
“Damn, Duce, that’s some heavy shit.”
“Heavy is an understatement love, but I thank them old heads everyday for always telling me about keeping a low profile. My brother loved the spotlight and I was glad for him to have it, but all I cared about was the paper. If my paper wasn’t straight then I was coming for your head. You remember those days, ma.”
Frankie rubbed her arms as if a wind had appeared from nowhere. “Yeah,” she said, just above a whisper. Her mind drew up old images of Duce creeping in with blood splattered on his boots.
Duce chuckled. It wasn’t the normal charismatic laugh that Frankie had known, but something darker. She couldn’t imagine what Duce must have been feeling all those years as she had never been in that position, but she could feel it seeping from him like sweat on a summer day. She wanted to reach out and touch his face, but there was something about the set of his jaw that made her hesitate.
“Cowboy is the loose end,” he continued after a long pause. “That snake took five years of my life, my brother and apparently my girl,” he half-joked. Tears welled in his eyes but never fell. “So you see Cowboy has to die.”
“I had no idea,” Frankie sobbed.
“I know,” he stroked her cheek. “When I came back here to take my revenge I never imagined that fate would further mock me by having you share Cowboy’s bed.” Frankie tried to turn away but Duce wouldn’t let her. “There’s no shame in that Frankie. I was gone and I guess you needed someone to turn to. I ain’t mad at you boo. The question is, now what? Do you run and tell your lover what I plan to do, or do you turn the other cheek while I lullaby his ass?”
“Duce, you know I’d never betray you, no matter how I feel about the situation.”
“Then fall back and let me boogie.”
“Damn, you and your vengeful ass nature,” she placed her head in her hands. The thought of losing Duce again made her feel ill. “Why can’t you just let it go? We can go away together and start fresh,” she pleaded.
“Baby girl if it were only that simple. Cowboy took everything I ever loved and now he’s going to pay. I’m gonna take his life and his money, the same way he did my brother.”
Frankie laughed. It was all she could do to keep from falling down and crying. “Cos and Thor aren’t gonna stand by and let you get at Cowboy. Even if you do manage to kill him, they’ll hunt you down.”
“I wouldn’t too much worry about that. I’ve put something together to get them out of the way while I handle their boss.”
“There’ll be others, Duce. Cowboy knows a lot of people.”
“Like I give a shit. By the time it all hits the fan I’ll be on my way to the Dominican Republic. I got a little piece of land down there that I can sit on for a few,” he informed her.
This took Frankie by surprise. She couldn’t help but to wonder if he acquired the land while he was away, or while he was with her but neglected to say anything. “You’ve got it all mapped out, huh?”
“Just about, all I need to know now is where you stand?”
“Duce, I told you I’d never betray you.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that, but Cowboy is your man. I’d be a fool to think you could just watch him die and not feel any way about it. I’d love to have you at my side when this is all over, but if not I’ll understand. I’m not trying to …”
Frankie placed a finger over Duce’s lips, quieting him. “Duce, I’ve been in love with you since we were ten years old, no matter what you did or how long you were gone, that hasn’t changed.”
“So, you’re my gangsta bitch again?” he asked, with glassy eyes.
“Silly boy, I never stopped being your gangsta bitch. Your enemies are my enemies, ride or die baby.”
Looking into Frankie’s eyes, he wondered how he could’ve been foolish enough to let her go in the first place. Chicks like her were only supposed to come along once in a lifetime and he had been twice blessed. It was a blessing that he had no intentions on squandering again. He took Frankie in his arms and kissed her as if it would be the last time.
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